The United States men's national team took on Iceland this afternoon in the first friendly from their annual Camp Cupcake. D.C. United's Steve Birnbaum entered at the start of the second half and provided solid defense and set-piece dominance in his 45 minutes on the field.
In his first minutes on the field, every USMNT player decided to yell at the ref instead of playing; Birnbaum decided to play on, but Sigurdarson whipped the ball around him to put Iceland back up.
But Birnbaum was far from done. In the 59th minute, his header to Michael Orozco allowed the right back to head the ball home and level the score at 2. And after the 90th minute had passed, Birnbaum's header off of a Michael Bradley free kick was the deciding goal in this game.
D.C. United fans have been waiting for this kind of offensive performance from Birnbaum for the past two years; hopefully he can translate this success to success in MLS.
