US Dominate in Poland: Polska 0-3 US

I won't say that our offense was fantastic (it was much the opposite, in fact) but our defense was solid when it needed to be and our midfield got the job done. We played our brand of football throughout, which is to say that we played some good ol' soccer: bruising d-mids destroying attacks before they happen, (over)utilization of the wings, and capitalization of dead-ball opportunities. A very dull match with sparse opportunities rarely produced by the run of play. Typical stuff, yeah?

Not quite. We managed to dominate the run of play against a Euro 2008 competitor at their home stadium, in front of their home fans. Today's performance was very much rebuttal for the performance vs. Sweden in Sweden and possibly Ghana in Germany. This is a very positive result for the progressive Bradley campaign.

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So how did everyone do?

Michael Bradley did fine. We saw very little of his attacking prowess this match as he was utilized alongside Clark as the d-mid tandem, but we did get a good look at why nepotism has nothing to do with his frequent MNT call-ups. He consistently performs his midfield duties well: stemming the opposition and diffusing pressure to the wings. He completed nearly all of his passes and hardly put a foot out of line. I think the next step will be to integrate him into the offense. I'd like to see Coach Bob experiment with an offensive trio of Bradley (CAM) - Donovan (FW) - Johnson (FW), at least until Adu gets another call-up.

Ricardo Clark was also fine. After Mexico there were doubts about how well he and Bradley could perform together, but tonight these doubts were dispelled.

Howard was also at the top of his game.

Carlos Bocanegra was the consummate center half, as was Oguchi Onyewu. Ives has been touting the pair as the best in the MNT pool and after tonight I can hardly disagree. Each tallying a goal on the day from set pieces, the twain also proved that they still bring a lot to the dead-ball table.

Lewis still has a motor and a wicked lefty. He is an attractive overage option for the U-23's this summer, in my opinion.

Steve Cherundolo's crosses provided our most dangerous opportunities off the run of play, though I did think he tended to get over-committed with his offensive forays.

Donovan did admirably, for playing on the left wing. He created Gooch and Bocanegra's goals with lethal dead-ball service and should have added a goal of his own. Thing is, while Donovan is the most versatile attacking option in the MNT pool, he's also the most potent, and I don't think he will produce his best out left. In the hole or up top would be ideal, but even a move to the right wing would be an improvement.

Other than that, Dempsey was off-form, Pearce was hot and cold (though Ives thought he was great), and the forwards were non-existent. But how is this unusual?

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Next stop: London. The Fulham boys will be back in full effect for that one, I think.

"If You Can't Finish, You Can't Win:" US 1 - 3 Paraguay

A quote for the ages.

I'll have a full match summary up tonight, once I get ahold of my notes.

Gringos Lose, Fulfill Everyone's Expectations: ARG 4-1 US

Anyone shocked? No? Good.

EJ converted the penalty early on and I was thinking that if US could even salvage a draw, everyone would be surprised. But then I also thought that Argentina would bring the heat, and they did. So, to recap:

Things got interesting for a time. Argentina scored thirty seconds later. Then everything went back to normal.

For some real analysis, Ives' running commentaries are good reading even as post-game leftovers. Otherwise, here's the hard stuff.

I was waiting for Davies or Nguyen to get out there and give me something to enjoy, but "Horse shit!" said Bob Bradley and gallantly out went Gaven and Beckerman. Thanks, Bob. I'm thrilled.

Feilhaber was the only gringo who remotely stood out (surprised?) and Wynne and Bornstein looked completely out of their league. Everyone, Feilhaber included, looked entirely too slow: receive the ball, look up, think, touch, look up, think, touch. There need to be quicker decisions, or, even better, some good reflexes based on group dynamic. The train of thought, "If I receive the ball here, then I know EJ will be making his run, so I pass there," needs to be reduced to, "I pass there." And EJ needs to run.

Along the same idea, our flow stuttered throughout the match. It's like everybody was looking for everybody else but no one found anyone. Wtf? Let's work on that a bit.

Other notes:

- Nice hairdo, Crespo. I can't recognize you though.

- I'd say that Crespo, Messi, and Tevez terrorized our back line but that was painfully obvious, and I'd hate to leave the other dozen Argentine players from the list of people who completely outclassed the United States tonight.

- Argentina has flawless transition from defense to offense. Their ability to play as a team is consistently awesome.

- Is anyone tired if the U.S. scoring on penalties? Actually, during the DCU game ESPN conducted a phone interview with Landon Donovan and apparently he's pretty sick of them, too. I'd think that he would want to break Wynalda's record in style, so I'd think Beasley will be the next one to step up to the penalty spot, should the opporutnity arise. Won't happen during the Copa, though.

- Off topic: I already miss the Univision lead commentator and the liberties he takes with players' names. Namely I'm thinking back to yesterday when he made Vagner Love sound like an adult film star. XD

I'm wicked tired. Sweet dreams por todos. G'night.

Vamos Los Gringos!!

DCenters posted something about something Off Wing Opinion posted and now I'm posting something about it.

I've decided: the Yanks, the US MNT, the Red-White-and-Blue, will officially be referred to by me as "Los Gringos." This has made sense to me for a long time and I'm glad other people see the merit, too.

I'll be watching Los Gringos play Argentina tonight, after the DCU game. (Just making sure the name sticks, and it does, so...)

Enjoy.