Thursday, February 08, 2007
So, what's happened in the last four months?
As Barbie once said, "Blogging is hard." What did we miss during a 4-month absence?
1. Houston wins the MLS Cup. Ching and Twellman scored in overtime to take the game to PKs.
2. The emergence of Josmer Altidore. His scoring run at the end of the MLS season has at least one scout saying to forget Adu, Josy's the real deal.
3. Americans in the EPL. Howard, McBride, and Convey (pre-injury) have been excellent. DeMerit has been decent for a bad Watford team. Bocanegra has been a regular starter, and was even drafted into Fulham's defensive midfield due to the team's injury woes. Spector and Hahnemann have all been solid. Beasley has two goals and is working his way into consideration for every start.
4. Yanks to watch out for. Michael Bradley at Heerenveen and Benny Feilhaber at Hamburg have to be considered two of the most promising prospects for WC 2010. Bradley is a regular first-teamer and sub for the upper table Dutch side and Feilhaber remains the only American to play a Champions League group stage match this season, as he started in defensive midfield for Hamburg.
5. New Transfers. Clint Dempsey headed to Fulham. Oguchi Onyewu headed to Newcastle.
6. US to play in Copa America 2007. The US accepted its invitation to play in the Western Hemisphere's premier tournament, and will join Mexico as the North American contingent battling all of South America for the cup. This will give us our first glimpse at the post-Arena US line-up. Hopefully, ESPN will carry it.
7. Bob Bradley has been named interim United States coach just after it appeared the Klinsmann deal had been worked out. Even though we would have preferred Klinsmann, our current thinking is to stick with Bradley at least through this summer's tournaments.
8. Wins over Denmark (yawn) and Mexico (not-so-yawn). Denmark's B-team was about as formidable as you may imagine. Mexico was more formidable, but still fell to the U.S. MNT in Phoenix.
1. Houston wins the MLS Cup. Ching and Twellman scored in overtime to take the game to PKs.
2. The emergence of Josmer Altidore. His scoring run at the end of the MLS season has at least one scout saying to forget Adu, Josy's the real deal.
3. Americans in the EPL. Howard, McBride, and Convey (pre-injury) have been excellent. DeMerit has been decent for a bad Watford team. Bocanegra has been a regular starter, and was even drafted into Fulham's defensive midfield due to the team's injury woes. Spector and Hahnemann have all been solid. Beasley has two goals and is working his way into consideration for every start.
4. Yanks to watch out for. Michael Bradley at Heerenveen and Benny Feilhaber at Hamburg have to be considered two of the most promising prospects for WC 2010. Bradley is a regular first-teamer and sub for the upper table Dutch side and Feilhaber remains the only American to play a Champions League group stage match this season, as he started in defensive midfield for Hamburg.
5. New Transfers. Clint Dempsey headed to Fulham. Oguchi Onyewu headed to Newcastle.
6. US to play in Copa America 2007. The US accepted its invitation to play in the Western Hemisphere's premier tournament, and will join Mexico as the North American contingent battling all of South America for the cup. This will give us our first glimpse at the post-Arena US line-up. Hopefully, ESPN will carry it.
7. Bob Bradley has been named interim United States coach just after it appeared the Klinsmann deal had been worked out. Even though we would have preferred Klinsmann, our current thinking is to stick with Bradley at least through this summer's tournaments.
8. Wins over Denmark (yawn) and Mexico (not-so-yawn). Denmark's B-team was about as formidable as you may imagine. Mexico was more formidable, but still fell to the U.S. MNT in Phoenix.
