USA vs. England - match thread and recap

OK, folks it is getting close to time for the biggest match in recent US Soccer history as we open group play against  England.

If you don't know the players for the US, check out this team guide, the same thing for the England squad

Here are the squad lists:

England:
Green;
Johnson King Terry A Cole;
Lennon, Gerrard, Lampard Milner;
Heskey Rooney

USA:
Howard;
Cherundolo, DeMerit, Onyewu, Bocanegra (c);
Donovan, Bradley, Clark, Dempsey;
Altidore, Findley

I am sitting here in the ESPN ZONE in LasVegas with a good sized crowd, many of whom got here at 7 am local to watch the Argies beat Nigeria and so far nobody is leaving.

So I will try to do some updates between screaming, if you want to post your thoughts just go to the comments section.  I will be back with the starting lineups when they are announced.

After the jump there is a bunch of info from US Soccer about the match and the two teams as well a my quick match recap:

Quick Hits

• Tournament rules provide that all 23 players will dress for FIFA World Cup matches. Drawn as Team ‘B' for the game, the U.S. will wear the all-blue Nike away strip, while England will sport all white. The maximum number of substitutions will be three.
• All 23 players on the U.S. team are fit and available for selection. U.S. forward Jozy Altidore suffered a mild right ankle sprain a little more than a week ago, but has recovered and been in full training since June 8.
• The U.S. and England have met nine times in history, withEngland holding a 7-2-0 advantage. This will be their second contest in a World Cup and the second time in neutral territory, the U.S. having shocked England and the world with their 1-0 victory in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. More on the ‘Miracle of Belo Horizonte' later.
• Nineteen of the 23 players on the U.S. World Cup Team appeared in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying for the U.S., although only eight appeared in at least half of the USA's qualifiers (Altidore, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Oguchi Onyewu).
• The U.S. squad carries a variety of World Cup experience into SouthAfrica, as 15 players have been named to their first World Cup roster. Meantime, six players have played in a World Cup game, withmidfielder Landon Donovan leading the team with eight appearances - all as a starter - while DaMarcus Beasley has six World Cup caps to his credit. That duo and Steve Cherundolo are earning a place in their third World Cup.
• Two players on the current roster have scored in a World Cup. Dempsey got the USA's lone credited goal in 2006, scoring against Ghana on June 21 in Nuremberg. Donovan's famous header against Mexico provided the insurance goal in the 2-0 victory in the Round of 16 on June 17, 2002 in Jeonju, Korea Republic, putting the U.S. through to the quarterfinals for the first time in 72 years.
• Brian McBride remains the only U.S. player to have scored in multiple World Cups, netting in 1998 and then twice in 2002, the game-winners against Portugal and Mexico.
  Sixteen players on the roster have scored at least one international goal, and six have scored in 2010: Altidore, Bocanegra, Edson Buddle, Dempsey, Maurice Edu, Herculez Gómez, and Clarence Goodson.
• Donovan is the leading cap winner on the roster with 123 appearances. Conversely, Buddle has played only three times for the full team.
• With the goal against Turkey, Altidore increased his career total to nine goals. Remarkably, five of those goals have been assisted by Donovan.
• Dempsey's game-winner that afternoon in Philadelphia marked his 18thcareer tally, inching closer to fifth place on the USA's all-time scoring register. The Nacogdoches, Texas native earned ussoccer.com Man of the Match honors for his efforts.
• Donovan's assist to Herculez Gómez on the third goal in the 3-1 victory against Australia increased his record-setting total to 45 for his career.
• Dempsey became one of only a handful of U.S. players to receive recognition from FIFA when he earned the Bronze Ball at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup after scoring goals against Egypt, Spain and Brazil.
• Howard also picked up honors in that tournament, collecting the Golden Glove as the best goalkeeper. Howard finished the 2010 qualifying cycle with six clean sheets in 13 appearances and a 0.92 goals against average.
• Howard hit his silver anniversary in caps after starting against Turkey, completing his first 50 caps with 30 victories and 19 shutouts. José Torres also hit a milestone, reaching double-digit caps in perhaps his finest performance for the national team.
• Jonathan Bornsteinand Goodson are the only two players to have appeared in all five of the USA's matches in 2010.
• By earning 45 minutes against Australia, Marcus Hahnemannmade his first appearance for the U.S. since Oct. 17, 2007, a 1-0 win in Switzerland. Hahnemann already held the record for the longest layoff between caps for the United States, with an eight-year, five-month, 28-day break between games.
• With their goals on May 25 against the Czech Republic, Edu and Gómez became the first pair of U.S. players to get their first goal in the same game since Stuart Holden and Robbie Rogers tallied in the 4-1 win against Grenada on July 4, 2009, to open the 2009 Gold Cup.
• Gómez made the U.S. World Cup team after appearing in just two matches before coming on at halftime against the Czech Republic to earn his third cap.
• Five of the seven defenders on the roster have at least one goal for the national team: Bocanegra, Bornstein, Cherundolo, Goodson, and Onyewu. Three of those tallied in 2009, and all of them were memorable. Bocanegra's game-winning header against Honduras in Chicago; Goodson performing the same feat against the same team in the same stadium in the Gold Cup; and Bornsteincapping off qualifying with a last-second header against Costa Rica.
  With his goal against Netherlands on March 3 in Amsterdam, Bocanegra upped his career tally to 12, just one shy of the mark set by Marcelo Balboa for U.S. defenders.
• Two players on the U.S. roster - Edu and Beasley - come from Scottish Premier League Champion Glasgow Rangers, which clinched its second title in a row.
• Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan has recorded five shutouts in 14 appearances for the U.S., including three clean sheets in five World Cup qualifiers. Overall he has posted a 7-4-1 record.
  Only two players on the U.S. World Cup Team made their first U.S. appearance for Bradley within the last year. Holden debuted on July 4, 2009, with an Independence Day goal in the Gold Cup, and Buddle in the match against the Czech Republic.
• U.S. MNT Assistant Mike Sorber is the only member of the U.S. contingent who was involved in the USA's first match in England. Appearing in the team's first match since the conclusion of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the former U.S. international went 90 minutes in the 2-1 defeat on September 7, 1994.

Match Recap

OK, I ran out of juice on my laptop so I was forced to use the comments section to do my updates of the match, but here are my quick thoughts on the match:

So the US makes a mistake early on (perhaps some nerves) and England Capitalizes, England allows the US to adjust to what they are doing and actually control large portion of the first half.  Thank goodness England relies on a keeper who failed to do his job.

The second half show the difference, not between players but coaches, as England clearly was playing for the win, they used all three of their subs when they could make a difference.  Bradley had the US playing that crappy defend the draw type of play, looking for chances to counter by hoping his defense would hold up to the English pressure.  He got lucky, simply lucky that Tim Howard may be the best keeper playing in the EPL.

The US subs were late and failed to address the majority issue which was a failure to attack the ball in the midfield.  Landon had so few touches I forgot he was playing, Clark and Bradley were average.  I would have loved us to bring in Torres for Clark and move Bradley to d-mid and allow Torres to play the attacking role with Landon and Clint.

He needed to replace both Jozy and Robbie in the 60thminute as both had run out of steam but bringing in a midfielder to maintain possession for Jozy is a defensive minded move and I believe cost the US the match.

Here are the final stats:

I think the US will need to play a much more aggressive style in order to get wins in their other matches