FRISCO, Texas - With the U.S. national team coming off a sound 3-1 win over Ecuador on Sunday in Tampa, expectations were running high heading into Wednesday night's match with Guatemala at Pizza Hut Park.
That optimism was tempered a bit as the sides played to a 0-0 draw despite the U.S. controlling the run of play for much of 90 minutes and also generating more scoring chances than their Central American foes. When it came down to it, though, the USA found themselves unable to find the back of the net by the time the final whistle blew.
"We struggled to find the right way to play a little faster and at our tempo," said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley. "We had a couple of good chances, but didn't take them very well. This was a learning game for us. It's a game where we come away disappointed and angry at ourselves."
Virtually the entire evening, the U.S. put pressure on the Guatemalans as the visitors looked content to sit back and generate their chances on the counterattack. It was a strategy that frustrated several of the U.S. players.
"It was kind of a frustrating game," said midfielder Clint Dempsey. "You would think in friendlies that it would be more about trying to go for the win. They were playing for a tie the whole game and looking for counterattacks. We tried our best to break it down, get behind them and get crosses in, but the quality just wasn't there."
Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan agreed, saying the result can be put down to the fact that a number of U.S. players were not able to adapt to an opponent like Guatemala, who chose to sit back instead of playing a more attacking style.
"It (the game) was pretty predictable I think," Donovan said. "On the flipside, we had too many guys who didn't understand how to play in a game like that. I guess it's a good learning experience. It's better now rather than later, but it's clearly not good enough."
Even though his side played three days prior in a 3-1 win over Ecuador in Tampa, Bradley was quick not to chalk up the U.S. performance this evening to fatigue.
"We made some changes (to the lineup tonight)," he said. "I know some would say that the turnaround was short, but I would not use that as an excuse."
For Dempsey, improving on this performance starts with capitalizing on chances, something the U.S. failed to do Wednesday.
"We have to do a better job of breaking down their defense and finishing the chances that we had," he said. "If we would have scored in the first half, then that would have opened the game completely up and the floodgates might have opened and we could have scored a few more."
"We had a few decent ones but in a game like that, you're probably not going to see a ton of chances," Donovan said. "We didn't do a good enough job of getting the ball into places where we needed to create chances. It was going to be ugly and we didn't understand how to play in that game."
With the U.S. not playing again until June 2, when they will face China in San Jose, Calif., Bradley knows what he and his players need to do in order to learn from tonight's performance.
"We have to find the confidence to push the game hard," he said. "There's a mentality that goes along with it that even if the goal doesn't come easily, it's not something that you allow to frustrate you. Those are things that we can work on."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
