This Weekend's Good, Bad and Ugly

THE GOOD
Fred finally put a tally in the goal column for DC United. This is exciting because it indicates that Fred may finally be figuring his wing role. He has been struggling with the transition to flank play after playing centrally with his last club. Soehn was pleased with his performance, saying:

"He has made a lot of strides," said the D.C. boss. "He is definitely energetic going forward. He's got great ideas. He's getting in [behind the defense] - we don't always reward him with that. As we now stretch the flank and he understands how to play the flank position, he's pretty valuable to us. We understand him better and he understands us better."


THE BAD
The U20s started their chase for the World Youth Championship Saturday. I don't think I actually wrote that I thought we could perform better in the Copa America with this team but I sure was thinking it. Of course that was before I saw them play.Chris Seitz, Real Salt Lake's GK is the only thing that stopped this game from being four or five to one. As coach Thomas Rongen said:
"Well we are not happy with the way we played tonight, but we’re happy with the result. Quite frankly, we are lucky to have come away with a draw against a very good Korean squad. Korea was strong and fast and quite frankly we didn’t do our part to match up with them tonight."
Hopefully before they face Poland (who shocked with a win over Brasil in their first game) Rongen can figure out to get the wings involved so Altidore can get some service.


THE UGLY
I've spent a week and a half defending the USSF's decision to take a reduced roster to Copa America. I accepted the roster and have always been impressed with Bradley's ability to identify and develop young talent. It's just that one name that jumped out at me and everyone else who follows US soccer, Eddie Gaven. My thought process is, Bradley's a pro, you trust his work with young guys, Eddie is still very young, maybe Bob knows something that Sigi Schmidt and Bruce Arena don't. Who knows the kid might just need the right motivation and the proper venue to show his stuff. So in the sixty something minute against Argentina, Bradley pulls Ben Olsen out and gives Eddie his shot. We all know what happened, the left side of the field turned into a four lane highway an the inevitable torrent of goals poured down. So at this point I think the sub is a bonehead move, but hey what do I know? I'm thinking maybe Bradley is trying to save Ben's legs to improve our chances for a result later. Maybe he know's we don't have a chance to get a result in this game and it will be the only game of the tournament he'll be able to look at Gaven. I'm still with our new coach, the outcome was inevitable and we've all seen where a team will hang with an opponent for sixty or sixtyfive minutes then be broken down like a card table.
The next day I take a look at everyone's opinion on the game nad I come across Bradley's quote about the Gaven substition. Bradley said. "I thought some fresh legs would not only allow us to continue what we were doing but give us more in attack. There was a point there where I thought [Argentina] was also getting tired, and I thought a little bit of energy would pay off."
Once I saw that quote I knew this was UGLY. Marvell Wynne looks like a turnstile and you think Eddie Gaven will give us more in the attack!? Any U12 coach knows that if you've got a weak back you had better put a midfielder strong on both sides of the ball in front of him! So here I sit crushed knowing what all bloggers and forumites know in their hearts, the coach is not any smarter than me. So while I haven't lost all faith in Bradley this is certainly strike one.