Top 5, 06.29: Better Copa Chatter; DC Win, The Shirt

Behold, the Web's bounty...

- Since I couldn't see the game (which is not Comcastic), I read reports on the U.S. loss till they all sounded the same - e.g. man, did we lose and why, Eddie Gaven, why? A couple stood above the others, though. Dan Loney's reply to a reader email on "what it all meant" says what I wanted to say earlier...only better (Dan Loney Says It Better?). So, good thing I posted the video...

The best detail line I saw came from Jen Chang's analysis on his ESPN blog, in the section on Eddie Johnson. For what it's worth, I concur with this statement: "...[Johnson] still remains too much of a one-trick pony for me. He's great at running onto through balls, but that's about it." The elaboration from this point, particularly on EJ's hesitancy, is worth the gander too.

- DC United jumped on the Colorado Rapids Argentina-style last night (i.e. late, and by the same score), but the thing that caught my eye was Fred's evangelical celebration. Now, neither The DCenters or The Offside Rules took offense at Fred's choice of celebration - and they're absolutely correct in that; The Offside Rules took it a step farther by questioning the referee's decision to issue a yellow card. Yeah, Fred's free to don that shirt, but it just sticks in my craw that a player would catch all kinds of hell - and, likely, bad publicity - for showing a t-shirt with the message "There Is No God." Just makes me cross, the way free speech works sometimes...bet the player who wears an aggressively atheist shirt would get fined to boot...

- Anyone have any idea why MLS Newsstand is stuck on Monday? Did they move it? All I know is I'm not about to go back to checking all those damn regional papers.

- Is it just more or is this the wildest season for trades in MLS history? Fox Soccer has a useful feature recording all but the most recent trades.

- Finally, I don't do previews any more (I'm actually going to try something new shortly) but I still admire them when they're done well. And the one Wiz turned in for The Real Salt Lake Offside wonderfully frames this weekend's game between Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC. Give this man a job in the marketing department.

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4-1: Are We Educable? (+ Video)

Yup. The U.S. Men's team got taken behind the toolshed by the Argentine's big boys in last night's 4-1 loss. I'm OK with this. Wasn't this the expected outcome given all the givens? Even without the most noteworthy givens - e.g. the toddlers Team we sent - shouldn't we expect losses to Argentina, oh, eight, nine times out of ten?

We'll survive, it's possible we learned a thing or two (things like the fact that Eddie Gaven isn't ready for the senior team, or...), such as this little gem from Jeff Carlisle's analysis for ESPN:

"This was especially true in the U.S. midfield, which faded badly in the second half, continuing a trend from the Gold Cup that saw the Americans finish games poorly. In that tournament, the U.S. was not punished for this tendency, but on this night they found out the hard way how a good team treats such charity."

"Of course, part of how a team kills off games is by keeping possession, and this American team showed that it is still light years behind a side like Argentina in this regard."

There's something oddly relieving about the persistence of the problem Carlisle describes. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? The real question is the dreaded two-parter of can we learn and, if so, how? At any rate, I'm relieved to hear we looked all right for 60 minutes; now let's work on that last 30, yeah? And to to, y'know, actually play soccer, as opposed to the run-n-gun stuff we seem to prefer.

And don't ask me why I chose this highlight reel (is the text on the video Hebrew?):



Turns out Haimrevivo1 (the guy who posted the first video) is a busy boy; he also found highlights from Paraguay's (our next opponent) rout of Colombia:



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