Reviewing Ecuador: A learning experience for all

Another friendly in the books for the U.S. and yet again another disappointing result, especially if you factor in the momentum gained from the Honduras win and the fact that the U.S. played some great football in the first half.

The result left a rather sour taste in the mouths of U.S. fans and players alike, but as Jurgen Klinsmann put it,"This is a very good experience for us...important for the players to understand that one little thing can change the game and decides the game."

Unfortunately for the U.S. that one "thing" that decided the game was Walter Ayovi's cross to his cousin Jaime Ayovi, which resulted in a beautifully headed goal. What makes it even worse is that it was Tim Ream who lost his mark and allowed Ayovi to latch onto the cross. That's the type of season Tim has been having with national team and his club team, the New York Red Bulls.

When asked about brining Ream into the game in front of his home town fans, Klinsmann said, "We throw him in now in a moment like that because he needs to smell that level, he needs to get a taste of it, he needs to make minutes in order to learn." Hopefully Ream is able to learn from this experience and not dwell upon the goal.  Ream is fantastically talented passer of the ball with a bright future along the back-line, but we have seen him get consistently beat on crosses throughout the course of the season. This last blip on the radar of Tim Ream will definitely send out the "SOS" cries to save the U.S. back-line and bring in the likes of Omar Gonzalez and George John before it's too late.

Enough about the negatives of this result, let us move onto the positives and the continued growth of Timmy Chandler and Brek Shea on the left wing.

Chandler was presented with the tough task of marking Manchester United winger, Antonio Valencia, who has terrific pace and the ability to swerve in a world class cross. With that being said the only time you really heard Valencia's name was when the PA announcer was reading the off the starting XI's. Chandler did a great job of neutralizing Valencia and as Klinsmann put it,"Chandler closed him completely down."

Not only did Chandler cancel out Valencia, he was also able to join in the attack and link up with Brek Shea to produce some great interplay between the two. Shea attributes the recent success in their play to their personalities, even though they come from different backgrounds, saying "Were kinda similar, we like to joke a lot, we like to have fun off the field...I think that's what made us kinda connect."

Lastly, but certainly not least, we come to the resurgence of Oguchi "Gooch" Onyewu, who was ever present in the game last night.  Gooch was all over the field and looked to be in top form as he was back to asserting his physical style of play on the game. We here at UsFutblog have been saying for a while now that Gooch is back and Klinsmann echoed our sentiments last night by putting it frankly, "He is back." This comes as a big relief to both U.S. fans and Jurgen Klinsmann as the U.S. has been looking to solidify the back-line. 

When asked about having Gooch back Jozy Altidore said,"Were all happy for him because he went through a really tough time...and he just worked hard and came back."

Another chapter in the books for Jurgen Klinsmann and the U.S. National team and yet another disappointing result. The U.S. will be back at it during the November international fixture dates with Les Blues being rumored as one of the oppositions. Until then, stay classy U.S. soccer fans.