Yay!

How, I wondered, would I be able to tie into MLS for a US Men's National team mostly made up with Europe-based players? Sure, I'm all wrapped up in the national team as well as my MLS, but I still like to focus on the home players, since they're the ones I get to watch for six months out of the year.

It turned out to be pretty easy. Not only did the Revs' Clint Dempsey put home the header that won the game in the 48th minute, aided by fellow Rev Taylor Twellman, but in the second half the only way I was able to keep track of the second half of the game at all was through MLS.net.

If a game is on during work hours -- and I work some pretty crappy hours, so I have to do this more often than not -- I MatchTrack the game at US Soccer.com. It ain't great, but it's better than a kick in the eye. I was able to watch most of the first half before I came to work, and it looked like a hard-fought match for both sides. Finally the US men had an opponent who was really making them work at it and earn that goal.

Then I came to work, tried to sign on to the US Soccer Web site ... and nothing. I got repeated error messages. When it finally did bring up the MatchTracker, it would work for three minutes and crash the computer. So I missed out on Dempsey's goal, his nice little patriotic salute, the blizzard battle, the yellow ball, everything. I got an update from MLS.net, thankfully, so -- oh well. Thank you, MLS for the information and for the player who garnered the win. This game put paid to my last lingering fears and doubts that the earlier wins were too easy. Huzzah! On to face the Germans!

And while watching the game -- and I noticed that "The American" Brian McBride sat out, what's up with that? (later edit: ah, groin injury, I see, thanks AP) -- I was wondering how an entire team of MLS stars would fare against a European team. Perhaps their playing style is different enough to shake things up? It would be interesting to see.