Disappointed, but not unexpected
It wasn't as if I expected the United States to walk into Wembley Stadium and completely dominate the Premiership-dominated England squad. I didn't expect to see Eddie Johnson one-touching with an ACL-recovered Damarcus Beasley while Josh Wolff made enlightened runs to open space.
But I did expect to see a coherent, cognizant American side that knew how to play the game match up against a world power and not look like a Sunday-league pub side versus a team of professionals. And that's what I got.
What disappointed me most about this game was not the Americans lack of skill ... it was how obvious how much better England is than us. It wasn't even close.
While watching the game with tacologic, we must have admitted England's dominance at least six or 10 times over the course of the game. We couldn't hold possession of the ball, we couldn't string together three passes and all we seemed to do was give away possession and hope that we could stave off their attack long enough to get possession again and hoof it down field.
Basically, this game was my hope of getting a point out of our three game series with the world's powers ... but now I don't see how we get any points out of this tour. Though it does help us make clear the gap between us and the world's powers.
The good: I thought Eddie J played better than we usually see ... the time at Fulham must have really helped him. Seemed like Heath Pearce is making his claim for the left back position. Boca and Gooch weren't too abused. Michael Bradley played alright.
The bad: We couldn't hold possession. At all. How is Josh Wolff even still in the player pool, let alone starting against England? We miss Landon Donovan more when he's out than any other player. Dolo didn't play well at all at right back. Beasley can't be the only guy who can take free kicks. We can't focus our defense down the center of the field when they're going attack down the wings.
The other thing that bugged me the most is how we weren't able to hold possession at all when the ball came toward us. While Ol Blighty was able to trap the ball like they had magnets attached to their feet, the ball pinged off of our body parts like a pinball. It was kind of ridiculous.
Just a disappointing game, overall. I'm not mad at our performance, just disappointed that we're still so far away from being a world power. The next generation (Adu, Edu, Altidore) can't become regulars on European teams fast enough.
PS: David Beckham is still an amazing player and one of my favorites in the world. He was dropped from Real Madrid. He was dropped from England. How did he react? He put his head down, worked hard and earned his spot back. And no one takes a better free kick or is more dangerous from 35 yards in than him. I might even buy one of his Galaxy jerseys. Except I hate the Galaxy.
But I did expect to see a coherent, cognizant American side that knew how to play the game match up against a world power and not look like a Sunday-league pub side versus a team of professionals. And that's what I got.
What disappointed me most about this game was not the Americans lack of skill ... it was how obvious how much better England is than us. It wasn't even close.
While watching the game with tacologic, we must have admitted England's dominance at least six or 10 times over the course of the game. We couldn't hold possession of the ball, we couldn't string together three passes and all we seemed to do was give away possession and hope that we could stave off their attack long enough to get possession again and hoof it down field.
Basically, this game was my hope of getting a point out of our three game series with the world's powers ... but now I don't see how we get any points out of this tour. Though it does help us make clear the gap between us and the world's powers.
The good: I thought Eddie J played better than we usually see ... the time at Fulham must have really helped him. Seemed like Heath Pearce is making his claim for the left back position. Boca and Gooch weren't too abused. Michael Bradley played alright.
The bad: We couldn't hold possession. At all. How is Josh Wolff even still in the player pool, let alone starting against England? We miss Landon Donovan more when he's out than any other player. Dolo didn't play well at all at right back. Beasley can't be the only guy who can take free kicks. We can't focus our defense down the center of the field when they're going attack down the wings.
The other thing that bugged me the most is how we weren't able to hold possession at all when the ball came toward us. While Ol Blighty was able to trap the ball like they had magnets attached to their feet, the ball pinged off of our body parts like a pinball. It was kind of ridiculous.
Just a disappointing game, overall. I'm not mad at our performance, just disappointed that we're still so far away from being a world power. The next generation (Adu, Edu, Altidore) can't become regulars on European teams fast enough.
PS: David Beckham is still an amazing player and one of my favorites in the world. He was dropped from Real Madrid. He was dropped from England. How did he react? He put his head down, worked hard and earned his spot back. And no one takes a better free kick or is more dangerous from 35 yards in than him. I might even buy one of his Galaxy jerseys. Except I hate the Galaxy.