Richard Nixon described the United States as a “Pitiful, helpless giant” as a result of the Vietnam War. After Oguchi Onyewu’s performance in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, he deserves the moniker too. So also, do tournament favorites Mexico and the United States… never have I seen so incredibly over-talented teams compared to their competition play so poorly night in and night out.
Onyewu was robbed of an assist on the tying goal in injury time last night… and a good thing too, since it was a header he sent directly to a Canadien attacker that was quite incorrectly ruled offside. The US has the deepest talent pool in its history, has more players with more high-level experience than ever before… and we continue to roll out chances for people that US Soccer is convinced are good in the face of repeated failure to get the job done. It’s almost as if the Baltimore Orioles Management ran the program, with Eddie Johnson as Jerry Hairston, Pablo Mastroeni as Jay Gibbons, and Jonathan Bornstein as Larry Bigbie.
Yes, Michael Bradley got sent off on a ridiculously stupid challenge… but Michael Bradley is young, and Michael Bradley, even as young player, is only one of two American central midfielders who can distribute the ball. The other one being Benny Feilhaber, who instantly made the US offense more dynamic as soon as he walked onto the pitch… which he did way too late.
The bottom line is that the US needs someone to manage the club from overseas. The defense of Bradley is always that “he knows the player pool,” but I think that people in the US know the player pool a little too well. They aren’t looking at what they have, because they have a very evolved idea of what they think they have… and the two do not line up. How can Eddie Johnson score 6 goals in two games against MLS clubs, both more talented than anyone the US has played in Gold Cup so far, and look so utterly helpless out there in this tournament? Why does Kasey Keller look senile on the pitch suddenly? This team is, as of right now, less than the sum of their parts, which is discouraging because we aren’t using the best parts either. Here’s my player ratings for the match tonight: (5=bad;6=average;7=good;8=very good;9=Exceptional;10=Miroslav Klose vs. Saudi Arabia in 2002)
Keller: 5 – what was he doing back there? Kasey had a very poor match, and no command of the area.
Bocanegra: 5 – gave up too much space on Humes goal… commited atrocious first half foul that he probably should have benn dismissed for.
Onyewu 5 – he was strong in moments, but he makes the big mistake that always hurts you… like passing a ball to the other team inside the 18 with an open net to shoot at… this is a little too much of a liability in my view.
Bornstein 4 – Utterly useless.
Hejduk 6 – scored the goal, but still gives up too many dangerous free kicks from spots on the field that are ONLY dangerous if you give up free kicks.
M Bradley 5 – had an okay game, until the utterly idiotic foul he rightfully was sent off for.
Mastroeni 5 – not an international footballer. he’s just not. I’m sorry to the people who like him, he’s a time bomb on the field when it comes to bad fouls and he is totally useless going forward. Not enough at the level the US is supposed to be playing at.
Dempsey 6 – he was fine. nothing special though.
Donovan 6 – ditto
Beasley 6 – ditto
Johnson 4 – utterly useless
SUBS:
Feilhaber 6 – made a nice impact
Twellman 6- one a couple of balls in limited minutes
Clark 6 – pretty much a non-entity in limited time.
