USA Top The Hex

Odds 'N' Ends

Lots to cover, so bullet points it is!

1. USA tops the Hexagonal after 5 games.  Had the PK been given, or Beasley and Dempsey's woodwork efforts gone in, or Bradley not hit Dempsey, the US would have been the only team thus far through some 15 games or so to score 3 goals in a match.  Close but not quite, but at least we aren't drawing Costa Rica at home 0-0, in one of the most intimidating venues in football (yeah, Mexico, I'm looking at you - Azteca?  More like snooze-teca)
2. Some good points on the USA's win from MLSSOCCER.com.  Besler and Gonzalez appear to be firming up their partnership; losing Beasley for next week's Honduras match in Rio Tinto will make the back four shuffle somewhat.  The mothership's WCQ page pretty much tells the whole story.
3. Jozy Altidore: 90 professional goals for club and country (23 years old) with more than thirty of those goals coming in the past 10 months.  Uh-oh...someone's heating up?  Now if only Landon will get off his tush and join the fun.
4. 30 seconds of genius by Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands against China:
5. Less brilliant by Javier Mascherano, kicking a medical staffer as he's carted off the field:
Mascherano expulsado by hoyno255
6. Here's one way to stop Messi...put him in jail.
7. The game says goodbye to a big name, perhaps made large for the wrong reasons as Michael Cox points out via ESPNFC.
8. The World Cup in Qatar (2022) might be the most ludicrous sporting even plan ever...or the coolest, if they really can pull off stuff like this.
9. An amazing 2-second, 3-pass goal by Benfica of Portugal: