Even though St. Vincent and the Grenadines took a 1-0 lead over the US Men’s National Team very early in the game, the USMNT got it together and pulled away to a 6-1 win with goals from five different players.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines did take the lead in the fifth minute as Oalex Anderson scored. It didn’t take long until Bobby Wood provided the equalizer. A great run and assist by DeAndre Yedlin helped set up Wood for a brilliantly placed header into the back of the net.
And once the first goal was scored, the second became easier. Then the third got easier as well as the fourth, fifth and sixth. Next thing we knew, the USMNT beat the 129th FIFA ranked team 6-1 to be top of the group. There really wasn’t much to take off tactically. I mean, there’s so much you can learn against a team which has most of their players playing part time, amateur soccer. At least Darlington Nagbe and Matt Miazga received their first caps and are now cap tied to the USMNT.
While on Twitter, I noticed many asking if this result was going to give Jurgen Klinsmann some slack in his performance as a manager. Uh, no it doesn’t. Why should it? This is St. Vincent and the Grenadines at home during the semifinal qualifying round, not Mexico at the Azteca in “the Hex.” I had no doubt the USMNT was going to win this game but I would have thought it was expected to win by a bunch of goals. It’s a good win but Klinsmann’s standing shouldn’t change regardless if you are on the #KlinsmannOut or #InJurgenWeTrust train.
Anyway, Tuesday means the USMNT will go to the Caribbean to visit Trinidad and Tobago. While T&T is a far better team and the game will played in a less than stellar surface, the USMNT should still be able to win. They may not be able to win by five goals but they should win.
