Delayed reaction to USMNT loss to Mexico

Plenty enough has been said elsewhere on the internet about the US Men's National Team's disappointing performance at Azteca earlier this week. Probably not enough has been made in the national media of the vomit-filled cups that were hurled (pun intended) at Landon Donovan while he was taking corner kicks. Real classy, Mexican fans.

But this is a DC United blog, so let me put it in a different perspective. I felt like what the US was really missing in this match was a Gomez. Or a Moreno. The US defenders were mostly solid, but every time they cleared the ball up the field, possession went right back immediately to Mexico. What the team was missing was a CAM or withdrawn forward who would be positioned immediately behind the front runners, and who could act as an outlet pass from the back, and then hold the ball up to start transitioning the other way. Mexico dominated our midfielders, but maybe having two defensive-minded central midfielders and two attack-minded wide midfielders was not the best strategy.

Here's some other quick observations from my viewing experience at the crowded Pour House:

• Only one person could be heard clapping after the Mexico goal. Clearly he or she had wandered into the wrong bar.
• Huge ovation after the Davies goal, as would have been expected.
• No one seemed to appreciate referee Roberto Moreno, as would have been expected. (Update: My blog post about him is still the top hit on google when you search for referee Roberto Moreno. It's going to take him a long time to live that match down.)
• When the camera showed Brian Ching starting to walk off the field, lots of clapping and cheers for "Jozy!" We were all disappointed to see Feilhaber and Holden standing up instead, although they both proved to be good additions.
• The second biggest ovation of the day came when Altidore entered the match. And then he proceeded to disappear.
• Nice little round of applause when mun2 showed the American troops in Iraq, but much louder boos when the soldiers started waving a Mexican flag. Funny how they didn't wave that flag until after their team was winning.
• DCU staffers were on hand with flyers, tshirts, stickers, and the actual 2008 US Open Cup! I grabbed a handful of wewintrophies.com stickers to post around town. One already made it into a restroom in the Ronald Reagan Building.

It was pretty cool actually to get to touch the Open Cup. I didn't find out until later that this was the first stop on the team's "We Win Trophies Tour", which is taking the Cup to bars all over DC for the next couple weeks. I definitely recommend checking it out.

USMNT Projected 2010 World Cup roster

What's left to say about the Gold Cup that hasn't already been said? We had four strong matches, and then one epic failure. It's clear that the 5-0 loss to Mexico weighs more heavily on our hearts than any of the previous victories, but fortunately we have only a few weeks to wait before we get the chance for revenge.

Is it really all that bad that we finished the Gold Cup in second place? Nah. There's no upcoming Confederations Cup to qualify the victor for like last time, so it's not an incredibly meaningful trophy. Our goal for the Gold Cup was to evaluate some new players, right? So if that was the goal, then mission accomplished? Right?

There were definitely a few players who set themselves apart from the rest of the roster in the Gold Cup, both positively and negatively. Guys like Ching and Perkins proved why they've already virtually locked up spots on the World Cup team, while other guys like Heaps and Cooper proved why they haven't received more action in the past. Let's take a second run at our potential World Cup roster, with a little bit of a different format from last time.

Goalkeepers
3 In:
Tim Howard - Still the lock for #1 keeper
Troy Perkins - May have moved into #2 slot after Gold Cup
Brad Guzan - Needs more PT but hasn't lost spot yet

3 Out:
Jon Busch - Consistent MLS keeper could get another chance
Marcus Hahnemann - Is he still in consideration?
Luis Robles - Not a good Gold Cup for him

Defenders
8 In:
Oguchi Onyewu - Hopefully he gets some PT in Milan
Carlos Bocanegra - Full team's captain can start at CB or LB
Jay DeMerit - Confed Cup performance makes him a starter
Jonathan Spector - Now the unquestioned RB starter
Chad Marshall - Good Gold Cup, despite last match
Steve Cherundolo - Unimpressive in brief Gold Cup starts
Heath Pearce - Consistent and can play multiple positions
Jonathan Bornstein - Consistency is hard to come by at LB

8 Out:
Frankie Hejduk - May have lost spot to progressing Pearce
Clarence Goodson - Gold Cup CB was better than expectedD
anny Califf - No appearances in Confed, competing for 4th CB
Michael Parkhurst - Disappointing in Gold Cup
Marvel Wynne - Still waiting to see if he's more than just an athlete
Jimmy Conrad - Good in MLS, not an international
Michael Orozco - Disappeared from Nats for unknown reason
Jay Heaps - Played last ever international match Sunday

Midfielders
8 In:
Landon Donovan - Still best player ever to wear US uniform
Clint Dempsey - New right wing competition from Holden
Michael Bradley - Should continue to develop in Germany
Benny Feilhaber - Brief Gold Cup showing helped the team
Ricardo Clark - Potential transfer to Serie A
Maurice Edu - Hope to see him healthy soon
Stuart Holden - Stock definitely up after Gold Cup
Kyle Beckerman - Consistently adequate, maybe room for him

8 Out:
Robbie Rogers - No impact in Gold Cup knockout matches
Jermaine Jones - Hope he gets called in for some WCQ matches
Francisco Torres - Maybe returns to the fold 8/12
Sacha Kljestan - Needs to play better in MLS before next callup
Logan Pause - Mediocre in Gold Cup, probably out of the picture
Santino Quaranta - Not sure why so little Gold Cup PT
DaMarcus Beasley - Needs PT at Rangers to earn another chance
Sam Cronin - First cap at Gold Cup, keep in mind for 2014

Forwards
4 In:
Jozy Altidore - Transfer to Olympiakos could be good for him
Charlie Davies - Best player on the field against Honduras
Brian Ching - Only player to keep his head up in Mexico loss
Freddy Adu - Still in by default because no other good forwards

4 Out:
Conor Casey - Interested to see if he gets another chance 8/12
Kenny Cooper - Unimpressive in Gold Cup
Nate Jaqua - Just throwing out names at this point
Brian McBride - Please come back! We need you!

USMNT projected 2010 World Cup roster

This will be the first in an occassional series of posts where we look at the available players for the US heading into the 2010 World Cup, and the players that we think are likely to get the call.

With a second-place finish in the Confederation's Cup, which included a huge 2-0 win over Spain, and a hard-fought championship loss to Brazil, it's hard to argue against using most of the players who saw action in the Confed. But 6 points earned to date in the group stage of the Gold Cup also gives the US a deep list of options. Here's the list of players I see as currently occupying the 23 spots available for the 2010 World Cup:

Goalkeepers:
Tim Howard - One of the best keepers in the world.
Brad Guzan - Played very well in shutting out Egypt in the Confed.
Troy Perkins - Two clean sheets so far in the Gold Cup.

Defenders:
Oguchi Onyewu - Signing with AC Milan this week is huge for US.
Carlos Bocanegra - Full team's captain can start at CB or LB.
Jay DeMerit - Would not have been on this list a month ago.
Jonathan Spector - Has emerged as our best option at RB.
Steve Cherundolo - Tough battle with Spector for starting RB.
Chad Marshall - Gold Cup starter might be our best backup CB.
Jonathan Bornstein - Consistency is hard to come by at LB.
Frankie Hejduk - Fantastic in the twilight of his career in WCQ.

Midfielders:
Landon Donovan - The best player ever to wear a US uniform.
Clint Dempsey - Came up big multiple times in the Confed.
Michael Bradley - Great, calm passer, and with a scoring touch.
Benny Feilhaber - Versatile midfielder can play CM or on the wing.
Ricardo Clark - Love him in the bruiser role, when in control.
Robbie Rogers - MVP of the Gold Cup so far with 1 goal, 2 assists.
Maurice Edu - Injuries have kept him out lately, hopefully he recovers.
Kyle Beckerman - Strong showing at CM in the Gold Cup.

Forwards:
Jozy Altidore - Huge in the Confed, with a goal against Spain.
Charlie Davies - Huge in the Confed, with a goal against Egypt.
Brian Ching - Maintains possession and good at drawing fouls.
Freddy Adu - Always looks dangerous, deserves more time.

Out:
Luis Robles - Third keeper in the Confed, yet to get an opportunity.
Danny Califf - No appearances in Confed. Competing for 4th CB.
Michael Parkhurst - 1 Gold Cup appearance, competing for 4th CB.
Clarence Goodson - 1 Gold Cup appearance, competing for 4th CB.
Heath Pearce - One good cross, otherwise unimpressive for the Nats.
Marvel Wynne - Physical presence, still low soccer skills.
Michael Orozco - Disappeared from Nats for unknown reason.
Stuart Holden - Waiting to see more against stronger opponents.
Santino Quaranta - Earned first international goal against Honduras.
Francisco Torres - Wondering if he was benched for a reason?
Pablo Mastroeni - Former starting CDM at the end of his career.
DaMarcus Beasley - Was terrible in the Confed.
Logan Pause - OK defensive midfielder, can he handle the big boys?
Conor Casey - Great MLS season, done nothing on the national level.
Kenny Cooper - Doesn't score from less than 40 yards from goal.

USMNT Gold Cup roster

As found on the Insider, the USSF released the names today for the preliminary Gold Cup roster.

And of course its just the same old names. Why would we expect anything more? It seems that Bradley automatically gives preference to anybody on a team in Europe, regardless of how good that player is, how good that team is, or if that player receives any playing time with that team. And the MLSers who do get called up to the national team are the same ones who always get called up to the national team, even if they've done nothing in MLS this season. The Gold Cup is a legitimate opportunity to get some new faces into the mix. There are plenty of fine young Americans who are having fantastic years by MLS standards, but they aren't even given a chance to compete.

I just don't understand how you could choose Eddie Gaven (2 goals, 0 assists) and Robbie Rogers (0 goals, 1 assist) ahead of Chris Pontius (4 goals, 2 assists), Arturo Alvarez (4 goals, 1 assist), Brad Davis (2 goals, 7 assists), and Colin Clark (2 goals, 5 assists).

The funniest one for me is Clarence Goodson. Playing for Dallas for 4 years, he was an above average defender, but not of high enough profile to receive any national team call ups. But the same month that he announces that he will not be returning to MLS and signs a contract in Norway, all of a sudden he gets his first call up! On the defensive side, I'm thinking Bryan Namoff, Aaron Hohlbein, Omar Gonzales, and Jeremy Hall are just as worthy.

Who else would you like to see get an opportunity?

Victory in Krakow

I didn't get to see enough of the USA/Poland match to write a full match report, but I just wanted to come on here to quickly point out how great our defense looked against a quality European team. It wasn't enough for Bocanegra and Onyewu to just shut down every one of Poland's attacks, they also felt the need to each score a goal too!

Two goals from central defenders, another goal by Eddie Lewis (who was playing midfield at the time but switched to defense later in the match), and almost a fourth goal as Jay Demerit's header went wide by about six inches. Most of Poland's best scoring opportunities came off of set pieces, so Michael Bradley and Rico Clark also deserve some credit.

Steve Cherundolo played fantastic as usual, but I think Heath Pearce's play impressed me the most, just because it's been so long since we had a left back who we could consistently rely on. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm feeling pretty confident right now about a Dolo/Gooch/Boca/Pearce back line in South Africa.

Now in regards to the offense... Not the most impressive outings from Dempsey and Johnson. Landon Donovan didn't play his best game either, and he STILL managed to get two assists. This isn't specifically a point derived from his play in this match, but more of just a broad statement...

Landon Donovan will retire as the greatest player ever to wear the US National Team jersey, but he will someday be eclipsed by Freddy Adu.

Agree or disagree?

Senior citizen discount

With a meaningless final match set for tomorrow night, let's move onto more important matters and begin our discussion of the problem areas and what the potential solutions might be for the U23 national team in the Olympics. Of course as you know, each team is allowed to bring three senior players to add to the mix. I think our biggest needs are...

1. A wing back - Although I think Nate Sturgis has played well enough to win the left wide back spot, I still don't like our options so far on the right. Marvel Wynne, although intimidating, has still not impressed me, and it's definitely not Kamani Hill's natural position. The obvious choice here is Steve Cherundolo.

2. Leadership in the back - Between Chris Seitz, Jonathan Spector, and Michael Orozco, I just don't see a vocal leader on defense. The team's defense clearly improved with the addition of Spector in the Canada game, but we could still use some more help. Nowak's got a couple of options here... One would be to bring in a proven leader in USMNT captain Carlos Bocanegra, or maybe Jay DeMerit (captain for Watford) if Boca is unavailable. OR Piotr could use this slot to bring on board a keeper, preferably Tim Howard or Brad Friedel.

3. Landon Donovan - He's already said that he'd "love to go", and he's our all-time leading goalscorer, so why not? Donovan has been the face of American soccer for almost a decade now. But maybe that's the problem. Maybe there's some conspiracy at hand to leave Landon at home so Freddy Adu can be the NEW face of American soccer. Eh, doubtful.

But these three seniors aren't the only players we'll get to add. Michael Bradley is sure to be added to the Olympic roster also, and maybe even Robbie Rogers, who was supposedly injured prior to qualifying (although he's been playing for the Crew in preseason). So for argument's sake, let's assume the additions of Cherundolo, Bocanegra, Donovan, Bradley, and Rogers. Now then what players who worked hard to earn a qualification do we leave home from the actual event? Chad Barrett is an obvious choice because, well, he sucked in qualifying. I prefer Kamani Hill over Wynne, but Nowak doesn't, so he stays home too. Adding Rogers as an attacking wide midfielder means that we won't have to suffer through watching Robbie Findley again. With Dolo and Boca in the mix, we now have little need for Hunter Freeman. That's four... The last one is tough because I think we're going to have to cut one of our competent midfielders. I would have no problem if Nowak decided to leave out Kljestan, but it appears more likely that Sal Zizzo will be the last man looking for a chair when the music stops.

China bound

I really enjoyed watching the US team emerge with a convincing victory against Canada tonight to earn their way into the Olympics this summer. The team has definitely shown improvement in each match. Makes you wonder how well we'll actually do in Beijing against the top world powers, because right now, a pretty good run certainly looks possible.


1. Freddy Adu - Should be the unanimous MVP of the tournament. His two goals off of set pieces were impressive, but I would have loved to see him get a hat track off that volley that just missed wide left around the 64th minute.

2. Jozy Altidore - Now I'm thinking that he must have had a modest injury in the early matches, because he looked like a totally different player tonight.

3. Jonathan Spector - I wasn't expecting him to be much of an upgrade over Ianni, but Spector was a huge presence, and the biggest reason why Canada had so few scoring opportunities.


1. Maurice Edu - I like him in the holding midfield role next to McCarty in the bruiser role. I'd be interested to see Edu with the senior national team playing next to Clark.


1. Marvel Wynne - I don't like him on the U23s, and I certainly don't like him on the senior squad. Sure does have a long throw-in though.

It's a great feeling to be able to watch your national team play and actually have some confidence in them. But now that we're officially in the Olympics, watching this match has really got me thinking about who our 3 senior players should be. We'll do a full post on that later.

PENAL! PENAL! PENAL!

Two victories off penalty kicks send the Americans to the semi-finals of Concacaf Olympic qualifying, with a likely matchup against Canada as of the time of this writing. I think the US is probably the favorite to win at this point, despite some pretty unconvincing victories.


1. Stuart Holden - Looked like maybe the Man of the Match for the second game in a row. Holden's dominance in this tournament, as well as the departure of Ngwenya, makes me think he could have a big impact for the Dynamo this year.


1. Sal Zizzo - Showed a lot of energy and some good touch. Makes me wonder though if he's got enough fitness to go the full 90.
2. Michael Orozco - The only defensive player who started in both clean sheet victories. I think Orozco has earned his way into the regular starting XI.


1. Chad Barrett - You knew this was coming. Add Barrett to the list of American forwards who have squandered opportunities on the national scene. If you get booed by the home fans, you're probably going to wind up on my Rail list.

So after these three matches, the US has certainly not dominated, but we've learned a good deal about our players, we've got some confidence, and I think Nowak has put us into a good position to win. We've likely got a semifinals matchup against a Canadian team with a couple of familiar names that just destroyed Guatemala.

Here's my starting XI for the Canada match, which will be essentially our most important match since this one:
G: Seitz
D: Hill, Edu, Orozco, Sturgis
M: Zizzo, Kljestan, Adu, McCarty, Holden
F: Altidore

What do I think Nowak will use? Pretty much the same, but probably Gaven for Zizzo. Or maybe add Ianni to the back and move Edu up to the wing.

Doing just enough to advance, but not much more

Admittedly, I only watched the entire first half and bits and pieces of the second half last night (What?! Lost was on!) so this list might be incomplete, or even incorrect entirely.


1.Nathan Sturgis - Wait wasn't he in the Rail list on Tuesday? There was a definitive improvement in the backline against Panama over the backline against Cuba. A lot of that probably had to do with the additions of Wynn and Orozco, but Sturgis played noticeably better too.
2.Stuart Holden - Provided the enthusiasm and agressiveness that was really missing in the first match from Findley and Davies. This is the first time I'd seen him play with the national team, and now I've taken to thinking that he could be a contributor with the senior squad in some qualifying matches later this year.


1.Sasha Kljestan - He's certainly got some skill, but I just don't get the obsession with him by a lot of fans. He was absolutely an improvement over Findley, and is good enough to start for the U23s, but I just don't see him replacing DMB (or even Convey) on the full national team yet.


1.Dax McCarty - How many times did he give the ball away and then immediately foul the opposing player? He had a poor game in possession, but still did an adequate job of breaking up some plays. You could argue that Dax might be too small to play the "bruiser" role, but this guy would disagree.

The US team has certainly not been impressive, but it looks like they're doing enough to be able to advance out of this group. But can this team beat Mexico? Because that do-or-die matchup in the semifinals feels inevitable. I personally think we have the talent to match Mexico (Dos Santos and Adu pretty much cancel each other out). So far, we've played down to the level of our competition. The question is whether or not we will be able to play up to the level of our competition against Mexico and/or Guatemala. Honduras will be a good test.

A fast start that wasn't quite fast enough

On a day that can be considered the official start to the 2008 US Soccer season, I've been trying to brainstorm a new player rating system to use in postgame reviews. Numbers and letter grades just seem so trite. So instead we'll use a more original player rating system that is based on something with which I'm proud to have quite a bit of experience: liquor.

Top shelf:
1. Freddy Adu - The only viable attacking option for the US in this game. In general, we dominated play in the first 30 minutes, but could only score one goal, and that was Freddy's.
2. Dax McCarty - Played well in occupying the Benny Feilhaber role. Of course we're still not sure why Feilhaber isn't occupying the Feilhaber role... I saw McCarty take three balls to the face in this game, a feat normally performed only by members of the Village People.
3. Kamani Hill - The Cuba goal and essentially all of their scoring opportunities came on the left side. Hill did his job to shut down the right.

Call:
1. Charlie Davies - If it wasn't for a couple good runs, Davies could have easily found himself in the lower category. Way too easy to go down, Davies could be the heir apparent to my biggest complaint against Eddie Johnson.
2. Peter Nowak - Some questionable choices in his lineup. Again, Feilhaber's name comes up. Also surprised not to see Robbie Rogers on this roster. No, two Terps is not enough.

Rail:
1. Nathan Sturgis - Was he actually on the field? Or did they just write his name on the lineup sheet by mistake? I swear, I only counted 3 times that Sturgis's name was mentioned in this match. Plus he was in no-man's-land on the goal.
2. Robbie Findley - Tons of wasted opportunity and wasted talent. Not yet ready for primetime.

So in general, the problem was 3 breakaway opportunities that we could not convert. Altidore and Findley shot straight at the keeper. Davies doesn't like to shoot, so he decided to fall down instead. If we had 4 Freddy Adus playing in the top 4 positions, then we would have won 4-1. But until we can invent a device to make that happen, someone else is going to have to step up.

A rivalry refreshed

Some good and some bad from the "Friendly" match last night.

Despite all the criticism, and all the emergence of new talent, Landon Donovan proved again in the first half that he was still the best player on the field. And actually, for the first time in a long time, I'm pretty satisfied with the offense on the USMNT. Between Donovan, Dempsey, Altidore, and super-sub Adu, we were definitely the better team in the attacking third.

The defense was a bit more troubling. Boca and Gooch still have a steady hold on the two center defensive positions, but it appears that there's still a big dropoff on the flanks whenever Cherundolo is out. Moor and Corrales got the start this week, but neither were impressive, and they should both probably be behind Bornstein, Spector, Simek, and Pearce on the depth chart.

Actually, Drew Moor is kind of hard to assess. Last night he was almost Heydudesque. He gets an assist with a beautiful cross to Altidore, and would have had another assist if Dempsey wasn't offside on his goal. But then Moor was responsible for BOTH of the Mexico goals as he let his man get in front of him.

But I'm the most confused about our central midfield. I feel like it was so much easier before when Reyna and Mastroeni's names were seemingly carved in stone as our starters. Now we've actually got options, but it's not apparent who our BEST options are. We've got Ricardo Clark as a bruiser, Benny Feilhaber as a holding midfielder, Michael Bradley as some sort of combination of the two, and Freddy Adu as an attacking midfielder. It's certainly nice to have options, but I have no idea which of them I'd start in a World Cup right now. My sense is Feilhaber and Bradley, with Clark or Adu coming off the bench depending on the situation. Luckily, we have a couple years of qualifiers to let this thing shake itself out.

Re: Priority and Strategy

Early candidate for blog post of the year goes to the DCenters, with this lengthy and incredibly well-written (we're talking Sports Illustrated material) piece on the club's role in developing American talent versus using any means necessary to pursue championships. I started writing this as a comment to D's post, and then just decided to move it here, because I stray from the main topic a bit. I guess the whole Super Tuesday thing is making me take this to a different level...

What I find most interesting, and possibly ironic, about this whole situation is the timeliness of the argument. DC United is not doing anything new this offseason. The acquisition of five new foreign players may be more than most years, but we have been identifying, pursuing, and signing foreign talent since the team's inception. Last year brought Fred and Emilio, without any complaints. And how many people were yelling about nationalism when Etcheverry, Moreno, and Diaz Arce brought home the MLS Cup in 1996 and 1997?

But the political arena was much different in 1996. Immigration was not a major issue in the presidential campaign of 1996, like it has been in 2008. We weren't building fences along our borders, or talking about bussing 4 million people back to Mexico, just because they were trying to make better lives for their families. And we also weren't worried about our white collar jobs being outsourced overseas.

Some of the immigration debate is spurred by racism, but most is not.

As we've discussed before, and as many others have suggested, one supposed problem with MLS is its inability to retain talented American players, due to the possibility of higher salaries in Europe. I don't know if that's a systematic flaw or not, but that's just the way it is, and it's not changing anytime soon. But regardless of that, most of those guys are getting good experience that will benefit them on the national level, whether they are playing in the MLS or not. The US doesn't need DC United to develop American talent: Europe is doing it for us.

Now put yourself in the shoes of a guy like Jose Carvallo. He comes to the US not specifically to make more money, because he might actually be able to make more if he stayed in South America. No, instead he comes here for a better way of life. And to try to get noticed by European clubs. He wants the chance to make the most of his opportunities. That's the freakin American Dream!!! The land of opportunity!

If your company hired a new tech support guy who just happened to be Indian, you would assume that they hired him not because of his race, but because he was the smartest, best candidate for the job. You wouldn't hold it against your company for not hiring a white guy who might not be as smart, would you? So when DC United signs, for example, Gonzalo Martinez, they are signing the best available center back, regardless of his race and nationality. DC United has no more obligation to hire Americans than any other company in the US. It's as simple as that.