Freddy Adu scored his first goal this weekend for Aris Salonika in the club's� match vs. Ergotelis in Greece.� � Not long ago, as we waited for confirmation of Freddy's next career move, I wrote "Much Adu About Something?� � My default position:� don't give up on Freddy so easily.� �

Now that we have our first goal, following a beautiful assist recently to fellow� American Eddie Johnson,� shall we declare victory?

For fans of the New England Revolution this has been a pretty tough offseason.� Reading a very interesting interview with Steve Nicol at FoxSoccer.com made it very clear that there are some very interesting hurdles to make it over this year.

• Paul Mariner: Hugely respected Assistant coach with vast experience and knowledge – gone.

It went widely unnoticed or cared about, but when Soccer America reported that Eric Wynalda is being given a trial run as an Under-20 National Team assistant coach . . . my head started spinning.� �

Would Eric use his brash style, deep history and strong playing experience as a force of good to help groom our promising "next generation" of players?

It is easy to suggest that "child prodigy" Freddy Adu� is simply an over-rated marketing project more than someone who has the potential to be a significant player on the world-scene.� � I think that view is actually a convenient cop-out.

Clearly, I'm in the camp of Freddy supporters that hopes his career heads the right direction.

Yanks-Abroad is a great site.� I read it near religiously.� � You should too.

The name alone, however, suggests its latent bias – one toward a preference for US players that are playing abroad, and a (general) disinterest in MLS.� � � That made Brent Latham's new Yanks Abroad piece "PHILLY.

When writing about a game that involves a team I support� I like to take the cup� is "half full vs. half empty" approach, but as an (mostly) non-partisan observer� for MLS Cup I didn't want to pollute this blog with such thinking.� � (I do, however, remain surprised that I haven't yet seen an overtime/penalty related headlines somewhere about how "The Cup Runneth Over" .

A Slovakian team that was (apparently)� good in European qualifying, but not well ranked by FIFA, � played a defensive, counter-attacking game against the USA in a partially filled stadium, on a pretty ugly field and won 1-0 on a weak penalty call. � � Not what you call must-see-TV, so it is probably good that not many people saw it.

The US Under-17s are out of the Fifa U-17 World Cup after a tough loss to Italy.� � I saw less of their World Cup play than I wanted, but a few� thoughts remain hard to shake.

Maturity is over-rated at least in soccer.� � The game against the UAE reminded me most why watching the occasional youth game is so refreshing: even in a pressure situation the 'kids' tend to play with an offense-first mindset and a penchant for flair that will very likely (and sadly) be taught out of them in the pro ranks.

Kudos are clearly warranted for Clint Dempsey as he hits his second goal in as many weeks for Fulham FC.� � � � � While his first professional coach and likely mentor, ex-Liverpool great Steve Nicol, might not immediately love that Clint helped Fulham take down Liverpool, it was clearly a significant achievement following a goal the prior week against wanna-be powerhouse Manchester City.

The bad thing about having a "real job" is that I don't blog about the beautiful game as much as I'd like. There is a silver lining though, I get to ignore lots of� topics that are only marginally interesting to me and rather focus on some more interesting theories.

I decided to sit down for a few minutes and think about an article that for blogger standards is ancient (August 26) but that struck a chord for me.

It's hard to feel bad about winning three points on the road in CONCACAF, since that seems to be a rarity nowadays.� � Yet, it's hard to feel totally good about this result either.� �

It is another perfect example of the half-full, half-empty conundrum.� �

I said after the El Salvador game that this match would tell us a lot about the team� .

Since thinking through results of soccer matches require a fair bit of perspective, and I'm often in need of some emotional detachment . . . I'm going to� try offering a view� double-sided view� of the US� v. El Salvador game� (and maybe others)� � via a glass half-empty vs. glass� half-full analogy.

World Cup qualifying is getting real and some serious games are at the ready for this weekend.

Grant Wahl has writtenabout how Argentina and Portugal are both on the precipice of World Cup qualifying failure, which could deny fans of two of the best players in the world, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

I've read through a number of articles, blogs and responses to them (both the inane and quite good) about the looming sale of the United Soccer Leagues (USL) and what impact that would have on MLS.� � Most sources claimed that MLS has also put a bid in for USL, though one generally agreed to be much lower than what is required.

Vacation is upon me and the urge to write (and think) any more than is required has fallen by the wayside.� � However, I have stumbled upon a few must-read articles that are worth sharing.� � Whether you are a die-hard soccer fan� or are perplexed how anyone could be, the first two� are worth a look.