It’s interesting to see that Bob Bradley will take every opportunity to start Brian Ching. Today it is as the expense of Kenny Cooper which is sure to make many US fans furious. Nice to see Charlie Davies get the start: we named him our website’s Americans Abroad Player of the Year for last season because of his fine play in Sweden.

The starting lineup features seven MLS based players and four from the out of season leagues in Scandinavia.

US Starting Lineup:

—————Perkins—————
Wynne–Parkhurst–Califf (capt) —Bornstein
———–Clark——Kljestan———–
Thorrington———————-Rogers

————Davies——–Ching———

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Post Match Thoughts:

A solid effort from the US tonight. Good performance. Sweden improved in the second half with several key substitutions. Both teams face Mexico in their next matches, Sweden on Wednesday in Oakland,  the US next month for the critical qualifier in Columbus.

Sacha Kljestan was obviously outstanding tonight. Beyond Kljestan, who is already a US National Team regular the best players were Marvell Wynne, Rico Clark and Danny Califf. Clark and Califf have a good chance of being held over for the Mexico qualifier next month, but what will be Wynne’s fate?

Bradley has now called Wynne up to the team three times in the last year but this was the first time he was actually retained and in uniform on matchday.  Steve Cherundolo is a veteran on the right side of the back line, but lately he’s looked shaky against spirited opposition. Wynne has developed the positional sense he lacked for many years in MLS and also provides the US with an amazing threat going forward.

John Thorrington also deserves mention for his performance. Always steady many American Soccer followers like myself have always wondered aloud how good Thorrington would have been if he had not been struck by one bad injury after another for many years running. Now healthy, Thorrington  is almost 30 but is playing his best football ever: he’s clearly lost some of his speed and quickness due to the injuries, but now he’s finally showing why Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen two of the biggest clubs in Europe spent so much time on him as a youngster.

Second Half

Minute 90 + 3: US wins 3-2.

Minute 90 + 2: Cooper gets loose as Sweden has pushed up looking for an equalizer, but Dahlin with his best save of the night.

We will have three minutes of stoppage time.

Minute 89: GOAL SWEDEN! GREAT BUILDUP AND DAHLBERG FINISHES. 

Minute 82: Ugo Ihemelu for Michael Parkhurst

Minute 79: Chris Wingert for Johnathan Bornstein

Minute 78: Kljestan continues to be on fire and is just blocked from a 4th goal.

Minute 76: Eddie Gaven for Brian Ching

Minute 75: Dahlin just misses on the header. Back and forth football at the HDC!

Minute 74: GOAL! Kljestan with the hat trick after the restart!

Minute 73: GOAL! Sweden with some great buildup creating a diving goal by Nannskog

Minute 69: Brian Carrol for Robbie Rogers

Minute 65: The US backline looks solid and in command of this match.

Minute 60: Chris Rolfe for  John Thorrington

Minute 55: More space and attacking intent both ways early in this second half.

Minute 47: Cooper’s first touch of the game in the box wasn’t great. Rogers corner set up a good opportunity which was cleared off the line

Minute 46: Cooper on for Davies

 Halftime Thoughts

Sweden came out in a defensive shell  and the US took advantage of that with a high pressure attack using flank play successfully. Marvell Wynne has been the first half’s most impressive player with Sacha Kljestan and John Thorrington also standing out. Sweden has not competed and hopefully the US will be tested a little more in the second half.

First Half

Minute 43: Sweden playing better since the second US goal, creating some space in the attack and higher pressure.

Minute 40: GOAL! Kljestan converts a PK. 2-0 US lead. 

Minute 39: Marvell Wynne taken down in the box after a great turn out move on Johanssen.

Minute 36: A great break for the US created by Marvell Wynne’s fine defense goes well until Charlie Davies makes the wrong choice in the box.

Minute 32: Kljetsan with another dangerous looking free kick which is redirected by Davies in mid air.

Minute 27: Andersson goes into the book for a professional foul.

Minute 24: Rico Clark tracks back and breaks up a dangerous Swedish attack.

Minute 21: Christopher Sullivan never fails to amaze us. A Francisco Carracio reference?????????????

Minute 18: The US has been feeding balls from the flanks into the box with regularity now. Thorrington and Rogers are having a field day wide although the supporting runs are not always there.

Minute 17: GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sacha Kljestan with his right foot on a free kick from outside the area!

Minute 14: Nice ball from Kljestan forward to Thorrington on the right side but just long

Minute 11: Wynne’s cross for Ching almost get there!

Minute 8: Thorrington and Rogers looking lively out wide early.

Minute 7: Bornstein loose in the box, but nothing comes of it.

Minute 6: Ah, Max, I love you but I thought we all recalled Sweden missing the World Cup in 1998. It was shocking that they fell in qualifying but they have missed the World Cup in our memory.

Minute 5: Dahlberg gets free in the box but misses the target.

Minute 2: Good observation by EPLNFL about the crowd. As has become the custom, the word sparse can be used to describe the crowd at the HDC. That’s why even though it is supposedly our national stadium, the US will NEVER play a consequential qualifier in LA.

Minute 1: The Home Depot Center pitch looks impeccable tonight. Sadly we know come the Summer and the X-games it’ll be an unplayable surface.