US, Colombia football teams play to goal-less draw

Colombia and the United States played to a goal-less draw in an international football friendly on Tuesday, the South Americans moving to 9-3-3 in the all-time rivalry with the US squad.

The Americans went with a mostly European-based squad but gave FC Dallas midfielder Brek Shea of Major League Soccer his first cap and a start in place of fellow Texas Clint Dempsey, who replaced Shea for the second half.

US coach Bob Bradley, taking his first strong look at players ahead of next June’s Gold Cup showdown of North American foes, saw improvement by his players in the second half.

“In the first half we were slow moving the ball,” Bradley said. “The flow was better in the second half. The passes were better and took us somewhere.

“What we want to do is keep tryng to build our pool, get our guys some experience and come next year narrow in on the guys we think can really help us for the Gold Cup.”

US defender Oguchi Onyewu was the US captain in the first half while his AC Milan teammate Mario Yepes served as the Colombian captain.

The US squad was coming off a 2-2 draw with Poland on Saturday at Chicago but only six players started both matches.