The United States played a much different team against Honduras than they did in their previous friendly against Ecuador, but the result was exactly the same. They were the much better team in the first half, scored early, started to struggle around the hour mark and eventually gave up a late equalizer, allowing Los Catrachos to snatch a 1-1 draw.
3 things we learned from the USA’s 1-1 draw with Honduras
The United States put together another good 60-minute performance followed by late struggles, letting Honduras grab a draw.
Mike Lawrie
Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey made up a formidable forward tandem from the start. Dempsey should have had the opener in the eighth minute, but Altidore just misplaced a pass to him, and Dempsey couldn't quite adjust. However, the U.S. only had to wait two more minutes to get on the board.
Both forwards were involved, with Altidore providing the finish. Mix Diskerud started the move by winning a tackle and feeding the ball forward to Dempsey, who flicked backwards to Michael Bradley. The Toronto FC star played a perfect diagonal out wide to Altidore, who beat his man, got the ball onto his right foot and hit a low near-post shot into the back of the net.
While the U.S. had solid passages of play from then on, it was by far their best attack of the game, and Donis Escober never had to make any spectacular saves for Honduras.
The game got disjointed once all of the substitutes started pouring in after the hour mark, and Honduras were the eventual beneficiaries. Maynor Figueroa nodded in their 86th minute equalizer, rising to win a header on a brilliant free kick by Mario Martinez.
United States: Rimando, Garza, Besler (Ream 63’), Jones, Chandler, Diskerud (Ibarra 90’), Bedoya (Corona 78’), Zusi (Yedlin 64’), Bradley (Morales 75’), Dempsey (Wood 64’), Altidore
Goals: Altidore (10’)
Honduras: Escober, Izaguirre, Figueroa, Bernardez, Crisanto, Garcia (Acosta 75’), Garrido, Claros (Delgado 46’), Najar (Martinez 61’), Rojas (Quioto 46’), Elis (Chavez 76’)
Goals: Figueroa (86’)
3 things
1. Jermaine Jones can play center back! -- Jurgen Klinsmann's weird experiment worked out really well. Jermaine Jones looked comfortable in central defense, so don't be shocked if we see a lot more of this going forward, especially given how shaky the central defense position has been for the USMNT recently.
2. Michael Bradley has TFCitis -- Michael Bradley didn’t have a good World Cup, has had a streaky MLS season and didn’t look anything like the best version of himself on Tuesday night. He misplaced lots of passes and didn’t make good decisions. But the good news is that his ball to Jozy Altidore to set up the goal was excellent, so he’s obviously not beyond fixing.
3. Late goals don’t tell us anything -- For the second game in a row, the United States have given up a late equalizer after leading for most of the match. But for the second game in a row, it came after both teams made a lot of substitutions, which threw the USMNT out of whack. Evaluating anything beyond individual performances after the hour mark in these friendlies is impossible.
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