Time to panic over the U.S. World Cup team? Not just yet

The fear and the fury are spilling over at fever pitch this morning. The United States fell to World Cup also-ran Czech Republic. Boo, us.

But I’m here to tell you, Chicken Little, the sky isn’t falling. Yet.

There is plenty to be concerned about, to be sure. Injuries and rampant uncertainty along the back line has replaced injury and uncertainty at striker as the worry du jour.

Still, talk yourself in off the ledge.  Get a relaxing message. Lay off the caffeine for a day.  Just settle down!  There’s time yet for proper panic, if it comes to that – and it may.  You just don’t want to leave it all out on the field during warm-ups, so to speak.

Meanwhile, here area few things to keep in mind.

Did you see England on Monday? Holy Bobby Charlton! They weren’t good. Mexico clocked the Brits in the run of play. (El Tri just doesn’t have a 6-7 striker; England does.)  England will be much better with John Terry and Frank Lampard on the field. Still, it goes to show that these World Cup warm-ups are just that.

Along those lines: Portugal 0, Cape Verde Islands 0. Raise your hands if you can point to Cape Verde Islands on a map. Thought not. Let’s move on.

If you want a full set of player-by-player ratings and analysis in an expanded format from Tuesday, go here. I’ll be doing one of these at SI.com for as long as the U.S. is playing this summer. Meanwhile, in the bigger picture …

Pins are being pulled on verbal grenades, many aimed at the U.S. coach. As I always say, you can disagree with Bob Bradley’s tactics and general approaches; that’s your right as a U.S. supporter.  But be reasonable.  To wit: it’s not Bradley’s fault that the United States doesn’t have a worthy left back at the moment.  It’s not Bradley’s fault that the top U.S. center back blew out his knee. It’s not his fault that Jay DeMerit is struggling with some odd vision issues that surely must be concerning to the young American defender in the big picture. Chad Marshall's hamstring struggles? Well, you get the picture.

As for assertions that Bradley didn’t properly build depth along the back line, well, click forward ...

Marvell Wynne played during the four-year cycle, and he isn’t an international caliber defender. Period. Neither are Michael Orozco nor Michael Parkhurst, in my opinion. Heath Pearce struggles with the speed of the international game. Do you think Drew Moor is faster than Pearce? Moor started one qualifier and played in other matches during the four-year cycle.

Danny Califf, anyone? He played in three qualifiers, and I’ve watched that guy kill his team (Philadelphia Union) with sloppy ball handling and ridiculous, needless fouls so far this year.

By the way, 8 of 16 MLS teams have a foreigner starting at left back at the moment. (Including Roger Espinoza atKansas City; he’s been pretty good this year, which makes sense as he’s en route to the World Cup as part ofHonduras’ squad.)

Otherwise, the starting left backs are Todd Dunivant, Chris Tierney, Mike Chabala, Rodney Wallace, Chris Wingert, Jordan Harvey, Ramiro Corrales and Bornstein.

Wingert’s not bad. But at 28, he is what he is: a solid defender in MLS, just like Moor. Same for Dunivant, who got two matches for the national team back in 2006. If you had to pick from that list as a first-choice left back, at the moment you’d probably go with Corrales, who is enjoying good times at surging San Jose. He’s also 34 years old, having debuted internationally in 1996. So, again, the left back that everyone wants to magically appear just isn’t out there.