(Orlando Sentential)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jozy Altidore broke out of his scoring drought in style, notching both goals for the United States Men's National Team in its 2-1 win over Nigeria in Jacksonville Saturday afternoon. With the win, the US heads to the World Cup on a three game win streak heading to Brazil.
“To be honest, it makes no difference," Altidore said on his confidence. "I’ve played for this team for such a long time now that I think it’s my responsibility to help the team in other ways; tracking back and being someone that younger guys can look up to. I take that very seriously.”
The first goal was in the 31st minute after several US players sliced through the Nigerian defense, defender Fabian Johnson was able to connect with Alejandro Bedoya on a give-and-go before serving Altidore the assist inside the six-yard box. It was the forward's first goal of the 2014 calendar year, snapping a six-month scoreless drought.
“Obviously it’s a wonderful message to see that Jozy put the thing in the net. It gives him a big smile at the right time now," Klinsmann said. "It will give him a lot of confidence. It’s always a tough period when you don’t score for striker.
“The moment comes and you put it in there and then you start to be your own self again, but you’ve got to go through that working process. That’s what I always told him, you’re not getting it for free. You’ve got to go and work for it. He got sharper and sharper, fitter and fitter and we knew that if he gets chances, he will put one in.”
Altidore's pair of goals came at the right place at the right time for the United States who finished the domestic send off series undefeated with six goals. Throughout the series, the United States has come a long way from where they were weeks ago in Palo Alto reacting to the media frenzy of Jurgen Klinsmann's early decisions to select his 23-man World Cup roster.
Klinsmann has stuck with his decisions and his philosophy of letting his team play in the moment and enjoy the matches game by game, implementing a new attack-heavy 4-4-2 and once again, the United States attack was on point led by Michael Bradley and captain Clint Dempsey and the youthful defense made sure the US held the lead and never looked back.
“It took us a while to get into the game because we couldn’t keep the ball, the first 20 or 25 minutes, long enough to play out the situation and switch sides," Klinsmann said. "Once we understood to make the field wider, to stretch it, we looked better. We started to have a better flow, better combinations. We started to play more simple.”
Victor Moses scored Nigeria's lone goal in the 86th minute on a penalty, the second consecutive match where the US conceded a goal in the final 10 minutes on a penalty kick.
With the start, goalkeeper Tim Howard became the 15th U.S. player to reach 100 caps while also picking up the victory to break Kasey Keller’s all-time goalkeeper wins record for the United States notching four saves.
“It’s important that we keep winning and have a winning mentality," Dempsey said on the success in the send off series. "Three wins in a row going into the World Cup.
"We’ve got players scoring goals, getting confidence. That’s what’s most important is that the whole team is playing well as a whole and that we go into Brazil on a good note.”
The United States will begin its 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign June 16 against African side Ghana, who have suffered two 1-0 losses in friendlies to Montenegro and the Netherlands, and according to Altidore, the teams featured in the send off series have prepared the USMNT well for its first match next week.
“Nigeria is very similar to Ghana," Altidore said. "If we can emulate this performance against a team pretty similar to Nigeria against Ghana, we can start the group off the right way. We all want to get out of the group. That’s a goal of ours. I think the opportunity is there.”
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