USA 3-0 Panama: Perfectly Adequate, Utterly Undramatic

There are many fruit-based comparisons available, but this one is mine.

I'll start with this: if you've missed Major League Soccer during the offseason, the U.S. Men's 3-0 win over Panama should have scratched that itch. Even going beyond (MLS-exclusive) personnel, that match came as close to, say, Columbus Crew SC pushing around, say, the Colorado Rapids as you're likely to see outside the real thing (yeah, yeah, the latest edition ended differently, the three points wound up in the same column). Better still, it all held up, all the way down to the U.S. fucking around with fire inside its own defensive third; pure Gregg Berhalter that, the high-risk, high(?)-reward of playing out of the back...god knows what a more accomplished national team than Panama will do with that high-wire act.

Credit where it's due, though: even if Panama put a couple chances on the American goal (I'd call Abdiel Arroyo's near-self-assisted goal they're best look), the U.S. never looked worse than strained - pretty much exactly what one would expect from a U.S. C-team playing Panama's B/C team. For what it's worth, I'd argue Panama ceded possession more than the U.S. maintained it, but the beginnings of something good lurk in that detail. Whether or not the Central Americans played to practice defending deep (who's to say?), their relative comfort on the ball when they had it stands as the only real warning sign I picked up from Berhalter's first outing as U.S. Men's coach. It's hard to lose sleep over that because, if a game between the U.S. and Panama's A-Teams is an apples-to-apples comparison, this was tangerine-to-tangerine, and nobody really starts its tangerines in the games that matter. Still, it was good to see the tangerines have their day. The question is, how many will one day become apples? (And...thus ends the fruit analogy.)

I'll get to that, but I want to flag one deeply and personally satisfying shift from the Jurgen Klinsmann era to tonight. In his post-game comments, Berhalter made a very clear point in directing a question about what coaching his first game for the U.S. Men meant to him (from a notably close-talking Sebastian Salazar) to praise for the players. If he follows this up by taking full responsibility for the first crushing loss, Berhalter will get a solid year of slack from me. Now, back to the tangerine thing...

A fairly constant stream of chatter plays under friendlies like this, one that acknowledges that the "real starters" wait in the wings to take over when the real games come to town. Anyone who wants to change that equation has to stand out - and several players did that for the U.S. Men tonight, including the San Jose Earthquake's Nick Lima's balls-out tackle and next-level cross to pick out Walker Zimmerman for the U.S.'s second goal; or just everything Zimmerman did with his head all day long (that he might be better with his head than he is with his feet speaks volumes about how goddamn good he is with his head); there was also Jonathan Lewis' nifty change of pace against [Panamanian fullback] (sorry!) to set up the U.S.'s third goal; which went to Christian Ramirez who, in his few minutes on the field, managed to play a cleaner, striker role than Gyasi Zardes managed all night and, golly, did anyone else feel the weight of Taylor Twellman going after Zardes' game? Jinkies....

Now, I don't want to be as unfair to Zardes as Twellman was (look, I'm exaggerating), but Zardes had to figure out a way to be effective in a vastly different arrangement. The U.S. could barely play out of the back in the first half - and the make-shift back three of Zimmerman, Daniel Lovitz, and Aaron Long struggled more than anyone else. Lovitz struck me as the only vaguely weak link on the defensive side, but both actual centerbacks (Zimmerman and Long) played forced dumb passes and played errant ones, and that's not what you want to see - especially in a system like Berhalter's, which shows no signs of departing from playing out of the back. I don't recall a useful U.S. foray until around the 20th minute, and think that's where ESPN's broadcasting team read "tentative" into the script for the game as a whole. I'd call that due caution, personally...jesus, do those guys think they're Taylor Twellman or something?

Once the U.S. settled into the game, the team got more or less comfortable. Moreover, the game effectively ended as a contest once they figured out to create openings. Real Salt Lake's Corey Baird stood out during that period; he made good runs and better decisions as the game progressed. After a nervy start, the Portland Timbers' Jeremy Ebobissse became a big enough threat as a left-winger (Zardes should have buried his first cross, full-stop) to draw implications for what the Timbers could do with either new personnel (to receive those sweet, sweet crosses), or by moving Ebobisse to the wing and bringing on a sub in order to give the Timbers a different look in the attack. (And, so long as Dairon Asprilla is around...).

Whatever my quibbles, no U.S. player suffered a nightmare this evening. Michael Bradley soldiered smartly and well in his deep midfield role....crap, have I named everyone yet? Ah, that was a nice opening goal by Djordje Mihailovic, and he played a useful role, if more by his movement than his passing (some smart fella on twitter compared him to Stuart Holden, and I don't think that's inapt). Also, as much as I liked Baird, DC United's Paul Arriola showed a level of sophistication and technique that contrasted with Baird's perhaps-too-straightforward approach to the game, just to note it. And, yeah, Zac Steffen looked alert and strong, but I think that's the first line on his CV.

Of all the U.S. players I watched tonight (this is going to sting for Portland fans), the guy who stood out most and tallest? The Seattle Sounders' Cristian Roldan. I say this without the knowledge of the U.S. Men's player pool that I once had - and also my more or less total ignorance of the options at the same position who play abroad - but I'm pretty damn high on Roldan. He's smart, his game is tidy as the world's cleanest toilet bowl (Ty-D-Bol references don't scare me), he just has that sense of what to do and when to do it that either can't be taught or that can only be learned through extensive, monastically self-loathing study. For all I know, he made Baird better tonight just by playing on the same side of the field (but, honestly, I think Baird has his uses; it's just a question of where his bag of tricks dries up).

Again, it's hard to hate what any players did out there tonight, but I have a fairly short list of players from this roster that I'd seriously think about taking to the U.S. Men's first team. Roldan makes that list, even if just for depth; he just feels...good to me. Looking elsewhere, something I noted when I went through the list of homegrown MLS players appears to have carried through to American players as a whole - i.e., while we're strong at goalkeeper and in midfield, the U.S. suffers for options at forward and in central defense. For what it's worth, I think the problem isn't as bad in defense. As someone pointed out tonight (it might have been that Twellman bastard), I agree that the battle for the starting center-back role is wide open; I'd also argue that this same problem has been at the heart of the rot for the U.S. Men's National Team for nearly a decade now. Fortunately, both Long and Zimmerman look capable, even credible in that role. As such, I'd be fine with either of those players joining the U.S. A-Team, at least until something better comes along.

It gets trickier at forward (goddammit!), and that's exactly what keeps Zardes in the picture. For every good moment (e.g., teeing up the ball for Baird for one of the U.S.'s best, earliest chances), and for every nice basic skill unlocked, Zardes continues to show too much of the ball too often. His decision making is good, but not flawless. I get why the man can make a living playing soccer, even a decent living, but when I watch him play for the U.S. Men, I always have the same thought: the U.S. needs something better at forward if they ever want to win anything big. It doesn't take Luis Suarez, or anything; Brian McBride did fine, and so did Clint Dempsey. If the team can't count on a forward, it needs great options in midfield...or just some reliable means of scoring, no matter where it comes from. Say, does anyone think we can get a goal a game off Zimmerman's cabeza? Inquiring minds wanna know. 

Even if a U.S. win, everyone who cared knows this game means nothing on its own. The "real" starters will come to the fore, wherever they come from, and the competition will get a lot bigger and better than Panama's C-team, or even Panama's A-team. Nothing that happened tonight says what will happen when the U.S. faces off against the opposition in real tournaments like the Gold Cup, or World Cup qualifiers when they come. It's the right first step, though, and that's plenty. I'm looking forward to next Saturday's game against Costa Rica, even as I don't expect it'll fill in any meaningful blanks. Still, the U.S. got the W, and that's good enough for tonight.