Robbie Findley struggled yesterday in Holland. (Getty Images)

Do we chalk this loss yesterday to Holland as a bad thing. Uh, yes and no. Yes because its a loss and one that showed us exactly where we stand. No because it did help US manager Bob Bradley out in figuring out who exactly he needs to take with him to South Africa.

I felt like going into the classic good, bad and ugly theme for this recap. I gave it a day to mull things over and see where I think things stand. We did see some good, things we can take from the game and move forward with a positive attitude about. But on the flip side there were some negatives in this one and then some down right ugly items I hate even bringing up today. Continue Reading…

Bob Bradley has some tough choices to make for tomorrow's friendly against Holland (Getty Images)

Honestly I need to amp up my USMNT cover on here. I’ll admit I don’t get to see every game like I would like and I honestly nearly forgot the El Salvador game last week. In fact I didn’t even get to watch all of it but what I did see what the final 20 minutes or so which were fun to view since it was a nice comeback for the US.

What we know is this Holland game tomorrow is a biggie. Its in Holland and the Dutch are easily one of the best squads in the World right now. But this is more than a high profile friendly for Bob Bradley it is a chance to really finish filling out his roster for June at the World Cup in South Africa.

A good chunk of the roster is probably set but for those bubble players this is a big test. The two friendlies so far this year were definitely for the MLS talent to show their stuff and while they did a decent job only a couple of that B or C bunch will make an sort of dent in this roster come June.

Bradley has a couple areas to hammer out before June. The nearly all his defense needs to be figured out, his defensive midfield spot, and a striker. Continue Reading…

If (and possibly when) Charlie Davies goes to South Africa this summer as a member of the US Men’s National team it will be the story of the tournament. Hands down, no debating it.

After watching this and hearing Davies speak about his road to recovery one has to just hope he’ll be able to get ready. I’ll go into what it means for the US another time on here. For now enjoy this interview with Davies that was recently done with his club team in France.

World Cup tune up matches are always important. Some including myself said the US Men’s National team took things a bit too lightly before the 2006 World Cup when they played matches against Venezuela, Morocco, and Latvia. It looks like this time around the tune ups could be a lot harder…or better depending on how you look at it.

Steve Goff is reporting this afternoon that the US is set to finalize their World Cup tune ups on home soil against some strong competition. The first match is likely set for being at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., against the Czech Republic. Goff goes on to say that after a game in Hartford the US will likely head to Philadelphia to play either Turkey or Ireland at Lincoln Financial Field.

Even though nothing is set in stone the possibility of these matches already blow 2006 out of the water. Let’s not the US will also be playing in Holland soon too. Playing strong competition to tune up things before the World Cup is a smart way to go in my books. Already the thought of facing the Czechs who saw Slovenia in qualifying makes sense.

It will be interesting to see where the third location is and who the third opponent will be for the US. Hopefully the US is lined up with some African country for a tune up match. We’ll see.

Update: The game in Philly will be against Turkey on May 29.

The ESPN family of networks are set to provide a large amount of coverage have released the full TV schedule for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

All 64 matches will be aired live and in high definition on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, and extensive coverage on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. Continue Reading…

The World Cup draw shocked some folks with the US's group. (Getty Images)

As the dust has started to settle the last two weeks, the build up will get ever more intense between now and June when the world’s biggest sporting event kicks off in Soccer City, Johannesburg. While much analyzing of all the groups and match-ups will take place to the point where it may drive all of us insane the next few months and much will change between now and then, we can all at least give our first reactions to the draw itself.

There’s only one group to start with of course, and that is group C that consists of England, USA, Slovenia and Algeria.

So where do we begin with this group? Certainly England look at it as a very kind draw with the usual English media hype already starting to think they’ll win the tournament but this is a regular occurrence with every tournament they enter. I can say with absolute certainty that the average English football fan, not all, but the majority of them don’t watch any other football outside of the British Isles or the Premiership for that matter and yet still have the delusional idea that they know everything about football and since the game was invented in England they’re the best. We’ve already seen examples of this with fans and media alike describing this group as pretty much a cake walk. Fabio Capello will not be telling his players the same thing. Continue Reading…

Time for more thoughts on the World Cup draw from yesterday. Most seem to still be happy with the US draw in Group C with England. Hell even the folks across the pond in England love this draw for themselves of course. I just wonder how long it will be before we see Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan in Revolutionary War uniforms hyping this opening match with the Red Coats.