EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — After the United States’ 1-1 draw with Ecuador on Friday night, Jurgen Klinsmann chose to look at the glass as half full.
Instead of lamenting the concession of a late equalizer, the US head coach chose to focus on the quality the team showed for the first hour of the match, and the valuable experience given to his young squad.
“Overall for us, this was a very good experience because we see our younger guys stepping up and getting into a rhythm and getting challenged by a very good side,” Klinsmann said. “We made some mistakes, but it's the only way we can make these guys grow, by putting them on the field and making them swim in the cold water.”
Klinsmann went on to specifically praise the play of Mix Diskerud, Greg Garza and Seattle Sounders defender DeAndre Yedlin, all of whom are 24 years of age or younger. Diskerud helped anchor the central midfield, Garza showed some promising moments at left back and Yedlin earned a rare start at right midfield after moonlighting there at times during the World Cup this summer.
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Klinsmann focused some of his comments on Diskerud, who scored the lone goal of the night in the 5th minute after failing to make it off the bench during the World Cup in Brazil this summer.
“Mix is growing,” Klinsmann said. “I was pleased with his performance. The message to him after the World Cup was, ‘if you want to break into this team as a starter you've got to step it up. You have to become more aggressive, you have to challenge more in one-on-one situations, you have to become more physical.’ “
“Can he play? Absolutely. Does he have tremendous vision? Yes. But he needs these other elements on the international stage to break through and I think he’s working hard on this also in training.”
It’s unclear how many of the team’s young players Klinsmann will keep for the second game of this homestand – the US will host Honduras on Tuesday in Florida – but he’ll be watching which ones perform well for a second straight game.
“We always see the talent that players have but can they prove it on consistent basis?” Klinsmann asked. “We will get answers to many of those questions next Tuesday. It’s about, ‘am I able to go every 4 or 5 days with same rhythm and the same aggressiveness?’“
The question holds true especially with players like Bobby Wood, the 21 year-old striker who earned his second career cap after he came on for injured midfielder Joe Gyau in the 21st minute.
“There is a lot of talent in him,” Klinsmann said. “Physically he’s made a huge step forward over the last year. The key word for him again is consistency. He was in the team [1860 Munich] in the beginning, now he’s out, I talked to the coach there, he’s telling me he’s not consistent enough in training, but you see in those moments what he actually has.”
Wood had a chance to put the nerves behind him in added time, when he wasted a guilt-edge chance to give the US the win in Landon Donovan’s swansong, passing across goal instead of shooting from close range.
“You could see his head was too full, he was thinking too much,” Klinsmann said. “This is normal for a young player. It’s only when you put him out there, to go through that, to experiences that and you can tell him tonight, to relax and just follow his instinct...Other than that, his attitude, hunger, desire, willingness to learn and to listen, that’s all there.”
