I Dislike Your Favorite Team

So presumably the same know-nothing assholes who were braying for Arena's exit are now satisfied.

But the goal of these games, for a team with obvious, obvious huge holes, isn't to win the games. It is to see who played well.

And the US beat those awful dirty Chavez supporting freaks. With Tim Howard in goal. So, you know it wasn't the A-Team out there.

But just as the result against Morocco wasn't the real purpose, winning against Venezeula wasn't the real goal. Finding out who can play the huge gaping holes in the line up is the goal of these games. The US isn't Brazil. They aren't England, they aren't even France. the US isn't in the top 5 teams in the world, no matter what crazy-ass ideas FIFA puts out there.

And I'll tell you what, this paragraph from this summary makes me feel a lot better:

The South Americans' goal came under heavy pressure in the first quarter-hour alone, with Reading winger Bobby Convey causing major problems up the left flank. Young striker Eddie Johnson and Wolff both looked in the mood as well, buzzing around the attacking third in the hunt for goals.

Eddie Johnson looking dangerous is good news. It is actually HUGE news. But Convey may be the revelation in this game.

All that changed in the 36th minute, though. Just seconds after spurning a golden chance, MLS leading scorer Ching appeared at the near post where he volleyed home an inch-perfect cross from Convey to give the States a precious lead and bring an end to their brief goal drought.

Another way to tell that the result was secondary to Arena's purpose: The following paragraph is about to reference a second half sub named Landon Donovan.

Some clever approach work from second-half substitute Landon Donovan freed Johnson down the right side and his classy cross was met by a diving header from New England Revolution revelation Clint Dempsey.

So, the US, with their 3rd string goalkeeper shut-out a very marginal team. Is that a thing to get excited about? Probably not. The play of Bobby Convey and Clint Dempsey and Brian Ching and Eddie Johnson is, though. The B-Team got a lot of the work today, and some of those folks played themselves into the First Team. I like the idea of Convey playing maybe 60-70 minutes.