international friendly roundup

U.S.A. 2-0 Mexico

A decent performance from America, despite not having many chances they converted off a corner and a deflection off of a ref. Before everyone begins to start talking about removing the "interim" from new coach Bob Bradley's job title, let's remember- rarely controlling possession outside of your own half and scoring a fluke goal with 45 seconds left does not a dominant coach make. In that same area, before we talk about a Landon Donovan comeback, it's important to remember that his goal was kind of flukish, and that if you watch the tape, it looks like he was trying to dump it off- notice the hand-waving about halfway into his run- he really did look like he was more comfortable giving the chance to someone else. Or maybe it was just a clever feint. Shades of Ghana, perhaps? A solid performance by Johnathan Bornstein, quality saves from Tim Howard- though he got caught out in no-man's land once or twice on crosses, an area he absolutely needs to work on, and another good job by Jimmy Conrad. Chris Rolfe blew, quite frankly, doing nothing creatively, and as far as the announcers go, Bruce Arena continues to baffle me- how did a man who gives the impression of such a low amount of soccer knowledge get a job coaching what is supposed to be a major soccer team?

England 0-1 Spain

Watching the English national team is, to me, not unlike watching mediocre pornography. You'e got poor direction (really, Steve McLaren? you aren't going to put anyone on the fucking left?) uninspiring performance- Peter Crouch just isn't very good against a major international team, and Gary Neville looked woefully out of place, though you can't really blame him for his manager's tactical impotence, and, in the end, Andres Iniesta's money shot all over the face of the England side. Frank Lampard, I'll go get you a towel.