Post-match thoughts

The U.S. started defense of their Gold Cup title successfully with a 1-0 win over Guatemala. But there is plenty of room for improvement going forward. The game wasn't pretty and by the end it seemed the U.S. just wanted to escape with their three points, which is what ended up happening.

Some thoughts on the match:

- Oguchi Onyewu did not play a great game. Even before his second yellow, he wasn't the force he needed to be. At times he killed Guatemalan chances but other times he was in bad positions and let himself get into a bad situation on the second yellow. The U.S. will miss his athleticism against Trinidad.

- Carlos Bocanegra wasn't exactly a pillar of strength either. He had a bad clearance attempt that nearly was a Guatemalan goal early in the match. He lost his head a bit and saw yellow after giving away a free kick late in the game. The call was for fouling Carlos Ruiz, a call that was absolute garbage, but Bocanegra needs to be better than snapping at the referee especially while wearing the captain's armband.

- Taylor Twellman got the start for a couple of reasons. First, Bradley said he wanted Eddie Johnson to have a couple more days to rest up for Trinidad even though he came on late in the match. He was probably planning on starting one forward in one game and another in the other. He also said that the Guatemala game was "tailor-made for Taylor," then laughed and apologized for the pun. It really was a game that Twellman could have shined in. He had a great assist on Dempsey's goal but Twellman missed an open header late in the first half that could have broken the game open. Landon Donovan crossed into the box and Twellman ran onto it and slammed a header on frame but the ball went over the crossbar. I contended that if he was wearing a Revolution jersey, there is no way that ball wouldn't have found the back of the net. For some reason, though, that stuff happens to him in a U.S. jersey. He could be such a dangerous weapon for the U.S. if he could put shots on frame.

- I don't know if it was intentional but Landon Donovan out on the right was not as effective weapon he could have been had he roamed more. I don't know if he had the freedom to move around or not but he stayed on the right side quite a bit. Overall, the flank play was the difference in the game so it could have had an overall positive affect but Donovan seemed to be too tied down to that side of the field. There's no way of knowing what would have happened had Gooch not got sent off but I think Bradley was going to put Donovan up top when he subbed in Steve Ralston and maybe that could have led to a late counterattack opportunity for Donovan. Still, he had some good crosses and runs and he did well on the set pieces.

- The young guys held their own. Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein all played well enough to maintain their starting spots - fitness setbacks aside - for Saturday's match. Bradley was very active in the middle of the field and Feilhaber did well on the ball while Bornstein did a good job on, uh, that Guatemalan forward, whatever his name was, number 11 I think. Bornstein gave away a few inches and pounds to that guy but still did well. He also started the goal-scoring play when he fed DaMarcus Beasley, who then fed Twellman and then Dempsey.

- The crowd was very loud and very pro-Guatemalan. Frankie Hejduk, though, didn't mind or notice really. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler: "I'm so used to it by now. It doesn't even faze me. I'd rather have 20,000 Guatemalans and have a full stadium than have 5,000 people here and the stadium be empty. This is what we play for. This is what we live for, having a little pressure."