It was a familiar refrain for the US national team heading into the locker room at halftime of Tuesday’s friendly against Switzerland at Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich.
The Yanks led 1-0 on a beautifully taken Brek Shea free kick, the ninth straight match they’ve scored a goal in the first half and the fifth time they’ve led at the break in that span.
Unfortunately for the Red, White and Blue, the second half played out in very familiar fashion, as well.
Valentin Stocker netted for the Swiss in the 80th minute to equalize in what would become a 1-1 draw. The goal was the eighth the US have conceded in the 80th minute or later in their last eight matches, which came on the heels of allowing an 83rd-minute equalizer and stoppage-time winner in last week’s 3-2 loss at Denmark.
To be fair, US striker Jozy Altidore had been sent off in the 68th minute, perhaps reason for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to find the positives out of Tuesday’s performance.
"It could be a theme but it's not a problem," Klinsmann told media after the match. "Overall it was a very good team performance. I saw a lot of, lot of good stuff from the players."
One positive would be the performance of Orlando City SC’s Shea.
He stepped in at left back for Greg Garza, who started against Denmark, and not only provided the US’ only goal but chipped in on a relatively solid defensive performance on the backline of himself, center backs John Brooks and Michael Orozco and right back Timothy Chandler.
“Last game we were a disappointed, but we put in a good shift in this game,” Shea told Fox Sports 1 broadcasters after the game. “And obviously we went up and obviously getting a red card is hard. But the boys did well to grind out a result.”
Shea also shared the fact that he “called off” normal free-kick taker Altidore on the play that resulted in the curling, left-footed goal in the 45th minute.
“I’ve been working on them lately,” Shea said. “… I said it was for a left-footer.”
Klinsmann pointed to the importance of Swiss attacker Xherdan Shaqiri, one of the stars from Switzerland’s run to the Round of 16 at last summer’s World Cup. Shaquiri had three shots but none on goal, while Switzerland managed just two shots on goal from 12 attempts.
"[Shaqiri] can hurt you badly in a second so we closed him down," Klinsmann said.
Still, the takeaway from the Yanks’ latest camp, despite an overall more positive performance from Tuesday’s loss to Denmark, will be their second-half struggles. Klinsmann did make five substitutions, with Leon goalkeeper William Yarbrough getting his first US cap as a halftime substitute for Real Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando, along with Ventura Alvarado in his second first-team appearance. Former Seattle Sounders star DeAndre Yedlin saw 14 minutes of action, and Stanford University sophomore Jordan Morris - a Seattle Sounders academy product - was a late sub.
“Finding ways to get results on these types of days is important, especially given the way we’ve let some games slip away in the last stretch,” US captain Michael Bradley said. “Certainly not the prettiest night and obviously having to play down a guy the last 20 minutes makes it even more difficult, but it’s important to be able to have the mentality that even in these kinds of game you still know how to take something.”
