Karma Kicks In as Spain Bombs - and US Player Breakdown Part I

Hee, Hee, hee. Okay, so I'm an immature- stick- my- tongue- out- at- you- I- told you- so- little kid. Barca players reaped what they sowed in their 1-0 loss to Switzerland. Spain is not Barcelona, I know. But, it sure does possess a lot of those Barfa players, and I have such a bad taste in my mouth from having to swallow all that "Barcelona DNA" crap that Xavi has been serving up for almost two years now that I don't feel sorry for the heavy favorites. I didn't get to see the match but read the reports and it sounds like Spain played their pretty, passing, attacking football and came up against a very determined Swiss defense and an outstanding goalie. Plus, I have to say I hope this is a wake up call for Cesc as he got not one minute of play. It was all Xavi and Iniesta. Cesc should get used to picking splinters out of his rear if he insists on transferring. All in all, I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. On another note, how ironic is it that we just sold Big Phil before the World Cup and in his first game on the world stage as a Fulham player...he gets injured fouling his own player? Here was a chance for him to show Arsenal that we made a mistake in how we handled him and instead he reinforces the wisdom of the decision. Poor Phillipe.

By the way, did anyone else get tricked when they noticed the only goalscorer of the game was a Fernandes? I did a double take when I noticed the name under the Swiss flag. Weird.

So, Thursday matches bring us no Arsenal players until the last match of the day when it'll be Diaby et al versus Senor Vela. France better step up its game or it could be a Spanish speaking duo headed to the sweet 16 out of Group B.

Alright, now for the first edition of Players of Team USA. I thought I'd start in the back and work my way forward. The reason I decided to blog about the USA team is that 1) If there are any American readers out there, you probably (according to statistics) don't know many of your national players, and 2) this will help me become better acquainted as well.



So, onto the Goalie. The big guy starting between the sticks is Tim Howard. Tim plays in the English Premier League for Everton. He hails from New Joisey and first played for the New York Red Bulls before crossing the pond and signing for Manchester United. Tim tried to become first choice there but couldn't break through Van der Saart so settled into playing first choice for Mr. Moyes. I have seen him play and think he's a good fit for the Toffees.



Carlos Bocanegra can play center back or left back. Carlos started off with the Chicago Fire but now, he too, plays in Europe. He was at Fulham for about six months, (lots of Americans have played for that team with different managers at the helm. I wonder why? Hmmm...) and now plays in the French League for Stade Rennes. Many consider him the veteran defender and rock for the back four.

Steve Cherundolo plays right back for Team USA and for Hannover 96, a team in the German League (Bundesliga) which was a second tier team but is now in their premier tier. Steve has spent his whole career with this club. And considering he's only 5'6", he must be decent to keep his place there. And he must have some mad hops and good header winning %. That was difficult to spit out. He has a high % of winning headers...erm...he's wins a lot of headers? You get the idea.



Jay DeMerit is also a center back option for the US and played in the English League Championship level team Watford with a rumor that he was being released from the club just this season (although he's still listed on Watford's official website squad list, so who knows?). He's originally from Green Bay (ugh...Cheesehead alert!) He does have lots of cup experience with Watford vying in the Carling Cup and FA Cups.



The last defender being highlighted today is The Gooch. Or Oguchi Onyewu born in our nation's capital and playing for A.C. Milan. Gooch hasn't gotten much playing time in Serie A because of a serious knee injury (see here for his out of the ordinary offer to play). Before Milan, Gooch played at Standard Liege in the French League and did a stint at Newcastle on loan. The word on Gooch is that he is very physical but can get outpaced on the dribble.

All four of these defenders started against England. Rumor was that Steve had a bit of a niggle after the English match but looks to be okay for the game against Slovenia.

I guess that's it for now. More tomorrow as the Thursday games could be interesting and I'll look to educate us on on the US midfield. Until then...