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.

Brentwood and Hendersonville are both goin out rd. 1 of the state to Bearden and Houston. Those two will play in the title game with Houston winning.

final 6-2. really wasn't even that close. first clarksville goal was a questionable pk and second came against hendersonville's younger players.

hendersonville by 3 goals and gallatin wins a close game

your team gets a certain number of players based on where you finished in the district. if it truly was the best players in the district no matter the team, pretty much every player would have been from Clarksville and Rossview from that district.

clarksville 2 rossview 1

rossview 3 dickson co. 0 Clarksville-Rossview rematch Thursday night.

last 16: germany ecuador england sweden holland argentina portugal mexico usa italy brazil australia korea france spain tunisia final 8: sweden holland usa korea england portugal brazil spain final 4: holland usa portugal brazil final 2: holland brazil champion: holland I'm pretty sure those are eastern times listed.

Gibbs should be there. I think Berhalter should have been there over Conrad. The reason I think Bruce chose Conrad is because whichever one of the two was on the team was going to be a backup, and I think Conrad was more willing to accept that role than Berhalter.

I like the 3 backs in that 3-5-2 a lot. The only problem I see is Beasley is going to be on the field for sure. But Cherundolo gets in the attack well so him at an outside mid might work very well.

Cherundolo would have started over Hejduk anyway. I think Albright is the right guy to take his place, as he is very good in set pieces, which is very valuable in international play. I read somewhere the suggestion of the US running a 3-5-2. I hadn't thought about that, but if O'brien is healthy enough to be effective that might be our best choice. Put Cherundolo, Onyewu, and Lewis in the back. The Defensive mids O'brien and Reyna with Donovan the Attacking mid, and Dempsey and Beasley outside mids. Johnson and McBride would be the striker tandem. We probably won't do this though. I really hope someone steps up to replace Pope, whether its Gibbs, Bocanegra, or whomever. Did you see the ball Donovan took away from him to score over the weekend? That stuff gets you eliminated in the World Cup. I like our chances to win the group though. The Czech Republic has talent, but Nedved has not looked good this year, and I don't like his mentality. He played in no qualifiers and then decided to come out of retirement to play in the playoffs to get in. He also is a headcase and does some silly things. I don't know if anyone saw, but the foul he committed against Arsenal in the second leg of the Champions League was pretty ridiculous. I think he will do something that ends up hurting his side. As for Italy, the coach has come out and said he doesn't think Vieri will be fit for the cup. Totti is also coming off injury. Add in that they always seem to underachieve in the World Cup and lose to less talented teams, and I like our chances. Whichever of those three teams wins the group will be in the semifinals. Round 2 would be a matchup with Croatia, Australia, or Japan and in the Quarters it will probably be an overrated French team, or maybe the South Koreans. Either way any of the three out of the US, Italy, and Czech should advance on to the semis. I love the World Cup. There is nothing else on the same level. Can't wait for it to start.