4-1: Are We Educable? (+ Video)

Yup. The U.S. Men's team got taken behind the toolshed by the Argentine's big boys in last night's 4-1 loss. I'm OK with this. Wasn't this the expected outcome given all the givens? Even without the most noteworthy givens - e.g. the toddlers Team we sent - shouldn't we expect losses to Argentina, oh, eight, nine times out of ten?

We'll survive, it's possible we learned a thing or two (things like the fact that Eddie Gaven isn't ready for the senior team, or...), such as this little gem from Jeff Carlisle's analysis for ESPN:

"This was especially true in the U.S. midfield, which faded badly in the second half, continuing a trend from the Gold Cup that saw the Americans finish games poorly. In that tournament, the U.S. was not punished for this tendency, but on this night they found out the hard way how a good team treats such charity."

"Of course, part of how a team kills off games is by keeping possession, and this American team showed that it is still light years behind a side like Argentina in this regard."

There's something oddly relieving about the persistence of the problem Carlisle describes. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? The real question is the dreaded two-parter of can we learn and, if so, how? At any rate, I'm relieved to hear we looked all right for 60 minutes; now let's work on that last 30, yeah? And to to, y'know, actually play soccer, as opposed to the run-n-gun stuff we seem to prefer.

And don't ask me why I chose this highlight reel (is the text on the video Hebrew?):



Turns out Haimrevivo1 (the guy who posted the first video) is a busy boy; he also found highlights from Paraguay's (our next opponent) rout of Colombia:



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