USA 1 T&T 0: Player Comments

Last night the United States Men's soccer team went down to Port of Spain, Trinidad and did exactly what it had to do (and nothing more) in order to earn 3 points on the road. And before everyone starts belly-aching about how pitiful a performance this was (actually, everyone including myself has already started doing this all over the internet), let's try to remember that this was a road game in the final round of World Cup qualifying. These games are never easy, especially for the big bad United States. Every small country in the Caribbean is gunning for us, and an upset over the USA would be on the order of independence from Spain in terms of historical significance for the fans.

That said, last night the Men's National Team played poorly on the whole, and a couple of individual highlights weren't enough to prevent the sour taste with which we all went to bed (in addition to a strong sense of relief at having gained 3 points). Rather than the usual numbers rating system, here's a sentence for each of the players:

• Jozy Altidore: Don't force it, not every ball needs to be played into the box.



• Charlie Davies: You're great at knowing when to shoot, you need to learn when to pass.



• Clint Dempsey: Tell Bob Bradley directly that you don't want to be a midfielder, he's obviously not picking up on the passive aggressive approach.



• Ricardo Clark: Great shot, but you should take more of them; the rest of your game is pretty forgetable.



• Michael Bradley: You're probably only playing because your dad is the coach, but if you establish yourself as a defensive central midfielder you should have a future with the team even when your old man gets canned.



• Landon Donovan: I can't remember the last time you played and didn't either score or assist on a goal.



• Jonathan Bornstein: A big improvement over your game against El Salvador, but I'm hoping you'll be backing up Edgar Castillo from here on out.



• Oguchi Onyewu: Looking a little rusty, but I hate to think how this game would have gone without you on the back line.



• Carlos Bocanegra: You don't always need to kick the ball as far as you can.



• Jonathan Specter: Still not quite there, but are the future at right back.



• Benny Feilhaber: You're a decent player, but you're a very poor man's Jose Francisco Torres.



• Brian Ching: You are exactly the striker we need when the team is playing like crap: someone who is willing to throw their body around and chase down errant long balls.



• Stuart Holden: If the free market worked, you would have Clint Dempsey's job by now.