Don't forget Frankie

We ought to give a pat on the back to Frankie Simek, who starred in Carlisle United's Johnstone's Paint Trophy win against Brentford on Sunday and became the first American Wembley cup final winner since Jemal Johnson in 2008, or the first at the new Wembley with an American accent let's say.

Frank has always been an impressive performer in my eyes, and could easily have worked at a higher level. I spoke to the one-time Arsenal youth when Aston Villa and Everton were on his case a few seasons ago but he brushed any top-flight ambitions aside, preferring to stay loyal to his contract at Hillsborough. Sheffield Wednesday fans will tell you he was one of their most reliable men for the past five years, where he clocked up 124 appearances.

I saw him score his first goal in England at The Den, and he was memorably calm and self-effacing afterwards about it; an honest Joe who just does his duty. For the Nats, Frank has been behind first-choice Steve Cherundolo and the more-versatile Jonathan Spector and with Eric Lichaj and Timmy Chandler now on the scene, that road is crowded.

When I last saw him backstage in Amsterdam for the pre-WC friendly I again thought he was a useful asset to keep in mind. Moving down a division will not help his US claims, but Frank is only 26 and it would be a loss if Bob Bradley took his eye off the always solid St. Louis-born defender forever.

*I was one of the 5,000 who trekked out to Orient, in the shadow of the Olympic park, to see England's women down the US' 2-1 on Saturday. But as you can see, my view of the proceedings was not the best at Brisbane Road.

What I did see was the world's No.1-ranked women's team suffer from stage fright to deservedly concede two goals in the first half-hour to the tenth-best nation. The US picked themselves up in the second half and were clearly better drilled than England, but failed to take their chances and equalise. Conceding an early goal (8th minute) is not a disaster as the scoring team often relaxes, but if then you fail to take control of the match and let them score a second, you've lost the psychological battle.

The US kick-off their World Cup campaign against North Korea in Dresden on June 28th.

-Sean O'Conor

Ugh.

You surely already got the bad news from Guatemala, but now we have U-20 highlights and reactions. Regulars here will know that the U-20 World Cup is one of my top favorites of all sporting events and I must admit to being crushed when I woke to find that our boys had come up short. Big. Fat. Ugh.






- Greg Seltzer

LeBranfield Road?

It seems Miami Heat superstar LeBron James has continued his extensive business wheelings and dealing by striking a partnership with the Boston Red Sox owners Fenway Sports Group that will give him an ownership stake in Liverpool.

Do note this one particular passage in the article:

Mr. James wants to pursue partnerships similar to his deal with hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre. The pair last year launched a line of high-performance sports headphones known as PowerBeats. Coincidentally, Mr. James and Dr. Dre met Fenway Red Sox executives on Opening Day at Fenway Park in 2010 in a promotional event for the headphones.

And guess who else just happens to be a big Liverpool supporter... yup, the mighty D.R.E. himself. Makes one wonder if he will follow the NBA star's lead and become the first hip hop giant to become part-owner of a European club, beating previous candidates Diddy and JayZ.



- Greg Seltzer

Video Wednesday

I am going to be out nearly the whole day tomorrow, so let's just get some tube to "air" now...

NSC pal Adam Spangler tipped off our opening clip: JayZ's web magazine hangs out with Hoffenheim U-19 midfielder Charles Renken on camp departure day.





Let's check in with the U.S. Under-20's as they prepare to battle for a World Cup place tonight against CONCACAF Championship hosts Guatemala.




FC Dallas will be looking more for a firestarter than any revenge when the early strugglers "welcome" 100% champs Colorado to town this weekend.




From time to time, we like to check in for some full highlights from an American playing in leagues beyond the reach of stateside soccer networks - this time, we'll check in on the big season opening away win by Alejandro Bedoya and Örebro.




What the hell happened to Inter and Spurs yesterday? ESPN Press Pass tries to get to the bottom of it all.




Finally... just because there can never be enough laughter, like there can never be enough Troy & Abed.






- Greg Seltzer

What have I been up to?

Well...

- Postcard From Europe w Brad Guzan
- Preview of Twente's Thur. Europa Lg. opener in Spain
- A tabletopper edition of Top 5 Continental Shifts
- A bit of bad Michael Parkhurst news, I'm afraid


- Greg Seltzer

From the "high praise, indeed" file...

Regardless of what one may think of Fulham boss Mark Hughes as a manager, he certainly does know a thing or two about attacking in the English top flight.

Says he, so does Clint Dempsey.


- Greg Seltzer

Royal Army marches on to CCL final

An MLS team has not won the CONCACAF Champions League (née Champions Cup) since 2000 and one has never graced the FIFA World Club Cup*. Last night, Real Salt Lake strengthened their bid to do both at once by making the big federation final with a 3-2 aggregate victory over semifinal second leg hosts Saprissa.

I included yesterday's pre-game 360 clip before the highlight reel to round out this presentation as a story. Sadly, I only found Spanish language post-game reports. Is it just me or do most parts of soccer fan America not named Seattle need a little help blending cup fervor into its club mindset? With MLS fans already getting their tourney fix from the league postseason, it probably won't be so easy.








- Greg Seltzer


* = Los Angeles qualified to appear in the 2001 edition, but it was scrapped due to tournament financial issues.

Seriously... what the hell are nearly all of you thinking?

Okay, this has been bugging the hell out of me. I had to say something. It is one of those times as humans when we feel we must certainly be alien, because no one else is catching what seems to be glaringly obvious. It's weird.

As we all know, the USMNT played two friendlies last week. In the 1-1 draw against Argentina, Oguchi Onyewu played left center back. In a 1-0 loss to Paraguay, Tim Ream worked the spot.

Afterwards, Ream's assorted player ratings and reviews from around our little niche were almost universally better than Onyewu's, often significantly better. This is where my feeling like alien comes into play.

The essential gist of what the two had in the way of raves and rants across the spectrum of TV commentators, soccer scribes, fans and message boards:

- Onyewu was routinely called off his best, repeatedly hit hard for poor "distribution" and correctly ridiculed for that eighth minute slip-up on the ball by everyone. Several reviewers made brief mentions about having no great beef with his defending. I have done no math on this (for once), but guesstimating, I'd proffer that Gooch received an average mark of about 5, tops.

- Ream was roundly hailed for his passing ability, with but a scant few brief mentions of actual instances where his pass was key. Most also noted that he did have a giveaway or giveaways up the middle, but few seemed particularly bothered by it. Most correctly declared the NYRB man is the coolest cucumber on the ball when shit it going down in our end. Many actually made no mention of his defending. Several others recalled his being ass down when the goal was scored, but few actually held him accountable on it. Many of those cried that he was fouled on the play, which may well be so. Ream's general grade tended to hover around the 6.5-7 area.

Now, here is what I saw in those two games (mind you, I am trying intentionally to grade them both as central defenders):

- After Gooch's 8' fumble on the ball, I did not mark him for a single negative. I certainly did not count hoofing the ball out so his teammates can reset and grab a breath as poor 'distribution'. I counted it as hoofing out, which considering his early ball incident, seems like a great idea to me in the context of facing an on-form Argentina. I kept count of eight times that Onyewu stayed in front of his man when nobody else was closing the gate to halt an away rush into our area or detour it to safety (including four times it was Messi that he faced up properly to avoid trouble).

Eight. Ocho. Central defender. Leo Messi & Co. Is anyone feelin' me yet? I'll say it: this performance may have been better than Gooch's against Spain in '09, when everyone stationed around him was playing lights out. That was not the case two Saturdays ago, when Onyewu was the only man who never bought it, never left his feet, never buckled to the pressure. He was also the only backliner not implicated in the lone Argentina goal, another thing gone overlooked.

- I marked Ream up for a few nice splitting passes and more so for always moving it so calmly when things gets hairy in defense. Positionally, he was decent enough. I marked him down very slightly for being knocked down on the goal play, as it was his original mark but with plenty of blame to go around. Still, arguing he allowed himself to be waylaid on set piece marking in the area is not exactly a boost. It was mostly unfortunate, not so much bad. However, one of the quickest ways to draw my red pen is to make a frivolous pass up the middle from in front of the goalmouth. He did this three times and Paraguay were baiting him into it.

In the end, I found Ream's a decent outing, nothing too special in event, but more signs of promise and continuing signs of inexperience. Nothing particularly harsh or anything the coaches and player didn't discuss after. Pretty standard shade off average-to-average grade range type of stuff. At least to me. And please don't get me wrong: I like Ream, he's a St. Louis homeboy and I love his potential.

These two particular defender ratings had me soul-searching a bit about the way I see a game to call it or my ideal performance for a certain position, what I value more or less. People all seemed to be punishing while I was rewarding and vice-versa.

Of course, the Argentina ratings I saw were generally strange to me overall. The team allows one goal to an absolute fire-breathing dragon and fights back to scrape one in turn. It sure sounds a lot better than a 1-0 loss to a decent Paraguay side putting on a "meh" showing. I mean, there should be a degree of difficulty to take into account, right? Not all opponents are equal and doing the same things against us.

However, I have yet to find one in the media where the 11 USMNT starters averaged so much as 6 for a 1-1 draw with Leo Messi and the area raiders. One major newspaper gave Tim Howard only a 7.5 (please do slap yourself, sir) and the line-up averaged a hair past 5 as a team. Some went so far as to describe the result as 'lucky' - a rank insult to the team's bust ass effort and successful adaptation in my book.

The epilogue: I have been roundly laughed off for my Onyewu v Argentina observations as a momentarily silly boy, while everybody and their mother is claiming Ream should be starting now after how he played against Paraguay.

What, now?

Is everyone that fooled by what I charge is a rather obvious "expectation to perceived (read: cherry-picked) performance ratio" system they are using to grade these two performances and stack the depth chart? Or am I the alien here? Do I just view the game from a different angle than most of my colleagues and readers? Can two reviewers give opposing marks and neither be "wrong" because they use different grading scales altogether? Can I ask more questions to make a point?

Yes, I can. Quick quiz, my friends: What do you think the result would have been were Ream playing in place of Onyewu against full flight Argentina? Still only one goal leaked? More goals for the 'Nats even, what with all the extra "distribution"? Get real.

And everyone says the same exact thing when I explain why Gooch was so good against Argentina and Ream not so great against Paraguay. They say they fully understand my reasoning, but continue to not agree. Many feel Ream should be ahead of Onyewu now. And they now seem as confused by my takes on the two as I had been about theirs.

But here's the absolute topper: I have yet to see or have anyone mention that Ream and Onyewu need not be in a one-or-the-other duel in the first place.

The ideal central defense tandem, especially for a team trying to run a 4-3-3/4-5-1 has one good cop and one bad cop. One smooth criminal and one Godzilla. One guy who excels at stopping the ball moving at their goal and one who excels at moving it in the other direction out of trouble. In other words, it would ideally be a duo, like say... officer Onyewu, a natural righty, and officer Ream*?

But nah, it seems Onyewu is sad old news and Ream the sunny forecast. The former is being lambasted for what he does after stopping plays, while the latter seemingly gets present points for future potential. And no one seems to get that they just might make the best available USMNT center back combo.

Seriously... what the hell are nearly all of you thinking? Folks need a Gooch stare or something.


- Greg Seltzer

* = Well, technically, I'd still rate Goodson above Ream, but he's injured at the moment.

Who likes goals?

As much a staple in your Monday as cursing the alarm clock, but significantly less painful...

Let's just start with the MLS Goal of the Week nominees. I gotta go with Khari Stephenson, you all know how I love those "don't wake him" crackers.




Speaking of MLS, it's a real shame they never managed to lure Boca Juniors free kick demon Juan Riquelme.




Did you ever notice how an unnatural lion's share of the most gorgeous chip shots happen in the Eredivisie? If you do not agree, FC Twente's Theo Janssen wants a word with you.




On another long ramble, Stoke City's Jon Walters simply toys with Chelsea.


szólj hozzá: Sto1-0Ce


Finally, Milos Krasic applies the fatal touch after Juventus ravenously picks apart AS Roma like it was a rotisserie chicken.





- Greg Seltzer

Bad USMNT news?

Just a guess, I don't know anything. Per DC United press release:

D.C. United announced today midfielder Andy Najar will be made available to the media on Tuesday, April 5 at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss his national team future.


- Greg Seltzer

Barnburner of the Week

Lazio and Napoli were not messing around.




- Greg Seltzer

USMNT v Argentina: Behind The Scenes

- Greg Seltzer

A little less conversation, a little more action

But only a little... the U.S. U-20's moved closer to a World Cup berth by topping Panama, while the USWNT have a dodgy day in London. See for yourself.








- Greg Seltzer

Bravo Grant - our day will come

"Many of them voiced the same message I heard in that Paris hotel lobby: 'We don't really like the status quo, but nominating you is impossible.' Nobody had the courage to do it. The prevailing mood was fear."

Grant Wahl will not become FIFA President in 2011.

The midnight deadline passed last night and it seems certain none of FIFA's 208 member associations have backed Grant's clean-hands campaign against Zurich corruption.

FIFA won't announce formally until Monday what nominations have been received, but it would be a shock if the presidential election on June 1st is between anyone other than Sepp Blatter and Qatar's Mohamed bin Hammam, after Chile's Elias Figueroa ducked out at the last minute (when his own confederation shamefully failed to nominate him).

Read Grant's conclusions on his brave challenge.

No surprise, but Grant's campaign helps reiterate a message that the football world is mightily fed up of an old boys' club running a global concern, so much so that even sportswriters are taking up arms in desperation at the lack of movement on this issue at FIFA H.Q.

Blatter has been in power so long any change might feel better, though Bin Hammam is ultimately cut from the same FIFA cloth. Like Jack Warner, he has been implicated in scalping World Cup tickets, and even lent Sepp a Boeing 747 for his 1998 presidential campaign.

I suppose it was too much to expect Chuck Blazer, having recently slammed FIFA's allocation of World Cup qualifying spots to CONCACAF, to back his fellow American's clean broom, as Chuck is in league with his crooked boss Warner, who, scandalously, will be re-elected unopposed as CONCACAF chief in Miami on May 3rd for a sixth four-year term. "I am honored by the trust placed in me by our members,"said Jack gratefully.

We all agree the men in charge of soccer are bent. But who knows what we can do about it? The door to a new and accountable FIFA remains bolted shut in 2011.

At least we should salute Grant for a noble attempt to get the wheels of change moving.

If only the 208 world soccer associations had such balls.

-Sean O'Conor

Video Friday

I've been asked to describe exactly what was on that Top 5 pizza picture: it was cherry tomatoes, yellow onions, fresh basil, mozzarella and what I call "risotto chicken" (as in the buttery/Parmesan/garlic flavor of risotto I had in Italy sautéed onto chicken) with pesto butter on the edge crust. I like a flavorpalooza...

Let's start today with a little catch-up. We finally have full highlights and reactions from the U.S. Under-20's World Cup qualifying kickoff win over Suriname.






Next, FSC offers up a quick word with Juanie, Mikey and the Deuce about playing Leo Messi and Argentina.

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=86c2096b-fc4e-4a02-9aca-a26ccf141058" target="_new" title="">FSC Exclusive: Team USA</a>


Barcelona's Dani Alves makes the latest edition of ESPN's Sports Science.




The latest full-length episode of ESPN Press Pass covers, among other things, this weekend's Milan derby.







- Greg Seltzer