I'd like to start by saying that the Netherlands didn't deserve it. The US played them off the pitch. The US created better chances. The US possessed the ball better. Holland was reduced to playing counter-attacking soccer. That's Holland. Birthplace of Total Football and Johan Cruyff, the should-have-been champions of the 1976 World Cup, the actual champions of Euro 1988. Outplayed by the United States. Outplayed, but not outscored. I knew it was going in from the second the camera pulled back for the wide shot.

The US goes from being about fifteen seconds away from automatic qualification to a much less assured position. Instead of looking at an essentially meaningless game against Nigeria, it's now certainly a must-tie, if not a must-win. Oh, and they'll have to do it without Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley. So, instead of guaranteed qualification the US now faces a must-win game against a solid Nigerian side. This with two of America's best players suspended due to yellow card accumulation. In case you were wondering, Adu's second yellow card was indeed dubious.

When's Team Handball on?

I'm sorry, but this is hilarious. Apparently, an Englishman named Derek Williams falsified some documents from the Mexican Football Federation and wrangled himself a tour of Universidad Nacional's stadium and spoke to some reporters, all the while pretending to be Sven Goran Eriksson. He apparently told Universidad's manager that he was watching his players ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers. Classic.

United States Olympic Coach Peter Nowak today released the eighteen man roster he'll be taking to China. According to FIFA rules, participating teams are permitted to bring three players over the age of 23. Peter Nowak took advantage of this rule and invited new Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan, New England defender Michael Parkhurst, and the between-teams forward Brian McBride. US supporters, myself included, will be thrilled to see McBride step on the field once again for the red, white, and blue. The US as yet have been unable to replace the loss of McBride to international retirements. The majority of his potential successors, including Eddie Johnson, Brian Ching, and Taylor Twellman, have disappointed against tough opposition. The Olympics, however, will likely see McBride partnered with the player many hope will be the one to finally fill McBride's shoes: Josmer Altidore.

2008 U.S. MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (5): Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (out of contract), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

I can't help but feel a bit guilty that my overriding emotion upon reading that Claudio Reyna is retiring was relief, rather than appreciation. Reyna came to the Red Bulls last year as Bruce Arena's first Designated Player signing. Reyna was Arena's boy, the captain of Bruce Arena's USA. It was no surprise that Arena would look to bring Reyna in to run the New York midfield. Reyna had been having a tough couple of years with injuries in Europe and it looked like it was time for him to come home. Reyna's ties to New Jersey and his relationship with Arena made his arrival in New York a certainty. Red Bulls fans wouldn't have minded having Reyna on the payroll, even as they hoped against hope that the team would not use their designated player slot on Captain America. So, in true Metrostars fashion, that's exactly what they did. Reyna was signed by the Red Bulls for some $1.25 million dollars. The man's fate was sealed. The fans were outraged by the decision. Reyna would never play enough games to warrant a designated player salary, they argued. As it turned out, they were right. Reyna has played 27 games in 2 seasons to earn his $1.25. My trusty computer calculator tells me that's about $46,000 a game. Reyna did not score any goals for the Red Bulls and produced only three assists in those 27 games. Money well spent, it seems.

Based on that evidence, Red Bull fans' collective sigh of relief can be forgiven. However, as a US supporter as well, I feel that the man's accomplishments should be highlighted instead of focusing on his year in New York. Reyna was on the US team in the 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006 but didn't play in 1994 due to injury. Reyna was named captain of the US team for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, earning All-Tournament honors in the 2002 tournament. He remains the only American player to be so distinguished. He earned 112 caps, scoring 8 goals and providing 12 assists before retiring from international soccer after the 2006 World Cup. On the club side of things, Reyna began his career with Bayer Leverkusen before being transferred to Vfl Wolfsburg. It was at Wolfsburg that Reyna became the first American player to captain a European side. He would go on to play for Glasgow Rangers in Scotland, and Sunderland and Manchester City in England. It was during his time in the UK that Reyna earned the nickname "Captain America". In 2007, Reyna and Manchester City terminated his contract by mutual agreement and Reyna made his way 'across the pond', as they say, and began his long and storied career at Red Bull New York, cementing his status as an iron-man, and leading the club to their fifth, six, seventh, and eight titles.

I hate penalties. I hate how arbitrarily a winner is chosen. I hate the way penalties discard everything that came in the previous one-hundred and twenty minutes. I hate how they place the burden of winning or losing on one player. Soccer's not about the individual. Teams rise or fall collectively. They train together, they play together, they should win and lose together. But penalties don't work that way. Penalties isolate a player. Suddenly he finds himself alone. There's nothing but the ball, the goal, and, unfortunately, the other team's goalkeeper. If you miss, your team is out. The pressure is mounting. Your teammates have all made their spot-kick and now you need to make yours. If you don't, your team is out and it's your fault. Penalties just aren't in the spirit of the game.

So, what do we do about it? Well, nothing mostly. We can complain about it and suggest things FIFA should do, but almost certainly won't. Stephen Colbert (I know, I know) once said that, and I'm paraphrasing, that deciding the World Cup Final on penalties is like deciding the NBA Championship on a game of 'Horse' Despite the fact that the World Cup Final is so beyond the NBA Championship in both scope and importance as to be incomparable, it remains the best case against penalties that I've heard. People may argue that penalties are exciting or that they've become part of the fabric of the game and either point has valid arguments to be made for it. However, I refuse to accept that entire tournaments, international tournaments, events that billions of people watch, should be decided by ten shots from twelve yards away because we've gotten tired of seeing no one score. The very possibility of penalties hurts the game. It allows less talented teams to put ten men behind the ball in an attempt to stifle a superior opponent's offense and take the game to penalties. Once they've done that, their chances are advancing are just as good as their opponent's, despite being played off the park for two hours. Take, for example, the case of Italy against Spain in the quarterfinals of Euro 2008. It can be universally agreed upon that Spain, based on the run of play, deserved to win that game. Italy, however, did what they do the best and employed their patented style of play 'Catenaccio'. For those of you who don't know, catenaccio means 'door-bolt' in Italian and the system calls for highly organized defense with goals scored on counter-attacks. The definition of boring soccer. Yet, Italy could have been said to have an advantage going into the shoot-out. The Azzuri boasted Gianluigi Buffon in goal, widely considered to be the best in the world. Just two games before, Buffon had made an unbelievable penalty save against Romania's Adrian Mutu, keeping Italy's hopes of advancing alive. Spain's eventual victory on penalties doesn't reflect the fact that they could have just as easily been sent home. A cruel reward for actually playing an attacking style based on possession and skill.

But what can we do to prevent teams from employing strategies like catenaccio or the anti-soccer played by Greece in 2004? The best solution that I can think of would be to keep playing. Wait, what? That's your solution? Just...keep on keepin' on? Well, no. There are a couple changes I would make. They are somewhat radical changes, but I believe they're for the benefit of the game. The first thing I would do would be to grant team's another substitution at the end of regulation. Teams would play the first overtime period just as they do right now. The coach can use whatever substitutions still available to him at the end of the game in addition to the added substitution. If, at the end of the first overtime period, the teams are still tied then both teams will remove a player. Now the game's ten versus ten. The coaches are granted another substitute to use at their discretion. The process should continue for as long as is necessary. At the end of each overtime where the game remains tied, add one substitution and take one player off the field. The addition of extra substitutions will keep the players fresh while the removal of players will open up the game and allow teams playing with guile and flair more opportunities at goal and thus more opportunities to win on their own merit. I rather prefer teams advancing on merit rather than the arbitrary and all-too-cruel solution we currently employ.

Okay, it's time for full disclosure. I'm a big Tottenham Hotspur fan. This is despite the fact that I live in New Jersey and have never set foot in England. I've been a fan of the club since the 02-03 season. The 2002 World Cup had just ended and my 12-year-old self was on the lookout for more soccer. This was before I knew about Fox Soccer Channel or its ilk so a weekly highlights show on MSG called, I believe, Premier League Review had to suffice. My choice of club, having no actual links to England generally or North London specifically, came down to two factors. The first was that I didn't want to root for one of the big four clubs. Even at the tender age of twelve I desired the masochistic pain that comes with rooting for a club that flounders in perpetual mediocrity (I'm also a New York Red Bulls fan). I found Tottenham to be a sufficiently middling club: they finished ninth in the 2001-2002 season. The name itself may have given the club an advantage over its mid-table compatriots. Being an American, it's likely that I was preconditioned to prefer team names that resembled the American 'place'-'team name' formula. Tottenham followed that formula. The second factor had been born at the 2002 World Cup. I am entirely of Irish descent. Every branch of my family tree can somehow trace itself back to Ireland. So, I naturally had a soft spot for the Irish at the World Cup. The fact that the Irish and the Americans performed so well in Japan and South Korea is probably why it remains my favorite major tournament. In any case, I was spellbound by the play of Robbie Keane in Ireland's four games. From his late equalizer against eventual finalists Germany, to his spinning volley against Saudi Arabia, to his game-tying (all for naught) penalty against the Spanish in the Round of 16, to his manner of celebrating goals, the man played spectacularly. The fact that Tottenham had just signed one of my favorite players from the World Cup tipped the scales. I was hooked. Which is why I find the latest rumors about Keane asking to leave Tottenham for Liverpool to be particularly distressing, despite questionable veracity.

Perhaps it's denial, but I can't buy Keane leaving Tottenham. At least not for a few years. He's just about to turn 28 (in four days), undeniably in the prime of his career. At Spurs, Keane is already a legend and shares a magnificent partnership with Dimitar Berbatov. The pair of them form what is perhaps the only true, old-school style strike partnership in the Premier league. Keane has found stability at Spurs, something that eluded him when he was bouncing around from club to club before 2002. I doubt he'd want to leave just as the Juande Ramos revolution (fingers crossed) begins. Then there's the fact that Keane was on his honeymoon with new wife Claudine Palmer when the news broke. It's suspect that business such as transfer requests were at the forefront of his thoughts. In addition, Keane has reported for training for Spurs. Which is, incidentally, the last place you'll see former Aston Villa Captain and Liverpool target Gareth Barry. It's unlikely Keane would make the effort if he planned on leaving the club in the near future. Then there's the fact that the deal just doesn't make sense to me. What does Tottenham need a meager 5 million pounds and Peter Crouch for? They already have the far superior Berbatov to play the role of target forward, so unless Berbatov leaves (which I doubt will happen, despite relentless media links away from White Hart Lane), Spurs have no need of Peter Crouch. Keane also has to consider the fact that he would be relegated to the bench at Liverpool far more often than at Spurs in favor of a five man midfield with Fernando Torres by himself up top. I suppose you'd have to consider the unlikely (and horrifying) prospect that Robbie Keane simply does not figure in Juande Ramos' plans for the club. Ramos has many connections in the Spanish soccer world and if there's one thing Latin countries are good at producing it's creative withdrawn-forward, attacking-midfield players; precisely the role Keane plays for Tottenham. Yet, Ramos went to Croatia to find a central midfielder in Luka Modric to pull Tottenham's offensive strings.

All I know is, however unlikely the prospect, I may weep if this deal goes through.