Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Welcome Back


It's been a few days since we last spoke. I apologize. As a Cleveland sports fan, I'm used to the depressing feeling of losing a game you weren't supposed to. But it still hurts. For those of you that have ever gone out early in a tournament or lost a big game, you understand the feelings that come along with it. The rest of the day blows and all you can do is think about what went wrong. Now imagine being the President of the Second-Guessing Bob Bradley club I spent one full day trying to figure out why Clark started, another trying to figure out what he said to Clark when he pulled him in the 30th minute, another wondering who could be the next coach (since in all likelihood its not me) and yesterday replaying Ghana vs USA over and over again with real tactics and better personnel decisions on FIFA10

But today is a new day. If you've never visited the site Yanks Abroad I suggest you do so. Some interesting stuff, plus you get to see all the guys that play overseas that you probably have never heard of like Erik Bejaminsen, Jamil Fearrington and Connor Tobin.

Looking at the US Roster from 2010 and going forward into 2014. The 23 man roster really probably won't have that much turnover.

At 42, Hahneman is obviously done, but Howard will only be 35 and barring some injury will still be at the top of his game. If Friedel EVER retires Guzan might actually get a chance to play.

Guys like Cherundolo, Bocanegra, Goodson and DeMerit are probably not going to be back at 35, 35, 32 and 34 respectively. Onyewu at 32 might be, especially if he starts getting opportunities at AC Milan.

Bradley took 9 midfielders to South Africa and there is a good chance that 7 will be back. Beasley got his last go around, though might still get some chances in qualifying. Clark will be 31 and how any coach could invite him back after his horrific performances in his last 2 FIFA tournaments (yeah, don't forget the "just add water" Red Card at the Confederations Cup) is beyond me. Donovan at 32 probably won't have the same pace, but will hopefully have moved to England and will have escaped the MLS in the prime of his career. Dempsey is actually a question in my mind. Can a player who doesn't track back that well now, and really only shines in the most opportune of moments be a guy you rely on at 31?
As for the strikers Buddle and Gomez are done at 33 and 32 (and they aren't exactly Cuahtemoc Blanco) Findlay will be 28, but I don't think he is going to get any faster in those 4 years which doesn't do any good
So let's argue that Onyewu, Dempsey and even Goodson are asked back in 2014. That leaves us with 1 keeper spot and 7 outfield players. Essentially returning two-thirds of the team.

I have a 15 player shortlist that might fill those 8 spots in order of who I think will. I already have my keeper, and I've got a 2014 starting lineup.

Chris Seitz is my goalkeeper. Unless you decide that the 3rd keeper needs to be a Veteran. But by that time the veterans are going to be old.

1. Freddy Adu - Adu will be 25 in 2014, interestingly enough Freddy could have already played in 2 World Cups and beaten the US twice had he picked a different Allegiance replaces Gomez
2. Charlie Davies - Coming back from the injury will be tough, but imagine having Altidore and Davies together for 3 years of qualifying (see, Forlan and Suarez) replaces Findlay
3. Robbie Rogers - Rogers needs to move overseas, but he is one of the best wingers in the pool, because he can play both sides, has speed and is willing to shoot and cross. Unlikely he takes Donovan's place but certainly in the 23. replaces Beasley
4. Jermaine Jones - So much was made of his switching to the US, but whether it makes a difference will depend on whether he plays in 2014. He will be 33, but that's not OLD for a defensive mid. replaces Clark
5. Marvell Wynne - Raw Talent comes to mind every time I watch this kid play. The guy has blazing speed and looks much bigger than his 5'9 listed height. I believe in 4 years he could develop into the type of RB that teams really worry about (Maicon, Sergio Ramos etc.). At one point I was telling anyone who would listen they should experiment with him up top, unfortunately nobody would listen. replaces Cherundolo
6. Kenny Cooper - Some coaches love big, lurping strikers. I don't mind them if you are winning by a goal with 10 minutes or down by a goal and you have to start playing kickball for the last 10 minutes. Cooper is 6'3 and would give the US some presence in the air. Something that Buddle never got a chance to do. replaces Buddle
7. Michael Orozco - Another guy who could do himself good to go outside of North America. In 2008 was one of the best U23 defenders at the Olympics until a stupid red card against Nigeria. replaces Bocanegra
8. Sacha Kljestan - I know it sounds crazy, but the move to Anderlecht is going to benefit him. Kljestan was terrible for the US except for in that one game. He needs to develop consistency but clearly has the ability to play. replaces DeMerit
9. Edgar Castillo
10. Chad Marshall
11. Brad Evans
12. Marcus Tracy
13. Eddie Gaven
14. Dax McCarty
15. Alejandro Bedoya

With that here is your 2014 Starting XI (of course depending on the draw)
GK Howard
LB Spector CB Onyewu CB Edu RB Wynne
LM Donovan CM Bradley CM Jones RM Holden
ST Altidore ST Davies

SUBS: (GK) Guzan, Seitz (DEF) Goodson, Bornstein, Orozco (MID) Feilhaber, Rogers, Torres, Dempsey, Kljestan (FOR) Adu, Cooper

This line-up of course does not reflect the fact that I am a late bloomer and might just make it at 26.


Friday, June 25, 2010

Taking a Break from World Cup


I'm taking a break from World Cup (at least I'm pretending to) for a little bit. For my long time non-listener's (still working on a nickname for the 4 of you) you know that there are few things in our tagline that mean anything. A few people complained about the last post being a puff piece. Well get ready for some hard-hitting news, because I need to take a few short moments of your precious time by telling you about a new adventure in my life.

You see when it comes to $5 Footlongs, I am very much like Bob Bradley. I have my favorite and I don't like to go off course from it. Bradley's choice sandwich is a Ricardo Clark on Bornstein Rye, and it takes him three meals before he decides to change anything. My lineup is a Spicy Italian, something Marcelo Lippi would know nothing about, on Italians Herbs and Cheese. I match up only the finest in gourmet Genoa Salami & Pepperoni with the same vegetables every time... lettuce, olives, pickles and banana peppers with their Chipotle Southwest Sauce. Once in a while I bring Jalapeno on in the 77th minute just for the free kick. On a warm day I eat it cold, on a cold day I eat it toasted. It's an old standby and a clinical finisher.

But ever since Subway started advertising the Orchard Chicken Salad sandwich, I've been a bit intrigued. Today was the day that destiny chose for me to meet up with the Orchard Chicken Salad, and to be completely honest it was kind of like Ivory Coast. It was good, but could not carry the hopes of an entire stomach on it's shoulders. All of this is aside from the fact that the Wal-MartWay no longer has $5 Footlongs (apparently North Korea has gotten to them as well). This meant I had to venture over to the Subway on the other side of Severance, uphill both ways in a snowstorm.

And then I found $5 dollars (for those of you who know what that means).


Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

That's a song from Hair. We do things a little different here, so read on and get used to it.


It's been 44 games in South Africa and through those games we've seen the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. But, of course hair has a lot to do with how well your team performs. As any good coach would tell you, it's not how you play the game it's how you look. As a dedicated follower of fashion, They're Not Listening will break down a match-up between the World Cup 2010 Bad Hair Team and the 2010 World Cup 2010 Good Hair Team. I apologize for all the links but you will be able to see both teams Starting XI at the bottom of the page. Of course being a creative American coach, I'm putting both squads in a 4-4-2.


Goalkeepers

Bad Hair is much easier to spot than good Hair. In my preliminary examination three goalkeepers made the list. Those being Algeria's Faouzi Chaouchi, Italy's Gianluigi Buffon and Serbia's Vladimir Stojkovic. Choosing a starter of course was easy as Chaouchi's blunder against Slovenia kept him out of the next 2 tournament games. Buffon was hurt in the first game. The only keeper left was Stojkovic. Maybe it's the crest on the keeper kit, but despite the fact that he was able to stop a Lucas Podolski penalty kick in Serbia's 2nd game, Stojkovic's "Quest for the Holy Grail" cut bowed out of the tournament. Giving up 3 goals in 3 games.


No doubt about it when choosing, David James of England, as the starter for the Good Hair squad. He becomes one of many cornrowed players to find their way onto the squad. After subbing in more Robert Green, who sports a tidy fauxhawk, James pitched two vital shut-outs for a Three Lions that found it very hard to score on their own.


Defenders

6 players make their way onto the shortlist for each squad. For the Bad it's Argentina's Martin DeMichelis, Cameroon's Rigobert Song, France's Bacary Sagna, Germany's Philip Lahm, Japan's Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Portugal's Fabio Coentrao (you'll see his opponent in this shot later). I feel bad enough for Cameroon already, but whoever told Song the Davy Jones look was in should be revoked of speaking privileges. Sagna has to start, as he is the main contributor to this entire article. Since we need a centre-back I think we have to go with DeMichelis, little girls all over Argentina will be asking for the Martin at their local Barberia. I'm a huge Lahm fan but he's been around long enough for people to know that is not his natural hair color, we are going to slide him into the center. Tanaka sporting a samurai type do could start, Au Coentrao (get it, it's a pun) just managed to edge him out thanks to those wonderful roots.


The good are lead by another cornrowed Brit in Glen Johnson. Uruguay's Diego Lugano, Spain's Tommy inspired Carlos Puyol, New Zealand's Tony Lochhead. Those four fit the 4-4-2 well with two Spanish speakers in the middle and two English speakers out wide. Gerard Pique and Carlos Bocanegra just don't do enough to crack the starting lineup. Many call it a controversial decision, some call it a travesty to include Lugano and Puyol as the well-groomed centre back, but Lugano's Disneyesque combination of hair and eye color plus the fact his side have yet to concede a goal are the clinchers.


Midfielders

6 players find themselves on the list, including USA's Stuart Holden, Holden played 4 minutes against England, but managed to photobomb every picture of the US team in existence. Jeremy Toulalan of France, Keisuke Honda of Japan, Switzerland's Valon Behrami and New Zealand's Simon Elliot. To be fair Elliot is 36 years old and coming from a 22 year old who is already developing Landon Donovan-like power alleys. I'm excusing him from contention. Holden, Honda and Behrami all had the choice to style their hair the way they did. At 26, Toulalan should put down the Just for Men Touch of Gray and just stick with the classic Grecian Formula. Send Behrami and Holden out wide, with Honda as a CAM, Toulalan a CDM and play a diamond in the mid.


The race is on for complaints about Cristiano Ronaldo not making either team. But if I had to... I'd put him up there and not down here. Our final cornrowed player in the squad is Frenchman Flourent Malouda. While Zachary Quinto errr Cesc Fabregas of Spain and Gennaro Gattuso of Italy are paired up the central midfield by virtue of classy hair/beard combos. Finding a 4th midfielder is tough but as I said we are restricted to a 4-4-2. So in a quick bit of thinking I'm going to throw Dirk Kuyt out on the right wing. By the way Kuyt is a complete horsecrap pick, I know it. His hair is so great because he always works hard it always looks like he is working hard.


Strikers

The striker list goes on and on when it comes to bad hair. As I mentioned earlier Ivory Coast's Gervinho, who appears to have attached a Cleopatra wig on a bald head could be an option. You'd alway fancy a Drjibril Cisse spot on this list, the Frenchman's doo is not nearly as flamboyant this time around as in the past. Greece's is Georgios Samaras, Honduras' Walter Martinez and Slovenia's Milivoje Novakovic round out the list. None of these strikers have scored and none of them are going to advance into the Round of 16. I'm going to have to go solely based on worst hair. Cisse is at least creative in his hair failure and I understand that the economic crisis in Greece has meant fewer haircuts and razors to go around. But Novakovic has a bowl-cut combover and wears a headband. Unfortunately there are nor recent photos of the red and yellow highlights Martinez included in his braids. So we are going to have to go with Gervinho.


The New Zealand strike combo of Rory Fallon and Shane Smeltz clearly make the all-fauxhawk team, but putting both here might be a bit ambitous. Smeltz was able to score one of New Zealand's two goals and certainly deserves a chance to play with the other quality players on the Good Hair team. Smeltz will be paired up with Diego Forlan. Another controversial haircut decision. Forlan is my player of the tournament and with locks like that how couldn't he be included.


Jon Dahl Skywalker of Denmark misses out on both teams.


Unfortunately I can't format this so that it will look like a 4-4-2, you'll just have to imagine. In case you weren't sure I have each player listed in order.


GK Stojkovic, RB Sagna, CB DeMichelis, CB Lahm, LB Coentra, RM Holden, CDM Toulalan, CAM Honda, LM Behrami, ST Gervinho, ST Novakovic



GK James, RB Johnson, CB Lugano, CB Puyol, LB Lochhead, RM Kuyt, CM Gattuso, CM Fabregas, LM Malouda, ST Forlan, ST Smeltz



What do you think? Who'd I miss? Who wins? Bring on the comments.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Week 2 By the Numbers

In Week 2 we saw 4 games went into the locker room 0-0, 1 ended up that way, in a game where neither keeper played their teams first game.

3 teams have yet to score, there are approximately 678 players on rosters who have yet to score. On the other hand 4 teams have not conceded yet, and 6 Goalkeepers who have played have yet to give up a goal.

67 goals scored (updated live through Spain/Honduras pardon any errors, since I know you all are going to double check), by 58 different players + 2 own goals. 7 players have scored multiple goals, 2 of them have scored in more than one game. Only 1 of those two has scored in the run of play. (Asamoah Gyan has netted 2 penalties)

Those 58 Players represent 18 Leagues, welcoming The Dutch Eredivisie (2), Greek Super League (2), A-League (1), Portuguese Liga (3), Belgian First Division (2)and MLS (1). The Spanish Primera added 14 goals to it's total after 4 two-goal games, and 1 hat tricks, they now stand at 15. Though the A-League only has one goal, it becomes the 1st League with its leading scorer to score. The EPL goes up to 9 and is the only other league in which the leading scorer has grabbed one.

4 more sets of teammates tallied... Forlan and Tiago (Atletico Madrid although Tiago is on lona form Juventus), Eto'o and Sneijder joined Maicon (Inter), Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and Gonzalez joined Honda (CSKA Moscow).

Cards still outnumber goals by more than 2:1 as we have seen 136 total cards, 126 yellows, 10 reds, 5 straight reds. 10 players will miss their countries final game due to yellow card accumulation. Group D leads all groups with 28 total cards, Group C in second with 19 (Group H also at 19). Those groups will match up in the knockout round.

How about COMNEBOL still having not lost, sitting at 8-2-0, 26 points through 10 games. All 4 teams are likely through, although only 1 has clinched. Oceania is the only other undefeated region at 0-2-0. CAF is not nearly as pretty with 1-4-7, 8 points through 12 games. Of the 6, only 2 have reasonable chances to advance. UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF sit 10-8-8, 2-1-5, and 1-3-2, respectively.

Soccer City in Johannesburg has seen 13 goals scored, one goal for every 130 meters above sea level. Ellis Park in Johannesburg has seen 10 goals scored in 4 matches. Making it the 2nd highest Goals per Match stadium and the 2nd highest altitude stadium.


Friday, June 18, 2010

What to do on Wednesday 6/23

For many of you Americans out there, (especially all of you that "Aren't Listening) you may be a bit confused. I know this soccer thing is confusing; the standings, the tiebreakers, the vuvuzelas. But honestly Wednesday is a pretty simple day for Sam's Army. We need to win.

For those of you who don't quite get soccer, let me put it this way. We can liken the game against Algeria on Wednesday as Game 6 of the League Championship Series. Right now we are up 3-2, unless you are Koman Coulibaly, then it's tied at 2. We need to win is the mentality, that keeps Game 7 from happening. When you win Game 6 of the ALCS you are in to the World Series. We already got through the Divisional Series in CONCACAF Qualifying, now we must fight through the LCS (Group Stage) in order to get the World Series (the knockout round).

Hopefully I've cleared that up.

Now, if we lose... we go home... So then why isn't this Game 7 if we go home with a loss? Well you see we need to win, but if we don't we still stand a chance.

So we don't need to win, but we need to win. You see a tie, keeps us alive. But you know what they say about ties? Do you really want to HAVE TO kiss your sister in order to stay alive. An interesting philosophical debate for another time, but we are talking about soccer now.

We need to win, but just in case, who do you cheer for? Well it's actually pretty simple. You see, Slovenia are on top of the Group with 4 points, the US and England are tied with 2 and Algeria sits at the bottom, but they're 1 point is a sniper sitting on a hill, 500 yards away, just waiting for his moment. If the US were to draw (the fancy term for tie), that sniper would be sent back to home base. And the US would be on 3 points, and as long as Slovenia win would go through. So you see we should cheer for Slovenia in the case of a tie.

Now it's possible that Slovenia doesn't come through in our time of need. Not to worry, we still have another out. We don't need to an "Ace on the river card" to win this hand. In fact all we need is a low pot that gets split. You see, the tiebreaker in the World Cup is goal differential. But with 3 ties your goal differential is 0. So they look at goals scored. Right now the US holds a 3-1 advantage over England. In the case of two draws, all the US has to do is score less than 2 goals less than England. In other words unless England draws 4-4, the US are in pretty good shape but we need to win.

We need to win because we could win the group. Yes, it's possible. You see, depending on how many goals England score, we could win the Group. And depending on how many goals England score, we might not advance.

Both games start at the same time, so on Wednesday when you have your picture in picture, or you go somewhere with more than one TV (recommended) here is the breakdown of what you should do in a few situations.

-England go up 1-0 in the 7th minute, we are still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. In fact if we win 1-0 we still would win the group.
-US go down 1-0 in the 7th minute, other game still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. In fact if we win 2-1 we still win the group.
-US go up 1-0 in the 7th minute and the other game is still tied at 0: Don't freak out, the US have plenty of time. But this would be a perfect way to end the games.
-Slovenia go up 1-0 in the 37th minute, we are still tied at 0: Grab your friends and do the little circle dance thing that they do. Since Slovenia is a small country, Tony Meola Sidekick Soccer just came out on SNES and I'm pretty sure thats where they got the goal celebration from. (I know I'm the only person who gets that joke, but then again, I'm the only person who reads this.)
-Both games are tied at 0-0 in the 37th minute: Get another beer and go to the bathroom you probably won't miss anything.
-England go up 1-0 in the 73rd minute, we are still tied 0-0: Start cheering for Slovenia and of course keep cheering for the US, if either one scores life goes on.
-England go up 3-2 in the 73rd minute, we are still tied 0-0: Now we are in trouble, at this point Slovenia really can't help us, we need to score. ***(If we were to win 1-0 it would be extremely fun, to break the tie they go to Goal Differential)
-Algeria go up 1-0 in the 73rd minute: Freak out!
-US go up 1-0 in the 88th minute, the other game is tied 0-0: Freak Out! And start tossing high-fives like beanbags in a cornhole tournament (carefully, but have fun)
-US go up 1-0 in the 88th minute, the other game is tied 1-1: We go through, but when the dust settles we'd be in the same situation as the *** scenario (Maybe you should go read it)
-Slovenia go up 1-0 in the 89th minute, US is up 1-0: Be a little bit upset, we just lost the top spot in the group. Then cheer for whoever you want to play in the knockout stage to win a few hours later.

I think you can figure out what other antics you should do depending on scores. If not just ask and I'll quip back at you.

***(In this scenario, if we were to win 1-0 it would be extremely fun. Both teams would have 5 points and advance, but to break the tie they go to Goal Differential. England would be sitting at +1, with the US at +1. Next would be Goals Scored. England would have 4, the US would have 4. The next tiebreaker is Head to Head. Pretty sure that does no good, as the teams tied 1-1. That puts us to FIFA's All-Time Greatest tiebreaker Drawing of Lots, woo-hoo!)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Week 1 by the Numbers

We haven't played an entire week, but we have seen 16 matches. All 32 teams have seen the pitch.
We don't know much, but we can begin to anticipate what might happen. We'll take you inside the numbers of the First 16 Matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

9 games went to halftime scoreless, only 2 of them finished that way.

Gianluigi Buffon, Julio Cesar and Iker Casillas all gave up goals, but 13 other goalkeepers posted clean sheets. Italy's back-up didn't give up a goal once he came on. None of them won Man of the Match. 2 Goalkeepers did win Man of the Match, one of them lost 1-0 the other tied 1-1.

Of the Top 6 favorites (based on odds) only 2 teams won, Argentina and Germany

COMNEBOL went undefeated, winning 3 games and drawing twice. That 2.1 pts per team tops UEFA's 4-5-4 record 1.3 pts per team. Other conference's with draws second (as it should be) AFC 2-0-2 (6 pts) OCEANIA 0-1-0 (1 pt) CAF 1-2-3 (5 pts) CONCACAF 0-2-1 (2 pts). I'll take this time to remind you NO UEFA team has ever won a World Cup off European soil.

Cards outnumbered Goals by more than 2:1. On two occasions substitutes earned second yellows. 51 total cards, 3 second yellows and 1 straight EXTREMELY QUESTIONABLE red.

If you want to bring Siphiwe Tshabalaba, the first player to score in the World Cup, to your FIFA 10 Manager Mode team, be ready to fork over 4.9 million dollars on the transfer fee. Gelson Fernandes, the guy who scored against Spain, will cost you 5 million.

Had you for some reason picked those two players on your ESPNSoccernet.com fantasy team, as midfielders, you would have paid 10 million. Cristiano Ronaldo would have cost you 2.5 million more for 15 less points.

Some more FIFA 10, Mexico went with Oscar Perez over Guillermo Ochoa, they are separated by 13 years and 9 rating points. As for the USA, according to FIFA Ratings there are 15 HEALTHY forwards (not including Donovan who is listed as a forward) that are better than Robbie Findlay, listed as a 64 OVERALL (McBride, Adu, Ching, Cooper, Twellman, EJ, Casey, Razov, Rolfe, Noonan, Jacqua, Wolff, Buddle, Cunningham, Mathis) I will buy the argument that 3 of those guys are midfielders. Bob Bradley obviously does not play video games with his son, who is listed as a 76.

25 goals have been scored, by 24 different players, representing 12 different leagues. But nobody has scored twice. One of the scorers is currently a Free Agent. The EPL leads with 5, followed by German Bundesliga (4) French Ligue 1 (3) Turkish Super Lig and Italian Serie A (2). The other leagues all have 1... South African Premier Soccer League, Spanish Primera, J-League, Mexican Primera, Russian Premier League, North Korean 1st Division, Danish Superliga.

NO PLAYER THAT LED HIS RESPECTIVE LEAGUE IN SCORING HAS SCORED YET, meanwhile only 2 club teammates have scored: Klose and Mueller.

87.5% of the teams in the World Cup did not score multiple goals. 5 teams answered an opponents goal with a goal of their own, 4 of them tied 1-1. North Korea are the only team to score and not take a point. Meanwhile 4 teams didn't score and took points.

After Week 2, we will come back and update the old, and bring in some new. Until then enjoy John Harkes referring back to some anecdote of a game that happened a week ago each time he is asked about something going on in the game he is currently broadcasting.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Matchday 2 Review

South Korea 2 Greece 0

I will be honest I wasn't awake, snooze button FAIL. And also a DVR FAIL. I've seen the goals and I've heard about the game. Don't feel I need to say anything. I picked this game as a South Korea win and then changed my mind at the last minute. Greece play boring football and they finally payed for it. Look for more of that when they square off against Argentina and Nigeria.

Argentina 1 Nigeria 0
Once again, I was unable to watch the whole game, though I did get it on DVR. After seeing the first goal and the highlights I don't know if I need to watch all 90 minutes to catch the gist. Jury is out on whether Heinze steals away the goal of the tournament Tshabalala. Do the times make the goal or the goal make the times? Tshabalala's is the first ever World Cup goal on Africa soil, scored by the host nation, given NO CHANCE and just a ridiculous strike. Heinze's is a great header but not sure if it was nearly as meaningful. The African keepers, who have always seemed the wink link in most squads, have put on some tremendous shows in their first two games.

USA 1 England 1

The Good:
USA: Could have easily fallen apart after going down early on a defensive lapse (albeit in the midfield not the back four), yet didn't. In fact from the goal until half-time the US were the better team. Do I really need to say Tim Howard is the most vital player on this team. This team played with heart today, which is one of the traits of American football. You can't turn that on and off.
England: Despite not taking their chances, the Three Lions owned the second half. Passed the ball around the pitch like a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park. Slovenia and Algeria do not have Tim Howard in goal to stop every opportunity. In case people are worried about Robert Green, I say he made up for the blunder on the save on Altidore late in the second.

The Bad:
USA: For a player deemd "speedy" Robbie Findlay gave up on a lot of balls. poorly on the goal, and then cleaned it up. Apparently playing the game against Australia on a 45 yard wide pitched really hurt our attack. 7 guys standing in the middle of the field at one time is never going to score goals. Is it just me or does the team look completely different with Donovan wide left rather than wide right?
England: A lot of useless cards that could haunt them, assuming they go through. Not a very impressive performance from a team with that much talent. The goalie situation has not been good since David Seaman and now they are in a lot of trouble. If you bench Green, his international career is done as long as Capello is the coach.

The Ugly:
Is there any doubt? I feel bad even retyping it. You've got to feel bad for the kid. I hope he gets a second chance and redeems himself in a big way. Maybe leading England to a win in shots from the spot

I stated that the Golden Boot would be won by an EPL player. Matchday 1 saw no goals from Pienaar, Anelka, Forlan or Dos Santos. Today we get goals from Manchester United, Liverpool and Fulham.

As league totals stand for the Golden Boot
English Premier League ... 3 ( Park Ji-Sung, Steven Gerrard, Clint Dempsey)
South African Premier League ... 1 (Siphiwe Tshabalala)
Spanish Primera ... 1 (Rafa Marquez)
Ligue 1 ... 1 (Gabriel Heinze)
Saudi Professional League ... 1 (Lee Chun-Soo)

I see a Bundesliga charge tomorrow, with all but one player being home-based on the Germany squad and Slovenia's top scorer being a Bundesliga man as well.