UCLA-aided USA beats Spain

Brian -- You always write good reports--writing about anything UCLA is more than fine with me!!

I did not get a chance to watch it, but I am watching the replay on ESPN2 in about 20 minutes.

All I can say at this point is I was shocked by the outcome when I read it on ESPN. I really hope U.S. has one more shock in them and captures the title. That would make for a great story.

I thought Spain completely outplayed them in the second half, but, as you said, the U.S. defense was astounding.

Marvell Wynne was also on the team.

cool im watching it on replay too right now. thnx for this post! that would be cool if we could be given some heads up before things start. right on!

OOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!! UUUUUSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! UUUUUUUUSSSSSSSAAAA! UUSSSSAAAA! UUUUSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

anybody know what time the sunday game is? hoping to treat this like a super bowl sunday...

Pre-game is 11 a.m. pacific

Gooch and Howard played out of their minds. It was great to see that the US can compete with the international big boys. The last 20 minutes or so of the match was a grind hoping the defense could hold on....then the US scored the 2nd goal to ease the pressure. Awesome.

I've thought the US MNT has been improving incrementally, year to year, with MFs like Bradley and Dempsey, and perhaps in the not too distant future, Feilhaber and Clark, getting to Landon Donovan's level.

At some point, we were going to beat a world class team in a game that mattered. I felt that it was possible today would be that day, so I took the day off to watch. I am SOOOOOO glad I did!

The difference between today's team and teams of a few years ago, it seems to me, is that we not only defended with intensity, crucial against Spain, but we also had the ability to score. We were more dangerous than in most previous years -- the exception being the 2002 World Cup team with McBride at his peak and Josh Wolff still uninjured and speedy. Altidore is only 19, and unpolished, but even today he is a force to be reckoned with. We do need to find a second dangerous forward; perhaps Davies can develop into that player.

It seems to me this is the most important victory in the US MNT's history. The 1-0 win in 1950 against England was by a makeshift team on a terrible field and was before soccer reached the heights of today. The 3-2 win against Portugal in the 2002 WC was almost as big, but Portugal isn't quite Spain, with its 35 game unbeaten streak, and we got an own goal. The win against Columbia was at home, with a much poorer US team, and needed an own goal. The win against Brazil in the Gold Cup was in a relatively local tourney against a Brazil team trying several younger players out.

Today's win, in contrast, was on the world stage, against a full Spanish squad. There was no own goal, with both our goals well deserved -- Dempsey being so quick to anticipate the defender would trap the ball, and knocking it into goal almost as the ball was being trapped. Altidore held his defender perfectly, and took a hard and accurate shot. As noted, our defense was almost airtight, unbelievable against a team with Spain's strengths.

So I'll just say it -- this is the most important victory in the history of the US WMT -- it was against a top foe, without the home field advantage, without an own goal in our favor, featuring excellent defending and midfield play, with well taken goals. It is this game, and no other, which proclaims that the US, on a given day, can beat almost any team in the world.

That said, we will not be favored against Brazil in the final, and with good reason. But no team can now assume that they will beat the US MNT any more, even if heavily favored.

May the Force be with the US MNT on Sunday again.

Making the US and Bruins proud. USA! USA! USA! By the way, I hate soccer.

Massive win. Bruins are huge contributors to soccer, so this definitely belongs here. Thanks for the trigger. Let's root for Sunday victory.

WOW what a game by Howard. The team overall looked good.

Where did this kid Jozy come from? 1st i heard was his Hat Trick game. Wheres Adu? wasnt he the next big thing for US?

I watch some of there games but dont follow the team much.

Excellent game by the USA. Good luck to them vs. Brazil on Sunday. I will be watching.

My ratings/score card for the USA (on a scale of 1 - 10):

Howard 8.5 - Didn't make any "HOLY COW!" saves, but he got tested a lot, was very strong on crosses and was all around VERY solid.

Spector 7.5 - Poor crosses, but played very well overall defensively.

DeMerit 9.5 - The guy was unbelievable today. MOTM for me. Why is not playing top-flight football?

Onyewu 9 - He was a monster again today, and he's probably gonna be rewarded with a fat contract this summer.

Bocanegra 7 - Played pretty well considering he was out injured for a bit, but you could tell that he wasn't 100%

Clark 8.5 - Was great all night long. Very clean, strong tackles. Made a couple bad balls in the offensive third, but still had a great game.

Bradley 5 - This was by far his worst game of the tournament. Besides getting red carded (which was definitely not merited), he was invisible for much of the game and he rarely got forward.

Dempsey 7.5 - By far his best game of the tournament. Unlike previous games where he looked disinterested for most of the game, he left everything on the field today, and as a result was completely gassed at the end.

Donovan 9 - Was brilliant again today. The guy was everywhere on the field and seemed to inspire the team. I just wish he wouldn't do those unclassy dives.

Davies 8 - He brought great energy to the game and seems to be a good partner to complement Altidore.

Altidore 6.5 - Other than the goal, he didn't do much. He clearly still has a lot to learn, and needs to improve on holding the ball. His lack of playing time in Europe is evident; he looked dead in the later stages of the second half.

Subs:
Feilhaber 8 - This guy brings things to the table that no other American has. He is so calm on the ball and his vision and passing are superb. His quality showed on the field today.

Casey 4 - This guy should not play for the national team again unless he can show that he wants to be there. He played lazily and was jogging on the field.

Bornstein NR - Didn't see enough of him to give him a rating really.

Brian, just for some feedback...

I'd say whenever something involves UCLA sports at all, it's probably blog-worthy. I mean, maybe it's just me but I'd be interested to hear how almost any current or former bruin is spending time and I appreciate it when you bring it up. As for the match, Altidore really impressed me today, and our defense was fast and hawked the ball all match long. Keep up the great work, sir.

The American players have been saying for years that they don't quite put it together against top opponents, they get intimidated, they can't figure out why they don't do better, they feel they can and should do better, etc. I guess the victory over Spain means they CAN compete against the best, if their act is together. Perhaps we need a "team psyche watch" to determine how they will do.

The manner in which they were attacking the ball against Spain, I don't recall ever seeing them play better, especially in the first half when they had more energy. I only saw the replay Wed night on ESPN2, so I was able to concentrate more on how the players were performing. It was almost other-worldly! USA, USA!!

Regarding what topics should be discussed on this UCLA blog, I'm a proponent of discussing "other topics of interest to Brian".

Great upset win but the last 30 minutes were boring as hell. Howard is clearly one of the better keepers going right now and he did have an inspired game yesterday. Dempsey was garbage as usual but was Johnny on the spot when (I think it was Pique) teed up the ball right on the edge of the box. What on earth was that? The game would have been much more interesting without that gimmie goal IMO. We will all talk about what a great upset it was and how well the US Defense played but the fact is, Spain did not play well and they didn't catch any breaks yesterday.

Dempsey must go.

Fernando Torres:

Agree with all your ratings Ricardo Clark. While his tenacity and give it everything hes got demeanor is valuable to the team - he gave the ball away a lot. Hes got a lot to work on when it comes to possessing the ball and calmly distributing.

Conor Casey looks terrible out there. When you come on as a sub in the 80th minute - you should be running and chasing until the final whistle. I'm a 27 year old who plays once a week and I think I could have given more effort than he has in his last two appearances.

Best win for USA Men's Soccer since 1960.

Wow. First Pau becoming a world champion with the Lakers and now this. The people of España are on the roller coaster that is sports.

Congratulations to the team and especially the Bruins on the team.

Anony 7:13 a.m.:

You can drop the backhanded compliments. You congratulate us for the "upset" win and then say how ugly we played to get it. Sometimes the prettier team does not win. Deal with it. We had a better game plan than Spain and we executed it well. Spain did not execute their plan. Simple as that.

I love how we won yesterday, too -- it wasn't that we won 1-0 on a PK; those first 25 minutes, we really attacked and created. I was disappointed that we sat back a bit after the goal. We should have tried to step on Spain's throats while we had a chance.

Jozy Altidore wasn't that good -- I love how he muscled for the first goal, but I didn't see much more from him. Davies was much, much better. How about that attempted bicycle? :)

Landon Donovan...tournaments like this just make me want to see how he would do in Europe.

The outside backs had a lot of work to do, because they were pinched in and not always getting help. But more often than not, they did very well.

Clark was great, but Bradley disappeared until that red--which was bogus.

We shot better, from outside, which we hadn't been doing.

DeMerit was phenomenal -- I'm hoping he benefits from this exposure and moves up to a better team. Howard smothered all rebounds. Onyewu, a rock once again.

Another thing -- a nice, clean game. No diving. BS red card. Oh, then there is LD drawing a foul (and then a yellow for a Spaniard) by acting like he was elbowed. Yikes.

I p*ssed everyone off in the cafe during lunch hour when I let out a loud whoop when Dempsey cashed in on the deflected Donovan pass. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but if you like rooting for the underdog in sports, yesterday was as good as it comes. Playing Brazil twice (presumably), Italy, and Spain in this tourney should serve us well for the World Cup next year.

I can tell that the US team has better athletes now...i think that makes a huge difference; the first goal was definitely due to the US player just physically overpowering the other Spanish player.

GO UCLA>>>>>>>GO USA