God, Country, Soccer

Best 11 – (442) G – Hartman D – Olave, Gonzalez, Wynne, Pierce M – Donovan, LeToux, Morales, Ferreira F – Cummings, Wondolowski Awards MVP: Omar Cummings Defender: Jamison Olave Coach: Schellas Hyndman Playoffs RBNY vs. SJ – RBNY wins 4-2 agg. Colorado vs. Columbus –Rapids win 5-3 agg. FSL vs. FCD – FSL wins 6-1 agg. LA Gals vs. Seattle – Seattle wins 5-5 agg. (Advances on Penalties)

I was asking myself in the shower, "If I were to make a team, picking one, and only one, player from each MLS club..who would I take and how would my team look?" I know, I know, I really gotta start daydreaming about other, more normal, stuff...like winning the lottery. So, here's my picks from each team and how my team would shape up. Chicago Fire - Patrick Nyarko (F/W) C.D. Chivas USA - Jonathan Bornstein (D) Colorado Rapids - Conor Casey (F) Columbus Crew - Andy Iro (D) D.C. United - Andy Najar (W) FC Dallas - David Ferreira (MF) Houston Dynamo - Geoff Cameron (D/M) Kansas City Wizards - Ryan Smith (W/MF) Los Angeles Galaxy - Landon Donovan (M/F) New England Revolution - Marko Perović (MF) New York Red Bulls – Thierry Henry (F) Philadelphia Union - Jordan Harvey (D) Real Salt Lake - Kyle Beckerman (MF) San Jose Earthquakes - Ike Opara (D) Seattle Sounders FC - Kasey Keller (G) Toronto FC - Stefan Frei (G) -----------Casey------Henry--------- ---------------Donovan-----...

There's been an interesting discussion going on over on The Shin Guardian regarding the USA's soccer logo. The one now is bad, real bad. I've been talking about that for a while now with friends. The colors are wrong. The use of "US" instead of "USA" is wrong. The clipart looking soccer ball is wrong. It's just bad. So, I decided to come up with some alternative ideas and using my limited graphics knowledge, put some of them together. So here it goes. Version 1: I made minor changes to this, using the correct colors and the correct nomenclature and eliminating the soccer ball. I like it, kinda plain though. Version 2: This version is based on Nike's Don't Tread campaign badge. It has a snake on it which I don't like so I took it off. I also corrected the colors and added "USA Soccer" to it. Version 3: For this I was looking at other USA symbols and came across this and loved it. I added the badge to it and gave it more of the h...

This Rapids season feels just like the past few Rapids seasons. Off to a great start and then crawl to the finish. If you break it down into 3 ten game segments, the Rapids started off great with a 6-3-1 (W-L-T) record and 19 points. If you look at the second 10 game segment, it hasn't been very good. The Rapids were 1-3-6 (W-L-T) with 9 points in the last ten games they've played, including the 3-1 loss in Columbus over the weekend. Let's take a look at who's been on the field and how I grade them. (In order of minutes played) G - Matt Pickens (1800 mins) B+ He's been pretty good in goal, he's started every game thus far. He and the defense have had good communication. I would say has been one of the top keepers in MLS this year. D - Drew Moor (1800 mins) B+ I don't think that Rapids fans, myself included, knew just how good this guy was when the Rapids traded for him. He's been a rock in the back line, whether it be in central defense or on the wing,...

Did you know that soccer existed in the USA before MLS? Of course you did...hopefully. Well my friends over at Pot Hunting specialize pre-MLS American club apparel. They sent me a shirt of the Fall River Marksmen and the first time I wore it, I got a compliment on it. So please, give them a visit, check out their wares and tell them God, Country, Soccer sent you. Thanks. If you or your company are interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact GodCountrySoccer[at]gmail[dot]com

Brwosing around the internet, looking at forums and the like, I came across a site that lets you make your own formation graphics. It's pretty cool, I spent way to much time messing with it. Well this is what I came up with. My desired formation and personnel for the Rapids. I know the biggest thing off the bat is that Pablo Mastroeni is not out there. I just don't see the need for 2 destroyer type midfielders on the pitch at the same time. At this point in their respective careers, Jeff Larentowitz is better at that position than Pablo is. Another thing is that Mehdi Ballouchy isn't in the middle, he's replaced by Claudio Lopez. This seems like it should be an automatic, but for some reason, Gary Smith likes Mehdi more than Lopez. In this formation Omar Cummings moves back up top to partner with Conor Casey. Putting them on the wing as they have this year just isn't working. He's scored 2 stunning goals, but the rest of the time hasn't performed up to par ...

It's been a busy week for me, check out some of my latest appearances. VI Questions with Class VI - 07/20/10 Claudio Lopez Bleeding Burgundy Podcast - 07/15/10 from Class VI Around the League - 07/21/10 from CSRN If you want to contact me about being on your show/podcast, feel free to me an email to GodCountrySoccer[at]gmail[dot]com