A recent post of mine to the International Herald Tribune Blog,
The Beautiful Game >
"I like Yuval Warshai's analysis. I think that USA fans need to pause for a moment and not over-react. Having played professionally myself and watched US soccer evolve over the years I have to say that despite the one-sided loss, the quality of play from the US is now very high. Even Rosicky admitted post-game that it was a very tough game to play in. The toughest moment for me to stomach was seeing the first goal rammed in by Koelher. If there is one thing the US should be able to get right is their defending. But in terms of ball movement and attacking play American football has come light years. Witness Reyna's near goal. And Donovan always looked dangerous. The real problem I think in retrospect may have been one of tactics. The Americans tried to play football and came up against a scintilating technical team with a stunning midfield. I hate to say this as I prefer "the beautiful game" but if Arena had had his team focus on defending and asked for hard tackles the USA could have earned a point from the Czechs. But then we would have been denied the virtuoso Rosicky performance and so too would the US have been denied the opportunity to play the kind of game that will yield them results down the road. While I agree that the FIFA ranking system inaccurately ranks the US, I know that my country cannot play anywhere close the kind of stuff the US can play..."
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