5-0!

After the untelevised no score bore draw with Canada last week, this televised (thank you ESPN2) 5-0 win over Norway should cheer everyone up. Taylor Twellman finally reproduced some of his MLS form with a convincing hat-trick that must give Bruce Arena plenty to think about.

Alongside Twellman, Clint Dempsey stood out at right mid and Todd Dunivant got two assists from left back, giving Arena more options for his problem position. Donovan looked impressive and wore the captains armband well. The other two goals came from Eddie Pope and Chris Klein.

While individual players pushed their case for a trip to Germany, this was also an encouraging team performance. The MNT (still the best nickname we can manage?) played some crisp attacking football with lots of short passses that produced 24 attempts on goal to Norway’s 2.

The Norwegians were awful. Like us they were missing their high profile players, who were busy in the more glamorous European leagues. In particular their number 15 Raymond Kvisik looked horribly out of shape, like a doorman squeezed into a soccer jersey at short notice.

But doorman or no doorman, this was a 5-0 win over a European nation, our biggest ever, and the fact that both nations were fielding their B teams implies encouraging things about the depth of US talent.