By Ridge Mahoney Yes to Landon Donovan and no to Carlos Bocanegra drew the most attention Thursday upon release of the initial Gold Cup roster of 23 U.S. players.

The stats don't look good, do they? The USA was outscored 9-3 in three games at the U-20 World Cup and exited in the first round with two losses and a tie.

Gold Cup rosters are due Thursday -- 23 players trimmed down from 35 for the Concacaf tournament that kicks off July 7.

Another sellout crowd at Jeld-Wen Field saw a vintage performance by Rodney Wallace as Portland downed Colorado, 3-0, Sunday to retain its spot atop the Power Rankings.

As the euphoria of Jozy Altidore's four-game scoring streak begins to ebb, it's time to acknowledge a heartening trend at the other end of the field, namely, the lack of desperation situations imposed on keeper Tim Howard.

The "heat map" is an interesting beast. Media outlets and Web sites use them to represent how extensively a player moves about the field and ostensibly, how much time he spends in each area he visits and how much energy he expends. From a heat map you can get an idea, for example, how much a left back got forward during a game and an approximation of whether those were just casual jogs or full-out sprints.

Its shortened schedule to accommodate the FIFA international playing dates turned out to be a case of less is more for MLS.

The 2014 World Cup is about a year away. How does the U.S. team compare to its counterpart four years ago?

Just as far too much angst and worry were expressed in the wake of a 2-1 loss to Honduras in February, the amount of euphoria and adulation lavished on the 2-0 defeat of Panama Tuesday is probably a bit much. But only a bit.

As the USA moves closer to returning to the World Cup finals -- the path will widen considerably if it beats Honduras on Tuesday -- attention begins to turn to who would go.

In its 2-0 win over Panama on Tuesday, its most convincing effort in the Hexagonal so far, the USA got stellar performances on the backline, in midfield and upfront.

Jurgen Klinsmann and Sigi Schmid share a lot in common. Both are from the Stuttgart area in southern Germany, both speak Swabian, the local dialect, and both come from families that emphasize hard work.

It seems as if many of the pundits, including this one, were wrong about the Hexagonal.

A light week of five games nevertheless produced some movement in the weekly Power Rankings, with Seattle and Real Salt Lake moving up in the Western Conference and the defending champion Galaxy sliding in the other direction.

One thing has become very apparent about the U.S. national team during this World Cup 2014 qualifying cycle: it pays to be flexible. Brad Evans, hero of the 2-1 win over Jamaica on Friday, is an extreme example.