Right on. I don't get why people are still faithful to EJ...like wtf, dude. Yes, there was more to the US offense when EJ left, and Nguyen despite a 6 month layoff and poor showing was still better.
Sure, Gaven was better than in the Argentina game. It helped that he had more time to get into the game. But, mostly I think he looked a little better because Colombia is that much worse than Argentina. Gaven only showed a little bit of offense and had some terrible passes including muffing a wide open cross. He's lucky Colombia didn't attack him too much. Still, he is still young. I hope he has the desire to improve his game. On the left side, fitness and consistent two-way play is the big drop off after Beasley. I will give credit to Mapp for a better defensive effort in this tournament and for taking on defenders with some success. But, Beasley is more persistent and has show a decent ability to cross and take on defenders. Beckerman looked decent to start the game, then disappeared for long stretches. He didn't seem to get in the right places to get good passes from teammates. I don't know whether it was a lack of effort or ability. Maybe both. It was nice to see Bradley laying into him a bit on the sideline. I'm willing to see Kljestan again. And, I'm definitely excited to see Nguyen in a couple of years and in better shape. Clark was worn out and made some mistakes at the end. I'll take him over Mastroeni because of youth, but I actually think Mastro's distributing ability is not worse than Clark's. It's a bit hard to get a great read from this game since almost none of the players had ever played together before.