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USMNT notch second friendly victory against Ecuador

In a more realistic Copa America warmup match, playing (mostly) at full-strength, the US defeated Ecuador on Wednesday night.

By Harrison Hamm
Sean Pokorny-USA TODAY Sports

In the second of the United States national team's pre-Copa America warmup games—the first with most of the starters intact—the US managed a late defeat against South American side Ecuador. Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe slotted him a volley from inside the six-yard box in the 90th-minute to secure a good victory for the home team.

Unlike their 3-1 win over the weekend against Puerto Rico, Jurgen Klinsmann will be able to take some meaningful impressions from this match, which was against a solid, Copa America-participating nation. Klinsmann will likely use this friendly and the one on Saturday against Bolivia to figure out what his starting XI will be.

It was a fairly uneventful game until Nagbe's late winner. Neither team managed to pick out any chances—especially in the first half, when a Gyasi Zardes bad touch that forced the opposing goalkeeper to come off his line was the best goal-scoring opportunity for either side—and so both keepers didn't have all that much work to do. It wasn't until the 71st-minute that a real chance on goal developed. After Graham Zusi made a darting run through the Ecuadorean defense and sent a ball across the face of goal, substitute midfielder Alejandro Bedoya ripped a low, bad-angle shot just wide of the post to the dismay of a wide-open Bobby Wood.

Both teams constantly traded possession and mostly passed it around in the middle third. They seemed tentative to really go at the opposing backline, and the result was a slow-moving contest that failed to excite the relatively small Frisco crowd.

Still, it was a confidence-boosting win for the US. They face Bolivia on Saturday night before beginning Copa America play against Colombia on June 3rd. But at the moment, I'm sure you're more concerned about the Owen Coyle firing that just happened as I'm writing this article.

Lineups:

US:

Ecuador:

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