3 things we learned from Denmark’s 3-2 win over the USMNT

The United States lost again on Wednesday, and in extremely familiar fashion. They took the lead on two occasions and carried it into the final 10 minutes of the game, at which point they substituted a central defender. That led directly to a collapse, and Denmark ran out 3-2 winners behind a Nicklas Bendtner hat trick.

Jozy Altidore’s opening goal came out of absolutely nothing, in the 19th minute. He managed to shrug off two defenders to bring down a diagonal by Timothy Chandler, then hit a half-volley that deflected into the back of the net off Simon Kjaer. The two sides were level at halftime thanks to Bendtner’s 32nd-minute strike, a tap-in scored off a Daniel Wass cross and a dummy by Lasse Vibe.

Michael Bradley, who had a solid game in the center, set up a go-ahead goal in the 66th minute with a brilliant ball over the top of the defense to Altidore. He took a poor first touch, but recovered well to touch the ball into the path of Aron Johannsson, and the Icelandic-American finished off the move.

Denmark’s comeback was sparked by debutant Ventura Alvarado coming in for Michael Orozco Fiscal. From that point, the U.S. back line looked totally out of sorts, and Bendtner had no problem losing Alvarado on his second goal, in the 83rd minute.

The entire American defense fell apart on the stoppage time winner, letting Bendtner run in behind and hit an impressive half-volley from the edge of the box to win the game and complete a hat trick. John Brooks had a chance to head in an equalizer in the last minute, but nodded just wide when he probably should have scored.

Goals: Altidore (19’), Johannsson (66’)

Goals: Bendtner (32’, 83’, 90’)

1. Michael Bradley is the USMNT’s best player - He had a bad World Cup, but there’s no doubt that Bradley is the team’s best midfielder, and with Clint Dempsey out, their best player by far. In a box-to-box role on Wednesday, he looked a lot more comfortable and was the man behind both the second goal and John Brooks’ late chance. He was one of very few players who looked good in this match.

2. Jozy Altidore is fine when he’s getting playing time - This wasn’t a spectacular performance by Altidore, but it was worlds better than anything he did in his time at Sunderland, and better than most of his USMNT performances since making the move to England. His movement still needs a whole lot of work and he should have scored the second goal instead of having to recover to touch it to Johannsson, but this was a really promising start. He just needs to get regular games somewhere to be the USMNT’s best option up top.

3. The USMNT has no defensive depth - Jurgen Klinsmann probably left Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez and Geoff Cameron off this team to get a look at some other options. What he learned is that most of them aren’t very good. Michael Orozco Fiscal had a good game at the back, but the rest of his defensive mates -- both starters and substitutes -- were extremely poor.