12 April 2006

Time Out and Time In

UNITED INJURY UPDATE: Steve Goff in the Washington Post gets the updates on Santino Quaranta and David Stokes, both out for around three weeks with injuries. Also, the earliest possible moves from Rimando's Army will have to wait until April 22 against the Red Bulls, when Rimando will be "available to play"

BEN OLSEN, AMERICAN HERO: The sleek and aerodynamic face of Ben Olsen, no doubt to be used in advertisements for the Schick Quattro, scores the U[ML]SA's only goal in salvaging a draw with Jamaica. MLSNet notes that The Bruce likes what he saw out of Olsen. I thought that while there was the occasional odd touch or errant pass, Ben had a pretty good game for the mini-Nats. More impressive than his goal (which required that Jamaican Keeper Donovan Ricketts to almost usher Ben's left footed shot into the net) was his standing up for his teammates after hard tackles. I don't know that it is enough to get him to Germany, but I think he's made the best case he could possibly make between his match against Chivas and his performance last night.

UNITED (WO-HO) RADIO: The SE Podcast for the Chivas game made it onto my iPod last night, and it is good listening as always. Things to pay attention for include Bobby Boswell's opening, Piotr Nowak syntax, and road trip details. Enjoyable stuff, as always. Plus I love Wall of Voodoo.

AAXI WEEK 2 - "DE-FENSE!": The All American XI has the Week #2 honors for potential US Nationals. Sadly, the list is DCU-less. No, alums like Albright and Pope don't count.

MASRampage! Mid-Atlantic Soccer Report has got some great stuff this week. Dig the interviews with Piotr Nowak and Alecko Eskandarian, and break out the HiFi headphones for the Best of Jamie Moreno Mix Tape. The interview with Nowak has some very interesting things in it (note: Player relations, use of players and fatigue) so I may have to come back to that.

So that's what you need to know now.