North and South Korea Get Along with Football!

Gruffgoat's World Soccer News Blurb: Attention Europe: if North Korea and South Korea can battle it out in a World Cup qualifier without their fans erupting in a firestorm of violence, you really have no excuse. Check out the full story at Yahoo.com.

Iraq Out of the World Cup

Gruffgoat's World Soccer News Blurb: Iraq was eliminated from World Cup during qualifying after losing to Qatar...there will be blood spilled in Baghdad tonight. Oh wait...uh, yeah, nevermind...Here's the story from Yahoo.com.

USA vs. Barbados: Leg 1 Observations

The USA destroyed Barbados by a score of 8-0. In football, that is a huge victory. So why, you ask, do I still feel a sense of doom when it comes to our national team?

I can't really put my finger on any one thing. We are lacking creativity in the midfield. We are lacking a vicious goalscorer or goalscoring partnership. We are lacking an organized defense. We are lacking a tactically minded coach. In small units, we are fine. Against weak opponents (no offense to the brave Barbadians who never gave up) we are fine. Against any sort of class, I'm not so sure.

Video of the goal fest:


What we do have are world class goalkeepers, which will help to keep the scores close, but until we start putting the ball in the net against teams like: Spain, England, or Argentina, then we have little hope of making an impact in South Africa.

I hope like hell I'm wrong; and the qualifying tournament may not play that out until the very end.

By the way, I don't have any USA vs. Barbados: Leg 2 Observations because...well, I couldn't find a channel anywhere that was showing the match. I do know that the US won by a margin of 1-nil and moved ahead to the next round with a 9-0 aggregate score. Here is the article from US Soccer for your reading pleasure.