Some thoughts on USA-England...

I just re-watched the game since the first time I was.. shall we say... piss drunk.

(NOTE TO READERS: I do NOT recommend doing shots of captain morgan at 9am on an empty stomach. ever. (I also don't recommend the 'let's sneak twenty beers into the bar in a backpack then decide that it's a bad idea because the waitress will notice when your beer keeps going from empty to full so i guess we have to chug them when she's not looking on top of buying the occasional pint' move... it's just a bad idea.))

The first thing I noticed was that pretty much everything I remembered clearly from the game happened in the first 11 minutes. No joke. I kept having moments like, "we're only 8 minutes in... really? I thought that happened in the second half." It's sad. Just sad... Next game I'm thinking a few Red Bulls might go well with those 20 beers in the backpack. Just a thought.

A far as the remaining 79 minutes... I believe the US has a lot to be worried about.

Defensively, we looked poor. Watch that second half again. It was full of English chances that failed to score more because of English wastefulness than good defending. We stopped Rooney but gave the wings way to much space (which had to be something we KNEW we could NOT do going in to the game...). We were extremely fortunate that the English looked poor in terms of the final ball.

(A quick English aside: this thing already reeks of disaster. It's at DEFCON 1 already. We're one 'Rooney writhing on the pitch' or a freaky Algerian goal from a total meltdown. Stay tuned)

Offensively, we were wasteful. Altidore blew the two best American chances of the game (which is totally understandable for a 20-year old who maybe shouldn't be considered the great American hope just yet but not when he's your [sarcastic finger quotes] best striker). Most concerning, we didn't look nearly as dangerous on the break as we did with the Davies/Donavan combo of last year's Confederations Cup run. Hopefully we can look forward to more possession in the last two group games but I still think this is a big concern if we go further than that...

The heart of the issue is this. We ARE going to give up goals. Period. However, we do look as if we may be able to score a few as well. But, if we're, say... down 1-0 against Slovenia with 30 minutes remaining and they've now decided to park the bus clown car-style with ten men behind the ball (hypothetically... wink wink)... will we?

time will tell... gulp. (where's that bottle of captain when you need it?)