My co-worker always talks about something called "The Secret" where your thoughts become reality. Here goes. Jozy Altidore gets brace in Azteca during the Hex and becomes American soccer legend.

These polls are totally unscientific. I'm sure the Sounders fans are stuffing the ballot box. You have home field advantage and should be the favorite.

The title game has to be on a weekend to ensure a good crowd and make it convenient for people to watch. You're never going to escape the NFL at that time of year. The same thing gets thrown out for the season openers during the NCAA hoops tourney. MLS (and soccer in general) has to be able to find it's niche in the sports landscape because, other than the heart of summer (when baseball is the only competition) there's always a lot going on. The last point, I think, is a good argument against going to the southern European calendar.

"sellout" is a noun. Perhaps you meant to use the verb "sell out".

Exactly. 85 had no chance at SKC and Bolt has LESS of a chance than that to make ManU. As Sly said in "Victory", "We got no chance. Understand me? No chance!".

I wonder where Oduro sits on the depth chart. I think his stock is dropping.

I think he has to spend time in the Bundesliga first.

My thoughts exactly. You beat me to it.

Terrible call on not allowing the goal. But it makes up for the bad call allowing the Pappa goal v. Dallas. So, we're even with the soccer gods and still got 3 more points.

I don't know what you do about those shadows. But there were several times the ball was off to the left of the screen and the camera operator didn't pan over. Very frustrating.

Thanks Sagcat. You see so many typos on these sites I did not realize that an actual foreign term was being used.

Polaks? Really? Is this just a joke because of all the anti-racism press that's been going around?

Oh yeah, well the Fire are playing almost-relegated Aston Villa at Toyota Park and at Wrigley it's Roma vs. some Polish team they dug up to cater to the demographic. Top that!

I prefer Golden Goal. I think with no prospect of a penalty shootout, there's no incentive to shutdown and wait for the lottery to start. But, I think Paul Gardner proposed an interesting concept. If the game is tied, the team with more corner kicks wins the game. There is some sense to it because, in most cases, the team that has had more chances at goal will end up with more CK's. And, if the game is tied and your down on CKs, you better get the ball down to the other end. And who knows, you might even get a chance at goal. There are obvious ways to game the system but it would be a fascinating experiment.

Ditto. Spurs to Europe!

In their stats, is there a separate category for hispanics? I think this game was also on in Spanish so the ESPN numbers might not include that. Second, most western Europeans would count in the "white" category. So, this stat probably just says not a lot of African Americans tuned in compared to other ESPN programming. http://www.amazon.com/Black-People-Dont-Play-Soccer/dp/0982058748

They don't have to win. But they do need to score a goal.

dos a cero

Just need to tap one toward the Tica keeperette and we're through to the final. Must be a better link than this somewhere but you can see her shame. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToW-5Gj-nEE

I didn't say it was easy. Just clarifying what Brad said and what I think he meant in the interview.

I was hoping someone would mention the context of the comment. It had nothing to do with each player's ability but referred to the fact that Landon Donovan is the face of men's soccer and Deuce is relatively unknown. Brad's comment was that Landon took the easy route as far as endorsements and domestic fame is concerned.

Maybe he's going to play for Chivas.

Please, he doesn't sign each ball personally. They teach kids in the sweatshops how to imitate his signature and THEY sign them. They then try to forge a transfer document so they can come play for the Cosmos.

He also referred to a person that succeeds as a "successor".

EuroSnob the marketing wizard speaking to a potential customer: EuroSnob: Crow (sic) a pair and get out there and support your team in crappy weather. Potential Customer: No