Interesting game today. Nice to see some of the European based guys again. Hopefully winning in Europe will get that monkey off the team’s back. Poland had a strong side and provided a better test than Guatemala et al. In case you didn’t see it on TV, the last quarter of the game was played in what was basically a blizzard.
The team looked shaky in the first half. After several strong performances it was unusual to see, but may have to do with the shorter camp time, as compared to the amount of time the January guys got to spend working together. That’s not to say the we were being owned by the Poles, but there was a lot of back and forth in the midfield, not much flow.
The second half started off with a different feel, with the team holding possession a little bit better. The US finally broke through with a nice cross from who else but Eddie Lewis. Twellman did well to throw his body in there, preventing Boruc from a clean catch/punch, thereby leaving Dempsey open for the easy header. The Poles tried to pick up an equalizer, but didn’t press the attack hard.
I was surprised to see McBride on the bench but apparently he picked up a minor groin strain during practice and was being rested. Johnson didn’t impress me that much, and Twellman was quiet as well (not so much in the second half). Certainly, the service from the midfield wasn’t there. Poland did a good job of shutting down our attack before the midfield could really transition and move into an attacking posture. Beasley was, well, Beasley, but again didn’t get enough penetration into the attacking half to worry the Polish defense. Zavagnin didn’t do much to help settle things down, which became clear after Mastroeni came in for him. The impression that I’m left with is that of Zavagnin chasing after the ball quite a bit, where as Mastroeni seem to be collecting and distributing better. As for the defense there was nothing remarkable. Onyewu continued to effectively manhandle opposition forwards, and both Lewis and Cherundolo did a good job of jumping forward when possible. Kasey Keller reminds you why he is the number one man with excellent timing in coming off his line twice.
This may sound strange, but I think it would be nice to lose once of these warm up friendlies. Preferably in an embarrassing fashion. I had been thinking about this before I saw this article, but it reinforces my feeling that we might need a helping of humble pie before we take to the pitch against the Czechs. These few months are supposed to be about improving the team, not feeling good about ourselves. I think it would be wonderful if in 20 days from now Germany exposed and exploited every weakness we have. I have enough faith in Bruce Arena that come June 12, those weakness won’t be there anymore.
UPDATE: I really like this analysis piece over at MatchNight. Mentions a couple of points that I was thinking about, but either forgot to say or did not word as nicely. One particular thing I did want to point out was using Donovan as attacking mid, and Reyna or O’Brien behind him in a diamond midfield. I too favor this formation.