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The U.S. took it on the chin in Germany today. Even though it was 0-0 at halftime, we lost all composure midway through the second half. Perhaps Coach Juergen (I see it spelled Jurgen all the time as well so I have no idea!) did his best Bobby Knight halftime speech impression. Sure we were down several starters, but I haven't felt this embarrassed in a long time. Forgot how it felt...be back later to try to find a sliver lining in this dark cloud...

...well, I watched the TiVo and here's the good. Cory Gibbs. Pablo. Cherundolo. CONVEY.
There's four guys who I wouldn't mind seeing in the starting 11 against the Czechs. Cory is tough as nails. Convey is so much more polished it's almost a joke. 'Dolo is as steady as ever and Pablo is getting better with age. He really showed some ball skills as well as his usual tenacious defense. Hey, we played pretty well for the first half. We were a bit lucky that Germany didn't strike, but acquitted ourselves with a half-staffed team. Then in the second half, Keller guessed wrong on a free kick and Conrad hesitated and Berhalter made a dumb pass and it wasn't pretty. The Germans definitely put pressure on us all game long. So their result was well earned when we flinched. And we got stoned once again by the human wall and only were gifted a goal late in the game. But even that goal was earned, in my mind at least, as 'Dolo put EJ 1v1 vs Oliver and the legend finally made a mistake.

Except for the four goals, I thought we did alright. That's a lousy statement to make, it harkens back to the early 90's, but during that time we couldn't say five starters were missing and we didn't have much to play for compared to the opponent.

The Germans are a joy to watch on set pieces. Gooch will fit in nicely to begin to plug that hole if we ever face these guys this summer. But I wouldn't fear them like I would have four or eight years ago. They're a nice team, but they're not going to win the Cup. Oliver Kahn or no Oliver Kahn. George and Fritz, take it away... (Bostrom)

It was a tale of two halves for me. I felt pretty good coming out of the first half. We had given them some chances, but also got some on our own and had basically weathered the storm. Even after we had given up the first goal, I still felt OK because we had recovered and still were able to generate a great chance with EJ’s header. It’s just that goals 2-4 came so quickly that I was actually worried about getting beat by six or seven.

Even though it was a fluky goal, I was still happy to put one past Kahn since he’s been such a nemesis of ours through the years. It seems like he saves his best games for us since I’ve seen him give up so many howlers for Germany and Bayern Munich over the same time period. That game was real important to him as he was able to drive a stake in Jens Lehman’s shot at the #1 GK job and since they hate each other so much, it had to be very sweet. BTW, he has to be the ugliest person on earth, he looks like a half-man, half-beast.

Some other thoughts:

GK: What can you say about Keller? He’s so solid, but I would have liked to see Hanneman get some PT in the 2nd half to learn more about him. We know that Keller is the man, let’s find out about the other guys. Unless Hanneman can get released for the Jamaica friendly, we’ll never really know.

Defense: I though Gibbs played very well. He really is a very good on-the-ball defender and a great tackler. He really picks his spots on when he uses his whole body on a tackle which is really effective as it doesn’t allow attackers to draw cheap fouls on him. Cherundolo had his usual solid game.

I thought that Berhalter has really hurt his chances over the last two games. He has looked slow and unable to organize the back four. Since he will probably not play in the Jamaica friendly, that was the last impression that Arena will have of him and that can’t be good.

Conrad had some shaky moments, but I also thought he had some good ones as well. Given that he hasn’t played in that kind of atmosphere that often, I thought he played good enough to pass Berhalter on the depth chart. He got into the attack and drew a dangerous free kick in the 2nd half which showed some savvy.

Midfield: When you haven’t seen a player in a while, you sometimes forget what they bring to the table. That’s the way that I felt with Mastroeni. He is an absolute terror in the middle with his tackling and high work rate. I would feel very comfortable with him going after someone like Pavel Nedved.

Another guy is Convey. He’s playing with such confidence that I think DMB should be a bit concerned about his spot. Don’t get me wrong, DMB is still a better defender, but attacking-wise, Convey is far superior.

It’s a shame that Wolff got hurt because I really wanted to see how that formation was going to work. Good call by Arena for at least trying something different besides a 4-4-2. I would have liked to see Wolff not try to deflect Gibbs’ shot in the first half, but I can’t fault him for that. It was a good idea, he just didn’t execute on it.

KZ played better than the Poland match, but still needs to show a little more of a mean streak when patrolling the middle. Guys get nervous around Mastro because he flies around, KZ needs to get a little bit of that mindset.

When you watch a guy like Klein in this type of game, you can see that he’s just lacking that last bit of quality to be a good player. He has good touches and made some nice runs, he just can’t get off a cross from the wing while under pressure. That’s a big difference from playing in MLS vs. Europe, you need to be able to do those things.

Forwards: I was disappointed to not see Ching given a chance to go the whole 90. I really think he proved his worth as a back-up target man for McBride. His ability to hold the ball up and distribute was huge. He got totally hosed on that call late in the 1st half, that defender was all over him in the box and he was able to shed him legally. If anything, that should have been a PK, not a foul on Ching. He also had a good chance in the 1st half from about 20 yds and even though he hit it at Kahn, at least he put it on frame. I think he still merits another look.

Twellman didn’t really do too much in his limited time. You can really see how limited he is when you step up to this level. He’s just too small to be a target man and not quick enough with one-on-one moves to beat a defender.

EJ played OK, but he really needs to improve his first touch. It’s just too hard and defenders are able to poke it away since he can’t protect it with his body. If he could keep his first touch closer to his body and then use his speed to break away from the defender, watch out.

Announcers: I thought Glenn Davis was a massive improvement over Dave O’Brien. He actually had things to say, didn’t repeat mundane facts and tried to solicit opinions from Balboa. Unfortunately, the only thing that Balboa can say is “knock the ball around” so he brings nothing to the table. I couldn’t understand why Balboa had wrap-around sunglasses on the top of his head at halftime. Does he think he’s Ali G or was he doing an impersonation of Edgar Davids? Very strange.

Overall: It’s disappointing to be on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline, but I’m going to try to be positive about it. We were missing most of our best players and, aside from a 15 min spell midway through the 2nd half, we played their first team straight up. Perhaps this will work to our advantage as some of the other teams in our group may overlook us a bit. (George)

I was pretty excited and proud throught the first half, but the second left me feeling sick and achy all over - a bit what I imagine the bird flu will be like. I'm so disgusted I've only got a few things to say.

One, it was good to see Keller express himself in the media after the game. For those that missed it, he has been very vocal with his criticism of some of the field players. Most of his comments were along the lines of "you're not in CONCACAF anymore, Toto".

Two, we should have lost 4-0. I contend that the goal we scored was a result of Eddie Johnson not yet being a complete striker. After replaying the goal a few hundred times, I am confident that a word class striker would have played the ball off the long pass from Cherundolo as opposed to letting it bounce and trusting that it would elude the goalkeeper. Maybe it would have been a pooch, a lob, a simple deflection, but a Ruud Van or a Henry T would have somehow made contact with the pass and attempteed to deflect it around the onrushing Kahn. Granted, Kahn's proximity made the collision inevitable, so the result of any "move" by Johnson would have simply diverted the ball from the path towards the goal Mr. Cherundolo set it on (although I have read some describe it as a shot, I maintain Stevie C. was simply passing the ball up and the vector to the goalmouth was a happy coincidence). So while we were lucky to have scored, it unfortunately has me worried that Eddie is still more of an athlete than a goal scorer. (fritz)