Published 1/22/2012 8:20:45 AM by Roberto Garcia from soccermogul

It looked like the US were headed to another scoreless match.  The lack of offense has been the norm in the Klinsmann era.  Then, in the 97th minute of play, Ricardo Clark found himself wide open on a corner kick and headed home to the delight of the home crowd.  The US were 1-0 winners over a scrappy Venezuela side.

The first half could be termed boring.  The Americans had the lionshare of the ball and the South Americans were quite happy to do nothing more than sit back in their own half.  Teal Bunbury was just not good enough up front Brek Shea needed to be more tidy with the ball.   Jermaine Jones was very good in the center of the park and AJ Delagarza was nice down the right.  Otherwise there was just not much to see.

The second half opened up a little and there were a few more chances for the Americans.  Venezuela rarely got forward at all as US keeper Bill Hamid had a very quiet night.  Klinsmann substitutes Chris Wondolowski and Ricardo Clark definitely made impacts when they arrived on the pitch.

The Americans looked most dangerous on corner kicks.  Venezuela was content to play the set pieces more like rugby scrums as they held and tackled the Americans on each effort.  The referee was more than content to let them grab and hold despite the US protests.  The Venezuela antics continued well into extra time when a couple of players stayed down to waste time while his teammates ripped into the referee in a sad display.

The result was the referee ignoring the four minutes of added time and instead going eight.  In the seventh minute of extra time Ricardo Clark headed home the winner.  It was another rugby scrum of a corner kick.  Brek Shea went flying to the turf at the hands of a defender, but somehow the Venezuelans forgot to grab Clark who was all alone.

Despite the dragging first half, it was not a bad showing for a group of Americans looking to get on the radar for World Cup qualifying.

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