Members of the American squad have come out in support of Graham Zusi, after the midfielder attracted criticism for leaving the field too slowly when substituted.
Zusi was taken off by Jurgen Klinsmann in the last minute of the game, but left the field so slowly that former US forward Taylor Twellman, now a pundit, asserted he had caused ‘an extra minute of injury time’ to be added to the match.
Twellman’s claim insisted that the initial figure on the board displaying the length of injury time was 4, but that Zusi’s delaying tactics caused the fourth official to change it to 5.
Zusi himself remained unrepentant.
“It was a little bit of a delaying tactic,” he admitted to Yahoo Sport, “but nothing that anybody else wouldn’t do.”
“Of course you try and put yourself as far away from the bench as possible,” he continued.
Yanks goalkeeper Tim Howard, who conceded in the fifth minute of injury time, was quick to defend his team-mate.
“You have to kind of balance [the delaying],” the Everton keeper admitted. “You don’t want to take too much time but you have to take enough to run the clock down.”
Meanwhile, Zusi’s Sporting Kansas City colleage Matt Besler scoffed at Twellman’s assertion.
“I don’t know, I’m not going to comment on that,” the youngster laughed. “That’s his opinion.”
Having conceded a last-gasp goal to draw the game level, the USA need a point in their final game against Germany to ensure qualification for the knockout stages.
