For the second year in a row (last year against Real Salt Lake) Premiership side Everton FC has come to the United States for pre-season matches and walked away with a loss.

While it’s obviously not the end of the world as they are preparing for a long, long season, the 2-nil loss to the Chicago Fire (who actually knew they were even playing this match) has Everton head coach David Moyes publicly wondering about his attack.

With goals by Chris Rolfe and Tomas Frankowski (and with Chicago changing out the entire team at halftime for the Reserves), Moyes said ‘We are in a poor, poor situation regarding going forward. We can’t hide the fact that we need new players. Everybody knows it. I know it, the players know it. We have to get five or six players in before the season starts. There’s not enough competition for the players to realise that if they play poorly they won’t be selected.’

Tim Howard made his first appearance of the 2008/09 season for Everton after having been given time off after the long string of matches for the United States directly after the end of last season in which the Toffees ended in 5th place in the Premiership.

image via TheSun