Captain Carlos and Coach Jesse?

Bob Bradley on the bench. Peter Nowak. DaMarcus Beasley. Carlos Bocanegra. Ante Razov. Jesse Marsch. The ghosts of the Chicago Fire's past are very much active in the U.S. Mens National Team present, and seeing them all together for the U.S. 4-1 dismantling of China reminded me of what the Fire used to be. Granted, Razov and Marsch figured into the match simply because they're Bradley's guys and it's a game where you take guys from MLS who aren't playing the weekend of a friendly, but they're still classy, capable players.

This was the best U.S. performance I've seen in a long time. What a world of difference once you remove that "interim" head coach tag, I guess. Attackers were active, fluid and inventive. While the Chinese didn't threaten much, offensively, that was in part due to the stingy defense. Oguchi Onyewu had one of his most consistent matches in a U.S. kit. Wearing the captain's armband for possibly the first time ever in his career, Boca was excellent, maybe even flawless. The kids were more than alright, with a great game from Benny Feilhaber standing out among the debutantes or near-debutantes.

In future World Cup cycles, will there be such a Fire presence, a continuation of this tradition? On the playing field, there's certainly potential. Justin Mapp, Chris Rolfe and Dasan Robinson all could find themselves in the mix. Behind the bench, the ESPN2 crew brought up a very interesting point in the future coaching opportunities for Jesse Marsch.

I'm intrigued by this, but the question is how many more years will he want to play? If the Sarachan era ends with a thud during or after this season, will the timing be right? I still have a coaching infatuation with UIC's John Trask, so the scenario I could see would be Dave either finishing the season or getting replaced by "interim" coach Denis Hamlett, and then replaced by Trask as head coach and Marsch as assistant next season. I'm not so intrigued as to give Marsch's great soccer brain the keys right out of the gate.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or at Toyota Park, I have no idea who is injured for today's match with Columbus and who isn't, as the two most recent injury reports were almost completely different. Given the current quality of everything coming out of Bridgeview these days -- crap team performances, error-riddled press releases, public address and JumboTron mistakes -- I trust the league report more than the team report. We'll see what happens, but if the Fire don't get a result, I want the first question in Sarachan's press conference to be "how about now?"