Well madness is starting. Got up at 4:20 a.m. to watch
the Japan Germany friendly (Where were you in WWII??)and
was quite entertained, with Japan going up on two goals
by Takahara, only to see Germany equilize on 2 late free
kicks for a 2-2 result. Sky-Perfect satelite had Anglola
Argentina friendly on at same time, with tango dancers as
half-time entertainment.

I am writing a 10 Commandments for USA supporters, should
be a humorous piece. Starting with "Thou shalt not question
the rules, demand that the goal be bigger, or hint that
there should be more scoring. It will never happen."

Memorial Day in U.S. yesterday - CNN homage to troops while
reports come in about Haditha and Kabul. Grim, that's why
football exists.

This morning the U.S. beat Latvia 1-0 in Hartford Conn.
on a goal by Brian McBride. It was a header and Brian
already had a bump the size of an egg on his forehead,
apparently using THAT to knock in the goal. This is our
last warm-up match before the June 12 showdown with the
Czechs. We do play Angola, but that will be a closed-
door scrimmage the public won't see. The buzz on the
news sites and blogs is that we dominated possession
but suffered from poor finishing, thus only the one
goal. But no new injuries. Claudio Reyna rested his leg
and will start on June 12. The team has three days off
and then it's Lufthansa to Germany.

In a mixing of media, there is now a MANGA comic of the
USMNT! You can see a preview here US Manga I have to get a copy of this.

My prediction came true. The USA, playing an almost
completely new lineup (except for Gooch and Josh Wolff)
and against a much more familiar type of opponent,
scored two nice goals and beat Venezuela, with Everton
Goalkeeper Tim Howard preserving a clean sheet 2-0. See
video highlights in the YouTube viewer above, #2.
Saw a short spot on the team on ESPN Sports Center (37
minutes in) here in Japan, nice. Thirty thousand fans
can out to loudly support the USMNT in Cleveland. My
man Gregg Berhalter showed up after a flight from Germany
just before gametime but didn't suit up. One more minnow,
Latvia, on Tuesdayand then it's off to the Cup. No send
off visit with the President in the Rose Garden but maybe
he'll call on the phone like he did in 2002. On second
thought, nah.

Tomorrow USA plays a South American medium-minnow
Venenzuela in Cleveland. I sense we will come out
and score at least two goals to make up for the last
minute collapse against Morocco in Nashville on
Tuesday (yes, USMNT lost 1-0 to the North Africans).
But the big news is that Captain Claudio Reyna (of
Manchester City) will only miss one game after a
scan of his leg showed no serious injury after he
suffered a groin pull in the 15th minute of the
Morocco game. The BIGGER story is that today it
has been disclosed that defender Corey Gibb (just
traded from a Dutch team to Charleton in the EPL
is outof the Cup due to an undisclosed injury and
has already been replaced by alternate Gregg Berhalter
(Energie Cottbus, Germany). I for one am pleased.
Gregg had a great Cup in 2002 and very, very nearly
equalizedfor the US against Germany in the infamous
Torsten Frings handball-on-the-goaline play. No red
carded or given a penalty kick by some **** of a Scots
ref who will remain nameless.