I'm sure that many of you had watched yesterday's friendly versus Holland, and if you are a US supporter, you had to come away encouraged by how they clawed back in the final 15 minutes.
Playing away to one of the best footballing nations in the world is not an easy task, and I think we learned quite a bit about the Bob Bradley's team heading into the selection of the 23-man roster:
* We all knew that this match would be a challenge going into it - playing one of the top footballing nations in the world, and on the road. They came out and put a lot of pressure on the US on both sides of the ball, and do all the things you want for a top-level team: they don't give the ball away much, and when they do, it is rarely in bad spots on the field; also, they have the ability to win the ball back very quickly, which makes them a very dangerous team in transition.
* I think Sneijder was outstanding all over the field, proving why he is one of the best midfielders in the world. His individual effort to get into the box - taking three US defenders out of the play with his 1st touch - resulted in the poor decision by Bornstein to pull him down for the PK. The reality is that there really could have been a second PK called with the hand ball on Bornstein, so it would be hard to say that the PK call wasn't deserving.
* We had a lot of problems grabbing a hold of the ball - whether that was due to Holland's pressure, the lack of depth in true international quality in key roles in our team, or a combination of both.
* I would have liked to see Maurice Edu play a full 90 minutes, especially now that he is healthy.
* Robby Findley is not Charlie Davies, and where I can appreciate the idea of trying to find other options to replace Davies' pace, I think it is looking more and more like either Jozy and Dempsey up front in their traditional 4-4-2, or playing with Jozy as a lone striker and playing some form of 4-5-1 configuration to jam the central midfield.
* I like the idea of playing with a more congested central midfield against the likes of Holland, or against England this summer - our best chances are on the break, and that would allow us to keep both Donovan and Dempsey wide - where they have both thrived in the US team this past summer. Having 3 central midfielders would also give Michael Bradley some added cover - he is our best central playmaker, and when we play against the likes of Spain, England or Holland with only 2 central players, he tends to get caught chasing quite a bit - taking away from what he does when we actually have the ball. There were definitely times where we were able to block out the midfield third in the current alignment, and having done so against Spain last summer, would lead you to think that it is probably less the actual alignment and more about who accompanies Bradley in there.
* A lot will be made about how poor both Bornstein and Spector did on the flanks, but at full strength with Bocanegra at left back, a healthy Gooch next to DeMerit (who played well) and Spector or Cherundolo on the right, I think we have a pretty reliable back 4 - that group did the job against Spain this past summer, and against Italy until we went down a man.
* We did put them under a lot of pressure in the final 15 minutes - Jozy was unbelievable, and thought that Bedoya did a great job of combining off the 1-2 to get the free kick at the top of the box. Maurice Edu did a great job of playing a good penetrating ball down the right flank to Spector late in the game, that the usually reliable crosser flubbed.
* I don't think that losing 2-1 to Holland away, knowing that one goal was a PK and one was a deflection, is anything to be mocked about. I thought there was a lot to draw from the match going forward into selecting our 23-man roster for South Africa.
* Hopefully Holden's injury is not serious (initial report was that it was a contusion on his shin) - we do not have a lot of depth in wide attacking roles, and could not afford to lose him now. On the flip side, Beasley did play with a lot of urgency when he came on - knowing that there is a real lack of depth on the left flank, it would be hard to think that he wouldn't make the roster at this stage.
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