Eddie Johnson’s Comeback; U.S. Defeats Antigua & Barbuda
A grateful Eddie Johnson who has seen 2012 bring a resurgence to his career.
Eddie Johnson, yes that Eddie Johnson, headed in two goals, one in the 20th and another in the 90th to grab an all important CONCACAF road win for the U.S. over Antigua & Barbuda at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. Johnson who last scored more than one goal in a game for the U.S. — an October 2004 WC qualifying match against Panama where he put 3 in the net — has experianced a journey that has brought him to England and back with little success. But his move to the Seattle Sounders this season, along with some maturity and a coach who put believed in the 28-year-old striker, has been a successful one for Johnson with 14 goals this season. He was rewarded by a surprise call up from Jurgen Klinsmann and the Bunnell, Florida native did not disappoint the U.S. coach.
While the US certainly did not look like a CONCACAF power playing a team ranked 106th in the world, Klinsmann’s recent inclusion of Graham Zusi and Alan Gordan paid off while the usual suspects were not able to get the job done. The Sporting KC player, Zusi served in the first cross to Johnson after a corner kick that was cleared. Zusi’s first touch cross found the head of Johnson who went charging through the defense and headed the ball down and cleanly past goalkeeper Molvin James for the first goal.
It was the San Jose Earthquakes Gordon who played in the key diagonal cross in the 90th minute that also found the head of Johnson who headed back across the goal for a cool finish that gave the U.S. all three points which was critical in their FIFA WC qualifying campaign.
“You dream, and you dream of playing for your country and playing in World Cup qualifiers,” said Johnson. “But a lot of people dream and don’t make that dream into reality. I’m glad I was able to make that dream a reality tonight.”
The US now heads to Kansas City, Kan., to play Guatemala this Tuesday at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Guatemala are tied with the US in Group A each with 10 points and both with a +3 goal differential. The top two teams in each of the three CONCACAF groups will move on to play in the ‘hexagonal’ stage between 6 February and 15 October 2013.
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Sounds like I did not miss much last night. Why can’t we beat teams like Antigua & Barbuda by five or six goals?
Am I not patriotic in that I slept through this game?
Seriously, I am sick of half-converted Eurosnobs who treat Jurgen Klinsmann like a savior (his record numerically so far remains little better than his predecessor, except we hear a lot fewer excuses, and we are still hanging by a thread for WCQ, let’s not kid ourselves).
Our team is underperforming, yet all I see are headlines saying the darndest things about our game, MLS taking credit for it, because we beat an island with a population smaller than the number of extras in some movies. An island with a population only 80% the size of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
There are just way to many things soccer’s “1%” (the leadership of USSF, USMNT, MLS or who I call “the powers that be”) just don’t have a right to take credit for these days. One thing they should take responsibility for, however, is failure. When that happens, maybe the American game won’t look and sound like it does at the higher levels.
Till then, I’ll basically exclusively be watching D2 and D3 games. While everyone else can aspire to MLS expansion, sleepy and overpriced soccer (I live in Yonkers, NY) is not and will never be my cup of tea. I grew up a son of an Argentine (we miss you, dad) and Argentine soccer is exciting for two reasons: (1) when the stakes are higher, people play harder (2) the sports establishment looks for the best players in every corner and back yard in the country, as opposed to a privilege system. Other sports here do this. Why not soccer?
I admire the Jay DeMerits of the world, but most talented kids are just going to follow mom and dad and either (a) find another sport or (b) find a “real job”. If Diego Maradona was born here, he’d probably be a checkout guy or stock person or something (he doesn’t strike me as a genius or anything). And while we can point to Clint Dempsey’s life, he spent three years in MLS and he was gone. (Maybe he realized the current system promotes mediocrity.) We shouldn’t be “getting lucky”. We should be using our resources. We are failing.
Nobody should be proud of such a result against this tiny nation, or pair of nations, or whatever it is. Anyway, I am glad we won, and are closer to qualification. I just wonder if we do make it in, how many people will remember how little we deserved it. Squeezing by Gilligan’s Island shouldn’t qualify you.
I’m going to go hide now, as I look forward to everyone’s agreement with me.
I miswrote: I meant “heard a lot fewer excuses”. This coach is an excuse machine. And that trickles down.
@DJS – love the opinion
DJS I was actually thinking about this last nigh while driving home com watching the UFC. the reason soccer struggles in this country is our best athletes are going to play other sports where there is a dream to make millions. Until MLS starts going out contracts like the other major sports the beat athletes will have no desire to play professional soccer.
@the Chosen One – big contracts are handed out already…….in Europe. The best leagues always have been and always will be across the pond in England, Spain, Germany, Italy.
This is a sport that has developed without the influence of the US. Unlike most other sports, the competition to be the best is on the world stage and not on a piece of the global stage.