The Jurgen Klinsmann era as USA national team head coach is getting off to a tough start with a draw and lose at home to two of their biggest CONCACAF rivals.
In Klinsmann’s first game as coach, the United States tied Mexico 1-1 on Aug. 10 in Philadelphia and last night at the Home Depot Center the US suffered an embarrassing loss at home to Costa Rica.
The U.S. dominated possession against a very physical Costa Rica side, but once again lacked that piece of quality in the final third to open up the Ticos defense. Too often the final pass from Donovan, Shea and Chandler were poor.
The physical nature of the game, the Ticos committed 27 fouls, meant that the game was played at a slower pace than Klinsmann likes. That is something that the US will need to get used too when World Cup qualifying starts next year.
On the positive side, Jose Torres was terrific in midfield performance stood out. Defensively he was much better than we have seen play in a national team shirt before, Also, I thought that Jozy Altidore did a nice job using his size to hold up the ball and bring other players into the attack, especially on those occasions when the U.S. was trying to relieve pressure defensively.
It will be interesting to see that changes Klinsmann makes ahead of the USA’s match Sept. 6 against Belgium in Brussels.