U.S. ties Argentina on Agudelo's goal

To the great benefit of the U.S. national team, soccer justice allows for a single shining moment by an exuberant rookie to counter a full night's exhibition of mastery by the globe's consensus best player. The unlikely result was a 1-1 tie in an international friendly against two-time World Cup champion Argentina and its soccer Einstein, Lionel Messi.

Juan Agudelo, the 18-year-old Red Bulls forward who hails from the Jersey shore community of Barnegat, came off the American bench at halftime to conjure the tying goal on a 59th-minute rebound.

It was Agudelo's second goal for the national team in only his third appearance, and rescued the Yanks from an evening of playing the role of potted plants incapable of defending the relentlessly buzzing Messi and his mates.

Though the U.S. defenders assumed a form of bees-to-the-honey defense against Messi, collapsing in large numbers around the 5-foot-5 wizard every time he touched the ball, Messi found tiny gaps for tiptoeing charges and deft passes. Yet it was Agudelo who changed his team's entire posture.

"Argentina is one of the best teams in the worlds," said Agudelo, who scored the Red Bulls' winning goal a week earlier in their Major League Soccer season-opener. "I can't ask for more than playing with those guys. It was fun."

Agudelo pounded in a rebound a split-second after Argentine keeper Mariano Andujar had knocked down Carlos Bocanegra's header off Landon Donovan's free kick, jolting life back into a U.S. team that had been dizzied by Argentina's touch passes and scampering dribbles through traffic.

The Yanks were wearing their new red jerseys, with the word "Indivisible" stamped on sleeves, only to have Messi spend the entire first half in a divide-and-conquer mode against their porous defense.

Argentina's goal in the 42nd minute, especially, was an example of the Messi performance art that had the crowd of 78,936 repeatedly gasping in appreciative surprise. (It was the largest of three 77,000-plus crowds at the stadium's three international soccer matches since the Meadowlands stadium opened.)

Messi flashed to his left around U.S. defender Jonathan Spector, braked at the touchline just outside the left goalpost and tapped a pass through the legs of Bocanegra onto goalie Tim Howard's doorstep.

Howard summoned a reflexive save on Angel di Maria's point-blank shot, but had no chance to stop Esteban Cambiasso's rebound.

"His movement is everywhere," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said of Messi. "He's an amazing player."

Bradley acknowledged the mobility and quickness of Argentina and how "there's so much going on for our players that getting on the field and trying to keep track of all that, against great players, is good for us."

Good, at least, after Bradley chose to use Agudelo in the second half. "For a young player," Bradley said, "whenever you put him on the field, you can tell he has confidence . . . He puts himself in good positions and when the ball comes, he's strong. He's looking to try things, things that make sense. He came on and certainly helped."

Agudelo, possibly too young to know better, said, "I don't think I was that nervous. It was just fun being on the field with those guys."

His play summoned a different U.S. motto than "Indivisible"--E Pluribus Unum. Out of Many, one.