Audition process brings hope
FOXBOROUGH -- A year ago last night, Uncle Sam's nephews were in Gelsenkirchen, getting bounced by the Czechs in their World Cup opener. Claudio Reyna was the man in the middle, Brian McBride was up front, Eddie Pope on the back line, and Bruce Arena was on the sideline, not particularly enthralled with how the evening was going.
All of them have since moved on as soccer's quadrennial cycle has turned over. Bob Bradley coaches the Yanks now, and the lineup that he put on the field at Gillette Stadium for last night's 4-0 blowout of overmatched El Salvador included the likes of Benny Feilhaber, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, and Bradley's teenaged son Michael.
They're the next generation, the kids who were playing six-a-side on Saturday mornings in 1990 when the United States finally got back into the global game after four decades on the outs. Now it's their time, and this tournament is their first real audition.
Regional qualifying for the 2010 World Cup begins next year, and the Gold Cup is a pretty fair sneak preview. Everyone that the US team will be facing -- the Mexicos, the Costa Ricas, the Trinidad and Tobagos -- are in the field and they've all brought the varsity. That is, the varsity in progress.
"We are in a learning process," said Salvadoran coach Carlos de los Cobos, who conceded that his green group needs much more seasoning against tougher opponents. "That is why we brought the young kids up."
The team that Bradley selected for the tournament was a judicious blend of experience and youth, of World Cup veterans, guys who just missed making last year's squad, and guys who hope to make the next one.
Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu, and Pablo Mastroeni, who all started in Gelsenkirchen, were in the lineup last night. But throughout the group round, the idea has been to see as many people as possible while still winning matches.
"We've been able to get some guys some experience," said Bradley, who has already used roughly two-thirds of the 76 people in the national team pool this year. "We've worked with some different combinations. We're seeing good things from a lot of different people and, hopefully, we can continue to build on that."
This year is mostly about getting the new guys more caps. Feilhaber, the promising midfielder who went from a UCLA walk-on to Hamburg in the German Bundesliga, earned his sixth last night. Spector and Bradley picked up their eighth, Bornstein his fourth.
After the opening victory over Guatemala, Bradley put 10 different men on the field against Trinidad and Tobago. Last night was an ideal chance to mix-and-match again. The Americans already had locked up a place in the quarterfinals and they were playing a Salvadoran side that had never scored on them in three previous Gold Cup meetings. By halftime, thanks to Beasley and Donovan, it was over.
The summer auditions are important, but the coach won't lose sight of the primary objective of this exercise.
"We want to win the tournament," declared Bradley, whose charges are unbeaten (7-0-1) on the year and unscored upon in the Gold Cup.
Want to and should, especially on home soil.
The Americans are quadrennial World Cup qualifiers now and unless they're playing the Mexicans in Estadio Azteca's rare and filthy air, they're expected to win anywhere this side of the equator.
"The bar has been raised," acknowledges Bradley, "and it's fair."
The more telling test will be the Copa America a couple of weeks from now in Venezuela, where the yanquis will take on everybody from the other side of the equator. That's where Brazil and Argentina live and where the US team will have to raise its game a level.
It's been a dozen years since the Americans played in the Copa, which conflicts with both the MLS schedule and European training camps. But Bradley says that it was "absolutely vital" that the US team participate this time. Just as the Salvadorans do, the Americans need more games against the global iron.
A year ago last night in Gelsenkirchen, they gave up a goal on the first shot, lost, 3-0, and were back on their heels for the rest of a disappointing tournament. Two things immediately became obvious for 2010: The US team had to get younger and it had to get better. The younger part is well underway. The Bradley Bunch still has three years to work on the better part.
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. 