The Best Soccer Freestyler In The World?

Maaaaaaaaan, this cat does some wicked stuff!

The Skills Of Thierry Henry

1st... skills on the field... look at the magic feet! And the deft passing, a skill of his which is underrated, if you ask me!



And now... skills off the field... even here... notice the quick movement!

NCAA Football's 7" LBer

Look at him go!

In The Footsteps Of Similar Greats...

Paris Hilton was released from jail early this morning ending her grueling 30 day jail stint. Much like other great figures in world history who were jailed such as Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Mike Tyson, 50 Cent, etc. Paris Hilton endured her arduous sentance & can now go return to her duties as leader of a generation.

Ohmigod, you guys, you don't know what torture is until you like spend a few days in jail & you have to eat jail food & ohmigosh there was even a couple times where I saw a roach. It was so disgusting, you guys. And like they make you wear this hideous clothing like what a homesless person would wear & they don't even give you any designer grooming products. So don't go to jail if you like, don't have to, you guys, it's so not hot.

Paris, what are you going to do on your first day of freedom?

Ohmigosh, there is so many things I have missed in my long stay in jail. Like I'm going to go run out & buy all the Prada I can & then I'm going to go on like a weekend long binge of ice cream but still puke it up you guys, don't worry & then like I'm going to go visit O.J. to see if he has any advice on the post-jail experience & like how to get on with your life & stuff. Ohmigosh, you guys, I also forgot I'm going to have like a huge party & you can all come, even like the people I would normally turn down or give "as if!" to in a club & we're gonna have the bestest time evER, you guys. Oh & I'm also going to go smoke some weed & snort some lines b/c they didn't have any of that in prison either! Well, not any stuff that I do. Snort impure stuff? As if! Not hot!"

Paris, do you have any further advice or words of wisdom that this situation has tuaght you that you may want to pass on to younger women?

Be nice to drug addicts & homeless people & criminals because you may end up with them in jail one day. Also, make sure you're pretty and if you can, be famous too, so you like get a different justice than like poor people and stuff. Oh, and like next time if this happens again, I'm like going to go get that lady teacher in Florida's lawyer b/c he got her no jail time for like raping boys & stuff & she was pretty too. So I guess that's what I would say- be pretty & rich & like turn a smile upside down or something & be nice to the judge & swallow if he bribes you to get out of jail. I just gave him head & he still sent me to prison, you guys.

US Wins Gold Cup With 2-1 Victory Over Mexico

I had a nice little blog post written up & some fricking reset caused by the damn little sensitive enter function on my laptop's cursor pad made it go poof! F*ck!

So instead, here's crap about the match from FoxSports.com.

Benny Feilhaber is the new man. He scored an absolute beauty of a goal for the winner. A cracker from outside the box off a cleared corner. Fricking beautimous!

Un golaso indeed, Mi Amigo!

Lineups
Mexico: Oswaldo Sanchez; Jose Jonny Magallon, Carlos Salcido, Rafael Marquez, Ricardo Osorio; Alberto Medina (Cuauhtemoc Blanco, 78'), Pavel Pardo, Jaime Lozano (Adolfo Bautista, 81'), Jose Andres Guardado; Nery Castillo, Jared Borgetti (40' Omar Bravo)

United States: Tim Howard; Jonathan Spector (Frankie Simek, 72'), Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein; Landon Donovan, Benny Feilhaber, Pablo Mastroeni (Ricardo Clark, 46'), DaMarcus Beasley; Clint Dempsey (Taylor Twellman, 69'), Brian Ching

Goals
44' MEX, Guardado (Castillo)
62' USA, Donovan (pen)
73' USA, Feilhaber

Cards
9' USA, Dempsey
18' MEX, Medina
60' MEX, Magallon
76' USA, Ching
85' USA, Beasley
86' USA, Simek

I Am The Man

Every Girl Crazy 'Bout A Sharp Dressed Man!

How on Earth am I still single? B/c I seem to be The Man. I'm always winning XBox 360s & iPods & the lowest home mortgage rates around in my e-mail inbox. Not to mention I've been given $30 million from nice Nigerian businessmen 6 times, twice from associates in Burkina Faso & this last time from the Senegal. So I'm loaded too.

Not to mention I get all these hot babes wanting to be my friend in MySpace everday! It's weird though, they always have the same profile description & "Tom" is usually their only friend or they have only dudes as friends. No matter, it's obviously me they want b/c of my luck prowess with all the Xbox winnings & the windfall from Nigeria & western Africa.

You suckas wish you had my life. Here's my 2 dates for the evening. Ahhhhhhhh... it's good to be the king!

Which one of you hotties wants to play with my Xboxes 1st?

Thierry Henry Moves To Barcelona

Holy fucking crap balls... It was confirmed this morning by Arsenal.com & Skysports.com that the Thierry Henry is transferring to FC Barcelona as initially reported by BBC Sports last night. I don't know what to say other than I was wrong about this one. I would've thought Henry would've stayed at Arsenal after signing that 4 yr. contract last year. But what are you going to do? Apparently Arsenal felt comfortable with the 16 million pound offer they received from Barca & sold him. I would've hoped we would've gotten at least 20-25 million for him.

One can only wonder what Arsene Wenger has in store as far as bringing someone in now. Certainly this means that Arsenal's 1st pair strikeforce will be Robin Van Persie & Emmanuel Adebayor, unless Wenger is going to go with the en vogue 4-5-1 with Van Persie on the left & Walcott on the right with Adebayor in the center.

The other definite thing is that next season for Arsenal just got a whole fuckload more interesting.

Thierry Henry in his own words on the move.

Thierry you have left Arsenal, can you tell the supporters your reasons for going?

“I have said it so many times. Before Mr Dein left, for whatever reason, I went to the boss and said I don’t want to leave. There had been a lot of speculation about me and I assured him that I did not want to leave. But after Mr Dein left that unsettled the team and the boss. Especially as at the moment he has not committed himself to the club. He said he will see out his contract but you cannot be sure if he is going to go or stay [at the end of next season]. Hopefully he is going to stay but I need to be certain and reassured of that. Everybody knows I am 30. The boss being unsettled, Mr Dein going, it did unsettle me a bit. After that I had thoughts of leaving the club.

“It is a difficult day for me to come here at Emirates Stadium and talk about this. But I want to come here explain why to the fans. I want to be certain of where the club was going and reassured in a way. I wasn’t and I have chosen to go”

Seems fair enough to me. I'm certainly not going to bash him for leaving Arsenal, we all have to do what we feel is right & Henry feels that moving to Barca is the right move for him. I'm disappointed but I certainly won't begrudge the man his power of choice. I also don't think this signals a catastrophic fall for Arsenal or that it even makes us a mid-table club like some supporters feel Henry's departure does.

Anyway, here's to Thierry Henry's service & many wonderful goals he scored for Arsenal. Best to luck to you, Thierry. Merci pour la bon temps et coupes pour L'Arsenal.

US With Another 2-1 Win To Advance To CONCACAF Gold Cup Final

I missed the match because I thought it was coming on at 8 EST but in fact it came on at 7 CST so I didn't watch the end. Plus I also had a beer & wine drinking laundryfest but I DVRed it so I may watch tonight. Here's a report from FoxSports. Apparently the US squeezed by on a controversial tying goal waved off for Canada in injury time. 'Bout time the refs give us a call. Looks like my bicthing worked immediate voodoo dividends.

The Canadian coach, Dayne Bretzky, was fictionally quoted as saying,

"Aw gee, those hosers from the Sooth have no right to be gooing oontoo the final. They're just lucky we can't resort to broouhahas in sooccer. I'm soo mad I'll have to drink anoother case of Elsinore moore than I already would toonight to droown the pain."

So, the US goes on to face arch-nemesis, the Tricolore of Illegal Alienexico who was almost royally embarrased by losing to one of their former citizens turned immigrant housekeeper, Guadeloupe scoring a lone goal in the 70th minute . Hugo Sanchez on the game:

"Aye caramba y dios mio! My beans are so fried right now that I can't even digest my carne asada & guacamole taquitos. I would've thought that CONCACAF would've received the drug cartel bribes by now & would've already handed the Copa Oro trophy to Fruitworkerexico. I almost want to die or have Cuahtemoc Blanco teabag me & inject habanero into my eyes before I live with the dishonor of losing to some island named Guadeloupe who no one can even find on a map!

But we move on & it's hard ball time when we face the Gringos next match. We lose, we'll no longer export migrant farm workers, tacos, drugs, tuberculosis or leech the Gringo health care system & we will certainly no longer import Se Habla Espanolo!"

Thanks, Paco, we'll keep that in mind on sunday when we'll no doubt be absorbing all the usual Mexican elbows & knees tackles.

Lineups
Canada: Pat Onstad; Ante Jazic, Andrew Hainault, Julian De Guzman, Paul Stalteri; Ali Gerba (Issey Nakajima-Farran, 81'), Richard Hastings, Atiba Hutchinson, Dwayne De Rosario; Patrick Bernier, Martin Nash (Iain Hume, 64')

United States: Kasey Keller; Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein; Michael Bradley, Pablo Mastroeni (Ricardo Clark, 89'), Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley; Eddie Johnson (Benny Feilhaber, 80'), Clint Dempsey (Taylor Twellman, 88')

Goals
39' USA, Hejduk (Donovan)
45' USA, Donovan (PK)
76' CAN, Hume (Hutchinson)

Cards
20' USA, Bornstein
29' USA, Bocanegra
41' USA, Donovan
44' CAN, Onstad
60' USA, Hejduk
60' CAN, De Rosario
89' USA, Bradley

USA Gets By Panama, 2-1 In Gold Cup Quarterfinals

It's becoming a tired old thing to watch- very poor refereeing & especially calls that go against the US. Now, I'm not talking about questionable calls & a fan's bitching about his team not getting calls. I'm talking about blatant "What The Fuck are the 4 officials looking at? Are they watching the same game?," type of calls. This time the officials missed a ridiculously blatant on purpose handball by Panama captain, Felipe Baloy. He was already sitting on as yellow card & his ass should've been sent off for the offense, but nope, not against the US in soccer. I've just come to the conclusion that all the self-loathing Leftists that feel guilt about America's past & current administration & policies should watch soccer- because the world's soccer officials stick it to us constantly. Either that or CONCACAF regional officials are a fucking joke & completely amateur in quality. Either way, it's fucking pathetic most of the time.

Anywho, the US won, 2-1, should've scored possibly 1 or 2 more plus should've been facing 10 Panamaniacs instead of 11. The game was played this past Saturday, I've just drug ass all week & am only now getting around to posting.

Lineups
Panama: Jaime Pinedo; Carlos Rivera, Luis Moreno, Juan Perez, Blas Perez; Manuel Torres, Ricardo Phillips, Engin Mitre (Nicolas Munoz, 63'), Amilcar Henriquez (Alberto Blanco, 78'); Victor herrera (Luis Henriquez, 78'), Felipe Baloy

United States: Tim Howard; Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein; Michael bradley, Pablo Mastroeni, Landon Donovan (Ricard Clark, 89'), DaMarcus Beasley; Taylor Twellman (Steve Ralston, 71'), Clint Dempsey (Brian Ching, 84')

Goals
60' USA, Donovan (PK)
62' USA, Bocanegra (Beasley)
84' PAN, B. Perez

Cards
16' PAN, Torres
18' PAN, Balloy
22' PAN, B.Perez
28' USA, Hejduk
35' USA, Onyewu
49' PAN, J. Perez
76' PAN, Torres
87' USA, Beasley
89' PAN, Munoz
90' USA, Howard

Sweet Pic

Found this sweet pic of a playoff game between the New York Rangers & Buffalo Sabres while cleaning out my inbox. I love the starburst of the light in the background. It's like the Light of God or something:

Starlight, Starbright

Jeremie Aliadiere Leaves Arsenal

French forward, Jeremie Aliadiere transferred from Arsenal to Middlesbrough today according to SkySports.com. I can't really say it's any big loss especially with Niklas Bendtner coming back from on loan at Birmingham.

Aliadiere was an ok striker, obviously with lots of speed but his injury-proneness & lack of finishing in the times he did play for Arsenal don't have me missing him on his departure.

Best of luck to him though at Middlesbrough- except against Arsenal, obviously.

A Toast Is In Order!

Just passed the 500 mark on profile viewed on MySpace! Holy moley! What an accomplishment! I feel so satisfied, so content, so sarcastic...

In other news, I have a crush on the Obama girl, Amber Lee Ettinger, who has a crush on Obama. Naughty littly brunette nymphs, you get me every time, it's not fair.


The U.S. beat El Salvador wednesday night, 4-0. Didn't see the match, no report from me, no ratings but they face Panama this afternoon at 4 EST in the Gold Cup QFs. That match I'll most likely watch.

http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=3171

Unfortunately for an MSU South Croominator buddy of mine, his Bulldawgs lost their CWS opener last night to the Tar Heels of UNC, 8-5. I don't know when they're elimination game is, Sunday possibly.

Arsenal have signed Norwegian teenage defender Havard Nordveit. No doubt one for the youth & reserve teams for now.

Have You Had Your Daily Blessings Of Drinking The Prophet's Urine?

Not only does it have a zippy, tangy taste that all pedophilic, megalomaniacal conquerors can enjoy, but it also soothes your damned soul from the tortures & temptations the jinn may inflict upon you... Drink straight for maximum effect...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/world/middleeast/12fatwa.html?_r=3&hp=&oref&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

So run down to your local market, kill some Jews & enjoy the Prophet's Urine.

Side effects may include amorous feelings towards camels, affinity for sandy areas, the condition known as "Jihad Jimmy," hatred of women & delusions of Paradise

The Prophet's Urine, so many uses!

Virtual Reserve US Team Beats Trinidad & Tobago, 2-0

Blabbity blah blah. The US beat Trinidad & Tobacco this past saturday, 2-0. It was a fairly boring match, I didn't even finish watching it, stopped at half time actually. Really poor officiating again. The linesman on the far side blew at least 3 calls for offsides where US players were clearly onsides. For the last God Damn time officials- THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT SHOULD GO TO THE ATTACKER. Learn the fucking rules you damn tools! Pathetic, amateur level refereeing at a continental championship level event. Pathetic. No wonder a lot of the world sitll laughs at CONCACAF teams sometimes. Fucking pathetic, amateur refereeing in both matches I've seen so far.

Here's a link to the match details since I neglected my duty: http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/6906564

No ratings from me this time since I didn't watch the whole match & I deleted the DVR of it, so far all 2 of you who read this site, tough. In the mean time, come back next week, we'll have some cheese for ya...

Thursday Night: U.S. Squeaks By "Physical" Guatemala, 1-0

The US opened up defense of their CONCACAF Gold Cup chamionship on Thursday night with a 1-0 win over Guatemala who were a typical freaking Latin American team... Guatemala went into tackles & challenges overly physical all night long, dove & flopped excellently as well. Couple with a Latin referee & it all added up to the U.S. squeaking by on the lone goal & then having to hang on for dear life in the final quarter hour b/c the US was a down a man & the players were hesitant to go into tackles b/c of the inconsistency of the refereeing.

Guatemala was by far the more physical side but somehow the US was the team with all the yellows... ridiculous!

The US' lone goal was scored in the 1st half by Clint Dempsey after a throw in from DaMarcus Beasley found Taylor Twellman on the left & he caught the Guatemalan defender flat footed & went by him & delivered a low cross for Dempsey to ram home.

Lineups
United States: Tim Howard; Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyweu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein; Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber (Jay DeMerit, 81'), Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley; Taylor Twellman (Steve Ralston, 71'), Clint Dempsey (Eddie Johnson, 61')

Guatemala: Ricardo Tregueno; Leonel Noriega (Luis Swisher, 89'), Claudio Albizuris, Pablo Melgar, Henry Medina, Gustavo Cabrera; Jose Contreras, Marvin Avila (Carlos Figueroa, 81'), Roberto Gomez (Mario Rodriguez, 71'); Carlos Quinones, Carlos Ruiz

Goals
1-0 USA 26' Dempsey (Twellman)

Cards
42' USA Hejduk
56' USA Onyewu
67' GUA Gomez
73' USA Onyewu
77' USA Bocanegra
86' GUA Noriega

US ratings (out of 10)
GK: Tim Howard, 6.5- Played well & did ok staying in the game early when the US was taking the game to Guatemala.

RB: Frankie Hejduk, 5.5- Did ok making runs forward but caught up field a few times too many & in one instance led to him horse-collaring a Guatemalan defender leading to a FK in a dangerous area.

LB: Jonathan Bornstein, 5.5- Same thing as Hejduk pretty much. Bornstein still needs to pick his spots better when he makes his runs upfield. Luckily he's fairly fast otherwise Avila would've smoked him on a few occasions.

CD: Oguchi Onyewu, 6- I'm giving Gooch a 6 b/c he was sent-off but he really should've earned a 6.5 possibly even a 7 but for the thoroughly idiotic inconsistency of the referee's calls on physical challenges in favor of Guatemala. Gooch's 1st yellow was given to him after HE was fouled by Ruiz. So go figure that one out...

CD: Carlos Bocanegra, 6- Again another 6 when I want to award 6.5 b/c of the inconsistency of the Mexican ref, but I'll go with the 6 b/c Bocanegra did let Ruiz frustrate him a little too much late on.

RM: Landon Donovan, 6.5- Ran well with the ball at the Guatemalan defense & on several occasions was cynical fouled to stop him. Did well in this as well as in one instance he was literally bodychecked by a defender & held his emotions in check really well after the incident.

LM: DaMarcus Beasley, 6.5- Did what he does best, made some nice runs on the wing but still needs to do a lot better at his balls in the box & crosses.

CM: Michael Bradley, 6- Tackled well, played decent overall but still got caught upfield a little too often, but again, he's only 19.

CM: Benny Feilhaber, 7- Really starting to be a fan of his. Passed well, played well enough considering his age & the physicalness of this game but playing in Germany was probably used to it. Still makes some naive mistakes sometimes but that's due to his youth, not his talent.

CF: Taylor Twellman, 6.5- Played well, won headers & distributed the ball well, had the assist on the goal

ST: Clint Dempsey, 6.5- Scored the goal, played well, but still tried to dribble too often, IMO.

Subs
61' for Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, ST, 6- Ran at the defense well but couldn't find a rhythym to his finishing on the end of the runs. Still, with his speed worried the Guatemalan defense enough they couldn't totally bomb forward at the end.

71' for Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, RM, 6- Did ok in short appearance.

81' for Benny Feilhaber, Jay DeMerit, CD, 6- Came into play CD to shore up the defense after Gooch was sent off. Had a couple good clearances & interventions in his short stint.

US Man of the Match: Benny Feilhaber- As stated above I'm really starting like this kid. He has good passing vision, likes to get forward & has nice passing touch as well. He's still young & is a little raw but he looks to have good potential to eventually become a solid fixture in the midfield for the US.

Young U.S. Squad Defeated China, 4-1 This Past Saturday

Ok, I finally got my laptop back up & working with a spanking new hard drive, so the fun now continues...

With several younger players making their international debut the U.S. Mens' National Team thumped China, 4-1, this past saturday. The scoreline may have done a little injustice to China's 1st half play but the U.S. pretty much dominated the 2nd half & squandered a few chances to perhaps even have scored more.

The U.S. started out pretty well & scored their 1st goal from a DaMarcus Beasley penalty kick. Beasley had been taken down in the area by the Chinese keeper after a nice run behind the Chinese defense & a brilliant low lofted through ball by Michael Bradley, son of the US coach, Bob Bradley, & was a pretty sweet pass. Beasley made no mistake from the spot, drilling the shot just right of down the middle with the Chinese keeper diving to his right, 1-0, US.

The US goal seemed to energize the Chinese however as the next few minutes the Chinese played more aggressively on both defense & attack & their determination was rewarded with a goal in the 15th minute after a failed corner kick clearance. Zhang Yaokun rifled a shot to the near post from just inside the area on the left. Nothing US keeper Tim Howard could do with, 1-1.

After the tying Chinese goal, the play was pretty even although the US still looked the more threatening as the Chinese were playing with a flat backline & the US several times had balls played behind the defense that just evaded the attacker or were mistimed & called offsides.

The US slowly asserted themselves more in the attacking half & got the go-ahead & ultimately game-winning goal after some nice short passing work on the right side with yet another lofted ball into the area by Sascha Kljestan for Benny Feilhaber. Feilhaber still had work to do as the Chinese keeper rushed out to stop the shot, however, Feilhaber kept his cool & lofted the ball over the Chinese keeper before colliding with him & the ball landed in the net after a Chinese defender failed to get the proper touch on the ball to clear it off the line as he made contact with it, 2-1 US.

The rest of the 1st half was played out fairly evenly although you sensed the US had more in them as the Chinese continued to have occasional trouble with the ball behind the defense & seemed to have trouble organizing the defense after losing possession of the ball .

The US indeed began to have more opportunities on goal than the Chinese although they squandered a few decent opportunities for their 3rd goal & it began to look like a match that the US would either have to struggle to hang on to the 2-1 win or give up a tying goal against the run of play for a 2-2 draw.

Luckily, that is not what happened as the US scored their 3rd goal off a corner kick on a header from Clint Dempsey. As they lined up to take the corner, ESPN color commentator, former national team member & current US alltime goalscoring leader, Eric Wynalda, pointed out that the CHinese were completely leaving the backpost open & unguarded. Benny Feilhaber either saw the same thing or has ESP b/c he delivered the corner exactly there- to the backpost where Clint Dempsey lost his marker & hit a powerful header past the Chen Dong, the Chinese keeper, for a 3-1 lead.

The 3rd goal seemed to deflate the Chinese & it was only a few minutes later & the US had their 4th goal off yet another corner kick, this one delivered by DaMarcus Beasley (who had an outstanding match, by the way). Big central defender Oguchi "Gooch" Onyewu directed a nice header to the far post again as the Chinese left it unguarded for a finishing 4-1 scoreline.

Overall, a very good match for the US as they attacked well throughout the game although the final ball & crosses still need work to be consistently dangerous against teams that would be better organized defensively than the Chinese seemed to be. It was also a good match as several younger players got their debut caps in the US jersey. These included: Sascha Kljestan (who started), Lee Nguyen, Kamani Hill & Charlie Davies.

This match should give the US plenty confidence heading into the Gold Cup which starts thursday even for those players who didn't play in this match such as usual captain, Landon Donovan.

Lineups
China: Chen Dong, Zhang Shuai, Zhang Yaokun, Sun Xiang, Li Tie (Li Yan, 76th), Shao Jiayi, Xu Yunlong, Dong Fangzhuo (Zheng Bin, 67th), Zhao Xuri (Du Wenhui, 89th), Wang Peng (Qu Bo, 59th), Wang Dong

United States: Tim Howard (Kasey Keller, 46th), Carlos Bocanegra, Benny Feilhaber (Jesse Marsch, 80th), Michael Bradley, DaMarcus Beasley (Lee Nguyen, 80th), Clint Dempsey, Ante Razov (Charlie Davies, 66th), Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan (Kamani Hill, 74th), Jonathan Spector (Frank Simek, 74th), Oguchi Onyewu

Goals
1-0 USA, 10' Beasley (pk)
1-1 CHN, 15' Yaokun (Peng)
2-1 USA, 28' Feilhaber (Kljestan)
3-1 USA, 75' Dempsey (Feilhaber)
4-1 USA, 79' Onyewu (Beasley)

Cards
CHN, 9' Dong
USA, 81' Bradley

US Ratings (out of 10)
GK: Tim Howard, 6.5- Not too much to do, made a nice save from a free kick & could do nothing with the shot on the Chinese goal.

RB: Jonathan Spector, 5.5- I'm being a little rough on him here especially as he's one of the younger US players. Defended well but his offensive runs were a little mistimed sometimes & his service balls were lacking.

LB: Jonathan Bornstein, 6- Average game. Got caught upfield a few times but again like Spector, he's young & he'll hopefully learn when to make runs & when to stay back.

CD: Carlos Bocanegra, 7- Played well in the center, won most of the headers in the defensive half & generally kept Manchester United reserve player Dong Fangzhou quiet.

CD: Oguchi Onyewu, 7.5- Same as Bocanegra for the most part, gets .5 bonus for the goal he scored.

RM: Sascha Kljestan, 7- Played well & will only get better. Had a nice pass for the assist on Feilhaber's goal.

LM: DaMarcus Beasley, 7.5- Initially started up front on the left in a 4-3-3 & interchanged with Dempsey but after the Chinese scored their goal & Bob Bradley switched the US to a 4-4-2, Beasley went to the left in midfield. Was a constant threat with his speed & runs behind the defense & played much better but still needs to work, in my opinion, on playing this way consistently. Scored the U.S. openeer on a PK after getting the foul call that led to it.

CM: Benny Feilhaber, 8- Was very industrious in midfield, was a constant threat on offense with his runs & passing & did fairly well on the defensive end. Showed good composure in scoring the 2nd goal.

CM: Michael Bradley, 7- Would've given him a 7.5 but he picked up a needless yellow late in the match when he fouled a Chinese player in a position where he didn't really need to foul but was a constant pest winning the ball in midfield & the defensive half. Still pretty impressive for a 19 yr. old midfielder in that deep-lying midfield position.

CF: Ante Razov, 6.5- Worked hard, won headers but seemed a bit off from the rest of the US attack.

ST: Clint Dempsey, 7- Played well enough & scored the 3rd US goal on a header but tried to dribble too much in his own half.

Subs: 46' for Howard, GK: Kasey Keller, 6- Not much to do in the 2nd half as the US started to control the game.

66' for Razov, ST: Charlie Davies, 6.5- Caused the Chinese defense to foul him early & often to try & negate his speed which he showed on a few occasions also had a half chance to score.

74' for Kljestan, RM: Kamani Hill, NR- Not enough time to really do anything.

74' for Spector, RB: Simek, 6- Defended ok in his short appearance.

80' for Feilhaber, CM: Jesse Marsch, 6- A cap that was more a reward for long service with several teams under Bob Bradley. Tackled well.

80' for Beasley, LM: Lee Nguyen, NR- Not enough time to really do anything of consequence.

US Man of the Match: Benny Feilhaber- Passed very well, had several nice balls that he played past China's back line. also got forward several times & made a nice run to set himself up for the goal & showed great composure to lob the keeper for his goal.

My Hard Drive Went Kaput...

On my laptop, so I'm waiting on a technician fairy to visit & bestow upon me a new hard rive & LCD screen. Hopefully that'll be done monday & I can resume all my little sports universes... and blogging rants... and looking at naked girlies... and news... and um, stuff...