Sounder At Heart up front and center with the soccer action. Good job blokes.
.
=== Great Theater ===
"Fascinating match" from wire to wire, as the British ESPN announcer marvelled one hour in. That'll do for us too.
One bone that I'll pick, with U.S. West Coast fan reaction in general, is that U.S. 'net rats were falling way too much over themselves to "be objective" and disavow any U.S. credit in the game. Most chat threads I've seen focused on Green's catastrophe, reinforcing the pre-game script that the U.S. is not competitive.
The game was very competitive, as as the (outstanding) Brit announcer conceded about 75 minutes along, "The U.S. has a first-class international side. There is a growing respect in England for U.S. football and this game will do nothing but increase it."
.
=== 1927 Yankees ===
I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to compare England's current side to, let's say, the 1927 or 1961 Yankees or to the 1976 Reds. The more so, since those teams had awesome scoring units and less-awesome run prevention...
England has, roughly speaking, 4 of the world's top 10 players -- one up front, two midfield (Gerrard and Lampard), and a center back (Terry). Absolutely perfect balance among your superstars.
And that striker, Wayne Rooney, is often accused of being the best player in the world. (He's the thug in the picture; outside the camera frame is the Liverpool centerback who was toppling backwards over the corner flag.)
I'm not arguing against that, either -- Rooney being the #1 player in the world -- since he is a great one-touch scorer plus a dominating air game. During one streak in the EPL, he scored 7 straight goals on headers. And that's just the third or fourth arrow to his bow.
Speaking as a Gooner, it gives me no pleasure to say so :- ) but the Man U and Chelsea stars are right there with anybody from Spain or South America.
The second line is world-class also -- three or four more of England's starters are argued for the world's top 100. Players like Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand (DL) are consistently on that level, among others.
................
England had 55-60% possession, so the game was a joke? Come on, what do you expect from anybody against England. They've got an overwhelming side. There are maybe six teams in the world that can go eye-to-eye with them and even hope to be "competitive" -- if being competitive is defined as outplaying them up front, midfield, and in your own goal box.
Sure, the U.S. hope against Team England is to scrap, outwork them and hope a bounce goes their way. Guess what. The same is true for Greece or Russia or, probably, France for that matter.
.
Part 2