Gothenburg was no Gotham City on Wednesday. There were plenty of Victoria Silvstedt supermodel look-alikes, but no superheroes to take on the evil duo of Zlatan & Elmander, although Landon Donovan did give a passing impression of a rocket-fueled Robin at times.

Sal Zizzo representing his country without having made his professional debut could be a conundrum worthy of the Riddler, but it was in the same stadium, the undulating Ullevi, that Denmark won a major tournament (Euro 1992) which they had not even qualified for.

So no Batman, although Kim Källström missile strike which handed victory to the Swedes could have had "KAPOW!" written all over it.

I can't recall an MLS game putting the 'Nats in the shade, but last Saturday's remarkable tussle between the Red Bulls and FC Beckham remained the American game of the week at the final whistle in Sweden.

Despite being the largest stadium in Scandinavia (capacity 43,000), the venue for Europe's first NFL game (Bears v Vikings in 1988) and a host of top stars, the famous undulating roof was not rocking to anything resounding this week.

The atmosphere inside was almost as monastic as a Wizards game (no offence to their supporters - I'm one of them), while what singing there was came either from shrill teenage Scandinavian throats or a small section of hardcore Swedes exploding the myth of the rampaging Vikings with their summer camp battle cry: 'We're all Swedish fans together!'.

I counted as many US journalists as fans throughout the day, reminding me of wintry European nights spent watching the States during Steve Sampson's unimposing spell as National Team coach.

Gothenburg is certainly quiet and civilized, and so was the soccer international.

The defeat will not linger in the memory come 2008 and the World Cup qualifiers. The 'Källström cannon', as the local press put it, meant Bob Bradley returned empty-handed from his first transatlantic challenge, but there were no reasons for alarm.

Unlike Sweden, who square up to neighboring rivals Denmark in the second of their European Championship qualifiers in October, the US has no immediate test until a year from now so any games until then are exercises in coach, as well as team, building.

The one caveat in Bradley's otherwise impressive claim to Bruce Arena's throne after the World Cup was his total lack of European experience, a blank resume when it came to our traditional Achilles heel.

The former Fire man did well to keep potentially better qualified suitors on the quayside after proving himself up to the job in his caretaker period in charge.

Of course, the first choice was always Jürgen Klinsmann, a European through and through, but that ship never sailed, for reasons we may never fully understand.

Having made the job his own, on Wednesday, Bradley now set off on the long road to making the US fit to challenge the best European soccer nations at their own game. To say the US needs more practice against quality Euro opposition is merely to repeat the eternally obvious. Bradley hit the nail on the head many times at the press conference - the pace of the European game is faster than in the Americas.

It is against the better European countries that the US has most often been shown up in the last five years - Holland in 2004 and the Czech Republic in 2006 both painfully revealed our need to play catch-up.

In the Ullevi, Sweden's #9 Kennedy Bakircioglü and the scourge of many a Serie A defense, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, showed how it is done. The two created panic aplenty as they converted turnover balls into Viking rampages with a fleetness of foot and thought, and a physical menace we can only aspire to.

Remember USA v Poland in Daejeon, the final group game of the 2002 World Cup group phase, when in the opening five minutes the Poles proved that blitzkrieg is something which was not only done to them? Can you imagine the US being so devastating on the break against a top European nation today?

Counter-attacking is so vital a part of the winning formula for soccer, it is a wonder so few teams have mastered it.

Training routines which stress the need to convert a turnover into a shot in limited passes or seconds are there for all to see in the coaching manuals, waiting to be practiced, so it should not be necessary to label any team as a 'counter-attacking specialist' - but we do.

Yet there is more to it than that. After all, nine of the 11 who succumbed to Pavel Nedved & Co. in Gelsenkirchen and eight of Wednesday night's starting lineup had European professional experience.

Some leagues like England play fortissimo at all times, while the top sides in Spain and Italy rely more on a rhythmic strategy, retaining possession before launching rapier strikes when an opening appears or exploding upfield in a rehearsed fashion when the other team gives the ball away.

Some things Bradley will have taken away from last night's game are as follows: Tim Howard is a priceless part of the team. His aerobatics display saved a hatful of goals and an embarrassing European bow for the coach.

Jonathan Bornstein looked somewhat out of his depth and Bobby Convey has yet to regain his sharpness, while the more senior members of the defense could be slowly losing theirs.

Clint Dempsey as a deep-lying forward? Well if Thierry Henry is the model, then all well and good, but I for one need more convincing.

Benny Feilhaber and Michael Bradley are certainly precocious (i.e. skilful), but some way sort of perfection. The talented two are the obvious future of the US midfield, but in Gothenburg, Bradley put his team in danger on more than one occasion when he gave away the ball clumsily, while Feilhaber could not match the dynamism of opposite numbers Källström and Bakircioglü.

The perennial problem has not gone away - Americans have less game savvy than Europeans. Too often we rely on rehearsed technique to bail us out when a bit of brawn and improvisation might do the trick better.

Skill-wise, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley are sound, but are no Ronaldinho or Henry. There is little difference in the basics - technique, pace, strength and motivation, between Europeans and Americans, but their soccer brains have the edge on ours having memorized more complex game scenarios.

More than anything, we lack the tools for victory you can only accrue through sound experience of the right kind: major league European clashes.

But maybe it is the coach who needs to learn more. Short of taking a sabbatical from US Soccer to land a top European job, all Bradley can do is study the tapes religiously and press for more games like Gothenburg.

Sunil Gulati is aware. Why else schedule a friendly against a country that isn't UEFA-recognized? If Catalonia had said no, would we have gone knocking on the doors of other unaffiliated European soccer nations like Gibraltar, Corsica and the Isle of Man? Only joking, it is surely better than a training camp and will not be a walkover.

Bradley is palpably new to this international coaching game but he certainly has the time and the chances to earn his stripes. Gothenburg was a good run-out for all involved, a rung on the learning ladder ascended.

I am looking forward to the Camp Nou and watching the Swiss roll in October. What few opportunities there are on an increasingly squeezed international calendar must be seized upon.

What the handful of Americans in the Ullevi should have been singing was what English fans holler when they are comfortably in the lead: 'Can we play you every week?'.

The day will come when the US can rack up the goals against the Old World's big soccer nations, but only after many, many more nights like this one. The National Team's European vocation under Bob Bradley cannot begin quickly enough.

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Sean O'Conor lives in London, but can be found at any given moment anywhere 'over there'. Tell him how smart he is at soconor@americansoccerdaily.com