Though I have to confess to some surprise at the paucity of coverage, the stuff that's out there is pretty swell. Here's a round-up:
Ives Galarcep (from his blog)
Jeff Carlisle (ESPN)
Andrea Canales (ESPN)
Marc Connolly (USSoccerplayers.com)
Kevin Modesti (Daily Breeze - and, for the record, an engaging set-up)
It also relies on several areas of apparent agreement. For instance, everyone is gushing over Justin Mapp - though none more than Canales, whose piece borders on a (deserved) mash note. Still, they guy had a great game. Another generally shared view is that the Danes sent a decent team. The "newcomer" theme gets played pretty hard and small wonder; the number of caps earned by the best players on the field Saturday - Mapp, Kenny Cooper, Ricardo Clark, and Jonathan Bornstein - could almost be counted on one hand. The general take on the "established" players was: that Conrad got caught out on the goal; Donovan was either tentative or uncomfortable (for what it's worth, I thought he was about all we had in the first half and he was played in a new role); Mastroeni did well, as did Clark, but they need time to grow; and Chris Albright was everyone's goat for the Danish goal, though someone mentioned he suffered from the flu...which begs the question of why he was started.
The one significant point of contention came with Bornstein. Where Connolly described an assured performance ("From the get-go, Bornstein didn't look green one bit, and surely didn't seem tentative."), Carlisle singled out his left flank defending as a persistent problem, while Galarcep only suggested he took some time to find his feet. Then again, Carlisle suggested Eddie Johnson "had his moments," but I saw well less than that; only one quality pass (to Bornstein) from a player who was hyped to the skies going into the '06 Cup simply doesn't cut it. Returning to Bornstein, I wonder if his defensive frailties (and I can relate to these; oh, can I relate) make a case for grooming him for midfield.
All in all, though, people were happy, if a little antsy about the Mexico game. And no matter who you read, people want to see more of Mapp and Cooper; the same goes for Bornstein, generally, though there are concerns. That, as I see it, is the story for the first game of the Bradley era.
One last thing and it goes back to that paucity of coverage. Modesti points out the low attendance (as I did) and speculates this may have something to do with the past summer's, um, difficulties in the World Cup. Eh, could be....
But I think it's something more obvious: how many people knew about this game? I know all of us freaks did, but I spent the weekend with family, specifically with people who generally follow soccer when they know about it. Let's just say they had no clue about this one. And I suspect that would apply to anyone who doesn't have the soccer corner of ESPN's site bookmarked. I think this explains the problem better than bitterness, but it's also possible Modesti heard something I didn't.
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