News and notes about Brazil vs. US

As you all know, I'm a soccer guy. As I was watching the final of the Confederations Cup I just kept wondering, has US Soccer turned the corner? Sure, we started off like complete crap and got a lot of help to get into the semis, but do two great results a strong national team make? Don't kid yourself, the 2-0 victory over Spain was no fluke. They were both great goals. The team worked hard on both sides of the ball and did a good job to get a clean sheet.

Against Brazil, what a start, huh? Two goals in the first 30 mins. Howard made some great saves and again, both were good goals. But, it's the race to 3 and the second half was a completely different story. I mean, really, giving up a goal 38 seconds into the half??!! That's stuff I expect from high school soccer, not elite, national level soccer.

Hopefully these last two games will provide the spark necessary for the US MNT to play well in qualifying for the World Cup and then springboards into success in South Africa next year.

Granted, I am biased, but I thought Spector played well in the tourney. Sure, Kaka got around him for the second goal, but other than that he played well. And there's no shame in letting the 2007 world footballer of the year get by you. In some distant way, I like to think I have a closer tie-in to the national team because of Spector. Him being a Viator guy and having met him a few times and him coming to Viator and playing a bit with the team, it's pretty cool that he's getting a lot of playing time with the US MNT and now that he's recovered from his injuries, hopefully he'll get some pt at West Ham too.

I feel the same way about Elise Weber, who plays for St. Louis Athletica in the WPS. Having seen Elise day in and day out in practice and playing now making it as a pro soccer player is pretty cool. It's a great feeling as a coach.

Well, I'm rambling now, so it means it's time to shut it down for a bit.

Until next time...