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Poland Friendly

United States 3 Poland 0

All goals from set pieces. Carlos Bocanegra got a goal off a free kick from out wide by Donovan. The ball glancing off his head and then shoulder and dribbling into the side corner. Oguchi Onyewu also scored off a corner from Donovan—battling with the Poles for positioning (all the Polish players where big and strong). And Eddie Lewis struck a nice free kick with his left foot.

It was a very casual match, not much fight from Poland despite the whistling crowd. They might have underestimated the Americans and got caught on the early set piece goals.

Sorry but Eddie Johnson hopefully just played his last game for the United States. He misses too many chances, and holds on to the ball too long; when he does control it and pass it off, it’s after two or three awkward touches that lead him into awkward spaces on the pitch. He gets himself into good positions but time and time again he wastes them. I just don’t see him meshing with anyone on the national team. I wonder what players think of playing with him? Ching might not have had a great game but he’s a fighter and digs things out. Jozy will fit in better than Johnson up top. I don’t know why Fulham signed him.

Dempsey, who didn’t see much of the ball, does show signs of doing some good things but when you have a player (Johnson) who’s not on the same page and disrupts the rhythm of the game, then everyone’s game is thrown off. It’s a shame though, Johnson’s confidence should be up but you can’t tell it’s just not there. Perhaps he’s a streaky player and needs a goal, but we’ve given him too many chances now and it’s too late.

Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, and Landon Donovan are all class players. Landon, who takes a lot of heat for not playing in Europe, puts pressure on the opposing teams and keeps pushing himself. He’s the first to chase and win the ball. Both Bradley and Clark win the ball well but play precision passes too.

In one moment Clark won the ball with a superb sliding tackle and Donovan picked up the ball and charged forward. He had Ching on the left and Dempsey in clear on the right but the pass wasn’t hard enough for Dempsey and he had to slow up and the defender was able to get a touch on the ball.

Let’s bring on the young players – Adu and Jozy and give any others and early chance. Let’s get more players with swagger and ones who won’t slouch.