Unlikeliest of heros lifts US men over Venezuela

Ricardo Clark, villain of the 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana, headed in a corner from Jermaine Jones in the 97th minute to beat Venezuela, in the first international friendly of 2012 for Jurgen Klinsmann's team. The team outshot Venezuela 19-6, but the tale of the game has to be only 4 shots on goal for the US and none for Venezuela.

Jermaine Jones captained the squad with a dominant display spoiled by inconsistent passing and an ugly tackle. Benny Feilhaber and Geoff Cameron had good games, and Bill Hamid kept a clean sheet in what was also his first senior cap. A.J.  DeLaGarza, C.J. Sapong, and Graham Zusi also received their first caps tonight. Alejandro Moreno of Chivas USA started for Venezuela, facing up against his teammate Heath Pearce; Emilio Renteria of Columbus Crew came on as a substitute for Venezuela as well.

I wasn't fortunate enough to watch the game, as I had no way to record it and I'd prefer to work Saturday night (not like this was a Timbers game). I am, however, able to read through the reactions of a lot of people on twitter, ranging from live-blogging from @ussoccer to simple random reactions. The random reaction was pretty much all I did before starting this still unnamed endeavor. I am going to attempt tactical analysis for games I actually get to watch.

Starting lineup:

                                            Bill Hamid
A.J. DeLaGarza, Michael Parkhurst, Geoff Cameron, Heath Pearce
                           Jeff Larentowicz, Jermaine Jones
                   Graham Zusi, Benny Feilhaber, Brek Shea
                                          Teal Bunbury

Substitutions:
(friendlies have different substitution rules, competitive play only allows three per game)
62' Ricardo Clark for Jeff Larentowicz
62' Chris Wondolowski for Benny Feilhaber
72' Zach Loyd for Heath Pearce
74' C.J. Sapong for Graham Zusi
88' Brad Evans for Teal Bunbury

Subs not used: Nick Rimando and Jeff Parke