Merry Christmas in June as Green's Gaffe Gifts us a Goal and Barcelona: the Club for the Hearing Impaired

Okay, let's try this again

Wow! The USA draw against England and I wasn't bored watching. I only got to watch the first half, mind you, as I was working concessions at my nieces' Little League Field (praying for a rainout). I got home in time to see highlights of the first half and watched as we came out of the tunnel for the second and held England to just that one goal. Can I tell you how relieved I am that I did not see any semblance in the USA play to the MLS style? Thank goodness. What I saw was organization and hard work.

I know many football fans round the world reckon the US lucked out with Green's mistake and that England deserved the win. England's offense was clicking more than ours for sure. There are players on England's squad who have a rock star quality and are way more talented than those of the US squad. And I know that only a few of the US players have made it playing overseas. Gooch is in Italy, Donovan went on loan to Everton, Dempsey plays for Fulham, and Howard for Everton. We also have those who couldn't hack it over there. DeMerit washed out of Watford and Spector struggles at West Ham. So why the draw? Like in so many team sports, hard work and unity can offset talent. I saw Dempsey track back several times and make tackles on defense. Players filled in slots and covered until their teammates recovered. I think the game yesterday was a reminder that unlike individual sports, cohesion, drilling, and a team attitude of "I got your back" can outdistance pure ability. I am looking forward to dabbling on the football forums this week with confidence and optimism.

So onto - sigh- Barfelona who seem to think the World Cup was created only for their chance to pressure Wenger and Cesc..again.

"Cesc has arrived in South Africa to play the World Cup, but there are a lot of football people there. Arsene Wenger will be there and there will also be representatives of Barca (there)." - Joan Oliver - Barfa's corporate director

And then, he goes on to demonstrate his need for hearing aids:

"This is a three-sided affair and the third side (Arsenal) have not expressed themselves in any way," .

Ummm...really? Perhaps instead of hearing aids, Barca need to learn sign language. And I can think of one hand sign they should recognize immediately. The whole thing would be laughable if it wasn't so disturbing. Sheer lunacy.

I guess that's all for now. The highlights from the England vs USA game is below. This post ended up being shorter than the original as I tried to put the lost ideas back onto the page. Trust me, the original was much better.

There are no Arsenal players playing today so I'll take a look at the Germany vs Australia match as one of my best friends is German, and it will give me a chance to take a look at the Aussie goalie Schwarzer with whom we've been linked. Monday is a different story as RVP is playing Denmark. Hopefully we can see both Robin and Bendie.

I hope to have a USA squad breakdown in the coming week. Until then...