*Originally published October 15th, 2008

Against Trinidad and Tobago, the youngsters on the U.S. National Team had a chance to show why they deserve more respect. The game didn’t affect U.S. qualification chances, but meant a lot to the youth on the field. It also meant a lot to all those fans, like myself, who have been waiting for Bob Bradley to wake up and play the much-hyped studs who might impact the next World Cup.

Maurice Edu making possibly his best play of the game.

Unfortunately, the game proved Bradley right up to this point in his decision to bench unseasoned youth in favor of more battle-tested veterans. The U.S. team looked green and shaky against a rugged and unusually organized Trinidad squad.

The U.S. was disorganized in midfield. They got pushed off the ball. They lacked drive on the attack. And they had trouble stringing more than two passes together going forward. That is, they looked pretty much like the regular U.S. team. Except this one lacked the discipline and grit required to pull out a win in a tough environment.

Trinidad’s powerful midfield duo of Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy made the U.S’s lack of leadership all the more obvious. These two, who boast a combined age of 76, dished out lessons in composure and positive passing.

I hope Maurice Edu, who completed about 10 % of his passes on the night, and Sacha Kljestan, who I can’t remember making a forward pass, took notes. Maybe such lessons will pay off in the future.

Bradley has the difficult job of developing young players and winning at the same time. To win, it is necessary to keep veteran players on the field. But I hope Bradley doesn’t abandon the idea of throwing young players into the fire of meaningful international competition.

Last time I checked, the U.S. doesn’t have any stalwart veterans like Yorke or Latapy. We need our younger players to be our leaders. Besides Donovan and our goalkeepers we have few candidates to choose from. We need to forge them, and fast.

Putting Hejduk in at right back and thinking you’re injecting a cool-headed veteran into the side is laughable. I’m pretty sure my mom has a better first touch than Frankie.

I get it. Hejduk works hard. He gets endline to endline. He’s one of our best on-the-ball defenders. Apparently “He’s one of those great locker room guys,” according to John Harkes. Awesome. He seems like a cool guy who’s really fucking pumped to be in there–maybe a little too pumped.

Hejduk looks more comfortable chugging beer than he does with a ball at his feet

I just don’t want to watch him play National Team soccer any more. Hejduk squandered some of the best U.S. chances in the first half with his remarkable inability to kick the ball. And a typical turnover in the second half led to the counter-attack that produced Latapy’s goal.

Seriously. Can we get Marvelle Wynne a spot?

All of the brightest performers on the night wore red shirts. Carlos Edwards was, for the second game in a row against the U.S., the best player on the pitch. He showed infinite energy, pace, and guile. He got into dangerous spaces and created Latapy’s goal.

GRADING THE U.S. LINE UP:

* Brad Guzan (5). Not steady. He made a save on a dangerous free kick and dealt with a few balls in the air.
* Micahel Orosco (5). He didn’t make any glaring mistakes and read dangerous situations reasonably well. In typical U.S. center-back fashion, he couldn’t find anybody up field and booted balls out of bounds instead.
* Heath Pearce (5). Pearce got involved in the attack, especially in the second half, and showed some steadiness on the ball. He got cut up a few times by Edwards on the wing. But I’m not sure any other U.S. defender could have done better.
* Frankie Hejduk (2). Good hustle. Atrocious everything else.
* Maruice Edu (3). Who the hell was he passing to? Most often it was either nobody or a red shirt. He also failed to recover on Trinidad’s first goal.
* Sacha Kljestan (4). Kept the ball in the middle of the field. But he distributed the ball poorly and showed limited creativity on the attack.
* Freddy Adu (6). Again the most composed player on the ball. He showed flashes of brilliance in the first half, cutting into dangerous spaces and distributing. He disappeared in the second half.
* DeMarcus Beasley (6). Active on the flank. He made some dangerous runs with the ball, but didn’t link up well with other attacking players.
* Jose Altidore (5). Absent for most of the game. He was involved with two bogus offsides calls that would have led to scoring opportunities. He made some promising runs at the Trinidad defense. He also assisted Davies’ goal after a lucky bounce.
* Charlie Davies (7). Lively and dangerous as a sub. An immediate injection of energy and purpose. Scored.

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