Let me preface this criticism by saying a played soccer until my second year in college when I broke my ankle. So I do have more than just a passing knowledge of the sport. I had the great pleasure of watching the Man U vs. Chelsea Champions League Final a few days back. It was some of the best soccer that I had seen in awhile. I hated to see it end the way it did and my heart went out to Terry but that is a discussion for another day. After viewing this game, I greatly anticipated the USA vs. England friendly on the 28th (yesterday). I consider the USA team to be one of the best if not the best team we have fielded. Donovan is one of the best strikers around and the best we have ever had. Team him up with Dempsey and you have got, in my opinion, the best one, two punch of any team. Beasley is back after an injury to offer strong support in the midfield. And our goalie Tim Howard anchors our solid defense. With all this in mind, I thought we would give England a run for their money. I didn't think we would win but I thought it would be close. Well, it wasn't close.

To start off with Donovan didn't make the trip due to injury. Eddie Johnson replaced him. I know Eddie plays well for his club team but he does nothing when he plays for the National team especially against quality opponents. Coach teamed him up with Josh Wolfe and moved Dempsey back to midfield. Sorry, but Dempsey is a much better forward than Wolfe and Dempsey is better at forward than at midfield. Given this lineup I knew we would have trouble holding on to the ball or doing anything up front and we were going to have trouble winning balls in the midfield. Sure enough that is exactly what happened along with some stupid mental errors. The midfield couldn't string more than two passes together, Johnson and Wolfe did absolutely nothing, the defense made dumb fouls and the marking on England's set pieces was awful. One foul caught up to them when Beckham took the kick and Terry place a beautiful header past Howard. When the midfield lost yet another ball around the half way line, England worked the ball with little effort to Gerrard who ran easily past the defense for an almost too easy score. The score stayed 2-0 but USA never even really had a scoring opportunity. I think the English keeper maybe made two saves all game and one of those was from Adu who struck one from about 25 yards out. All in all it was a dismal performance with the only minor, sliver of sunshine was that Frankie Adu did get some playing time. Other than that we did not belong on the same pitch with England.

It is no longer good enough that USA makes the World Cup - that should be expected. Nor is it good enough that they can play and beat the second tier teams (Mexico, Columbia, Netherlands, etc.) They need and should be able to complete with the top tier teams (England, France, Italy, Brazil, etc.) Soon they play another friendly with Spain who I consider one of these second tier teams. We'll see if this team can reach its potential. They should beat Spain but we'll see. If the team plays like they did against England, they will get beat. Why is this important? World Cup qualifying starts in June and USA needs to be on top of their game from the get go. Just like in any playoffs, you don't want to go in limping. USA needs to play better

Visit my homepage here