USA 4-1 Cuba

The United States Men's National Team defeated Cuba 4-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday afternoon in their second group game of the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup and have already locked up a spot in the quarterfinals with one group game remaining. Here are my thoughts on the game in no particular order:

• Brek Shea was totally out of it today. He's looked pretty lively so far in the Guatemala friendly and Belize match so hopefully this was just one of those duds every player in the world has every once in a while. It's also important to keep the big picture in mind - he's coming back from a broken foot and hasn't played very much in several months so he hasn't worked all the rust off just yet. We all know what he can do when he's healthy.
• Rimando hasn't had a clean sheet yet in the Gold Cup but it's hardly his fault, he has been fantastic when called upon. (Side note - I honestly think Rimando is the most underrated American keeper of all time and I would be completely fine if he ever started in place of Howard or Guzan. Boom.) He has great reflexes, reads crosses well, and is great with his feet.
• Onyewu's ball watching on Cuba's goal was really, really bad. The striker literally only had one run he could possibly make and Gooch just let him do it. Poor. Also had an extremely risky play in the second that could have resulted in a penalty where he tried to body a striker off the ball and keep possession rather than just clear it. Other than that he was decent, I don't remember him giving away silly balls out of the back and he won some aerial duels. I don't see him taking the spot of either Gonzalez or Besler anytime soon.
• Is it just me or does Orozco have a weird knack for winning headers in the box? Weird in that he's relatively short for a center back. He had a decent game, didn't really stand out in a good or bad way.
• It must have felt nice for Beltran to play in front of his home crowd. He was ok, not much to say. I don't see him having a realistic shot at a spot on the World Cup roster with Chandler, Parkhurst, Brad Evans, and even Cherundolo ahead of him on the pecking order.
• What a curler from Joe Corona. Good game from him, his best one so far in a USA shirt. Now let's see it versus a real team.
• Castillo was great... in the second half when he was pushed higher up the pitch while not defending. He has never impressed me as a left back, he's such a huge liability in defense. I prefer Beasley and Fabian at that spot.
• Holden had was a bit off today but he gets a pass in my book, he has been outstanding in the last two games and is still shaking off the last bit of rust from his injury.
• Good things happen when Mix Diskerud is on the field. He has great technique and is always looking for that penetrative forward pass. His hair alone deserves its own bullet point, I mean just look at it. It's freaking gorgeous.

• Kyle Beckerman was good, he tracked back well and had a beautiful assist to Wondowlowski. Beckerman gets a lot of flack from USMNT supporters (including myself) but honestly he's very good at what he does and I need to stop bashing him because it's unwarranted. I think we do this to him because we always want our midfielders to play a forward pass every time, which is not what he does. He's also not as "flashy" or "cool" as we want our midfielders to be. Now do I think he should have a place on the World Cup team? No, absolutely not. But he is much better than people give him credit for. After all, he did provide the winning assist against the recently crowned European champions last year...
• Wondo makes outstanding runs in the box (John Terry complimented this aspect of his game in the MLS All-Star game last year) and always has, that's what he makes his living off of. He's finally getting the right service to take advantage of them and what do you know, he has been scoring goals left and right. This is probably an unpopular opinion but I honestly like him a bit more than Herculez Gomez as a striker. Gomez for some reason has never really impressed me as a scorer. Will Wondo keep this up throughout the Gold Cup or is it just the result of playing sucky teams? We shall see. If he does keep it up, it might be enough to solidify a place in the upcoming qualifiers later this year.
• Jose Francisco Torres was solid yet again, much better than Shea today. Had a beautiful outside-of-the-boot pass to Castillo in the buildup to the final goal. I like him.
• Below is my updated, current preferred Gold Cup starting XI. I don't really like any of our center backs so I went with a pairing we haven't seen yet:

• My last point is this: Landon Donovan is still the best American soccer player. He and Michael Bradley are the two biggest keys to this current national team and will be the two keys in Brazil next year. Start him in the upcoming qualifiers, Klinsmann.