The undefeated, unscored upon USMNT have kinda sorta avenged 2 of the losses that kept them out of the most recent World Cup, or not as both opponents have been using vastly different rosters as have the US. This game opened well different than did Panama as Costa Rica looked to be the far better team over the first 15 minutes, but that was harldy the case for the 2nd half. Less than 14,000 fans attended, I hope that was due to the weather as the heavens did open up late in the game. Sebastian Lletget returned to the scene of his severe injury facing Honduras in a World Cup qualifier on Mar. 24, 2017 it must have been very cathartic for him to return with the glory of a goal. With under 10' to play he rose driving a Jonathan Lewis of NYCFC crossing ball into the back of the net for the GWG. He would just minutes later set up the final goal of the game with a well played ball to Paul Arriola who scored, then went airborn. Captained again by NYRB Aaron Long who along with Nick Lima and Cristian Roldan each in the last half hour came near to gettting their own goals as the pressure was on. Mihailovic of the family that controls the USL has been a revelation and is it seems fully recovered fom a severe knee injury suffered in MLS play with his Chicago Fire though he did not score as he did facing Panama, he was dangerous all game and the target of many a foul. Corey Baird who has featured in a few videos on our FaceBook page was active early in the 2nd stanza even feeding Lima who also has video posted there but he hit one of the 2 posts the hosts would ping in the game. Roldan, with videos in English & Spanish to be seen on our FB hit the same post off a rebound. Next up will be Ecuador on Mar. 21 in Orlando then Chile in Houston both at 8p.m ET on ESPN2, UniMas & UDN.
Kwik Kixx:
-Lletget hit for his 2nd goal, both GWGs & both at Avaya almost 2 years apart.
-Arriola found the back of the net for his 3rd time.
-Jonathan Lewis now with 2 games has 2 assists and will surely press for much more time back at Yankee Stadium.
-Berhalter is now just the 3rd out of 32 USMNT HCs overalll to open at 2-0.
-The avg. age of starters was 24 years, 268 days and 9.7 caps.
-Only a pair of changes were made to the starters from the Panama game.
-Nick LIma with the start, is with the San Jose Earthquakes and played his college ball for the Univ. of CA.
-Corey Baird who while at nearby Stanford took the NCAA title 3x was not far from their Palo Alto.
-MLS Defender of the Year, Aaron Long was the capitan for both games.
-The back line did not change for Berhalter and Long was paired with ZImmerman for the 3rd straight game.
-20 players dressed, the 3 who did not see field time were healthy scratches Canouse, McKenzie & Rosenbery.
-Now knotted up with a 16-16-6 record facing eachother, had they won last they met at RBA the record would favor the US and they would have gone to Russia.
-This game was the 3rd time they met on Feb. 2, back in 1990 it was the first game for Eric Wynalda and in 2002 Asst. Coach Josh Wolff had a goal in the 2-0 win.
-Now the USMNT are undefeated at 2-0 in Avaya while 4-0-2 in San Jose.