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For the second straight game of the ING Cup, the USA failed to win.

For the second straight game of the ING Cup, the USA failed to score.

For the second straight game of the ING Cup, the USA failed to reward the handful of die-hard Yankee supporters who woke up with the sun to (illegally or not) stream this display of painful soccer on their desktops for two hours.

Some things are clearly wrong here.

But let’s start with the good news so you don’t go into clinical depression before the post ends…

The Defense ->The group of young in-experienced defenders who many USA fans ripped Nowak for picking has turned out to be the shining light of these two warm-up games. To start, they held a very speedy and dangerous Ivory Coast offense that includes Chelsea striker Solomon Kalou to a goose-egg of goals. Today, although they looked pretty shaky on some early set pieces, the defense proved their worth again. The only Cameroon goal came off of an idiotic Michael Bradley foul that would make Daddy want to whip out the belt like they were back in Essex County, NJ. So, for now, good on you: Marvell Wynne, Michael Parkhurst, Maurice Edu, and Michael Orozco.

Freddy Adu -> If you couldn’t tell before these two games of the Suffix Cup, this guy needs to be on the field in his position all 90, all the time. Friendly or not, this is a game to prepare for the Olympics; not to just mess with your roster and get everybody up to fitness. Freddy Adu is the best player on this roster. Not starting him in the last warm-up game before the official start of the tournament you have been preparing for is flat-out asinine. Nowack is starting to make me look right…

The Second Half -> This has been the saving grace for the USA in both of these warm-up games. It’s like somebody spikes their Gatorade bottles with laxatives in the pre-game, they let lose on the stalls at half time, and then are rippin’ and rearin’ to go by the second session. I don’t know if it’s only down to preparation or a team of naturally slow starters, but whatever it is, they need to fix it. What is going to happen when the USA goes up against the Netherlands in group play and winds up down 3-0 at half time? Try salvaging your tournament life from that one.

What are some of the problems?

Sacha Kljestean -> He just cannot get comfortable out there. Give away after giveaway after giveaway. It just never ends. Maybe it’s because Nowack has him stuck out on the right side of the midfield in the first game, and not in the second striker/ central creative role which he is more used to with Chivas USA. The thing is, the best player on the team (Freddy Adu), plays in that position. So if he wants to take it he needs to be better at it than Freddy, and that is not in the cards this year, especially with the display he put on today. Sacha needs to find a way to make himself effective in whatever position he is playing in, and if he doesn’t learn how to string a few passes together, that position may have to do with quenching the thirst of the other eleven players on the pitch.

Brian McBride -> … is making me (and a lot of other people) look very stupid right now. The once mouth-watering partnership between him and young super striker Jozy Altidore has turned up a dud. McBride looks off the pace of play and quite slow. Maybe this is down to fitness at this point, but if the first group game is tomorrow and was in charge of this ship, I start Jozy over McBride. Captain or not.

0 Goals -> The forward and midfield combination is simply not as cohesive as it needs to be at this point. These two games don’t make Nowack look like he is any closer to achieving “the core” which he can count on to have the USA advance out of the group stage. There are more questions than answers at this point, and you can only hope that this next week of training goes a long way toward having this squad gel.

Hopefully some gain can be taken from this pain.

More on the state of the squad later.