It's 2006 Isn't It? Ok Then. Here's A Bit Of News Fer Ya.

-I thought the game was a bit dull, but seeing the MLS All-Stars thoroughly dominate Fulham was nice. I think Fulham will be pretty bummed by their game. I think Taylor Twellman just made it clear that he deserves a real shot with the USA team soon. And so does Jeff Cunningham.
Here are my player ratings for the 4-1 victory (0=dud, 5=average, 10=brilliant):
Matt Reis - 7 (sub Scott Garlick - played 5 seconds so no rating)
Frankie Hejduk - 4
Jimmy Conrad - 6
Greg Vanney - 4
Chris Albright - 5 (sub Ivan Guerrero - 7)
Simo Valikari - 7
Shalrie Joseph - 7
Clint Dempsey - 7 (sub Jeff Cunningham - 9)
Ronnie O'Brien - 7 (sub Michael Parkhurst - 5)
Landon Donovan - 8 (sub Christian Gomez - 5)
Taylor Twellman - 9 (sub Brad Davis - 5)
One last note about the All-Star game: What was the deal with the field being all full of divots? Did they forget to tell the Columbus grounds keeper about the match. Or was there an MLS Player golf chipping contest on Friday? I thought the game was supposed to be the SHOWCASE fer chrissakes!
-Down a man, Pachuca somehow won in Monterrey 2-1 on a goal in injury time. That may not sound astounding, but the winning goal was. Juan Pablo Cacho hit it from inside his own half, over the keeper, for a 50+ yard goal! In added time! I guess the Mexican Apertura has kicked off in high fashion.
Other scores:
Cruz Azul 2-1 Morelia (newly returned midfielder Gerardo Torrado scored both for Cruz, who are still playing despite the fact that there coach was kidnapped just a week ago!)
America 3-1 Tigres
Santos 1-2 Pumas
Guadalajara 1-1 Chiapas
Veracruz 2-1 Atlas
Dorados 3-1 Atlante
Necaxa 0-0 Toluca
San Luis 2-1 Tecos
-A Jimmy Conrad profile in the Kansas City Star. (Of course!) Seriously, Conrad is among league’s best
-Some long rumored deals became final in Europe over the weekend: Baptista & Robinho signed with Real Madrid (opening the back door for Michael Owen to get kicked out of), and Inter signed Walter Samuel from Real.
-Inter won all 4 of its games in England over the past week.
-The Eredivise in Holland kicks off this coming weekend.
-Read the online chat with Don Garber from last Friday at MLSnet.
-Looks like my boy Carlos Ruiz is up to his old tricks again, and I don't mean pissing off defenders and scoring wicked goals. I mean he was a no-show at the All-Star. He later called to say he would not make it for personal reasons. I gotta try that at work one of these days.