A slightly (completely?) different version of the United States Men's National Team from the one that just competed for the Confederations Cup took to the field last night against Grenada in their first match of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Americans stomped the island boys 4-0 with goals from Freddy Adu, Stuart Holden, Charlie Davies, and Robbie Rogers. Bradley's "B" squad looked good together, dominating the match and creating chance after chance.

A few observations from the game, keeping in mind the competition (of whom I have no real sense, and who was missing two key players):

Freddy Adu is a rusty player

Adu was a model of inconsistency last night, his passes often going astray, his positioning questionable, and his ability to keep the ball suspect. I'm willing to give him a bit of a pass considering his lack of competitive game time, but he better get himself together quickly if he wants to both be a part of the US team going forward as well as get himself to a new club at any point in near future.

Robbie Rogers is damn good

Rogers was the Man of the Match for most last night (including me), constantly harassing the Grenadian defense and serving dangerous balls into the middle for his teammates. One match means nothing in the grand scheme, but if Rogers plays like he did last night throughout the remainder of the tournament, his chances of heading to Mexico in August might be pretty good.

The Gold Cup is worth a look

I'll admit, it's hard to get up for this tournament the way we all did for the Confederations Cup; but it's clearly a tournament worth watching, both from a USMNT fan perspective as well as from a pure footy-freak one. The US shouldn't (knock on wood) have too much trouble getting themselves into the final, and I'll be extremely interested to see how these kids and a few retreads handle the pressure.

Keep playing the kids

I for one, would prefer not to see known quantities play too much in the Gold Cup. I had assumed the worst and predicted that Bradley would play Brian Ching last night; not only did Ching not play, he didn't even dress for the match. That's a good sign, and perhaps shows that Bradley intends to give the younger players as much of a run-out as is possible while maintaining control of the team's tournament chances. Experience isn't gained by simply being there; the kids need to play, and play as much as is possible.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the next US match at RFK Stadium on Wednesday night, so I'll be at home attempting to glean what I can from the FSC broadcast. Honduras will definitely be a stiffer test than Grenada, and I think we'll learn a lot more about those players Bradley sends out (provided they're not the same old guys or too many of the seven added players that were on the Confed Cup team) in that match than we did last night. But a 4-0 win over a team they were supposed to beat and beat handily is a good start.