Soccer Aside

This is totally outside of the purview of this blog but I find FIFA's World Youth Championships to be interesting. The US has managed to plow through the tournament's "Group of Death" by defeating Egypt and Argentina 1-0 and playing a scoreless draw with Germany. Next they take on an offensively-challenged Italy squad that managed to qualify for the second round despite placing third in its group.

Yes, Freddy Adu is on the team, but the breakout stars are a pair of defenders, ManU's Jonathan Spector and UCLA freshman Marvell Wynne. They've helped the US to their three clean sheets in the group play stage--only the third time that's been done in the history of the WYC-- despite some questionable goaltending. Now the US is picking up neutral support and, by winning the group of death, finds itself across the bracket from the real power teams like Brazil and Spain. A run to the final is not out of the question. You can catch the action on Fox Soccer Channel, except it's a subscription channel and you're an American, so you don't get it. Alas.