- Landon Donovan got as lost out on the right flank as he often does in the middle against superior opponents. I am really at a loss to describe further what can be done with Donovan. A player of his ability has to be more than a marketing tool for the USSF by the time he is 25. Sure Donovan is the joint all time leading scorer and now leads the national team all time in assists (yes we keep that statistic as we should to those British skeptics of US Footballing often belittle us for) but few if any of his goals and assists post World Cup 2002 have been in truly meaningful situations. It maybe time for that marketing tool of MLS now exiled to Benfica, Freddy Adu to come in and make Donovan earn his position with the team.
- You can’t possibly convince me that Jozy Altiodre wouldn’t dramatically improve the US attacking fortunes. At least he’s have a little more strength to not get so easily knocked off the ball like Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff and Taylor Twellman.
- Wolff’s return to the US National Team was disappointing. I’ve always been in Wolff’s corner feeling he had the potential if he could stay healthy to be our best attacker, but Sunday he seemed overally tentative and almost played as a central midfielder leaving Clint Dempsey up top to fend for himself much of the match.
- Benny Feilhaber isn’t quite there as a replacement for Claudio Reyna. The Brazilian born midfielder looked totally outclassed on Sunday.
- Michael Bradley, who just turned 20 was the US’ best player in the match. While that says a great deal about the future of US Soccer it says very little about the current generation of players who in their prime still have little more than a bunch of wins against Mexico on American soil to show for their leadership.
- Bobby Convey is seriously regressing as a player. He needs to stop taking shots at Steve Coppell and work on finding himself a new club even in MLS if he is going to be part of the national team picture going forward.
- Speaking of Convey, call me crazy but I firmly believe the US could still use Eddie Lewis’ quality in the side. Maybe he shouldn’t start but he could teach the current batch of players a thing or two about using your pace on the flank and crossing the ball into the box.
- Heath Pearce was solid on the left side of defense Sunday. Nice to see him finally stepping up when his name was called.
- Tim Howard needs a flak jacket for shots coming his way this summer. Even against teams like Panama and Canada the Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu pairing in central defense were a mess. Should it really surprise us that Brazil scored four goals?????
- Davy Arnuad: I owe you some love, after calling out Bob Bradley on last week’s Major League Soccer Talk podcast about selecting you. Arnaud showed Landon Donovan how to play the right flank position in his brief stint Sunday, running at guys, challenging them and crossing the ball effectively into space.
GD Star Rating
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Will you devote anytime to the US Women’s National Team?
Wolff is garbage. The sooner we stop calling him and Twellman in, the better. Time to see what Jozy can do, and if he is the real deal we can dump Eddie Johnson as well. My all time fav Eddie Pope is still sorely missed.