US falls 4-2 to Czech Republic in first match of World Cup Send-Off Series

May 25, 2010

By Sean Donahue

The United States Men’s National Soccer team fell 4-2 on Tuesday night to the Czech Republic in their first international friendly match since the team assembled last week to start training for the World Cup.

With Bob Bradley set to announce his final 23-man roster for the World Cup on Wednesday, he chose to leave players who had clearly locked up a spot, such as Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, Carlos Bocanegra, and Jozy Altidore, out of the squad in favor of getting the rest of the players more minutes to earn a place in the team.

The U.S. got off to a great start and took the lead in just the 17th minute. A Stuart Holden free kick eluded goalkeeper Peter Cech, allowing Maurice Edu to tap it into the open net for the first international goal of his career.

The early set back seemed to spark the Czech Republic to life. The world’s 33rd ranked team found the equalizer just a minute before halftime through Tomas Sivok. The center back rose above Oguchi Onyewu and headed a Jaroslav Plasil free kick past inside the far post, beating goalkeeper Brad Guzan to make it 1-1.

After a strong run to open the second half, the Czechs deservedly took the lead in the 58th minute. Dacid Lafata dribbled down the left flank before sending a cross into the box. Lafata’s cross found Jan Polak, who had gotten behind U.S. defender Heath Pearce. Polak redirected the ball into the lower right corner of the net from close range.

The U.S. put the pressure back on the Czechs after falling behind and found the equalizer in the 65th minute. Clarence Goodson got on the end of a Holden corner kick and headed it back across goal. Halftime substitute Herculez Gomez beat his marker and headed it in from close range for his first career international goal.

The Czechs took control of the match again after that and retook the lead in the 78th minute. Some poor defense by the U.S. led to the Czechs winning goal. After several blocked shots, the U.S. failed to clear and the ball finally fell to Martin Fenin, who blasted a shot from 12 yards into the upper corner.

With the U.S. pushing numbers forward, the Czechs finished off the scoring deep into stoppage time, after Maurice Edu, moved from the midfield to center back in the second half, misjudged a long ball. Edu’s error allowed Tomas Necid to get behind the defense and slot a shot past Guzan to put the game out of reach.

The U.S. next play Turkey on Saturday, May 29th at 2PM in Philadelphia.

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