Thoughts after U.S.-Holland draw

TIANJIN, China -- Nine thoughts after the U.S.'s pulsating 2-2 tie against the Netherlands left the Americans (4 points) tied atop Group B with Nigeria (4) and ahead of the Dutch (2) and Japan (0):

• What a game by the U.S. -- and what a missed opportunity for a historic victory.Peter Nowak's team fought back from a 1-0 deficit, scored two stunning goals and controlled the game against the European under-23 champs for most of the final 65 minutes, only for Holland's Gerald Sibon to hit a free kick under the U.S. wall for the equalizer in the last minute of added time. In one gut-punch moment, the U.S. went from clinching a berth in the quarterfinals to needing at least a tie against a good Nigeria team on Wednesday to be certain of advancement. It won't be easy, not least because Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley will both be suspended after receiving their second yellow cards in two games.

• The Dutch coach should probably keep his mouth shut next time. I still can't believe that Foppe De Haan was dumb enough to say before the game that "the U.S. and Japan don't have the level of Nigeria ... Nigeria is confident on the ball. They have two very good forwards. The Americans are more of a team whose players are on the same level. Nobody is extremely good. They have a good system."

Several members of the U.S. team said De Haan's comments provided excellent bulletin-board material. "I think he got the answer tonight," Nowak said afterward, acknowledging that it had gotten back to the team. Adu elaborated even more: "Me personally, I was pissed off. I'm not going to lie ... It gets to a point as a player where you just get a little tired of people always disrespecting the United States as far as saying we can't play, we can't do this, we can't do that. But we keep proving people wrong over and over."

• Few in-game tactical changes will have as big an impact as Nowak's did on Sunday. The Dutch dominated the first 25 minutes, serving dangerous crosses from the right side by three different players (Jonathan de Guzman, Roy Beerens and Gianni Zuiverloon). But the game changed when Nowak shifted to a 4-2-3-1 formation, moving Robbie Rogers from the right wing to the left, Stuart Holden from the left to the center and Adu from forward to a withdrawn spot on the right side. Rogers did a surprisingly good job defending and helped reduce the pressure on the U.S.'s left side -- Holland barely had any more threats in that area for the rest of the game.

• Adu can be a creative force if he's playing in the right position. Once Adu was put in a position where he could run at defenders with his remarkable dribbling skills, he went on several slaloming runs starting in the latter stages of the first half. If Adu is stationary or has his back to the goal when he receives the ball, bigger defenders (like the Netherlands' Otman Bakkal and Hedwiges Maduro) can more easily knock Adu off it. But Nowak's 25th-minute change made Adu a lot more dangerous. "We needed to find Freddy a little bit more," said Sacha Kljestan afterward. "He's our creative guy, so we slid him out to the right a little bit, and he found some more gaps inside the field." Adu was in one of those gaps in the second half when he played a lovely pass to Kljestan for the U.S.'s first goal.

• The U.S. got struck by a plague of dumb yellow cards that could be a killer moving forward. When defender Michael Parkhurst was announced as one of the U.S.'s over-age players, I pointed out that his eerie ability to avoid yellow cards would be key in tournament soccer. But while Parkhurst hasn't come close to getting one, three of the four U.S. yellow cards against Holland were just plain dumb: Adu and Maurice Edu both drew one for foolish challenges on goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer, while Bradley got one for time-wasting before a free kick. (Even worse, Adu's and Bradley's earned suspensions against Nigeria.) Meanwhile, the U.S.'s fourth yellow of the night, Holden's late foul just outside the box, led directly to the Sibon's equalizing free kick.

• Sibon's free-kick equalizer was kind of fluky.David Beckham once told me this about taking free kicks: "Some walls, they jump, so some players hit it under the wall. But that's sort of lazy." Sibon probably doesn't care if he took the lazy way out, hitting his 93rd-minute equalizer under the unlucky jump of Kljestan and past Brad Guzan. But Sibon also admitted afterward that he wasn't even supposed to take the kick in the first place. "I was just waiting because De Guzman and Urby Emaunelson are normally the free-kick takers," he explained. "They were not sure what to do, and I said, 'I'll take it.' I just blast it on goal and see where it ends. I know if it's on-target it's hard for the goalkeeper to get the ball. And it was." Free-kick artists will cringe upon hearing that, and I'm certain U.S. fans will too.

• Jozy Altidore isn't at 100 percent. For the second straight game, the U.S.'s $10 million striker didn't start, a development that would be a major controversy if Nowak's team hadn't earned four points in those games. This time, Altidore scored just seven minutes after coming on, redirecting a screaming cross by defender Michael Orozco (who was impressive in defense and getting forward in this game). Both Altidore and Nowak maintain that Altidore's substitute role is a tactical choice, but the Villarreal striker did admit to me that his injured left ankle (which he hurt in a collison with Juan Pablo Ángel in a New York Red Bulls practice) is affecting him more than most people realize.

"It's still bothering me," Altidore said. "I get it looked at every day, just trying to get it better and better, but it seems to be something that when I get back to my club maybe I need to have someone else look at it."