Bobby Wood the hero again as USA stun Germany on Klinsmann's return

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/10/usa-stun-germany-bobby-wood

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It was a case of two games, two match-winning goals at the home of two footballing superpowers for Bobby Wood. Just as he did in Amsterdam last Friday night, the underrated Hawaiian found the late winner as USA stunned Germany, the world champions, in Cologne.

Klinsmann had tweaked his previous line-up, giving New England’s Juan Agudelo time up front to make his case for Gold Cup selection. But Wood must surely now be the frontrunner for the position after another outstanding performance – and another winning goal.

Related: Germany 1-2 USA: international friendly – as it happened

Mix Diskerud and Danny Williams slotted into the midfield in place of Kyle Beckerman and Alfredo Morales, while Fabian Johnson was pushed to left-back. With a number of key selections injured or being rested, German coach Joachim Löw continued his regeneration of the world champions. However, for every Antonio Rüdiger and Sebastian Rudy in the starting 11, there was also a Mario Götze and a Bastian Schweinsteiger. Perhaps the most remarkable – or at least remarked upon – omission was that of home-town hero Lukas Podolski.

When you can bring in a player like Patrick Herrmann, however, who really cares? The Borussia Mönchengladbach forward was superb from the beginning, dominating the right side and sending in one dangerous cross after another. And just as the visitors began to make some forward runs of their own, Herrmann countered with a dribble and cross to Götze, and Brad Guzan was picking the ball out of his net. Only 12 minutes had elapsed.

The big German names – in particular André Schürrle and Mesut Özil - then came to the fore, and began to weave all sorts of shapes through the US defence. It was great entertainment.

USA’s biggest problems were of their own making. Attack after attack came undone via poor passing and crossing, but after 41 minutes, from nowhere, it all clicked. Michael Bradley looked up, and put it on the chest of Diskerud at the back post. The Norwegian-born midfielder brought it down and fired past Ron-Robert Zieler for the equaliser.

It was the kind of play they had had been struggling to pull off all evening, and good reward for all their efforts, especially for Bradley, who made countless runs from midfield. Aron Johansson and Danny Williams were also notable USA performers in a first half that Germany dominated.

Klinsmann brought off Williams, Agudelo and Johnson at the break, replacing them with Kyle Beckerman, DeAndre Yedlin and Brad Evans, and the new faces made an impact almost immediately.

Yedlin and Gyasi Zardes, now playing up front, were particularly impressive, and though Germany had their moments, the momentum had swung the way of Jürgen Klinsmann’s side, and stayed with them for the rest of the night.

The best chance came in the 83rd minute, as Bradley and Yedlin blitzed forward and made an expansive one-two that only the outstretched leg of Zieler prevented from breaking the deadlock.

Then Evans found Wood, a late substitute, near the D. The Hawaiian killed it with his first touch, spun round, and fired a rocket past Zieler. Khedira almost saved the game for the home side in injury time, only for his header to hit the crossbar.

Unusually for a German stadium, there were plenty of empty seats – the attendance was just over 40,000 – and so little noise that you could clearly hear the players yelling to each other.

There has been concern in Germany that the home side has already gone into holiday mode, and they should be relieved that their Euro qualifier in a few days time is only against Gibraltar. It was their last game before the summer break.

USA, meanwhile, now go into the Gold Cup bursting with confidence. Klinsmann’s team hosted – and beat – Die Mannschaft in the lead up to the 2013 Gold Cup. It was the first of 20 wins would notch up in the 26 matches until they met again, that time at the World Cup in Brazil. Their form since has been nowhere near as good, but even in a period where Klinsmann is rebuilding his side, they sat at 4-3-4 prior to this game.

Based on the performances of the last week, though, they may be unstoppable on home soil.