Once Again I'm Back

Re-did my contract like Mike Vrabel, now the Chief is back...

What's new on the soccer front... well, first and foremost:

If you follow soccer and don't already know this, yes, Bayern Munich took the home/away Champions League series from Sir Alex and Manchester United on away goal margin with a terrific display of what I can describe as nothing but true grit. After falling behind 3-0 Bayern refused to put their heads down, and rallied for two goals of their own in a 3-2 away loss, good enough to give them a 4-4 aggregate score which saw them through to Europe's version of the Final Four with an away goal advantage of 2-1. French club Lyon awaits the German giants, and 2 years removed from an all English final, England now has no representatives in the final four teams of the CL.

On the US soccer front, Clint Dempsey is again sidelined with a recently sustained leg injury which forced him out of today's Europa League win, but the injury does not appear to have any long range implications, he should return before long and have time to prepare for South Africa. Charlie Davies is by all reports looking great in his recovery and at this point is a good bet to be a World Cup participant, and if you've missed it Maurice Edu has been scoring some goals of late in his return to action for Rangers. One of the more interesting stories is the late push for consideration by Herc Gomez, who has been scoring goals for fun in Mexico. Tomorrow I will post my current prediction for the US World Cup final roster as well as MLS updates.

Jonathan's Army and US vs Honduras

In tonight's 8:30 EST friendly between the United States and Honduras, expect one player to have more fans in attendance from the opposition than he perhaps has from his own nation. Jonathan Bornstein has battled and proven himself to be a viable option at left back on the international level, and perhaps the US team's best option there come South Africa this summer. In Honduras, however, he is much much more. In a country that hadn't qualified for a World Cup in 27 years, Bornstein is somewhat of a hero for scoring the last minute goal against Costa Rica that would send Honduras into World Cup SA. Many Honduras fans have made the trip to California for this tune-up game, and are expected to cheer at least one American if he is introduced as a starter. I'll get into details for tonight's match later, but for now let's relive the final seconds of that US/Costa Rica matchup.