squidpants

so I like soccer. I like the US national team, which kind of means I am a glutton for punishment. But they actually won yesterday, beating Switzerland 1-0. And the Swiss are not as bad as you might think, they did pretty well at the last World Cup, they were 3-0-1 before losing to the Ukraine in the round of last 16.

The US team had a lot of guys I'm not familiar with (GK Brad Guzan, Dan Califf, Danny Szetela, Benny Feilhaber, Michael Bradley, Heath Pearce, Robbie Findley) but the team won thanks to Bradley's goal. He's also the coach's son. But I guess a new lineup is good, considering how bad the US team was in the last world cup (no wins, two losses and a tie).

I was happy to see no Landon Donovan, as he is terrrrrible internationally for some reason - both at the World Cup and in his brief, awful stint with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. At Leverkusen, he couldn't crack the starting lineup and bitched at his coach during games, which led the fans to hate him. I really think he makes the US look bad, because he's good in the MLS, but stinks in Europe, so folks think that the MLS is a bad, bad league. But apparently he's done OK lately for the national team.

And while I'm bitching, I think Oguchi Onyewu has been a bust. He got a lot of hype before the World Cup, and he was really bad in it, committing a foul in the penalty box, which Ghana then converted for the win. And he was bad in the Switzerland game too: "Oguchi Onyewu also was at fault for a few aimless long balls from the back as the U.S. team struggled to carve out any scoring opportunities in the first half." He's still young though, so maybe he'll improve.

But anyway, hooray US.

Photo by Pius Koller, isisports