Ugh, oh

What's worrisome to me is that the U.S. lowered themselves and got stuck down there playing their opponent's game. That can happen.

Kyle Martino said something about it, when I asked him about the USL opponents the Galaxy faced in their recent preseason tournament.

"Those games are always tough because it’s a lose-lose situation for you," said the sometime-national team midfielder. "If you blow them out, it’s what’s expected, and those guys are coming to take your job and they’re coming with chips on their shoulders to really prove something. It’s always tough playing those teams. You have to tip your hat to them, they give a lot of effort, and every time we play them, they make it a battle. Unfortunately, more times than not, the level drops. They kind of bring it down to their level and make it a scrappy, dirty game with a lot of intensity. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit."

So I'll give Guatemala credit, and also add that for them, this was a Gold Cup dress rehearsal of sorts. It may not be pretty (I'm thinking Greece in the last Euro Championships), but if the U.S. doesn't figure out a way out of the muck of these kinds of games, Guatemala could end up with results like this against the Americans time and again.