The Daily Scoop


Final Half Hour Dooms US by Greg Seltzer - June 28, 2007

The US Men's National team gave a stirring performance for over an hour, but fell apart in the final act to drop their Copa America Group D opener against Argentina by a 4-1 score on Thursday night. Bob Bradley suffered the first loss of his USMNT coaching tenure in Maracaibo, but the final tally was somewhat deceiving as the underdogs came out with confidence. Only seven minutes in, Eddie Johnson was sent in alone by a superb defense splitting Benny Feilhaber lead ball, and was felled by Gabriel Milito. The Kansas City Wizard made no mistake on the resulting spot kick, sending Roberto Abbondanzieri the wrong way. The Albiceleste were back to even less than four minutes later when some shabby set piece defending allowed Hernan Crespo to knock home a loose ball on the doorstep. Justin Mapp had a plum chance to pick out either Johnson or Taylor Twellman with a 17th minute cross, but it flew too far for either to reach. Barcelona star Lionel Messi was becoming more insistent on the right for Argentina, but fine plays by Mapp and Jonathan Bornstein prevented any danger. Midway through the period, Juan Roman Riquelme tried his luck with a bender from the left flank, but the dip in his delivery was not enough to find the far post.	Tevéz hopped off the bench to apply the capper.(photo: Ben Radford/Getty)
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The Americans grabbed hold of the momentum around the half hour, and Feilhaber could have done better than to pull his danger free kick wide of the low corner. Juan Sebastian Veron forced Kasey Keller to tip over moments before intermission, but there was still enough time for Feilhaber to give Abbondanzieri a hearty test from 25 meters. The US opened the second stanza brightly, with the team artfully moving the ball around on consecutive possessions. Mapp then lashed another well-placed free kick just over the near corner in the 54th minute. Feilhaber's restart serve from the left corner was cleared easily just before Eddie Gaven replaced yeoman worker Ben Olsen in the 63rd minute. Two minutes later, Messi played Crespo into the area on his preferred right foot, and the striker rolled behind a lunging Keller to put Argentina ahead. They would increase the lead with 11 minutes left as substitute Pablo Aimar beat Ricardo Clark to a Crespo cross from the right to nod the third. Carlos Tevez emerged from the dugout to quickly make his way onto the scoresheet by narrowly beating the offside trap to saunter in and slot past Keller in the 86th minute. Gaven fired wide from the right channel as time clicked away, but it was as close as the 'Nats would come to making a late reply. The team will now head off to face Paraguay, 5-0 victors over Colombia on Thursday night, in Barinas on Monday. Scoring USA - Eddie Johnson (PK) 9' ARG - Hernan Crespo (Gabriel Heinze) 11' ARG - Hernan Crespo (Lionel Messi) 64' ARG - Pablo Aimar (Gabriel Heinze) 78' ARG - Carlos Tevéz (Juan Román Riquelme) 85' Line-ups USA - Kasey Keller; Marvell Wynne, Jay DeMerit, Jimmy Conrad, Jonathan Bornstein, Benny Feilhaber, Ricardo Clark (Kyle Beckerman 79'), Ben Olsen (Eddie Gaven 62'), Justin Mapp, Taylor Twellman (Herculez Gomez 69'), Eddie Johnson ARG - Robert Abbondanzieri; Javier Zanetti, Robert Ayala, Gabriel Milito, Gabriel Heinze, Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastian Veron, Esteban Cambiasso (Pablo Aimar 58'), Juan Román Riquelme, Lionel Messi (Carlos Tevéz 79'), Hernan Crespo