England Blanks US Men

From the moment the opening lineups were shown on television I couldn't help but think that the US starters I was most confident in would be laughed at if they showed up for a tryout on the English team. I love Clint Dempsey, I love Michael Bradley, but Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard they are not. I had to laugh when respective captains Carlos Bocanegra and John Terry shook hands. On one side you have the captain of a top 3 EPL team (Terry) and on the other you have a defender recently released by an EPL team barely avoiding relegation that currently is without a club (Bocanegra). The United States fell 2-0, and 2-0 was not a bad scoreline all things considered. Without Landon Donovan you never got the feeling we would score unless we managed a fluke goal or penalty. With Landon Donovan we still would have been outclassed but perhaps our attack would have looked better. My personal evaluation as a huge fan of US Soccer is that while we have come a long way and are now a much more respected opponent for the world powers, we are still not yet on the same level. To beat teams such as England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Brazil or Argentina to name several, we likely have to defend superbly and kill off the game, hoping for a counter to score and take the win.

For those who did not see the game, the first goal was almost scripted as US import David Beckham's free kick found the head of John Terry (who one week ago missed a penalty that could have won the Champion's League) for the opener. In the second half a sublime sequence ended with a nice ball through to Steven Gerrard who made no mistake 1 on 1 against Brad Guzan.

My mental notes for the game:

1) Against elite attacks, a central defense pairing of Bocanegra and Onyewu appears too slow. One is excellent, but together they have similar strengths and weaknesses. I prefer something like Onyewu/Boca paired with Michael Parkhurst. Spector and Orozco make intriguing possibilities in the future as well.

2) We need more creative attacking players (like Donovan) in games. When Adu came on for the final 20 minutes we looked a bit better with the ball. No shock here, but our future lies with players like Donovan, Beasley, Adu, Altidore and eventually Charles Renken and Stefan Jerome.

3) Eddie Johnson is done. No more chances period. How many times must we suffer through watching him up top. He had one great game in a US uniform. He's had infinite pathetic showings since. What do managers see? Why on Earth did Fulham pay for this guy, and better, why do US coaches continue to place any faith in him? I thought he was better than usual today, and that still amounted to relatively boring.