utsoccer87

essien may find himself on the bench next year now that ballack signed with chelsea.

zidane didn't play in that game or the next one and totti is going to be playing so its not really the same thing. i hope your predictions are right though, that's about how i see it playing out.

not a bad list. here's mine. 1) holland 2) brazil 3) portugal 4) england (#1 with a healthy rooney) 5) argentina 6) usa 7) italy 8) czech 9) france 10) spain

I agree with everything you said. Italy has this scandal hanging over their heads. The Czechs are old and Nedved commits some very silly fouls that could get him ejected and kill the team. Ghana is not better than us. Essien is a good player, but who other than that. The US has world-class talent that will be on display. Look for Onyewu, Johnson, Dempsey, and Donovan (if he wants to) to move to Europe and cash in following the Cup. Whoever wins this group is going to the semi finals, and I truly believe it can be us. As for the tourney overall, I don't think Brazil will repeat. England can get to the quarters without Rooney and if he can play at 75 percent in that game look for them to progress onward and win it as his health improves. If not, I like Holland. Portugal could also make some noise. In my opinion, this is as wide open as the Cup has been since I've been old enough to follow it. There are 8-10 teams that have a legitimate shot at it.

first pick i've gotten right the whole tourney. guess i was due.

they still shouldn't lose to belarus. belarus is worse than morocco. and i also saw that it was belarus's b team. i was just trying to show how much these friendlies don't really matter. england's using their b team only re-emphasizes that.

it's going to be a very close game that goes down to the wire. having seen both play live i'd have to go with bearden, but i said the same about the houston-h'ville game. that said hendersonville won't out physical bearden. i'll take bearden in pks.

that's 7 eastern right? did everyone see englands lost to belarus or someone like that. shows you how much these friendlies matter.

good for h'ville and middle tn. i'm surprised at it though. details?

i was not disappointed at all by o'brien. the best chances we had in the first half were all created by him. sure his touch was off a little, but that's to be expected. i would have to say the biggest disappointment was mcbride. he was invisible. wolff also should not have been in, but i think johnson will move into the starting lineup friday against venezuela. i was very impressed by convey, he brought a lot of energy to the team when he first entered. the one thing no one is talking about on the goal...keller should have come to play it with his feet. cherundolo did screw it up no doubt, but keller needs to come clear that in that situation. also, donovan plays better without reyna in the game. reyna gets far too much respect. he is not one of the 5 best players on the team, and we lose nothing when he is not in. even 4 years ago when he was younger and better physically, we beat portugal without him. now we need him even less than then. i hope he's not back for the cup. donovan plays better when he has the captain's band. overall the result is disappointing, but not devastating. it doesn't matter one bit, and hopefully will serve as a wake-up call as the team goes forward from here. for those of you who don't know, sportscenter all access is following the team, so there will be a feature about them on sportscenter every night for the next week at least.

bearden will beat them.

houston 3 hendersonville 1 farragut 2 riverdale 0 ooltewah 3 ridgeway 2 bearden 4 brentwood 2

i've seen bearden, houston, and hendersonville all play and hendersonville is not as good as the other two. being from middle tn, i'm pulling for h'ville and brentwood, but i'm afraid they'll be headed home early.

i've seen both play, and houston is better. i hope hendersonville will win being from middle tn, but i don't see it happening.

35 goals against bad teams. the only good team they played all year was Hendersonville and he didn't score against them. I've seen Hendersonville, Bearden, and Houston all play and Hendersonville is not on the same level as the other two. If Hendersonville and Brentwood are truly even teams then they'll both be headed home early.