What the heck's wrong with the U.S. Men's national soccer team?

In a pre-World Cup warm-up, the U.S. Men's national team met Germany in Dortmund today, and promptly had their asses handed to them. To be fair, it's just an exhibition. Most of the pressure was on Germany to play well given a disastrous performance they had against Italy earlier this month. And they played pretty well for most of the first half, actually driving frustrated German fans to boo and whistle at their own team at the end of the half. Besides, the primary purpose of exhibitions at this point prior to the World Cup is to get players playing time so coaches can weigh who may make the final roster. So, how did that go?

"What this game proves is who can play at this level and who can't," U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller said.

"I don't think too many players played themselves onto our World Cup roster tonight, to be honest with you," coach Bruce Arena said.

So uh, maybe it didn't serve that purpose too well either. But at least we might have a better idea of who won't be on the roster come June, right?

Fortunately, key members of the team that are assured to be starting in the World Cup were not present today so this is hardly a measure of the ability of the full-strength squad. And there are four more tune-ups before the Cup starts, so there's plenty of time to test out the new blood.

But still...it's just a little embarassing.

Note: In case you missed by earlier post, I give you fair warning that soccer will be blogged here, especially as this is a World Cup year. Come about the beginning of June, I may even be looking for some guest bloggers as I plan to enjoy some serious recliner time in front of the TV.

UPDATE: This little tid-bit at the Washington Post quotes U.S. Soccer chief Sunil Gulati as saying another shot at a U.S. women's league may be in the offing in the "near" future. I think it sucked that the first league only had three years to prove itself; with more time it could really work, so this is good news.