Paraguay 1-0 USA Highlights

Paraguay snuck away a 1-0 victory over USA with a soft goal off a corner kick early in the 1st half. It appears RBNY Tim Ream was pulled down in the box which allowed the free Paraguay player to blast home the winning goal. Even though Tim Ream was tugged down, the future center back of USA has to be stronger in the box. USA played with a 4-4-2 formation starting Agudelo and Altidore upfront. USA was able to hold possession in midfield and get alot of space out wide. But USA had very limited chances on net and that is due to no real creative midfielder who is able to break down defenses. Bright spots for USA at this friendly was the young gunner Juan Agudelo, Jermaine Jones & Michael Bradley.

Agudelo showed he can hold up the ball but more importantly he was able to turn on defenders and take them on. Even though he had no clear chances on net, Juan demonstrated his ability to be dangerous at this level and proved to me he should be a starter on USMNT. Jermaine Jones came on at half time and gave the USMNT some intelligent passes that showed his experience playing many years in the Bundesliga. Jermaine gave many diagnol passes that troubled Paraguay defenses. Jones even though played well I still feel he plays a little to slow to be an attacking midfielder and Jones will have trouble finding time over Michael Bradley at defensive midfield. Michael Bradley worked hard as usual in midfield to stop many advances from Paraguay. Hopefully Bob Bradley has learned from these two friendlys and USMNT is closer to being prepared to win the Gold Cup this summer.