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| Clint Dempsey proved once again why he is America's best player. |
Most of this season we've spent talking about two things when it comes to USA soccer. The successes of Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey in the Premiership and what the hell is going on with Jurgen Klinnsman's USA squad? Well I think we might have just answered that second question. Clint Dempsey's goal in the 56th minute was enough for USA to capture it's first ever victory on European soil, first victory vs. Italy and most important victory in the Klinnsman era.
Let's just say it has been an interesting ride for Jurgen Klinnsman since he took over the USMNT back in 2011. The United States opted to bring in Klinnsman over Bradley. The German became the first non-American national team coach since Bora Milutinovic coached the US national team unsuccessfully for four years in the nineties. This sent the mildly successful Bob Bradley packing, raising many eyebrows in the small US soccer community. Klinnsman didn't exactly bolt into the role like many thought he did. The German started out 1-1-4 in his first six outings as skipper and many were questioning the hiring. Most people were simply impatient with the idea of a taking a quick step back by altering philosophies in order to take a major step forward in the future. Bradley was certainly a consistent coach who had some impressive victories on his resume. But the United States brass was no longer satisfied with floating in a swamp of consistent mediocrity, they wanted to become a mainstay among the elite national teams. 10 games in, it slowly looks like the European's system is starting to take shape positively with the Americans. The US team has won four straight games, including three straight strong 1-0 victories. These wins haven't come against weak competition either, with the Americans beating Slovenia, Venezuela, Panama and most impressively Italy.
Yesterday's win over Italy did several positive things for American soccer. For one it gave the fans confidence, for once, in Jurgen's system. A win over Italy in Italy is absolutely tremendous. But when you factor in the absence of Landon Donovan and Stuart Holden, two of the USA's five best players, you have to be stoked. This shows that Jurgen has been able to dig deep into his roster pool to find some young talent impressive enough secure a victory over Italy. Bradley had no idea how to handle his young players nor did he know which up and comers fit his system. This remained probably the biggest knock on Bradley's coaching abilities.
Second it gives the casual USA fan another reason to get interested in the national team. Let's say you are a big sports fan and log onto ESPN.com to see the headline, "USA Beats Italy." Surely, you're like that's huge! Exactly my point. Just one more good thing to help the sports fan become interested in USA soccer at the very least. I'm not saying that ussoccernet.com is going to sell out of all of its jerseys today, but at least it continues to build excitement for the sport of soccer in the United States. As we all know, anytime the US gets a chance to flex its patriotic muscle it's going to do it.
Third of all it proved how legit a player Clint Dempsey is. He didn't have the greatest game, I get that. But when the Americans called on him to make a game changing play, he did. Dempsey is a player who thrives on pressure and makes monster plays. Yesterday he made that play and help secure that victory. Clint is surely going to go back to Fulham and continue to shred the Premiership, but more importantly he reaffirmed his status as the best player on the US National Team(sorry Landon).
Sure, last night wasn't the greatest win in US history. Sure, it wasn't the finest performance we've ever put on. Sure, we did spend the last twenty minutes of the game blocking shots like it was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. But we did win and we did continue our ascent up the world soccer status ladder. One win at a time folks, one win at a time. This is no overnight ordeal.
Next up: Scotland in Jacksonville on May 26th.
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