USA coach Arena, Keller sound off
Jamie Trecker / Fox Soccer Channel
DORTMUND, Germany - The message was clear: The Americans got a wake-up call tonight, and some of these players won't be around anymore.
In a scathing series of statements both manager Bruce Arena and goalkeeper Kasey Keller lit into a side that conceded four second-half goals in a 4-1 collapse tonight at the Westfalen stadium.
"Tonight was a reality check for us," said a seething Keller after the game in an interview littered with curse words. "I don't think I can express how I feel in words you guys can print."
Arena was no less cutting: The MLS players? "I think you saw that they were very unfit to play at this level," said Arena.
Bobby Convey, the lone attacking midfielder? "He didn't do well defensively — his man (Arne Freidrich) outplayed him in that aspect of the game."
Was he happy with anyone? "I don't think too many players played themselves onto the World Cup roster tonight."
The bottom line, according to Keller: "These guys have to know that a team like this isn't just going to let you run around. I think some of us thought we could walk out on the field and kick the s--- out of anyone. Maybe some of these guys took our ranking too seriously."
Strong stuff — but did the team get the message?
Heavily-criticized defender Gregg Berhalter — who was involved in three of the four goals — tried to deflect some of the blame tonight, saying: "We gave them too much space at the back, but you have to play defense as a group."
Keller wasn't having it. Without singling anyone out, anyone who saw the game knew what and who Keller was talking about when he called the mistakes "stupid" and added that "you can't just let the ball bounce around in your box like that."
The truth is tonight probably doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Despite the name on the jersey, this was hardly the side you'll see come June.
Yet this game shouldn't have been this ugly for the Americans, despite their reduced status.
"We got beat and we deserved to get beat," said Arena. "This was the USA playing tonight — it doesn't matter who we were missing."
Arena now must go back to the drawing board and reevaluate an historic problem area for the American team: the defense. As seen in 1990, 1994, 1998 and yes, even 2002, defense and lapses of concentration chronically plague this side.
Several Americans — notably Chris Klein, Brian Ching and Kerry Zavagnin — lacked any sort of spring in their steps and at one point defenders Cory Gibbs and Berhalter were inexplicably conceding the entire right side of the field to the German offense.
Arena, who usually shoulders all blame, did admit that he wished he hadn't taken a "second-string team" to play Germany.
"We got hurt when Josh (Wolff) had to come out [concussion] but we made a dumb mistake at the start of the first half that allowed the Germans to play to their strengths."
As for any charity to the German team, which has been in a media-stoked crisis?
"Who cares about the Germans," said Keller. "I care more about what this does for us. Maybe we needed our ass kicked."
