Football
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent 7y

Arena 'encouraged by a number of performances' in U.S. draw with Serbia

SAN DIEGO -- United States national team manager Bruce Arena said he saw plenty of positives in his team's performance against Serbia, despite being held to a 0-0 draw.

The home side had a significant edge in experience over the visitors -- whose players had a combined six caps among them -- but the U.S. struggled to create many clear chances. All told the U.S. mustered only one shot on target, a second-half effort from close range by Jozy Altidore that was saved by Serbia goalkeeper Filip Manojlovic.

"Well, clearly we would have liked to have the won the game today, but I think for this time of year it was a good game," he said at his postgame news conference. "I was encouraged by a number of performances for our team. I thought the Serbia team defended very well. They did a real good job. It was a challenging game for us.

"We could be better with our chances. I think we could have been a little bit cleaner in final third of the field, getting the final shot or being a little bit cleaner with our passing and combination there.

"But overall I thought the midfield played well, our back line played well. Nick [Rimando] was solid in goal. So there were a lot of encouraging things out there."

Arena has said throughout the team's January camp that he was looking to add some depth to the outside back positions. On Sunday, Arena went with converted midfielder Graham Zusi at right-back and Greg Garza at left-back.

"I thought they both did well," he said. "Graham was a little bit more aggressive getting into the final third of the field. Greg was solid. Greg is coming back from a year-and-a-half, two years of injuries. This is probably his first competitive game in a while. I thought he did really well."

Arena also had praise for his center-back pairing of Steve Birnbaum and Chad Marshall as well as midfielders Darlington Nagbe and Sebastian Lletget, who Arena said "gave us a bit of a spark" when he entered the match in the second half.

But he said he wasn't too worried about the overall form of his attacking players.

"This time of year, the attacking players are a little bit behind," he said. "They're still getting their fitness back, their touch and all of that. They trail a little bit [behind] the other players."

Arena added that while "results are important" his focus is on laying a foundation for the pair of World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and Panama in a little over six weeks.

"If we won 5-0 or lost 5-0, I'm not sure it would change our world for March," he said. "These games are important, especially for our domestic players, but the games that are going to count are in March."

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