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Some USMNT chat for a Friday afternoon:

(Bostrom)
Here’s a posting from today's Bigsoccer.com that I liked:

Poor Preparation & Poor Leadership, the Horror !
Mar 24, 2006 - 4:19 PM - by futbear
After the embarrassing performance against Germany, my focus turned from the players and the game to Bruce and the USSF. Keller mentioned we now know who can play at this level and who cannot; yet Bruce is saying something about he should never have scheduled the game with this squad.
What the "H.." is he talking about ? He is evaluating the players and is responsible for their selection and preparation. What we only have 2 games in Europe for preparation. All the rest are at home and against teams that did not even qualifying. Why did not Bruce and the USSF schedule a couple of more games against qualified teams or strong sides that just missed, especially some in Europe ? I think this game was great to separate the ready and those not ready. As the US keeps playing pretender squads, that will not even bring their best players, what does that do ?

Like Keller said, the US Team is busy reading its own press clips about its ranking instead of knowing what it takes to play at this level. I hope the US will get real now. He also mentioned not being ready for the second half. Where was a teammate saying what was going to happen in the second half if they were not ready, or better yet Bruce himself ?
I have a feeling the US effort will be reminiscent of the WC '98. Every time we play real teams in Europe, they prove themselves to be a joke.
We learned that our depth along the backline is not there and outside of Landon there is no depth at the playmaker spot. I hope Bobby Convey can remember how he used to do that just in case Donovan is not there. Does the US have any forwards that can beat their mark ? The US is hoping Eddie Johnson will reclaim his form because of what he could bring to the table but he looks slow relative to last year, his touch is atrocious , and he currently cannot beat anyone with the ball at this feet. If Johnson does not regain his form and speed, the US will have no speed up top to pressure defenses. It will just be LD and Damarcus. I hope Bruce does not go with that stupid 2 target men up top strategy again. Now Bruce has fallen back to attacking the MLS ? His taking responsibility is saying the game should not have been played and he should not have taken this team ? Sounds like excuses to me !

Bruce and the USSF seem to only want to play more nobodies. That is good for some practice but you need a few competitive games. Playing inferior competition can leave you deluded, as we just saw. Well, in reality though, I guess it is hard for teams from the Americas to win in Europe.
Even the great Brazil has only won the Cup once in Europe and that was in Sweden, but they look good everywhere, not just at home. Even though it was the "B" squad, the game and then Bruce's comments left me wondering who is steering this ship and to where.

By the way, why is everyone ragging on Gibbs? For his first game I thought he was solid.

(Fritz)
Good points but I think English is his second language

(George)
Why? The writer wasn't particularly insightful (although I agree with him in some areas). For the most part, he is overreacting to the 4-1 result as well as a couple of quotes from Keller and Arena. I haven't watched Arena's press conference so I can't judge his overall mood, but it probably wasn't good. However, he's smart enough to know that a result like this is gold in helping motivate your squad.

The bottom line is that Germany needed a good result and played like it while the US showed our B team status in our breakdowns...nothing more, nothing less. This result did nothing to affect our chances of advancing to the 2nd round of the WC.

(Bostrom)
I felt Arena threw the team and MLS under the bus a bit. I didn't think that was necessarily the time to do that. After all, MLS has done wonders for our guys to showcase themselves before the big move abroad and bring us depth, even if that depth isn't ready to beat European sides. And after a few days, I think that the game was very helpful in that it sorted out some of the pretenders so there's no way I would say that I wouldn't have scheduled it. I'm sure Arena would agree to these things too but he is very blunt, and that isn't always the best thing when the chips are down.

I remember Arena's own comments before the game about how he would have trouble convincing the team that this was the most important game of the year. What he was really saying is that we'll go out there, do our best and then fly home. Nonsense. There's always the risk of embarrassing ourselves. The game was more important for that reason alone. And it would show if we have the depth it takes to win a World Cup. Clearly, we do not. Not being in the locker room, I think he could have likely motivated our guys more. Especially after we were somewhat lucky to go 0-0 at half. I distinctly remember them flying at us after we tapped off for the 2nd half and forcing us into an error that lead directly to their first goal. That's one time where Balboa could have said we were just knocking the ball around. We can't afford to do that in national team games. Never.

I'm also now very doubtful that EJ will be especially helpful to us.
He'll play and contribute but to what extent? I'm not going off the deep end due to one fairly meaningless loss, but he's going to need a good two months to get to where most of us hope he will be. And hopefully he'll be one of the candidates that Reading is looking at...

I don't want to overreact to the loss. But I do think it shows some leadership cracks in Arena. Nothing major, but needs to be pointed out.

(Fritz)
Reading will sign a forward that can score in Europe and EJ's ego will regard Reading as too small

(George)
Arena, like many successful people, has a pretty substantial ego and he also has a lot of pressure on him right now. So, a result like that had to be embarassing to him and he lashed out at the players as well as MLS. You see it happen all the time, "I didn't fail, the players did".
Now, what he did was not right, but it's an understandable reaction from someone with his type of personalty.

I don't remember who said it, but we gave up a ton of free kicks outside the box and that always comes back to haunt you. Arena may have even warned them about that at halftime and then what do we do right off the bat? He may have been harping on the guys all week about this so his frustration is understandable.

I think our best XI does not include EJ. I would put LD in a forward role, but not as advanced as McBride (I read somewhere that he may have a sports hernia!). If Reyna is not fit, I might play a 4-2-3-1 with a 5 man midfield with McBride by himself up front, the three flyers right behind him and 2 holding mids.

Perhaps like this:

McBride
Convey LD DMB
KZ/JOB Mastro
Lewis Gibbs/Boca Oneywu Cherundolo

Would be a great formation to defend and counter attack teams with.

The criticism that we don't have forwards who can beat anyone is pretty weak. Who does at an international level? The stakes are so high that you aren't going to get many match-ups where you can beat someone from a standstill position. Everything happens on a set piece or in a counter where you have space.

(Bostrom)
It's not fair to equate Bruce with #1 Under-The-Bus-Thrower-Of-The-Year Larry Brown, but I just hope he doesn't make a habit of this...

Good pt about the free kicks. He certainly remembers the '02 WC and had to have been harping on the team.

I also read about McBride's newest injury. I'm trying not to panic...telling myself that every other country is facing the same fears now!

I agree that it looks more and more like LD might have to move up top, or close to it. So, the question is: should LD play there in the next friendlies or should he keep trying to find another combo that works. I vote for the former.

Your line-up is very tempting. And EJ as a 2nd half sub looks pretty good...at least as good as Josh Wolff coming into the attack late in the game. I have to think a bit more about the need to beat defenders 1v1 but there's no doubt those opportunities don't come around much in WC games. Perhaps the need is most critical to have someone who can draw a foul close to the box as if you do beat a defender, he'll likely still be able to take you down.

(George)
Yes, LB has actually gotten worse through the years, he's almost unbearable. In his defense, he does have Isiah making stupid trades which create more problems for him...that can't be a good place to be.

Here’s an interesting take from the Czech Republic’s boss, Karel Bruckner on the U.S. recent performace vs. Germany (from an AP article):

"The team's performance, mainly in the second half, was affected by the absence of eight regular players," Bruckner said. "It was evident most in the defense. But they will learn from their mistakes."

Bruckner said, while the U.S. players may have been tired after traveling to Europe, they would be in better shape at the World Cup.
"They're athletes, very well physically prepared players," Bruckner said. "Besides that, their technique and tactical skills are matured."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Karel.