SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The United States opened the Copa America Centenario with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Colombia, but the team remained upbeat after their loss at Levi’s Stadium.
Cristian Zapata and James Rodriguez scored for the Colombians, who controlled wide stretches of the match in front of a predominantly South American crowd. Although the Americans began the tournament with a loss, Klinsmann felt his team equipped themselves well against Colombia.
“We were absolutely OK with the team performance. Obviously, we got punished for two set pieces in the first half. Against such a quality team, it’s very difficult to get back into the game and equalize it,” Klinsmann said. “Overall, it was totally even. We didn’t give them anything. … Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of the team.”
Colombia needed just eight minutes to pull ahead when a perfectly executed corner kick by the South Americans allowed Cristian Zapata to break free of the American defense and fire an uncontested shot past goalkeeper Brad Guzan. James Rodriguez doubled the Cafeteros lead just minutes before halftime when he converted a penalty won after a DeAndre Yedlin handball.
The United States nearly pulled within one in the 60th minute when Clint Dempsey’s close-range header was saved by Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina. The Arsenal ‘keeper stopped Dempsey again just four minutes later when the American saw his free kick denied with a diving stop.
“There’s a lot of positives that we can take from this game. We have to fix the things that we need to fix and not dwell too much on the negatives,” Yedlin said. “I don’t think the score reflected the match. If we put away our chances, we could have tied the game or even won it.”
The Americans return to action on June 7 when they take on Costa Rica at Soldier Field in Chicago. With the U.S. needing a win to keep their hopes of advancing to the knockout round alive, the Americans understand that they’ll need to be better next week.
“Everyone needs to be better. Everyone needs to be sharper and more dangerous. We have to be able to take more from certain plays,” captain Michael Bradley said. “The reality is in a tournament like this, if you don’t get something from your first game, then you have to respond in a big way in games two or three.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
