Closing the book on U.S.-Canada

Sometimes SI.com does the appetizer portion of player ratings. For a huge tournament like Copa de Oro, we’ll pull out the heavy weapons, the dinner sized portion of player evaluations. You can find them here, written by little ol’ me.

Beyond the match, here are two quick points about the United States’ 2-0 win over Canada.

• Michael Bradley got the highest game rating (along with Tim Howard). I thought he had a tremendous match, full of industry and leadership to go with the passing and committed ability to get forward. But that yellow card was foolish. It’s still an area of his game that needs polish. Save the yellow cards for that 70^th minute instance when you need it, when stopping a counter attack or yanking down a hell-bent attacker just before he reaches the penalty area is worth the booking. Or, don’t get booked at all! I checked with U.S. Soccer this morning, and tournament rules do wipe out cards after the first round. Still, why takes chances on something as silly as time delay?
• Oh, Canada. Why, oh why, can’t this country be a little better? The Canadian roster isn’t going to make Argentina or Spain turn and take notice, but it’s not gawd-awful! But there’s something just not quite right about that team. Mid-level sides with a good player or two (hello … you have Dwayne De Rosario! And Atiba Hutchinson isn’t too shabby, either) find ways to exploit their strong points and mitigate their weak ones. And they have to be organized. I just don’t see much structure in the attack, and the defense wasn’t generally compact enough. Tactically, I didn’t get the point of playing a 4-3-3 and then dropping off to defend. Technically, the defending wasn’t particularly strong and the goalkeeping … well, we’re not even going to talk about that first goal. Canada hasn’t been to a World Cup since 1986. Since then, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and Honduras have all been. (Obviously, so has the U.S. and Mexico.) You would have thought Canada might have stumbled into one of them, if only accidentally. The CSA needs to get its act together.