What did We Learn?

The marathon summer of Men’s US Soccer is now pretty much closed, save for the U-17’s, if you want to count them. The boys and men of the program have gone through a handful of friendlies and three tournaments. The main objective of winning the Gold Cup was accomplished and props are always do when a group of people can set out a goal and achieve it. Yes, there were other objectives, such as impress on the grand stage of Copa America, but the federation set out the Gold Cup as the tourney to win and they did that.

Copa was an obvious disappointment, but I would not say a failure. With the team selected the main idea going in was to get a look at some young, inexperienced players while hopefully impressing on a grand stage. We did get a look at the players, and now we know that allot of them probably don’t have what it takes, but there are a precious few who do.

The U-20 World Cup may have been the most exciting tournament to me personally, and that is not solely due to the fact that I watched most of the games on an illegal Japanese stream of live television on my desk top, although maybe partly. Obviously to Rongen and the boys, the goal was to win the tournament. We had a great squad with a chance and winning is always a main goal.

But with the U-20’s, you have to look at it with eyes towards the future. Sure it would have been nice to be able to say, we won the U-20 World Cup, but that does not get you anywhere on the men’s level. Just look at how many trophies Portugal’s “Golden Generation” took home on the men’s level. The true players for the future have been pretty well identified and allot of our boys are in a great position to head over seas and get some great experience at top club levels.

Now that we have done the recap, here are some things we have learned…

Benny Feilhaber is going to be a fixture in the lineups up to South Africa and beyond. The kid’s skill and composure on the ball mixed with his knack to support the attack up near the box is key to our success.

Eddie Johnson is still an unknown. Some days you say he sucks, others, he does OK enough to warrant more chances. Frankly, with the depth at forward, I saw enough to give him more chances. It’s kinda sad, but it is what it is.

Bob Bradley was the right man for the job. With a full arsenal at his hands at the Gold Cup he did brilliant with tactics and subs and I want to see him with that same arsenal against stronger competition.

Landon Donovan is the best, or most dangerous if you will player in the pool currently. End of story.

We need to learn how to finish. We have no clinical finishers up top, and all of our midfield attackers our shaky finishers. That needs to change.

Jozy Altidore could just be the finisher we are looking for.

I don’t want to say Freddy Adu is what we thought he was…cus what was that? If you took a poll of the most intelligent of all US Soccer fans, you would get a variety of answers. What I do think we learned is that the kid has the potential to be the best American soccer player ever. He already does some things that you could possibly maybe say he is the best at already. He needs to find the right club situation, and Commander Bob needs to work him into the team. He will be a big part of SA 2010.

Some of these MLS players are not going to cut it, pretty much most of the ones on the Copa squad. Rico had a good summer though.

The future looks bright.

Anything to add to the list?…What did you learn?