Friendlies & Qualifiers

USA 3-0 Poland
Did you see that beatdown that team USA laid on Poland? That was downtown Krakow, you know, not like the Poles got dragged off to some farflung burg like Columbus for that, they got their asses firmly paddled in front of the home folks. I was a little surprised because the Polish team looked big and fairly speedy at every position, I suspected USA would be lucky to get out with a draw. But frankly USA dominated the ball, consistently pushed forward and held the Poles to only a handful of decent scoring opportunities. This is the result of so many Americans playing in Europe now, they're not intimidated by foreign locales or fearsome-looking squads. It was just a friendly and I have no idea how representative this was of Poland's A-team but still this was a good solid victory for USA.

USA 0-1 (OT) Honduras (U-23 Olympic Qualification)
Too bad the Americans couldn't pull out the final Olympic qualifier but no biggie, the top two qualified for Beijing. Honduras put in a game effort and got it done in OT with a brilliant strike from by a forward named Welcom that I suspect will turn up on an MLS roster by the end of summer. I generally thought the Americans were the better squad but not decisively so--and they did get outscored!--but it was a skeleton crew since there was little to play for. Jozey Altidore came in late in regulation and saw little action and Freddy Adu sat out after pitching in 2 goals and an assist in the semi-final drubbing of Canada. That was the money game and Freddy shined out just like ya like.

I know you Americans probably don't care because you've been told you hate soccer all your life. But Freddy went out there and got it done while wearing a jersey with YOUR flag on it. You're getting well-represented whether you like it or not. I'm not saying USA's gonna win South Africa 2010 or even Beijing 2008 but the Americans don't suck at soccer.