Post-Canada Reaction: No One Impressed

Bruce Arena gave the teams uninspiring performance against Canada a “C” grade. “Why? Because it’s January and you can’t worry about it,” Arena said. “I don’t think we had a bad performance, but I didn’t think anybody stepped up and had a big performance.”

Landon Donovan was less impressed…

“We played an awful game,” he said. “I’m disappointed in a lot of performances. But I think we need to understand that this is a World Cup year and for a lot of people, this is their last chance. If you’re not smart enough to realize that, that’s not good. I expect more, frankly, but we’ll get better.”

The two interesting subplots are Adu’s yellow card and Johnson’s injury.

Adu suggests that he did dive:

“Hey, I just had to push it a little bit,” Adu said. “You go down, and it could go for you or it could go against you. It’s one of those things where you put the referee in a tough position.”

This wasn’t smart. It’s understandable that a player like Adu will get kicked, and it’s understandable that he will occassionally go down to ‘draw attention’ to the foul, but a quote like that will get you get a reputation. Hopefully Bruce will have a word in Freddy’s ear.

We’re still waiting for the official word on Johnson’s injury, but it wasn’t the problem toe. According to the Associated Press report on Yahoo it was a bruised right calf, which is encouraging.