The Sin: Gluttony is one of the most digusting sins, and Maradona exemplifies it in the pic at left. By the time this shot was taken, the man who was the best player in the world (maybe ever) had indulged himself to excess on food, wine and drugs. He failed to abide by Proverbs 23:21, which states that "[f]or the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

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Take your pick: a meaningless friendly on European soil, or fighting for a World Cup spot today. As far as that goes, American soccer fans can't complain about their situation. Thanks to some gutsy results in the final two games of the tournament, they aren't in Montevideo, with a tough Uruguay squad looking to deal a knockout blow.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Almost eleven months ago, during a sunny week in South Florida, you could tell the 2009 MLS Draft Class had the potential to be special.

During the rough days of the MLS Combine, even as player struggled with fitness and playing with their new teammates, there was a sense that this year's crop of talent had the potential to provide MLS with a serious infusion of talent.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Almost eleven months ago, during a sunny week in South Florida, you could tell the 2009 MLS Draft Class had the potential to be special.

During the rough days of the MLS Combine, even as player struggled with fitness and playing with their new teammates, there was a sense that this year's crop of talent had the potential to provide MLS with a serious infusion of talent.

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It's a tough situation Bob Bradley finds himself in. With very few friendly dates left before South Africa to test our best against quality opposition, today's game against Denmark appears to be a dud. The US is without its two most recognizable field players, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, while the Danes basically have a "B" side at their disposal which excludes such recognizable names as Daniel Agger and Niklas Bendtner.

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United States National Team coach Bob Bradley announced the roster for this week's friendlies against Slovakia and Denmark. The late announcement was due to the availability of players from Major League Soccer, with four teams exiting the playoffs over the weekend. "These matches present a terrific opportunity to continue building on the nucleus of our team, and at the same time evaluate more of the player pool against very good opponents," Bradley said. Click to continue reading...

Reid Harbach (Catholic sophomore) and Austin Hart (Glendale sophomore) have both been selected to attend the USYS ODP Interregionals in Orlando, FL December 26-30, 2009. They will participate with the 1994 Region II ODP Team. The team will face competition from the other three regions over the five day event.

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Today they, the ubiquitous they who say many things and say them often, have awarded the Galaxy's own Landon Donovan the 2009 Honda Player of the Year award. This is given away annually (hence the "of the year" part) to the best player for the year on the US Men's National Team.

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Early in Bob Bradley's tenure it appeared like the US was going to be a side that utilized width and the quality runs of its fullbacks to stimulate an attack. But as time has worn on, Bradley's ideal playing style has been limited by a lack of depth in the player pool, the falling off of certain key individuals, and the general lack of depth being produced by our national team programs.

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Today I have seen two different pieces on what the US U20's bomb out in Egypt means for player development in the US. (See these great pieces, Phil Schoen's here and Glenn Davis' here.) Player development in the US, or at least what passes for it, is a serious problem. I've always maintained that the elimination of the MLS Reserve League was about one thing only, reducing the player pool available to potentially strike or (more likely) be locked out should the negotiations for the new CBA somehow fail. Click to continue reading...

Standard Liege, the former club of Oguchi Onyewu gave an English club a hard time for the third time in two seasons yesterday in a 3-2 loss to Arsenal. Meanwhile, Gooch didn't even make the match squad for his new team, AC Milan in a 2-1 victory Tuesday over Marseille.

Despite my initial excitement about Gooch's move, it's now become obvious that his current lack of playing time could affect his USMNT form.

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One of the interesting features of CONCACAF is how quickly some of the national teams go through coaches. Bob Bradley is the longest tenured coach of a major nation in the region while the US' opponents continue to react or dare I say over react to every result.

Costa Rica has sacked Rodrigo Kenton just days after a loss to El Salvador.

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(Editors Note: We profiled Jill Oakes shortly before the start of the WPS season. A high school and college soccer standout, Jill just wrapped her first season as a pro and will be a regular contributor to Pretty Tough as she, and the league, gear up for a second season).

As I reflect on the roller-coaster ride I like to call the inaugural WPS season, my own personal journey reads with the same dramatic exclamations of a thrilling 1920's newspaper headline.

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(Editors Note: We profiled Jill Oakes shortly before the start of the WPS season. A high school and college soccer standout, Jill just wrapped her first season as a pro and will be a regular contributor to Pretty Tough as she, and the league, gear up for a second season).

As I reflect on the roller-coaster ride I like to call the inaugural WPS season, my own personal journey reads with the same dramatic exclamations of a thrilling 1920's newspaper headline.

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With one former Boston College Eagle making a major impact on the US National Team, another seems poised to get his first senior team call up in the next several months.

Alejandro Bedoya is now playing regularly in Sweden with Orebro SK, in the critical attacking midfield role on the left side.

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The Fire Bob Bradley movement has returned front and center. This movement's proponents continue to advocate the termination of the current US coach while offering little advice in the way of a realistic replacement. Many proponents of this movement have also vastly over rated the talent level in the current US Men's National Team Player pool, believing that the failures that can be rightfully blamed on a poor youth system, college soccer and a domestic league that doesn't focus on player development as it once did are all down to a single man.

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Thanks to all those who had followed The Flat Back Four on Twitter today. To say that we had a great time chatting and tweet-ing about possible transfer moves would be stretching it a bit. In fact, it was quite the opposite. When the expectation and hype gets built up so much and all we get is a £12m Michael Turner switch from Hull City to Sunderland, then it's time we face the facts and realise that this is as good as it gets in the Barclays Premier League this season. Click to continue reading...

I'm honestly tired of this winless streak, how about you? The Wizards haven't won since they beat New England back in June (I'm sounding like a broken record saying that, but it's true). Tomorrow night the Wizards welcome Real Salt Lake to CAB. The good news for Wizards fans is that Real Salt Lake is not a good road team. Click to continue reading...

A pretty big deal to those who want MLS clubs to get better youth academies. Steve Goff is reporting that DC United has signed Abdul "Bill" Hamid, a 18-year-old goalkeeper from their youth academy.

A few adjustments were made to the original offer from the league and should be finalized in the coming days, a source close to the negotiations said.

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Well this has really got the locals talking. And thank god for the Nearpost; always got a solution and right now that's just what we need.
And in blogland solutions are easy.
Capital Football has put on hold, maybe even scrapped, their plans for a change from the less than equitable and limited current Academy structure to the proposed and advertised FFA facilitated Talent Id program. Click to continue reading...

Ridge Mahoney from Soccer America recaps the Mexico 5-0 victory over the US in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.
Despite the scoreline, I was very encouraged by Bob Bradley's young team throughout the Gold Cup. Coach Bradley has to walk away knowing that he has strengthened his player pool with young talent, some of which might go to South Africa next summer. Click to continue reading...

Javier Aguirre knows the task at hand. A restless nation and overbearing press make life as El Tri manager almost impossible to cope with. For Aguirre in his second stint on the job after a long and successful run managing in La Liga, the CONCACAF Gold Cup has been a chance to experiment and add depth to the player pool.

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Readers of this site know I don't typically post pieces on one particular youth prospect going abroad. But, Cody Arnoux is a player I have been tracking for a long time and it's refreshing to hear that he may be latching on with a big English club. Soccer by Ives broke the story earlier today that Arnoux whose excelled in both College Soccer and PDL is heading overseas.

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I'm going to take a break from the Gold Cup Series to tell you about how our ladies have been spending their time. Unfortunately, they have been spending a ton of time with some folks we are all familiar with, yet really do not know all that well:

Canadians. Our friendly neighbors to the North.

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With the Confederations Cup now behind the USMNT, the Gold Cup is on the horizon. Sure, plenty of people have issues with the tournament. Many would like to see the region's championship every 4 years rather than bianually. The continental powers take the tournament more seriously when a Confed Cup spot is up for grabs.

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As interesting as the Confederations Cup was with the predominantly European-based US players, the coming Gold Cup allows the MLS fans to see how some of the American MLS standouts might perform on a bigger stage. One such player is Brad Evans of the Seattle Sounders, formerly of the Columbus Crew and the U-20 USMNT. Click to continue reading...

...with lessons in hand. So what did we learn in the Confederations Cup? It's a strange boat we find ourselves in this week. Are we far removed from the creeping despair that led to the universal wailing and gnashing of teeth in the wake of the... Click to continue reading...

The USMNT just finished a grueling stretch of seven competitive matches in twenty five days. As we enter July and the CONCACAF Gold Cup lets asses where the player pool is just a year out from the World Cup. Bob Bradley will be the coach for the next year and very likely beyond for another cycle.

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Remember if you have any questions for the players or coaches, post here before halftime and I will do what I can.
Venue:
Home Depot Center, Carson, CA
Weather:
Partly Cloudy and 70 degrees
Referees:
Head Ref: Luis Rodriguez de la Rosa
Asst Ref: Hairo Fuentes Batista
Asst Ref: Benigno Paneso
4th Official: Daniel Radford
Actual Lineups:
San Luis FC
GK Adrian Martinez
DF Oscar Mascorro
DF Noe Maya
DF Omar Mojaras
DF Michael Orozco
MF Braulio Luna - Captain
MF Jesus Palacios
MF Ignacio Torres
FW Victor Lojeno
FW Alfredo Moreno
FW Malher Moreno
Subs
GK Carlos Trejo
DF Arturo Alvarado
DF Adrian Garcia
DF Armando Olmedo
MF Rodolfo Salinas
FW Jose Reyes
FW Diego Alvarez
Chivas USA
GK Zach Thornton
DF Jorge Flores
DF Claudio Suarez - Captain
DF Carey Talley
DF Shavar Thomas
MF Jesse Marsch
MF Paulo Nagamura
MF Bojan Stepanovic
FW Chukwudi Chijindu
FW Maykel Galindo
FW Eduardo Lillingston
Subs
GK Lance Parker
DF Bobby Burling
DF Jim Curtin
MF Atiba Harris
MF Michael Lahoud
MF Sasha Victorine
MF Cesar Zamora
PRE-GAME:
-If you are wondering why (or even how) Bobby Burling and Cesar Zamora are on the game day roster, you would be correct that "normally" they could not play in games since both are on the Disabled List. Click to continue reading...

Official Press Release
DaCosta, Taylor, Benefiting from Professional Environment Locally and Internationally
Newburgh, NY – For the past week, Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues midfielder Amanda DaCosta has been training with the United States U-23 National Team in Lorain, Ohio, a Northeast Ohio town that is home to the Premier Soccer Academies. Click to continue reading...

Dual citizenship, discussions about players being raised in one country, then playing for another have been running rampant the last several days. Some like the new FIFA rule change, some don't. For some the thought of Guiseppe Rossi playing for Italy after being born in the States, causes their blood to boil.

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Remember if you have any questions for the players or coaches, post here before halftime and I will do what I can.
Venue:
Home Depot Center, Carson, CA
Weather:
Clear and 68 degrees
Referees:
Head Ref: Jasen Anno
Asst Ref: Emiliano Monje
Asst Ref: Jeff Hosking
4th Official: Kevin Stott
Actual Lineups:
Real Salt Lake (3-6-3,12pts)
GK Nick Rimando
RB Tony Beltran
CB Jamison Olave
CB Nat Borchers
LB Chris Wingert
RM Kyle Beckerman -Captain
CM Javier Morales
LM Will Johnson
RS Clint mathis
CS Yura Movsisyan
LS Fabian Espindola
Subs
GK Chris SeitzDF Ian Joy
DF David Horst
MF Raphael Cox
MF Ned Grabavoy
FW Luis Miguel Escalada
FW Tino Nunez
Los Angeles Galaxy (2-1-9, 15pts)
GK Donovan Ricketts
RB AJ DeLaGarza
CB Omar Gonzalez
CB Gregg Berhalter
LB Todd Dunivant
RM Mike Magee
CM Dema Kovalenko
CM Josh Tudela
LM Eddie Lewis - Captain
RS Alan Gordon
LS Edson Buddle
Subs
GK Kevin Guppy
DF Leonard Griffin
DF Tony Sanneh
MF Chris Klein
MF Stefani Miglioranzi
FW Bryan Jordan
FW Jovan Kirovski
PRE-GAME:
-Covered the Galaxy Alumni game with lots of video later this week. Click to continue reading...

Below is an article by J Hutcherson from the USSoccerPlayers Newsletter, who writes about Bob Bradley's experimenting with the US lineup.
Credit Bob Bradley with ending an experiment that was never likely to work in CONCACAF, but wonder aloud with me over the long-term value of holding onto a few ideas that need not be etched in stone. Click to continue reading...

The United States participated in two Confederations Cups under Bruce Arena. The 1999 tournament saw the United States reach the semifinals with a mixture of young experimental squad featuring the likes of Benny Olsen and CJ Brown and some veterans Arena reached back to call up such as John Harkes and Marcelo Balboa to provide leadership.

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With a vital four game home stand completed, and only four out of a possible twelve points attained, the Red Bulls must be at a loss. No matter how hard they play, or what they do, they manage to find a way to defeat, no matter what. That, my friends, is the antithesis of a winner.

Major League Soccer teams have all upgraded the quality of its football the past 4-5 years.

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