Warm-ups show U.S. has work to do before World Cup

The World Cup is less than a year away, and the U.S. men look far from ready.

They've lost three of their last four games, are getting scored on faster than fans can take their seats and are on the verge of a meek exit from the Confederations Cup, a tournament featuring some of the best international soccer teams.

As if that's not enough, the guy responsible for one of the U.S. losses is an Italian by way of New Jersey.

Not exactly the ideal warmup.

"I, maybe like a lot of people, thought this team was further along than it is," said Alexi Lalas, the colorful star of the U.S. team at the 1994 World Cup who is now working as an analyst for ESPN.

"The sky is not falling. This still can be a very good team," Lalas added. "But I think there's some questions that the past month has raised with regard to, can this team compete at the World Cup? Because, ultimately, that's what matters."

Soccer is the biggest game on the planet and the World Cup the ultimate prize. Americans may not share the global love affair with the beautiful game yet, but they like big events and they'll get behind any team with "USA" on the front of its jerseys.

They'd bought more tickets for next year's World Cup in South Africa than fans from any other nation as of last month, no doubt hoping it will be the year the Americans make a deep run — or at least match the 2002 team's surprising advance to the quarterfinals.

Judging by the way the U.S. team has played in the Confederations Cup and its last two World Cup qualifiers, though, the Americans have a long way to go before they catch the Spains, Brazils and Italys of the world.

We're talking years, not months.

"The expectations of the American fans, the knowledge of the American fans has grown quite dramatically," said Marcelo Balboa, a defensive stalwart on the 1990 and '94 U.S. teams. "We wanted to get to this point and, now that we're here, we've got to take the good with the bad."

Injuries to veterans Carlos Bocanegra, Frankie Hejduk and Steve Cherundolo have left the United States a sieve defensively. When Brazil scored in the seventh minute of its 3-0 victory Thursday at the Confederations Cup, it was the third time in four matches — all since June 3 — that the Americans gave up a goal in the first 10 minutes.