Pure and simple, this game was an embarrasment.

Brazil is traditionally one of the better teams in the world and few people expected us to win, but the way in which we lost was just sad.  We showed no heart and barely any fight throughout the whole thing.  And again, I really have to question Bradley’s line-up and substitutions decision making, again.  I’m starting to feel more and more that Bradley is not the right coach to take us where we want to go.

My early prediction is three games and out in 2010.  My quick thoughts on this debacle:

• Beasley can’t play anymore until he gets his game and confidence back together.  He’s consistently very average, and when he shows flashes of anything but average, its bad more often than good.  He doesn’t bring near enough to the attack to play outside midfield and he just isn’t cut out to play outside back at the international level.
• Our offense sucks.  We don’t have a clue how to build up an attack to save our lives.  We regressed in this game to just trying to knock long balls down the field to a striker that wasn’t able to hold the ball because he had two defenders on him all the time.  Set pieces and PKs are only going to take us so far and its not going to win us games against tough opponents.
• Clint Dempsey is having serious problems translating his form from Fulham to the USMNT.  I saw him play numerous games in the EPL this past season and his impact on the game was almost always much greater there than I’ve seen in the last several national team games.  Some are questioning if he’s burnt out or he’s having trouble feeling comfortable in or knowing what his role for the national team is.  Whatever the problem, we need him to get that sorted out before next year.
• On the positive side, Jay Demerit and Jonathan Spector have proved themselves as quality defenders for us.  They won’t necessarily be considered world class, but they did a very solid job for us and give me a little comfort in the event of injury.  The left side is still a little questionable, though.

Our last match of the Confederations Cup is this weekend and its going to be very interesting to see what Bradley does with his line-up.  Egypt barely lost to Brazil and beat Italy in their first two matches so I honestly don’t expect us to have much of a chance against them.  It would be the perfect chance to give some of the less experienced players a chance, but I honestly don’t hold out much hope of that happening.