USA 3, Ecuador 1

No delaying the most important issue, the new kits: They're awful, but not as hwakakakcularly as I feared. I wish the blue was darker, not Wigan blue or Reading blue or Chelsea blue or Portsmouth blue or Everton blue, not the blue of every English team that isn't red or claret, not Kansas City Wizard blue.

Donovan was fabulous, but he's often fabulous in games of little import. Bitterness schmitterness, if Donovan had run at Ghana last summer like he ran at Ecuador yesterday, the US, not Ghana, would have had the honor of losing to Brazil in Germany. Forgive me my churlishness, but a hat-trick in a friendly in March in Tampa does not herald the fifteenth coming of America's soccer savior, the hallelujahs of the World's Worst Soccer Announcer Dave O'Brien notwithstanding. (Or this guy's.) (Or this guy's.)

I hope Bradley's yank of Eddie Johnson at half-time signals Bradley has given Johnson all the chances needed to definitively confirm Johnson's uselessness. Ching is brave but limited, Twellman showed why he's a bencher, so what does the US do for strikers? I'm extremely curious to see who Bradley starts up top v Guatemala Wednesday.

And Beasley, feh, but with Convey (feh) injured there are no other left-footers. Feilhaber is raw but has speed and skills, and Dempsey will run at people (and then strangely disappear for whole blocks of minutes). Conrad and Onyewu will develop (they'd better) more coordination, and Tim Howard can start for me, though his organization in front of him needs work: the defense looked shaky.

Wednesday should be fascinating to see what adjustments Bradley makes and if he gives other players minutes. And what he does, if anything, to fix the defense.

Here are Goff's grades:

Howard 5; Cherundolo 5, Onyewu 4, Conrad 4, Bocanegra 6; Feilhaber 5, Beasley 4, Dempsey 4, Donovan 9; Ching 6, Johnson 3. Subs: Bradley 6, Twellman 5, Mullan 5, Spector 5, Carroll no rating.

UPDATE:

Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney's grades:

STARTERS:
6 Tim Howard (Everton ENG 18/0)
6 Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96 GER 39/1)
5 Oguchi Onyewu (Newcastle ENG 18/1)
5 Jim Conrad (Kansas City 20/1)
4 Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham ENG 44/6)
5 Clint Dempsey (Fulham/ENG 25/6)
7 Benny Feilhaber (Hamburg SV GER 1/0)
6 DaMarcus Beasley (Manchester City 62/12)
9 Landon Donovan (Los Angeles 87/30)
4 Eddie Johnson (Kansas City 23/9)
6 Brian Ching (Houston 21/4)

SUBSTITUTES:
6 Michael Bradley (Heerenveen/NED 3/0)
4 Taylor Twellman (New England 20/5)
5 Jonathan Spector (West Ham ENG 4/0)
5 Brian Mullan (Houston 3/0)
NR Justin Mapp (Chicago 3/0)
NR Brian Carroll (D.C. United 5/0)