Look, before I start moaning about how Bob Bradley’s US squad plays a helluva lot like Bolton, I do have to say that three points on the road in CONCACAF is always a good result. I don’t mean to take that away from the team because the bad fields, dodgy refereeing, and intense atmosphere all add up to a very tough environment to play in.

But still. When I was working for US Soccer, there was this little thing called Project 2010 that the bigwigs called us employees down to the meeting room to tell us about. It was an audacious proposal that wanted the US to host and win the World Cup in 2010. Shoot for the stars and all that. Call me cynical, but I think picking up three points in Guatemala was probably part of that plan, so I’m not all that carried away about tonight’s “historic” achievement. Frankly, no matter how tough the conditions are, the US should be able to go to Central American countries and win regularly. Yes, there are no easy games in football blahblahblah, and I’m not saying that they can’t suffer the odd blip. But the money US Soccer pours into player development probably dwarfs Guatemala’s GNP, so they should be getting some return on that expenditure, shouldn’t they?

The lineup and style of play wasn’t a surprise given the roster, but it has to be said that the US put together few fluid attacks. Harkesy and Davis can praise Bradley for making the team a threat on set pieces, but a defensive-minded team that resorts to long punts up the field and set pieces? Sounds like Bolton, dunnit? And they’re not winning over any neutral supporters.

Bocanegra played great but there were few other standouts, except Howard. Onyewu was fine, Pearce was not, and Cherundolo was solid except for the silly second yellow (even though the first was totally unwarranted). Mastroeni could have easily been sent off too, but luckily the refereeing was inconsistent enough that he escaped. Did Eddie Lewis play? The only thing he did that I noticed was catching an elbow to the face to get the teams back on level terms. Donovan was invisible and Bradley was erratic. Dempsey tried very hard and needed someone to play with, and Ching did what he does best—posts up. He did a lot of grunt work, which is valuable but not inspiring.

This round of qualifying is actually rather dull and this one result makes it even duller, which is good from a US perspective. The US should tonk Cuba at home on September 6th and if they win in Trinidad on September 10th, call in the scrubs. Seriously, if US soccer takes itself seriously as being the powerhouse in the region, is there any real reason that six points shouldn’t be the expectation.

Glad they won but it wasn’t pretty. I like pretty.

Current Mood: Blah |