re: USA vs. Poland Official Game Thread 7 CT 1AM GMT on FSC

Gooch was better than he was in South Africa. I'll take the improvement there.

I like the idea at centerback, but I'd prefer Jones there and Edu in central midfield. Edu's positioning isn't very good in the back, but he wasn't nearly as bad as some people are saying. He was probably our second best defender, and if not for two glaring mistakes from Holden/Gooch and then Jones, we get a clean sheet.

Overall, I'm content. I liked what Bradley did in the second half with the 4-5-1-ish formation. It was the same thing we did against Ghana second half, with Stu replacing Landon and both taking turns dropping deep to distribute. I like Dempsey in that role, it gives him space to operate and I think he gets too little of that when he's up top.

The positives are all I'm really worried about. Jones is as good as advertised and will be a starter for a couple of years, Holden looked sharp (subtract one bad mistake from both of those guys [two from Holden, to be fair and they were very good), and Jozy scored, which is nice to see.

I think Edu can play that center defense role if he gets time there. He won't for Rangers, but he's got the ability to play there. When Landon comes back, I'd like to see him on for Feilhaber, and then our lineup looks very, very nice.