Jurgen Klinsmann’s 23 man USMNT roster continued to be examined and scrutinized leading up to the opening World Cup match against Ghana. The team only had one true #9, Jozy Altidore. Young players who hadn’t proven anything at the international level made the roster in Julian Green and Deandre Yedlin. Meanwhile, proven veterans didn’t even get a second look. As an LA Galaxy fan, don’t even get me started on Landon Donovan.
One of the biggest questions on this roster was Hertha Berlin center back John Anthony Brooks. The US had Michael Parkhurst available who is more experienced and can play all four back line positions. 2010 World Cup veteran CB Clarence Goodson was also sent home early. While Brooks does play in the Bundesliga, he’s only 21, had only four caps with the US going into the World Cup, and had generally looked bad when he did play for the Yanks.
While he was not the most controversial of the young guns to make the team, he’s possibly the most significant. Because he was the most likely to play in Brazil. It became clear in training and the friendlies that Omar Gonzalez had fallen out of favor with Jurgen either due to injury, poor form, or a combination of both. With only four center backs on the roster, Brooks would be third on the depth chart, thus if someone got injured or had yellow card accumulation, he would have to come on.
Matt Besler is one of the better and in my opinion the most important defender for the US. My USMNT back line nightmare came true with Besler came up hobbled late in the first half against Ghana. He made it to the end of the half, but was subbed out, for John Anthony Brooks.
I took a deep breath and told my friends who didn’t know the team that well that while he was young and probably nervous, he was playing in between two veterans, Geoff Cameron and DaMarcus Beasley. The Americans were up 1-0. All Brooks had to do was survive. He didn’t need to win the match. Just avoid critical errors.
He played well defensively in the beginning. Brooks has always been excellent in the air and he showed he was up for the physical challenge that Ghana presented. When a play needed to be made, he executed and played it safe. He didn’t have to put out any fires, because he stopped them from starting. He showed this when subbed in at the end of the Turkey friendly (his best appearance in a US jersey). Unfortunately, Ghana tied the match 1-1 at 82′, but did so from the opposite side of the field that Brooks had been playing on. If anything, Fabian Johnson was caught ball watching and lost his man. Brooks did well to cover the ground and came in with a slide tackle, but was a bit too late to block the shot.
Leading up the the 90th minute, John Anthony Brooks had played as good as anyone could have expected. And then he shattered that ceiling and shot into the sky like a German-American Man of Steel.
Just four minutes later after Ayew scored the potential Black Star Dagger, the US won a corner. Graham Zusi delivered in a perfect cross. Geoff Cameron drew the attention of both his man mark and the defender covering the zone at the top of the 6-yard line. John Anthony Brooks beat his man and snuck in behind Cameron and the two defenders to head the ball down and into the back of the net.
The soccer bar I was at erupted. The friends I was with who hadn’t watched since 2010 were officially on board, despite all the ‘Group of Death’ talk. The USMNT were up 2-1 with minutes left. And I was about to rupture a kidney in celebration. “Quit incredible, he couldn’t even have dreamt that!” exclaimed Ian Darke on ESPN.
Oh yes he could have.
In a post game interview on ESPN, John Brooks admitted that he was nervous in the locker room at halftime knowing that he was going to come into the game. He gave credit to Cameron for keeping him calm and giving directions and Beasley for doing well to track back after making forward runs. “Yeah, it’s unbelievable. I told some teammates that I had dreamed that I had scored in the 88th minute and we had won the game.” Two minutes late, but who cares?
Even without the game winning goal, Brooks has had two stellar off-the-bench performances with the US this month. He surprised most pundits with how well he’s played. The goal put any doubts experts and bloggers had to rest.
I’ll be the first to admit, John Anthony Brooks, you have proved me wrong. If this is how the kid has played from the beginning of camp, he absolutely deserves to be on the 23 man roster. He should to be the first defender off the bench. No one can argue that anymore. And if Besler can’t make play in Manaus against Portugal, I’m not going to panic about Brooks having to fill in. Cause the kid’s got moxie.
Dream on, Johnny Futbol. Score on a set piece against which ever defender has to replace Pepe and let’s get our bomb pop kits washed and pressed for the knock-out round.
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Main Photo by Alex Livesey – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
