As for Spain, they are simply awesome. I won’t say unstoppable, but they are damn close. The beautiful game, indeed!

As far as Casey goes, I love his toughness and effort. Unfortunately, he’s Ching, but not as good. When everyone’s healthy, Casey won’t get called in.

Here’s hoping we see the passion against Spain.

Here is something that I took from a Article from ESPN is about M. Bradley

The younger Bradley’s voice brimmed with emotion as he talked about the significance not of the victory, but of the effort. It was a direct kick at the critics who’d said the team lacked fire. “We played with 11 guys for 90 minutes,” Michael Bradley said. “All the f—— experts in America, everybody who thinks they know about soccer, they can all look at the score tonight and let’s see what they have to say now. Nobody has any respect for what we do, for what goes on on the inside, so let them all talk now.”

Let me know what you guys think about it.

For the record, I am in the camp that still thinks Bradley should be let go, but I do take exception to the fact that the US backed into the 2nd spot from Group B. In my opinion, in sports, backing in is reserved for teams that fail to uphold their end of a scenario, and advances in a competition solely on the result of another game. To the US credit, they upheld their endo f the bargain, and when a 3-0 result was needed, they got. Better yet, all 3 goals were well taken and from the run of play. And the US had at least 3 other opportunities for goals as well (Donovan’s square ball attempt to Jozy, Bradley’s blast, and Jozy’s shot cleared off the line.)

Thinking further, if the US should not have gone through based on their form from the first 2 games, who should have? Italy? The were only able to score 3 goals in the tournament, ALL after their opponent had been down a man for 30+ minutes. Plus, did they really play that much better versus Brazil? Scoreline says NO. Okay, so how about Egypt? Yes, there probably had the best form (other than Brazil) in the first 2 games, but they could not beat a team we all left for dead. In fact a 2-0 loss would have seen them through (the ultimate back-in), and they could not manage that. Yes, the US advanced on a technicality, but so did Barcelona.

Finally, completely off the subject. There is a lot of opinion that Bradley has his “core” guys. Where does Conor Casey fit into this? Talk about a guy that before 2 weeks ago that was so far out of Bradley’s core that he did not even get a January call-in to camp. He must either show something in training.

With Spain on the horizon, Bradley needs to start players that are willing to put pressure on the Spanish possession game. Casey, Dempsey, even Altidore will do little to disrupt Spain as they play kick-about. Start with Davies up front with Donovan as the second tier striker. Their speed will prove invaluable.

We won’t beat Spain in a wide open game — instead pressure the ball at midfield with our striker tandem, defend the wide play with the wingers, and control the center of defense to prevent Spain’s give-n-go offense. Maybe we get the counterattack or set piece opportunity. Maybe we get the extra time or PK shootout opportunity. There’s no shame in playing the best team in the world to a 0-0 draw and taking a chance at the PK lottery.

Looking forward to Wednesday!

Now this interesting enough and hasn’t been commented on. Have we seen our best players be those who didn’t have a lot of action coming into the qualification or cup games? Guzan was a fortress today. Was Tim Howard too tired? Should he have started after his extended club season. Jon Spector has become THE right back. He was out hurt from his club. Jay Demerit is playing due to an injury. Altidore who is learning his role the hard way sits for his club. Dempsey does not play a full 90 for his club. Did the depth of the US play a factor today. Yes, many said Egypt was out of gas today and had injuries. Too bad, we have injuries and played a tough schedule. Egypt didn’t show up. Thats their fault.

I have to agree with Jamie Trecker that the issue is should we say thank you to Bob Bradley. He has done the job no one wanted. He has won one Gold Cup, has us in good shape to qualify for 2010, and we have gotten out of the best group in the Confed Cup. You couldn’t expect more! However, can he get the top performance every game starting next year in South Africa? The answer appears no based on what we have seen this summer. But before we say it’s over for Bob I ask all of you did Italy advance in 2006 and didn’t look good doing so but won the crown. Yes!

So, lets spend our time now talking about do we start Guzan or Howard v. Spain. If Bob Bradley is the coach I want him to be I say start Guzan!