God Bless You, Jonathan Spector

After getting demolished - DEMOLISED! - in Costa Rica just last week, I was hesitant to tune into Saturday night's USA v. Honduras WCQ game. In the former, Marvelle Wynne started at left back. Marvelle Wynne. He's big! He's fast! He's the prototypical US soccer player! Especially in that he is simply big and fast, with no discernible soccer skills (see Onyewu, Oguchi and Ching, Brian). Nevermind the fact that Jonathan Spector flew like 30 hours to join the team in San Jose from England or that Spector starts week in, week out in the EPL. We've got Marvelle Wynne!

It started poorly - Carlos Bocanegra being Carlos Bocanegra, missing a tackle and giving up a goal within 5 minutes. At this point I truly believe that Onyewu and Bocanegra only play because of their offensive threat on set plays (Bocanegra would later score what turned out to be the winning goal, before injuring himself less than a minute later on another poor tackle). I don't know what's more troubling - the fact that our central defense is picked not for their defensive skill, but their offensive contributions or the fact that we can't depend on innate offensive players to score. But after that the US settled in. Landon Donovan actually attacked defenders - something he's rarely done since 2002. Geez, even Ricardo Clark looked good.

And then there was Spector. Perfect positioning. Completely effective tackling. And those overlapping runs and crosses - a thing of beauty down the right. His combos with Dempsey were straight out of the EPL. Every time the US attacked from the right, he was involved in the build-up. Yet every time Honduras countered, he was back in place. Never once did I fear a Honduran attack from their left because I knew there was no way they were getting past Spector. I have never had such confidence in any US player. What's troubling is that Spector is now 23 and has been playing regularly in England for over 5 years, yet this one of his first starts in WCQ. He continually takes a back seat to bums like Wynne or Jonathan Bornstein - MLS regulars who simply rely on athleticism to get by and who cannot cope with the pace and skill of international players. If Spector stays healthy, he should be starting for the US for the next 10 years.

As usual, Jamie Trecker has his scathing review of the US team post Costa Rica here. He's spot on. I think if the US has any hopes of succeeding next summer in South Africa they need to find a replacement for Bob Bradley. Nothing against Bradley personally - he just doesn't have the tactical acumen to take this team to the next level. Furthermore, he doesn't have the guts to bench the US "regulars", which has led to complacence.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the Confederations Cup next week. The US will be playing loaded Italy and Brazil squads in group play. It should be rather illuminating, and by "illuminating" I mean "embarrassing".