Rico Clark got 9 games, $10k fine for kicking Carlos Ruiz with no injury involved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA_c1FClBMo http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=soccer&id=3049619 By that standard, anything less than 15 games and $20k for Mullan is disgraceful and Garber should step down.

The match was originally scheduled at a time when our playoff status wasn't assured and when we still were in the running for advancing in CCL. The boycott was in the works since the day the friendly was announced. Futhermore, Fernandez, Montero, Nyassi and Jaqua - all players that will presumably see significant, meaningful minutes in the playoffs - played in the friendly and all took needless tackles and risked injury. Ultimately, the decision by our FO to play a meaningless match this late in the season with key fixtures surrounding it is asinine regardless of how things worked out and the point needed to be made before 2011's schedule is drafted.

It was the only play he had. He doesn't make it, and Uruguay go home. He takes the handball, his team is penalized, but they still have a chance. He was properly ejected and Ghana had not just one, but two opportunities to dispatch Uruguay after that and couldn't. To me, this is no more cheating than if he tackled a guy from behind on a breakaway with an open net in front of him. If you care about winning, you have to take the foul and roll the dice with the PK chance.

As much as this is the right decision for Charlie's future, it's still devastating. Who knows where he'll be at 27 next time the World Cup rolls around or if he'll ever be as fast as he was pre-accident.

Having been at the game, it was clearly a bad foul. You don't hurt your lower back from diving. His tailbone took a shot. He went to the ER for an X-Ray after the game and he's still feeling it bad as of yesterday: As a Sounders fan, I'll admit that Montero is definitely a diver and his brand of play became very irritating to me towards the end of last year. But Ljungberg has no place in the diving argument. Not when he's being legitimately injured by the contact.

I'm not necessarily a Donovan fan, despite him clearly being one of the best US players ever. As a Chelsea fan, I admit this probably would be a nice signing though. What amuses me most about the whole thing is that if Donovan signs with Chelsea, that'll mean the last thing he ever did as a Galaxy player was blow a PK over the bar in the MLS Cup. Classic.

Anyone who can't see how much Altidore has grown isn't looking hard enough - especially when Findley was stinking up the joint up top next to him. Torres looked sharped and took the best shot for us in the first half. Playing at Pachuca has honed his skills much more than I expected. Bornstein, for all his heroics in qualifying, looked terrible at left back. Utterly overmatched. And our back line in general has to be a concern with Gooch still out and Cherundolo. Lastly, I'd like to take a second and trash Nigel De Jong. That was a bullshit challenge to make in a friendly and will cost Holden a lot of time to recover and possibly his spot in the World Cup. Totally classless play by De Jong.

They didn't show his celebration in the video. Did he do "The Stanky Leg™"? Heh!

I don't get roping Jozy Altidore in with Adu. At. All. Altidore is a starter on a Hull City team that would be facing relegation regardless. The fact is, he has size, strength on the ball, and pace - everything Adu doesn't have. Jozy is making an impact. His passing has improved significantly since spending some time in the EPL and he was responsible for drawing a penalty against Man United the other night - the only Hull goal in that game. Freddy Adu needs playing time. Anywhere. Plain and simple. He's a passable player with decent skills, but he's rotting in Portugal.

Don't get me wrong, Messi deserves it for last season's performance. I just think them crowning him the best player in Europe right now - when Barcelona have struggled in UCL and when Argentina gasped mightily to qualify for the World Cup - is kind of silly. They should vote on these things closer to the end of Champions League final.

Messi was on a team of gods among mortals in La Liga. Granted he had a fantastic campaign last year, especially given his age - but his inability to put Argentina on his back in a big game during World Cup Qualifying shows how far he has to go still in becoming a truly transcendent player. This season, I'm not even sure he's the 3rd best player on Barcelona. Xavi and Ibrahimovic have looked better in the few impressive wins FCB has had. Right now, Drogba is the best player in Europe and would've gotten my vote. He's looking even better than he did in 2006 both for Chelsea and for Ivory Coast.