Special K's highlights

Hats off to Sacha K

With a team featuring a majority of players in the midst of an offseason, the U.S. managed a 3-2 win at The Home Depot Center over a Swedish team that featured a majority of players in the middle of their season. Sasha Kljestan provided all the offense, scoring a hattrick (one from the spot).

The U.S. held a commanding 2-0 lead at halftime and squashed the Swedes late hope, as Kljestan's third came just a minute after the Daniel Nannskog had gotten Sweden on the scoreboard in the 73rd. Mikael Dahlberg scored a late goal for the visitors to make the game appear closer than it was.

Kljestan's offensive output is a positive sign, but the failure of the U.S. frontrunners doesn't bode well. Kenny Cooper and Brian Ching played alongside one another for half of the second-half, suprising given the similarity of their styles. But Ching's assist on Special K's third goal was artful, while Cooper had a late chance that he missed badly. Charlie Davies was almost invisible in the first half.

TYH's Patriot of the Pitch©: Sacha Kljestan

MATCH REPORT

TEAM	1st half	2nd half	Final
USA	2	1	3
SWE	0	2	2

Scoring:
USA - Kljestan 17.
USA - Kljestan (PK) 40.

SWE - Daniel Nannskog 73.

USA - Kljestan (Ching) 74.

SWE - Mikael Dahlberg 89.

Lineups:
USA: 1-Troy Perkins; 12-Marvell Wynne, 2-Danny Califf (capt.), 4-Michael Parkhurst (3-Ugo Ihemelu, 82), 6-Jonathan Bornstein (15-Chris Wingert, 79); 17-John Thorrington (20-Chris Rolfe, 61), 13-Ricardo Clark, 16-Sacha Kljestan, 30-Robbie Rogers (22-Brian Carroll, 69); 10-Charlie Davies (27-Kenny Cooper, 46), 11-Brian Ching (29-Eddie Gaven, 77)

SWE: 12-Johan Dahlin, 7-Markus Jonsson, 8-Marcus Lindberg, 9-Max von Schlebrügge, 5-Adam Johansson; 10-Andreas Dahl (14-Rasmus Elm, 62), 6-Daniel Andersson (capt.) (13-Martin Ericsson, 71), 20-Gustav Svensson, 16-Samuel Holmén (15-Alexander Farnerud, 62); 11-Mikael Dahlberg, 19-Daniel Nannskog

Misconduct Summary:
SWE – Daniel Andersson (caution) 27.
USA – Danny Califf (caution) 59.

STATS	USA	SWE
Shots	13	9
Shots OG	6	6
Saves	3	3
Corners	7	1
Fouls	15	15
Offside	2	5

MLS Superdraft: The sound of one hand clapping

If a league holds a draft and no one is around to report on it, is it still Super?

MLS held its annual craptacular Superdraft. Click here for the results. If you've read my blog, you know that I don't put much stock in MLS's annual Superdraft.

But his year's draft was notable because it featured MLS newest franchise, Seattle Sounders FC. With the first overall pick of their first Superdraft as an MLS club, Seattle chose English striker Steve Zakuani of the University of Akron. He was Soccer America's Player of the Year and the pick by many MLS mock drafts (yes, they exist...some people have too much time on their hands I guess). Will he live up to the hype? Well, history's certainly against him (see Chris Carrieri et. al.). But recently the performances of the No.1 picks have been a bit more mixed (exhibit a: Nikolas Besagno-2006, exhibit b: Maurice Edu-2007 and exhibit c: Chance Myers-2008).

Other Seattle selections were Wake Forest defender Evan Brown, left back Jared Karkas from Azusa Pacific (a Christian college) and midfielder Michael Fucito from Harvard. Seattle did well to draft defensively in the later rounds, as most clubs have had more success in the Superdraft finding defense rather than offense.