Player Ratings: US win the fight, then win the game vs. Canada
It wasn't a masterclass, but the US ended their four-game window with a deserved win over a brutal Canada side
The US men's national team survived a knife fight against Canada on Tuesday night, winning 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from Justin Ellis – yet another goal in from a teenager during a window that's been dominated by the kids.
That's the big storyline from this one, with "healthy Gio Reyna" being a distant, but meaningful No. 2:
The game itself... kind of garbage. You know Canada's gonna press and play physical as hell, which is what they did. The only questions were how much the ref would let them get away with (a lot), how often the US would play through/over it (often enough to win, but not often enough to dominate), and whether the US would cough the ball up in bad spots to create chances for Canada (basically didn't happen).
Ugly, ugly game. The US needs to play better against teams that have to muddy the game, and Canada have to, at some point, start playing actual soccer. I found their performance – they generated all of 0.27 xG to the US's 1.3 – to be disappointing.
