The relocated Ukraine – USMNT soccer friendly played out in front of a sparse crowd in Cyprus on Wednesday, with Ukraine winning 2-0 in Larnaca. With Ukraine fielding a strong side, Andriy Yarmolenko opened the scoring in the 12th minute. Marko Devic doubled the lead in the 67th. The USMNT had chances, but were unable to keep their shots on target. Second-half substitute Aron Johannsson had one of the better USA chances of the night in the 87th minute, but his shot was blocked.
USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann called in Edgar Castillo from Liga MX club Tijuana, but otherwise relied on a European-based roster. That included Clint Dempsey, finishing off his loan spell with Fulham in England’s Premier League before returning to Seattle for the start of the MLS season. Klinsmann started Jozy Altidore in a loan-striker role, with support from Dempsey, Fabian Johnson, and Sacha Kljestan. Opportunities were an issue in the first-half. The USMNT recovered early in the second-half, but Ukraine’s second goal stalled the comeback attempt.
“We were so wishful to get this game because there are things that otherwise we wouldn’t have seen,” Klinsmann said. “Taking this game helped us a lot to see where individual players are, collectively where we stand at with this group of players. We had to start a couple new things. We had a backline that never really played together before, and you could see they never played together that much. For us it was very good and again, a big thanks to the Ukraine and Cyprus for making this game possible and we’ll take a lot of points with us.”
Klinsmann used four of his six available substitutes, calling on Johannsson and Brek Shea in the 63rd minute, Danny Williams in the 80th, and Juan Agudelo subbing in for Altidore in the 85th.
The USMNT’s next game is against Mexico on April 2 (10pm ET – ESPN2) at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. That game does not fall on an official FIFA date, with coach Jurgen Klinsmann likely relying on an MLS and Liga MX-based lineup.
— GAME REPORT —
Match: U.S. Men’s National Team vs. Ukraine
Date: March 5, 2014
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: Papadopoulos Stadium; Larnaca, Cyprus
Kickoff: 2 p.m. ET
Attendance: 1,573
Weather: 62 degrees, clear
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA 0 0 0
UKR 1 1 2
UKR – Andriy Yarmolenko (Denys Garmash) 12th minute
UKR – Marko Devic (unassisted) 60
Lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard; 20-Geoff Cameron, 5-Oguchi Onyewu, 3-John Brooks, 2-Edgar Castillo (21-Brek Shea, 63); 11-Alejandro Bedoya, 13-Jermaine Jones (14-Dani Williams, 80), 8-Clint Dempsey (capt.), 16-Sacha Kljestan (9-Aron Johannsson, 63), 23-Fabian Johnson;17-Jozy Altidore (19-Juan Agudelo, 85)
Subs Not Used: 4-Jonathan Spector, 6-Alfredo Morales, 12-Brad Guzan, 15-Will Packwood, 18-Terrence Boyd
Head coach: Jurgen Klinsmann
UKR: 12-Andriy Pyatov; 3-Yevhen Khachiridi, 4-Anatoliy Tymoschuk (capt.), 5-Olexander Kucher, 7-Andriy Yarmolenko; 8-Roman Zozulya (22-Marko Devic, 66), 10-Yevhen Konoplyanka, 13-Vyacheslav Shevchuk, 14-Ruslan Rotan (21-Edmar Halovskiy, 78); 17-Artem Fedetskiy, 19-Denys Garmash (15-Roman Bezus, 46)
Subs Not Used: 1-Denys Boyko, 2-Denys Dedechko, 9-Oleg Gusev, 11-Yevhen Seleznyov, 16- Serhiy Sydorchuk, 18- Mykola Morozyuk, 20- Yaroslav Rakitskiy, 23-Rustam Khudzhamov, 24- Eugene Makarenko, 25-Andriy Piliavskiy, 27-Dmytro Khomchenovskiy
Head Coach: Mykhailo Fomenko
Stats Summary: USA / UKR
Shots: 7 / 9
Shots on Goal: 3 / 6
Saves: 5 / 2
Corner Kicks: 5 / 5
Fouls: 6 / 9
Offside: 2 / 4
Misconduct Summary:
UKR – Artem Fedetskiy (caution) 65th minute
UKR – Roman Bezus (caution) 84
Officials:
Referee: Leontios Trattou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 1: Michael Soteriou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 2: Athinodoros Ioannou (CYP)
Fourth Official: Ioannis Anastasiou (CYP)
