About That El Salvador Match

I didn't want to miss out on the fun of deciding the cosmic significance of Wednesday's U.S. match in Florida. I agree with a lot of what I've seen in terms of who helped themselves and who didn't. Heath Pearce and Brian Ching were clearly the big winners, with Clarence Goodson continuing to stay ahead of the likes of Jimmy Conrad and Chad Marshall in the central defense. I think it was Ives who said Eddie Gaven helped himself, but while I did like what he added to his attack, he wasn't tracking back at all on defense. There was a moment about five minutes into the second half where he was just walking back, forcing Brad Evans to push up late and then get beat. And Brad Evans didn't really need that kind of help to show he's not quite up to USMNT standards. Unless we need a role player off the bench, I don't see Gaven getting ahead of, say, Stuart Holden in the pool.

One guy I haven't seen singled out is Kyle Beckerman. Out of the starting four midfielders, he may have looked the best, although Brad Davis could probably stake a claim there as well, being as active as Robbie Rogers but without all the bad passes. With Beckerman, though, Bradley gets an insurance policy if one or both of Ricardo Clark and Maurice Edu aren't sufficiently in form after injury layoffs.

Speaking of Edu -- his club team, anyway -- and injury layoffs, I'm sure there are some people who are up in arms over DaMarcus Beasley getting called in for the Netherlands match, including the guy who was sitting next to me at the qualifier against Honduras at Soldier Field last year. But while he has struggled, an in-form Beasley can still be a force to be reckoned with. And no one knows that better than Bradley, his first professional coach. This may very well be the winger's last chance for this World Cup cycle, though.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, I had initially thought Conor Casey didn't help or hurt his chances of going to South Africa with a typical bulldog-like first half, but that was before Brian Ching replaced him at halftime and totally schooled him in how to play target forward on this squad. Casey looked like an orange traffic cone by comparison, and I doubt Bradley will bring two players for that role.