USA vs. Slovakia: Postgame Reactions

In a pre-World Cup friendly, Slovakia beat the United States Men's National Soccer Team 1-0 on a first half penalty kick.

The Good:

Starting Lineup

Bob Bradley maximized the National Team experience available to him by starting Johnathan Spector at center back alongside Carlos Bocanegra, with Jonathan Bornstein at left back and Steve Cherundolo at right back. 

The midfield of Dempsey on the left, Michael Bradley and Benny Feilhaber in the middle, and Robbie Rogers on the right easily dominated possession over the Slovaks to the tune of at least 60 percent in our favor, and though scoreless, got some good looks at the goal.

With Jozy Altidore starting up top,  Bradley was able to fill eight slots with players who've seen significant National Team qualifying time, and up to six of those players may end up starting in South Africa. 

Substitutions

Rather than treating this as an experimental opportunity, Bradley let the core National Team unit play together as long as possible, for 70 minutes, and the cohesiveness of the unit showed, especially in time of possession dominance. 

Even with the impact of the injuries to Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu, it's clear that going forward the coaching staff intends to keep building the team chemistry among the core group from qualifying and the Confederations Cup, rather than panicking and experimenting with complete overhauls.

Eddie Johnson switched with Conor Casey at the start of the second half.  After that, Sacha Klejstan, Dax McCarty, Clarence Goodson, and Jeff Cunningham got between 10 and 20 minutes each.

Goalkeeping:

Brad Guzan had an excellent game, stopping two shots point blank in the second half when the back line failed him.  His performances with the national team continue to show why he's the heir apparent to Tim Howard, and could compete for the number one spot now if given the chance.  Only the penalty kick kept him from a clean sheet.

The Bad:

The Strikers

The strikers were rarely involved in the game, despite our midfield dominance.  All of our shots on goal came from midfielders.  Neither Casey, nor Johnson, nor Cunningham made any kind of impact.

Jonathan Bornstein

It's games like this that demonstrate why we need to keep searching for another left back option.  Bornstein allowed himself to get tangled up with an attacking Vladimir Weiss in the penalty area which led to a penalty kick and the lone goal of the game.

In addition to the penalty kick, Bornstein was repeatedly beaten to balls and seemed to constantly be beseeching the referee for calls to help cover his defensive lapses.

Edgar Castillo needs to be brought in for a look as soon as possible, preferably for Wednesday's Denmark friendly.  Denmark is a much stronger attacking team than Slovakia and defensive lapses will be quickly exploited.

Carlos Bocanegra may need to fill the left back role, as he does for his club Rennes, and we may have to find another central defender instead.

The Back Line

In the first half, Guzan wasn't challenged at all, save for the penalty kick.  In the second half, Guzan was forced to make two point blank saves when the back line let unmarked attackers get behind them with the ball. 

Steve Cherundolo went down clutching his knee in pain in the waning seconds of the game.  From the way he crawled off the pitched, it doesn't look like he'll be available for the Denmark friendly.  We can only hope it's not a serious injury. 

This means that Johnathan Spector will have to play at right back and, if Bornstein's going to continue to start, Clarence Goodson or Chad Marshall will have to pair with Carlos Bocanegra in the middle.  It's time for one of them to step up and make a strong bid for a roster spot in the absence of Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu.

The Skinny

The Slovakia match revealed what we already knew.  Without Charlie Davies, we lack explosiveness up top and a link between midfield playmakers and the strikers. 

Our strength is that we have a deep midfield.  Among players with qualifying playing time, consider who was not there—Landon Donovan, Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden, and Jose Torres.  Other future call-up options are the currently injured Jermaine Jones, and players such as Maurice Edu, Freddy Adu, and DaMarcus Beasley, if they can regain their form through club playing time.

We'll know more after the Denmark friendly, but with the depth we have at midfield and the lack of productivity at striker, it may be time to move Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey up top alongside Jozy Altidore.  Robbie Rogers and Stuart Holden give us two wide options with good pace and crossing ability that could hold down the opposite side of the field from either Donovan or Dempsey. 

Benny Feilhaber also plays left wide at Aarhus, and both he and Jose Torres give us potential playmakers to replace a Donovan or Dempsey move to the top.  Ricardo Clark most likely will be rejoining the squad at central midfield now that his season is done, allowing us to slide people around. 

Jermaine Jones is also one of the most highly touted central midfielders in the German Bundesliga.  He'll get a call up provided that he recovers from his nagging stress fracture injury quickly enough to make the January camp or March friendly.

All in all, a good performance by the midfield core, but we haven't come any closer to addressing the weaknesses up top or the injuries to the back line.