Thursday Thoughts

A busy week for U.S. soccer, and pretty much all of the news is positive. Hey, no one in the soccer world died, so that’s a plus, right? Let’s get to it.

- The Nats won in D.C. -- and I don’t mean the MLB version. Bob Bradley’s side looked good in basically locking up first place in Group B of the Gold Cup. The first half was a back-and-forth game that probably tilted towards Honduras, but the second half additions of Charlie Davies and Benny Feilhaber -- who was definitely on the roster -- took any doubt out of the game. Feilhaber had a hand in both goals and took Man of the Match honors for me, even though I hate giving that kind of stuff to a guy who played less than a half hour. Davies again was solid up front, though I would have liked to see him play with Freddy Adu rather than Brian Ching, who was largely invisible all night. Aren’t these games about building towards the future with the young guard?

The defense looked slow throughout the night and I’m not sure that the two centerbacks are of international quality. Chad Marshall looked better in the second half, but should be well down the pecking order. He will be above Michael Parkhurst though, who picked up a full season’s worth of yellow cards in MLS on the night.

From a local perspective, of which there was a lot in this game, Santino Quaranta took the cake. Tino scored his first goal for the national team in his home stadium and you couldn’t help but be happy for the guy who’s been through so much. Another Maryland native, Kyle Beckerman, looked good in the first half, spraying balls around the field and was the best attacking option as Freddy Adu had a rough night (again, would he have been better with a more mobile Davies?).

Overall a solid night, and a great crowd (26k+ on a Wednesday night is impressive), in the nation’s capital.

- As you should know by now, Oguchi Onyewu signed with Milan. As long as he gets plenty of playing time, which he should with their current defense, this is an outstanding move. Madrid wouldn’t have given him as much time and this is certainly a step up from Ajax, both in pay and stature of club. I’m just hoping he makes his debut in Baltimore against Chelsea. With a guy like Pirlo in front of him, he should change from the “Dwight Howard of the USMNT” that I dubbed him during the Confederations Cup.

- MLS (yeah, we do still talk about them sometimes) did well in Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup’s quarterfinals. D.C. United held on against Harrisburg in a match that was tenser at the end than it maybe should have been. But all due credit for advancing. However, with limited rosters and a lack of a Reserve Division, that’s what these games have become for some teams. It’s sad to look down at the USOC like that, but understandable, especially for those sides that just wrapped up SuperLiga group play. You just have to wonder how another team next year (Philly) and two more (Portland and Vancouver) in 2011 are going to thin that player pool even more and affect the level of play in MLS.

- Lastly, problems are afoot once again in South Africa. 70,000 workers are on strike, as they’ve asked for a 13% raise, while employers are only offering 10.4%. The workers must know that they have all the leverage here and I wouldn’t be surprised to see FIFA step in and pony up even more money to make up the difference. It’s already a dicey proposition over whether the stadiums will be complete by December, when they’re due to be turned over to FIFA. Also factoring in that tickets are not selling well, and the conspiracy side in me is still wondering if this tournament won’t be moved this fall.

- Pat Walsh