THE KEY TO OUR CUP:

Good ol' Gooch (Luke Cyphers and Doug McIntyre, 6/15/10, ESPN)

What's clear now, though, is that Bradley made the right choice in picking Onyewu and sticking with him against England. Onyewu got caught in no-man's land on Steven Gerrard's goal four minutes into the match, and Heskey created problems for the U.S. defense much of the evening. But as the game wore on, Onyewu's size and physicality began to wear on England. His second half was better than his first. "As far as Gooch getting better," Bradley said, "I would agree with that."

Onyewu fought Heskey to a standstill in the second half, smothered the 6-7 Crouch after he came on late in the match, and provided valuable help on Rooney just as Rooney began to see the ball.

Onyewu proved he was ready all the way back in the 59th minute. England's Shaun Wright-Phillips played a diagonal pass upfield from deep inside his own half to Heskey, who was well-covered with his back to goal and thus wisely let it run to a streaking Rooney. The England striker isolated Gooch one-on-one 50 yards from the American net, and took off on one of his patented scoring sprints. But Onyewu's GPS-perfect positioning meant his ample body was already in front of Rooney, and he easily won the race against the lighting-quick Englishman to calmly knock the ball away from danger. "That was a test for the damaged knee," noted commentator Martin Tyler on ABC's broadcast. "When you get exposed like that in the open field, it's very difficult," added color man John Harkes. "He used his pace to stay with Rooney."

All along, Onyewu has said he'd be ready, and even before he'd played a full match, he was showing signs of his old self, with a good second half against Turkey.

If he and DeMerit--with Michael Bradley and either Ricardo Clark or Edu/Torres--can return to the form of the Confederations Cup, the defensive square in front of goal makes us a formidable squad.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 15, 2010 3:20 PM