The U.S. men's national team plays its first match since the Confederations Cup as it begins CONCACAF Gold Cup play tonight vs. Grenada.

Most of the U.S. team's top stars are sitting this tournament out, leaving the event as an opportunity for young players to prove they belong, and veterans a chance to show they still have what it takes to contribute to the first team.

Grenada isn't expected to offer up much of a test, not with standouts Shalrie Joseph (injured knee) and Jason Roberts (declined call-up) missing from the squad. With Grenada beatable, and a much tougher test looming on Wednesday, look for Bob Bradley to field a young group tonight.

I will be providing commentary throughout the evening so please feel free to follow the pre-game and in-game action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action:

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FINAL– That's all for me tonight. Please feel free your thoughts on tonight's match in the comments section below.

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FINAL– Good stuff from Beckerman and Pause in central midfield.

As for Adu? He finished off an easy goal, and had some flashes, but it wasn't the standout performance you might have expected from him against this level of competition. The rest of the USA midfield looked pretty sharp on the night. Rogers was the star, while Holden made a strong case for being included in the mix to make the full first team.

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FINAL– USA 4, Grenada 0. The Americans do what they were expected to do, but were hardly overwhelming. Robbie Rogers put on a show tonight and Stuart Holden scores a goal in his first national team match. Overall, a solid performance in a match that could have been 7-0 or 8-0 if not for the Grenada goalkeeper.  

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91st minute– Time is almost up on this one.

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88th minute– It's not a big crowd at Qwest Field but for the 4th of July I don't think it's a bad crowd at all. Attendance is 15,387.

Adu with another wayward cross. His long touch hasn't been on today. 

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88th minute– Adu with a back-heel pass that doesn't really produce anything, the Americans keep it and knock it around. Adu is in back-heel mode now.

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87th minute– Grenada has a midfielder named Bubb, not to be confused with Bubs from 'The Wire'.

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86th minute– Grenada knocking it around aimlessly in the middle of the field. They try but just can't create in the final third. 

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85th minute– Arnaud has his shot SAVED and Rogers has a wide-open look but blasts a right-footed shot into the upper deck. Nice ball from Evans to spring Arnaud.

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83rd minute– Adu with a long shot blocked out for a corner kick. 

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81st minute– The Telefutura guys are discussing the left back position for the USA. They point out that Bocanegra isn't really a left back. They apparently don't see Rennes play much.

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80th minute– Adu with a yellow card for a handball, nice finish on the disallowed goal though.

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78th minute– Now, if Brian Ching is hurt, does this mean we will see Kenny Cooper start vs. Honduras?

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76th minute– I would pay money to see Bob Bradley do the Stanky Leg. I know, I know, it'll never happen. Maybe if they win the World Cup?

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74th minute– So Davies was doing the Stanky Leg. I couldn't tell. I can do it better than that.

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73rd minute– Adu nearly catches Noel off his line with a beautiful chip from long distance, but it hits the crossbar. WOW.

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72nd minute– Michael Parkhurst comes in for Clarence Goodson. Let the "Why didn't Kenny Cooper play" whining commence.

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70th minute– Not sure about Davies' goal dance. Maybe that's big in Sweden.

Arnaud comes in for Davies.

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69th minute– Great sequence. Marshall long pass to Pearce, who sends right into a wide-open Davies, who finishes with ease. Beautiful stuff.

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67th minute- GOAL USA!!!!!! Charlie Davies with the finish, great finish. USA 4, Grenada 0.

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65th minute– Evans' first touch as a right back is a turnover.

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63rd minute– Evans gets a yellow card for coming on too early (I think). Must be the fastest yellow card in USA history.

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63rd minute– Brad Evans comes on for Steve Cherundolo. A nice applause from the Seattle crowd for their Sounders standout. Evans looks to be playing right back today.

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61st minute– That great long ball in came from Logan Pause. Trying to tell you that Pause is a player.

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61st minute- GOAL USA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Robbie Rogers with a cool finish on a BEAUTIFUL long pass from the back. USA 3, Grenada 0.

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59th– DAVIES gets in close but his shot is blocked. Nice play by Adu to strip the ball and start the counter, but Davies has his shot blocked.

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57th minute– Adu sends a shot way over. That 3-goal spread is looking pretty good right now. Americans should find at least one more goal, but they're making it tougher than it should be.

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56th minute– Cherundolo tries a shot from distance. The Americans need to stop settling for poor looks. Stringing passes together will lead to quality looks.

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53rd minute– Some better passing but Davies mis-times his run and the sequence dies.

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52nd minute– Some nice passes from the USA but then a pointless long ball to Adu. Can we get a string of more than five passes?

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51st minute– Rogers is doing what he wants out there.

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50th minute– Beckerman sends a long ball from the back into space that Adu tries to run onto. Nice idea from Beckerman.

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47th minute-Rogers gets hit pretty hard, no foul call.

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46th minute– And we're back. 

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HALFTIME– Okay, I was half-joking about the Grenada GNP, but after a quick search I've found its GNP to be $362 million. Okay so that's double what Kaka, Robinho, Maico and Fabiano are worth, though probably less than what Real Madrid winds up spending this summer.

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HALFTIME– I know what some of you are thinking. "The last time we were leading 2-0 we wound up losing to Brazi." Well, consider Kaka, Robinho, Maicon and Luis Fabiano are worth more than the gross national product of Grenada and you realize that we're not dealing with the same thing here.

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HALFTIME– USA 2, Grenada 0. The Americans aren't in danger of losing today, and they put away some good chances. Grenada's attack doesn't offer much in the final third so the U.S. defense hasn't really been tested yet. Any complaints? None really. Some sharper passing in the middle of the field would be good to see.

Standouts? Robbie Rogers has been the man of the match, while Stuart Holden and Kyle Beckerman have also played well. Adu has shown the flashes we've come to expect, but he wasn't nearly as involved as we might have expected. That said, he finished off a great sequence with a goal, and did have a header saved, so he's been active.

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45th minute– SAVE NOEL, stops a Davies shot from close range. It wasn't that hard a shot, but the keeper was in good position.

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44th minute– The Americans aren't in any real danger here but it would be nice to see them keep the ball for longer stretches. Their passing could be sharper. If it were they would be able to pick apart this Grenada defense pretty quickly.

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41st minute– Adu nearly curls a corner kick into the net but Noel stops it (barely).

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41st minute– Jason James with a yellow card for fouling Charlie Davies.

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40th minute– What subs do I think we'll see in the second half? Cooper, Quaranta and Evans are the most likely.

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36th minute– SAVE NOEL, stops Adu from close range. Yes, an Adu header. And yes, another great ball from Rogers.

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34th minute-You want to see Grenada threaten on offense to give the Americans some sort of test in the back, but they can't string enough passes together.

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32nd minute– Holden does well to slip in front of two Grenada defenders and heads home the cross. Too easy.

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31 stminute- GOAL USA!!!!!! Stuart Holden finishes off another Rogers cross. USA 2, Grenada 0.

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30th minute– Davies with a BLAST but it's saved well by Noel.

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29th minute– Pearces tries to get in on the overlap, but can't make anything happen. Kenny Cooper will be a good sub against this defense in the second half.

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28th minute– Adu with a pass too long. He's getting plenty of time on the ball. If he's patient he will find some cracks in the Grenada defense.

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27th minute– Americans not finding the going as easy as they might have thought. Grenada is putting up a good fight here.

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20th minute– Charlie Davies tries a Maradona-like run but falls a few touches short. Showed great speed early on though. He's going to have a rough go today playing alone up top.

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19th minute– Grenada earns a corner. Not a bad sequence to get to that point from the underdogs.

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18th minute– Are those Vuvuzelas I hear at Qwest Field? Say it ain't so.

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17th minute– Cherundolo with a nice touch and good cross, but Rogers can't quite get a header on goal. Good stuff from Cherundolo.

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16th minute– Beckerman blast from long distance forces a save from the Grenada goalkeeper. Nice shot.

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13th minute– Heath Pearce with a bad touch and giveaway. Not a good start for him.

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12th minute– Hey, it's Steve Cherundolo. Don't think he'll be tested much today.

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10th minute– Adu with a hard left-footed shot, but it goes high by a foot. Nice look.

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9th minute– You can tell early on that Grenada's back-line does not have the speed to deal with the American attacking front four. This will get ugly.

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8th minute– The goal was all Robbie Rogers, who beat his man badly down the left flank and lays a pass to a wide-open Adu, who was never going to miss from that close.

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6th minute- GOAL USA!!!!!!!!!! and it's Freddy Adu. Cue the Adu fan club chorus. USA 1, Grenada 0.

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5th minute– Beckerman looks to be getting forward more. He has the skill to help getting forward, although his early passes haven't shown that.

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4th minute– Slow start to the match. Does Heath Pearce have a buzz cut? He used to have some of the best hair on the national team. Funny what a slump will make you try to do.

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2nd minute– Small crowd for this one. It's a shame the national team couldn't play at Qwest Field on a day other than July 4th.

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1st Minute– Apologies to Fox Soccer Channel, the picture is fuzzy on both channels. Talk about being spoiled by HD.

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1st minute– And we're off. The referee looks like he's 16 by the way.

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PRE-GAME– We're close to the start. For those of you wondering,I'm watching the Spanish broadcast. The Fox Soccer Channel picture is just too blurry for my taste.

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PRE-GAME– Here is Grenada's lineup:

—————–Daniel———Bain—————-

Rennie———Charles—-Bubb——P. Modeste

A. Modeste—-Marshall—-James——Langaine

————————–Noel———————–

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PRE-GAME– It will be good to see Logan Pause getting a look. He is easily one of the most underrated players in MLS. He's not flashy but he gets the job done in central midfield and can do the heavy lifting needed behind creative players.

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PRE-GAME– I know some folks are still asking about why Jay Heaps is on the Gold Cup roster. It's pretty simple. Once you take out the viable left back candidates in the pool who were at Confederations Cup and have clubs (Bornstein, Bocanegra), the pickings are pretty slim for available left backs after Heath Pearce. Who else is out there? Matt Besler? KC already has Jimmy Conrad and Davy Arnaud on the roster. Rodney Wallace? He's not eligible for the USA. Todd Dunivant? He's not close to being a better defender than Heaps (though he provides more going forward). Chris Wingert? Somewhat of a surprise but he hasn't had as good a year this year as last. Zak Whitbread? He has been used exclusively as a central defender in recent years (and was considered too slow to be a left back even when he was in the U.S. Under-23 national team mix).

This just shows you the dearth of American left backs in MLS. There's a reason the likes of Gonzalo Segares, Gino Padula, Alfredo Pacheco and Jim Brennan are in the league. All are top notch (well, save for Pacheco, who's great for El Salvador but terrible for the Red Bulls).

Let's think of some other American left back options who would have made sense for this tournament. Now ask yourself if any of them are clearly better than Heaps, a proven veteran who isn't likely to be shaken in big matches.

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PRE-GAME– Honduras scores to take a 1-0 lead in the 76th minute. And it's Carlos Costly with the finish. He will be a handful on Wednesday folks. Be warned (but then again, if you saw the qualifier in Chicago last month you already knew that).

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PRE-GAME– Okay, so that last line was a joke but a quick check of Google Analytics tells me SBI has had eight visits from Grenada in the past month. Yes folks, SBI is worldwide (or at least CONCACAF-wide).

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PRE-GAME– Anybody who can find a Grenada national team crest on the internet is welcome to post a link. I don't want the four SBI Mafia members in Grenada getting upset at me.

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PRE-GAME– Odds of Shalrie Joseph pulling a Willis Reed and limping out of the tunnel to help Grenada avoid a blowout? Zero, he's on the East Coast rehabbing his knee injury. Still would have been nice to see.

The line for tonight's game? USA by 3. It was 2.5 but the action pushed it to 3 when the lineup came out (yes I'm kidding for the sarcasm-challenged). If Joseph and Roberts were in the lineup for Grenada the line would be 1.5.

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PRE-GAME– The Honduras-Haiti match is still scoreless in the 63rd. A draw in that match would certainly make things easier in the U.S. team's quest to finish in first place in the group.

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PRE-GAME– No Brian Ching tonight. I was told that somebody who had projected to start was out injured and I'm assuming that player is Ching (though it could also be Jimmy Conrad, who is also not dressing tonight).

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PRE-GAME– Here are the subs on the bench tonight for the USA:

Luis Robles, Michael Parkhurst, Jay Heaps, Santino Quaranta, Brad Evans, Davy Arnaud, Kenny Cooper

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PRE-GAME– Adu gets partnered with the speedy Davies, who will operate as a lone forward. Americans will have some good speed in attack and Adu should have plenty of time to create against Grenada.

Beckerman and Pause get the nod and it's no surprise that the two best defensive midfielders on the roster both get the nod tonight. They'll be covering for a front four that will be focused on blitzing Grenada's back-line.

Clarence Goodson gets the call ahead of Michael Parkhurst and Jimmy Conrad, but as I said earlier, that Honduras game is tougher and it's a good bet we will see Parkhurst and Conrad against Los Catrachos.

Stuart Holden is set to get his first national team cap, meaning he will be cap-tied and will no longer have the option of switching to Scotland. Holden has been very committed to the U.S. national team program for some time so this was just a formality.

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PRE-GAME– Here is the USA lineup:

———————-Davies————————

Rogers—————-Adu——————Holden

———–Beckerman—-Pause——————–

Pearce—-Goodson—–Marshall—–Cherundolo

——————–Perkins——————

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PRE-GAME– Who is starting tonight? We should find out any minute now.

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PRE-GAME– As stated above, no Joseph or Roberts for Grenada, which will have a tough go of it at Qwest Field tonight.

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