Italy 3 USA 1

Thoughts on Team USA's opening game of the Confederations Cup:

- The discussion of this game has to begin with the Red Card given Ricardo Clark. On the one hand, it was a reckless tackle, and committing a reckless tackle leaves you open to being sent off. That type of tackle (especially with his leg as high as it was) needlessly puts your ability to remain in the game in the referee's hands. That doesn't mean it wasn't a terrible decision on the ref's part. He should only give a red in that situation so early in the game if a) it was a blatantly dangerous effort of b) it was part of a series of escalating fouls that threaten to send the game out of control. This wasn't close to either one. Furthering the ridiculousness of the call was the 2-3 more dangerous tackles later in the game (the elbow to Donovan's face, and Feilhaber's tackle from behind in the second half being two examples) which either were met with merely a caution or no booking at all.

- Jozy Altidore gave a good effort, especially since 75% of the US team's offense boiled down to send the ball long to Jozy and hope for the best. Most of the time it was simply maintaining possession or putting pressure on the defenders, but one time Altidore earned a penalty shot that Landon Donovan buried. Altidore would get higher marks, except for his incomprehensible decision to pass the ball after a Donovan feed gave him a great scoring opportunity from 8-10 yards out.

- Oguchi Onyewu was probably the man of the match for the US. He protected his area of the pitch well, whether against dribbling attackers or in the air. But alas, even Oneywu made a critical error, whiffing on De Rossi's goal while screening Tim Howard. Landon Donovan also made the most of his touches, but with the US playing with 10 men for the better part of the match, Donovan did not get as many chances to affect play as coach Bob Bradley would have liked.

- Those fans who are on Giuseppe Rossi's case are idiots. The New Jersey-born Italian player is making the correct decision. It's like being mad at a Boston bred baseball player for choosing the play with the Yankees over the Washington Nationals.

Well, on second thought, that's not really fair to the US Soccer team. It's more like the Bostonian chose the Yankees over Pawtucket. He SHOULD make that choice. If he wants to be the best player he can be, he has to play for the significantly better team. Both practicing with the higher calibur Italian players and playing Spain, France, and the Netherlands instead of Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Panama will force Rossi to either raise his game or be left by the side of the road. Being angry at Rossi is short-sighted and stupid. Don't be one of those people.

- This game highlighted 2 major differences between the US and the Italians: 1) Talent level of individual players. I don't see anyone on the US squad who could have hit either of Italy's first 2 goals. Not from those distances. 2) The US will make mistakes that can be turned into excellent scoring opportunities 5-6 times a game. The Italians? 1-2 times a game, maybe. When 1 goal is the difference between winning and failure, that's a huge difference.

- Part of what made the first 2 Italian goals was lack of pressure on the shooter. Yes, the fact that the US was down to 10 men for over 20 minutes already played a big part in that lack of pressure, but another part is that CONCACAF teams aren't dangerous from that far out. They either lack the talent or the wiring to be lethal from that far out. The US played 2 CONCACF teams in World Cup qualifying just a week ago, which underscores just how important this tournament is. In order to make noise, the US has to be ready to get results against a team like Italy or Brazil. That means being ready for the threats teams of this level present, not simply the threats Mexico or Costa Rica present.

- All in all, I liked what I saw from the US. It was certainly better than the World Cup 2006 team put forth, even if the results didn't show it. Now the US has to regroup for Brazil, and they have to do it without Clark, their best disrupter in the midfield. Brazil won't be quite as stingy with good opportunities defensively, but they will put considerably more pressure on the US defense.