USSoccer

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=366876&cc=5901 Hejduk tore his ACL, so Albright gets tabbed from the alternate pool to take his place. Probably a net improvement...

honestly, I think if Cub fans want a whipping boy it should be Prior and not Wood. Wood gets hurt, but tries to pitch through it, which is why he gets hurt in the first place. Prior...I don't know what his deal is, but it's bloody absurd he's not at least on par with Wood as far as rehab goes. Wood had 2 surgeries to recover from, and is going to make it back well ahead of him.

you're drunk, aren't you? Is he talking about injury time? As an aside, I wish they'd bring back the Golden Goal... Injury time...that's it! I don't understand that deal at all. They take the time where the game was not played during that 45 minute period due to injuries and substitutions and add it onto the end, making the half 45 minutes of actual playing time. I don't get why it's a mystery though. The announcers don't seem to know how much time is left in the match.....why the confusion? The official time is kept on the field by the referee. He has a stopwatch, and starts and stops accordingly. At the end of each half he's supposed to inform the 4th official approx. how much time is left, and that's announced on TV and to the crowd. Most officials will go over this estimate if one side or another is in the attacking 1/3 of the field. They won't end the game during the run of play when a team is in a scoring situation.

Yeah, it's doubtful he'd play unless McBride got hurt. Wolff would probably be subbed in before Ching would.

Now that I've had some time to digest the roster, let me offer up some thoughts: Ching over Twellman isn't as shocking as I initially thought. Ching had played decently in early qualifiers and IIRC tied a game away late vs Jamaica. Twellman didn't do anything in games that meant something, or in difficult enviroments. He looked totally outmatched. Putting O'Brien on the squad seems silly, even if he comes all the way back and is healthy, he hasn't had signifigant game action for a long time. Plus, I'd much rather see Dempsey out there most of the time. I know he can drop him for an alternate up to the day before their 1st game, but still... Ben Olson shouldn't play a single minute, but I'm glad Arena resisted the Berhalter/Zavagnin temptation. I hope Frankie Hejduk doesn't play much. Convey is a great choice to back up Beasley. Other than that, it's a pretty vanilla roster. 11 MLS players out of 23 is't bad. We'll see what lineups Areana trots out in the send off series.

Taking a quick look I'm surpised at Ching over Twellman....

That is suprising.

I'm stuck at work, too. I'll be seriously ill at my desk if Zavagnin is on the roster. And I won't be shocked if Eddie Johnson isn't.

I hate it. It's too gimmick heavy and not nearly enough content or bandwidth to support any sort of traffic.

That's pretty much MLS's operating plan right now. Long term, it's best to have the top players in the national team pool-especially the younger ones-in Europe. MLS is doing the smart thing as far as building the league goes, in that they haven't tried to grow too fast, too quickly by overspending on players. As far as MLS getting respect goes, I'd argue that the league does get some respect right now, at least regionally. MLS regulars basically carried us through 75% of the qualifiers, and MLS players will probably make up about a third of the WC roster when it's announced today. You see a lot more interest in guys from MLS now in Europe. As a league, it's about on par with the rest of the leagues in N. and S. America.

As long as he's not hurt he can somersault into 2B for all I care...

We're going to win this game. Just an FYI.... :D

He's trying to jerk every single pitch out to LF. He needs to settle down and just make contact, and he'll be fine.

Why would he honestly say this? Doesn't he want to further the MLS and have it become a more world renowned league? I don't want all of our good players leaving to play in Europe. I want them to stay in the US and play. I know people have differing opinions on this matter but you would think that a former US National Team player and former MLS player wouldn't want all of the good American players to leave the US. Is the money on offer in Europe not far, far more than the money on offer in MLS? That's surely going to go through these players' minds. Yes, it is. Unless you're Freddy Adu. Also, I completely agree with USSoccer regarding players moving to Europe. The MLS is simply not good enough for our top-end talent right now. Therefore, these players must play abroad in order to play world-class. To put a coda on that point, the reason Landon Donovan will always be a very good but not great player is that he's unwilling to make another move to Europe. In his case, you have to weigh the ceiling on his development by staying in MLS vs the psychological wreck he became during both stints in Europe.

Why would he honestly say this? Doesn't he want to further the MLS and have it become a more world renowned league? I don't want all of our good players leaving to play in Europe. I want them to stay in the US and play. I know people have differing opinions on this matter but you would think that a former US National Team player and former MLS player wouldn't want all of the good American players to leave the US. I think it's a double edged sword for US players. On the one hand, the domestic league needs to grow and continue to improve for the health of the sport long term in America. On the other hand, playing in Europe helps improve the national team pool right now. I think MLS has done a fairly decent job of letting guys go at the right time, usually when there is someone to step up and take their place. I'd rather see them all stay in MLS, but I understand the desire and importance of playing in the top flight leagues. As far as Wynalda goes...well, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He's pegged Taylor Twellman over and over to break his goals scored record for the nats, but doesn't realize that Donovan and McBride are about to break his record sometime in the next few months. Twellman has like 5 career goals with the national team. He's not going to touch McBride or Donovan when it's all said and done.

Bump for a really optimistic prediction. During a "Predict The Roster" column, Eric Wynalda posits the following prediction: This is in the same column that he advocates picking Kerry Zavagnin as one of the mids. FYI the 23 man roster is to be announced tomorrow at 5pm Central on ESPN.

I simply cannot believe that the Bears didn't address a single offensive need in either FA or the draft. Griese is a backup. They needed a WR, a TE, and some OL depth, and they got none of these things. Again, it's as if Angelo assumed the offense from the playoff game was the norm last season, and the defense was what was killing us all season.

Great win, but the best anyone can hope for Tyson is that he could play game 6. No way he plays on Tuesday. That looked like a really nasty sprain at least.

And the Bears shore up the 29th ranked offense in the NFL by taking a OLB

So will anyone take Marcus Vick? :P

I guess this debunks the Dusty had to have Rusch in the rotation theory. Rusch was a horrible signing that lies soley on the shoulders of Hendry who vastly overpaid for him. How so? I think the only thing that quote shows is that Baker is less willing to stick with crap this year.

This is what hapens when you base your offseason needs on one playoff game, rather than 16 regular season games.

But really, this early? Especially when we need a TE? Horrible pick. Was Moss on the board at 42? If you want a return man/scat back (ie, too cheap to sign Randel El), why not draft one that's actually good?

Wayne Rooney out six weeks with a broken foot: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=366391&cc=5901 There would be no words to express how pleased I would be to see England bounced in group play.

in the immortal words of Hawk...HE GAWWWWWWWWN I fear Honestly, the Bears are inept. They are one ring above the Blackhawks as far as upper management goes. They consistently make terrible high draft choices, usually don't spend money in FA, and when they do, they overpay for past their prime guys like Muhammad. TE has been a terrible need for years, their offense was ranked 29th last season, and they spend their first 2 picks on a return specialist and a safety.