USA vs. El Salvador

Last night I watched the US Mens National Team play El Salvador in a friendly. I was pretty excited to see three Real Salt Lake players all suited up and starting last night. Robbie Findley was at forward, Kyle Beckerman at midfield and Nick Rimando made an appearance in the goal. This was pretty exciting as we know this match is being used by coach Bob Bradley to assess which domestic players are suitable to go with the squad to South Africa to play in the World Cup this summer.

As we know from last summer's Confederation's Cup, most of the starters are pretty well figured out, as long as they're healthy come June. From this match against El Salvador, the last one against Honduras, and the practice camps associated with those matches Bob Bradley was trying to see if any new up and coming domestic players stick out as being capable of contributing to the WC squad.

The Honduras match was kind of a failure, as Jimmy Conrad stupidly got himself sent off early in the match, disallowing any of the other players a chance to really shine. I guess we know from that match who's not going to the World Cup. There were no red cards in the El Salvador match, however, so the players on the pitch really got a chance to make their statement.

Starting with RSL players, Robbie Findley was my biggest hopeful for the US WC squad. He's a pretty young player and he had a fantastic season last year with RSL. He's a speedy forward, which the US squad has been in desperate need of since Charlie Davies' severe injuries shed a bit of doubt on his availability for the World Cup. I was really rooting for Findley to make his mark, but he still wasn't quite able to do it last night. My impression was he seemed a bit timid and lacked confidence. He didn't seem to want the ball bad enough. He would mostly try to lay it off to someone else or he seemed to be just trying to stay out of the way when his strike partner had the ball. Though he did showcase a bit of his dribbling speed at times, I just didn't get the impression that he quite has the confidence and drive to play with the WC squad just yet. He's still a young player though, so I'm hoping that he'll make it one day in the future.

Kyle Beckerman played a great game I thought. He has a bit more difficulty making it into the World Cup squad since we seem to be pretty solid in the midfield. Though he didn't show a whole lot of attacking prowess, he did a fantastic job as a midfielder in a holding role. He won a lot of balls and started many attacks. He played very aggressive and did a lot of grunt work, which is awesome. I now have much more hope of him making it into the squad.

Though I was happy for Nick Rimando to start for the US in the goal, I've never really seen him as a big hopeful for the World Cup squad. At the goalkeeper position we are extremely deep. Tim Howard seems to never be unhealthy as he hasn't seemed to miss a minute's play for Everton this year as far as I know. And while Brad Guzan has that second spot pretty much locked in the 3rd spot is a pretty tough one to vie for. And though Rimando is fantastically athletic and very skillful, the thing he lacks—height, really makes it tough for him to be a serious competitor for the spot. I can only imagine him going up against a Didier Drogba one on one in the air. It just wouldn't be pretty.

There were several players that I thought really made great statements. The biggest statement was made by Brian Ching. I've never really been a fan of him, but I saw how things changed when he was subbed in for Conor Casey in the second half. He definitely brought some determination and conviction to the attack. Out of it he got a fantastic equalizer goal, a great volley that was miraculously saved and an assist for the game-winner. Send this guy to South Africa.

Another player that really stood out was Sacha Kljestan. He brought a good solid attack the entire game. It was his hustle at the end of the game that put the ball at his feet for the game winning goal. He should definitely stay on the watch list for that.

Several players I thought should come off of the watch list are Conor Casey, Robbie Rogers and maybe Brad Evans.

What were you able to assess about the players in this game?