by Jeff Dieffenbach

“Reyna and the Rugrats” features Claudio Reyna, 28, at attacking midfield, flanked by DaMarcus Beasley, 19, on the left, and Landon Donovan, 20, on the right. With front men Clint Mathis, 25, and Josh Wolff, 25, the quintet packs the creativity, pace, and explosive scoring ability to rock the house on their 2002 South Korea tour.

Rock the house they might, but can they fill the Arena? With the experienced forward Brian McBride, 29, and equally seasoned midfielders Earnie Stewart, 33, and John O’Brien, 24, all but penciled in for the start on June 5th against Portugal, Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff may find themselves on the outside looking in.

Should the U.S. need a spark in game two against South Korea on June 10th, however, head coach Bruce Arena would do well to consider the Rugrats.

Yesterday’s performance against Jamaica, admittedly not in the same class as Uruguay or The Netherlands, much less Portugal, certainly speaks to the abilities of the young MLSers. Wolff tallied two goals and an assist, Donovan notched a goal and an assist, and Beasley and Mathis each added goals to lead the U.S. to a 5-0 rout of a Jamaica team in only marginally better condition than the ragged Giants Stadium pitch.

The first fifteen minutes gave no hints of the blowout-to-be. Starting the second string defense of Gregg Berhalter and Pablo Mastroeni in the center and Frankie Hejduk and Greg Vanney on the wings, Jamaica’s speed and flair had the U.S. chasing without much effect.

Kasey Keller, forever memorialized in Barcelona’s song of the same name, saved the day for the U.S., diving well to his left to snare a shot from Ricardo Fuller, who had broken in alone after beating Mastroeni to the ball. Keller’s settled the U.S., as he was rarely challenged before bruising his knee and giving way to Tony Meola in the 53rd minute.

From that point onward, Mastroeni acquitted himself well at both stopper and defensive midfield, while Hejduk and Vanney repeatedly made dangerous runs up the wings. Only Berhalter failed to shine before leaving for Carlos Llamosa at halftime. Llamosa, suffering from a tender hamstring, played well in a second half that rarely challenged the U.S. back four.

Jeff Agoos entered at halftime for Reyna, who had been playing the defensive midfield spot opened by the ACL tear of Chris Armas against Uruguay. Agoos swapped positions with Mastroeni and contributed to the second half lock down.

The most notable mark that Agoos left on the game, however, was the bruise on Keller’s knee. Agoos misjudged the speed of Jamaican Deon Burton on a ball that he could have cleared but instead left for Keller.

Rounding out the defensive end of the field, Tony Sanneh came on for Vanney when the latter suffered a knee sprain. In fact, the game may be remembered more for it’s medical report than it’s goal report, as Mathis also exited with an injury, his to his right big toe. While none of the injuries clearly threatened World Cup playing time, Arena will certainly be evaluating the walking wounded between now and the May 25th final roster deadline.

Up front, Joe-Max Moore played well, the highlight of his evening being a perfectly weighted cross to the head of Wolff on the first U.S. goal. Eddie Lewis also contributed, most notably on a looping pass misplayed by the Jamaican defense but not by the onrushing Beasley, who tucked the easy shot past goalkeeper Aaron Lawrence.

Yet again, Stewart played the role of invisible man, no mean feat given his attacking midfield position. More than any other factor, Stewart’s play of late opens the door for the next generation of U.S. National Team stars.

Get ready, South Korea, here come Reyna and the Rugrats.