Si se puede?

As I was watching the debacle unfold (Costa Rica up 1-0 within 2 minutes and 2-0 before the quarter hour), a couple of things occurred to me: 1. Is it possible that playing in the English Premier League has made Dempsey both a better and worse U. S. National team player. The better is easy to see – his composure on the ball, his ability to make clever passes and his ability to hold the ball and not lose it. The worse is those very same clever passes. On more then one occasions Dempsey would make a quick pass to a space that on his Fulham team a forward would be headed to. However on the U.S. team (at least on this night) no one was making those runs to the spaces he put the ball. I counted at least five occasions where this happened in the first half and then gave up. 2. Torres has great composure when dribbling, makes nice passes and nice attacking runs. He has no right foot. I don’t think he touched the ball more then twice with his right foot. I am not clear how he does it but he manages to dribble in either direction with only one foot. I still don’t understand why Bradley took him off at the beginning of the second half. Why not take Mastreoni off? 3. Mastreoni may have gotten old overnight. He looked terrible in this game. He was slow, out of position, and was partially responsible for each of the first 2 goals. 4. John Harkes is beginning to grow on me as an announcer. After replays of the third goal showed Bradley getting beaten, Harkes made the very valid point that Bradley had already chased the ball down three other times leading up to that play to force passes. Where were the other midfielders? Where were the defenders? 5. This is the second time in a row that the U.S. has looked flat and/or uprepared for an away game. They were able to come back and tie against El Salvador but they never appeared in the game against Costa Rica. Part of me wants to blame Bradley, but part of this has to fall on the players. How can they come out flat for a game of this magnitude? You are playing for your country – if you can’t get up for that why are you playing for the National team? 6. It is becoming ever clearer that Landon disappears in tough games away from the U.S. This makes him a liability in those game, because no coach is going to leave him on the bench, but when he disappears for those long stretches its as if the U.S. is playing a man down. I have said this before but for a guy who claims to want a leadership role on this team, he does not act or play like it in critical game.

So now the U.S. has a couple of days to prepare for another tough qualifier. At least this one will be on home soil and on grass, but the U.S. will be without Bradley which is fairly critical given that Edu is out with an injury and Mastreoni is apparently done. They are also without Kljestan which hurts but not as much. So the U.S. now has questions in the midfield to go with the ongoing questions at right back, left back and forward. I pronounce myself officially concerned that the U.S. could conceivably miss out on qualifying for the World Cup. I don’t think it will come to that but if I’m Bob Bradley, I have to think that if I don’t beat Honduras, I am out of a job…