KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Alejandro Bedoya likes playing a central role with his club team in France's top flight. Given the chance to do the same thing with the U.S. national team during the run-up to the Copa Centenario, Bedoya didn't disappoint.
The Nantes midfielder heads into this Friday's opener against Colombia riding the momentum of a two-assist performance in the Yanks' final tune-up friendly Saturday night's 4-0 rout of Bolivia – a match where he began as the left-side attacking mid but started working inside early.
“I think it's one of those positions where I kind of feel comfortable trying to get in between the lines, into the spaces,” he told reporters afterward. “The times that we were able to play quicker and bypass the lines and play in behind their attackers and midfielders to get in those spaces, we're dangerous.”
Bedoya assisted on both of the United States' first-half goals, feeding Gyasi Zardes for a one-time finish in the 26th minute and playing to wide-open center back John Brooks after Michael Bradley's set-piece feed in the 37th, before being subbed off for Darlington Nagbe in the 63rd minute. The rest of the time, he was a blur of a boss in the midfield – providing gritty defense when he needed to, picking out teammates with well-struck passes, and making runs of his own to keep the outmatched Bolivians off-balance.
He was quick to credit Zardes' run on the first goal and an unspoken rapport with Bradley on the second, but Bedoya – who fans know well for his outspoken Twitter takes on everything from the US women's dissatisfaction with their pay structure to the New York Red Bulls' recent 7-0 demolition of New York City FC in the New York Derby – also isn't shy about discussing his own skill set and how it helps him in a central role.
“It's just my ability to always keep moving and try to find those pockets of spaces, where I can turn and combine and get forward,” he said. “I'm a guy that, if you watch my game at Nantes, I'm always in the box. always getting on the end of things and always trying to set other guys up.”
Where (and whether) Bedoya will feature in Copa play depends, however, on where coach Jurgen Klinsmann decides to deploy him – and as Klinsmann has made clear this past week, with both his comments and his line-up choices, he expects players to be flexible according to the squad's match-to-match needs.
“Ale's role – if it's a wide role or a role more inside – depends on what system we play,” Klinsmann said in Saturday night's postmatch news conference. “It depends on what is needed. It depends on who we play against, and so on. These are all the different pieces that we are discussing up and down the flip chart, because we don't have the luxury to say that we can ignore what the opponent is doing and we just do what we want. We're not Brazil or Argentina. We're not Germany or Spain.
“It's great to have players at your disposal who don't have any issue playing a little more wide or playing inside. They give everything they have, and this is getting back to the chemistry we talked about in the beginning.”
Steve Brisendine covers soccer in Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
