Summary: Maybe expectations are just too high for this collection of players with the US National Team after closer examination of third round CONCACAF qualification and how the team performed in Honduras midweek. That is the topic here as Anto and Nico start to examine what went wrong in San Pedro Sula, losing on matchday one after a very uneven and lackluster performance that seemed to lack much in the ideas and execution departments. At the flashpoint has been the US centerbacks for the match Geoff Cameron and Omar Gonzales, but deeper problems truly do exist for this edition of the US player pool as clearly the defensive position has been running dry for quite some time and is fully representative of an overall national team program finally waking up the harsh reality of when young prospects have not been produced successfully between World Cup cycles. Jurgen Klinsmann certainly knows this as he has been forced to reach overseas to Germany without much success either and the eventual successor to Landon Donovan and others appears no closer on the horizon either, forcing Graham Zusi into the breach with less than acceptable results on an international stage. We look back at the 2009 Confederations Cup team, with nearly four years approaching, and examine whether the US program is indeed regressing since that night against Brazil on the center stage of world football. The answer should not shock you, and really puts into stark focus the job Bob Bradley did for US Soccer and the massive challenge ahead for Jurgen Klinsmann and his staff. As Major League Soccer itself continues to increase the number of foreign players, as more and more of the top college players themselves are foreign born talent entering the SuperDraft, massive questions need to be asked about where the next generation of national team players will be developed, if the standard can reach another new level and if what we are seeing from Honduras is the shape of things to come. The dress rehearsal match against Canada in January is yet one more indicator that this next cycle could spell trouble for a talent pool not getting younger and decreasing quality standard when compared to the other top 20 national teams in the world. The United States should qualify with plenty to spare, given that it is CONCACAF, but that appears to be the only achievement based on the evidence at hand.
