Get it Together, USA

The U.S. Men's National team, looking for an appropriate response after a disappointing loss to Panama this weekend, took on island nation minnows Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup last night. USA won the game 1-0, but the response we were looking for was nowhere to be found:

After Saturday's stunning upset loss to Panama, the U.S. rebounded -- to a degree -- by defeating Guadeloupe, 1-0, courtesy of Jozy Altidore's 25-yard piledriver in the first half. In the process, the Americans secured second place in Group C of the Gold Cup, and now they'll face a red-hot Jamaica side in Saturday's first quarterfinal at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Of course, in the aftermath of the Panama result, there was always going to be more to judging the U.S. performance than the score. When Panama drew with Canada, 1-1, in the evening's first match, it dashed the U.S. hopes of coming back to win the group, but also gave it the knowledge that a draw would be good enough to progress. So the questions centered on whether the Americans would show more fight in defense, more composure on the ball, and deliver the kind of result that would send a message to their Gold Cup competitors.

Well, two out of three is what they had to settle for on this occasion.

In truth, it's certainly possible that the fact that the U.S. only needed a draw to advance to the next round weighed on their performance. It's also true that Guadeloupe, a French protectorate that is not eligible to play in World Cups, lost their other two group matches by one goal. The bottom line, though, is that the Americans were expected to perform. Not just to embarrass a much smaller opponent, but to prove our own standing within our confederation. A lackluster win over Canada, a pretty definitive loss to Panama on home soil and a one-goal win last night is simply not getting it done.

It would be one thing if we sent an experimental roster full of up and coming young players to this tournament. To some extent, that is the case for players such as Tim Ream, Alejandro Bedoya, and Juan Agudelo, to name a few. However, this is still our senior roster with all of our stars (Howard, Donovan, Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Altidore). Really, more important than the actual scoreline from last night was how the team played, and by all accounts we played like a team that had to scrape out a 1-nil win against a miniscule Guadeloupe side on U.S. soil.

When all of your best players are collected and the performances are still lacking, the responsibility is ultimately going to fall on the head coach. A quick Google search for "Bob Bradley hot seat" would suggest that the man in charge has been in danger of losing his position since prior to the 2009 Confederations Cup. In my opinion, it's hard to look at him and point to any one thing that he has done, or hasn't done, to warrant firing him and hiring a different coach. This is where the USSF, led by Sunil Gulati (looks like a broke-ass, unfunny Aziz Ansari), needs to once again take notice to how other soccer associations do things.

It is extremely rare for one coach to oversee a national team over more than one World Cup cycle, which is what Bradley will theoretically get the chance to do. In his case, the roster we have could arguably achieve greater things than a Round of 16 appearance, and it's possible that we may need another footballing mind to help get those types of results from them. Realistically, we may be tied to Bradley for another three years unless the team falters badly enough to see him get dismissed after the Gold Cup. The downside to that, however, is that the calendar year up to this point would have been a wasted opportunity to help get a new coach acclimated.

This makes the USA's quarterfinal match against Jamaica that much more significant. The players could well be playing to save Bradley's job yet again, though when you think about it, it's like they've been doing that for almost two-and-a-half years straight.

For a D.C.-related tie-in, Sunday's match will take place at RFK Stadium. With tickets costing $60 a pop, I will not be in attendance, but it's still very cool all the same. Let's hope for a better result than the USA World Cup qualifier I did attend at RFK in 2001, when we lost to Honduras in front of a pretty much split crowd. I'll never forgive you, Earnie Stewart!