Netherlands 1 - 0 United States

The US Men’s National Team lost to a fairly under-achieving Dutch side this afternoon in Amsterdam. We’ll see how this sets the team up for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers which begin in June. - Just an aside if I may; the Nike jerseys the teams were wearing today were some of the ugliest articles of clothing I’ve ever seen, but don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself…

From the Associated Press:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A 1-0 loss to the Netherlands on Wednesday night dropped the United States to 0-10-1 in Europe over the past five years.

Still, U.S. coach Bruce Arena saw a lot of good things during the exhibition game, the first time in nearly two years the Americans used most of their regulars.

“This is almost the first time this group has been together since the World Cup, so to come in and play a solid game against an outstanding team - I’m pleased,” Arena said.

The Netherlands’ goal came in the 56th minute when speedy forward Arjen Robben took the ball down the left side of the field, headed it past Frankie Hejduk as he cut to the center, then beat U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Arena was pleased with the defense, where he used Frankie Hejduk, Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra and Cory Gibbs, and said midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey frustrated the Dutch attack. Ruud Van Nistelrooy twice failed to convert scoring chances.

Arena praised second-half substitute Josh Wolff, saying Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar had to “come up big” to stop a shot in the 82nd minute.

“They controlled the ball, but we had some good chances to tie the game,” U.S. captain Claudio Reyna said. “It was a good chance for younger players to get some experience in Europe.”

Landon Donovan, Reyna and Brian McBride had a good combination in the first half, but McBride’s header was wide.

“We needed to put more pressure on them,” McBride said. “We did a little more in the second half, but we needed to cause ‘em some more trouble,” he said.

The United States, 0-3 and without a goal against the Dutch, hasn’t won in Europe since beating Austria in April 1998.

Dutch coach Dick Advocaat said his team played without passion, but he was satisfied with the win. He said the U.S. defense “made it difficult to play the way we like to play.”

The United States, preparing to start qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in June, dropped to 0-1-1 this year.

Van Nistelrooy was given a yellow card in the 30th minute after knocking the ball into the goal with a hand on a free kick. In the 13th minute, Van Nistelrooy put the ball in the next but the Dutch were called for offsides.

Netherlands defender Jaap Stam touched the ball in front of his goal with his upper arm in the 78th minute but wasn’t penalized by Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo.

The Americans, who Grenada or Guyana in their first round of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, had not fielded a top-level lineup since losing to Germany 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup.