Bruce and Bob

Bruce Arena was asked at the Galaxy presser what he thought of the U.S. game versus Cuba.

"It was good," he answered, but he looked so utterly unimpressed that the entire group of journalists cracked up with laughter. "That kind of performance to is be expected. Cuba is not a strong team. They're an amateur team, basically."

One way to take that is that Bruce is exactly right, Cuba wasn't a strong team, even without players defecting. Another way to take that is that Bruce perhaps doesn't like the idea that another coach could surpass his own accomplishments, and his praise was a bir grudging based on that. Or maybe, Bruce was miffed that Bob Bradly didn't pull Landon Donovan after the USMNT game had been put out of reach by the Americans.

I watched the Cuba game thinking that Landon might, just might, because he's crazy like that, make it back from that for the Galaxy game if the U.S. routed Cuba and he got pulled early for a more inexperienced player. Instead, Landon went the full 90, so it was a surprise to see him on the bench, let alone on the field, for the Galaxy.

That wasn't Bruce's idea. He told reporters that he hadn't even had contact with Landon until his phone rang and Landon told Bruce that he'd come back and thought he could play in the game.