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Message: [QUOTE="meyers7, post: 3088935, member: 343"] USA completely controlled the match. Johnson was hardly tested, except for a couple times when Reams, Bradley and Adams messed up. (he doesn't seem all that great with his feet though :oops:) However Ecuador pretty much parked the bus (at times had all 11 within about 40 yards of their goal without really pressuring the ball). USA had quite a bit of trouble breaking them down. Head bang USA did have a couple good opportunities. Arriola shot right at the GK when he should have/could have scored. McKennie missed wide on a header. Xardes' goal was lucky/poor GKing. But it counted. Long and Brooks did a nice job, but didn't have a lot to do. Trapp way outplayed Bradley. Did a nice job moving the ball around and directing traffic. Pulisic and McKennie had trouble finding pockets of space - there wasn't much. Best attacks came from long diagonal balls to Arriola and Morris. Mostly Arriola. He was the most dangerous. Back 4 of Ecuador stayed pretty compact. So there was never much space in the channels for Pulisic and McKennie. But Arriola and Morris were open on the wings a lot. Didn't always get the ball though. Adams started tucking into the midfield about 20 minutes into the game. Not sure it really helped that much. The right side seemed to get congested occasionally with Morris, McKennie and Adams all trying to use the same space. Adams worked hard and covered a lot of ground, but his passing wasn't anything special. McKennis is a monster in the air. (didn't know that) He must have won a half a dozen aerial battles in in the first half alone. I think his ankle is gonna be messed up for a bit though. Looked pretty bad. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a high ankle sprain or some ligament damage. He might be out for a while. Doubt he'll play on Mon. Xardes didn't do much except occupy the 2 CB's. However, his touches were not as donkeyish as they have been in the past. Morris and McKennie had some trouble with some of their touches. Also they seemed to have some trouble with what Berhalter wanted them to do in the system. They were talked to throughout the game by GB and some of the other players (Trapp, Adams, Long, Brooks). This system leaves a gaping hole at RB, which Long covered pretty well last night. However Ecuador wasn't really attacking much either. We'll have to see what happens against Chile. Reams wore the armband, but Trapp and Brooks seemed more like the leaders on the field last night. Edit: Oh yea forgot, Arriola did score but it was waved off for Offside on Morris. Probably shouldn't have been. Arriola, Long and Trapp were probably top performers last night. [/QUOTE]

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