... just take a peek at African football. From the BBC today: Just when football fans in Cameroon thought things could not get any worse, somehow they do. Two first division matches were called off on Sunday after the man in charge of the stadium refused to release the goal nets and a corner post. Fans had turned up to watch a double header featuring Kadji SA against Sahel FC Maroua and Les Astres Douala against FC Yaounde but unexpectedly, what they saw was a farce. The chaos at the Douala Reunification Stadium was triggered by the stadium director who locked up the essential items in his office. Glebert Mandjeck was apparently acting on the orders of the sports minister, Philippe Mbarga Mboa.

Only 5,173 showed to see RBNY play Bayern Munich. Just atrocious. Though I bet parking was easy.

Clearly a better performance by the guys last night, though if Venezuela had any attack at all, the score would have been very different. The American defense continues to have holes and communication problems, and while you don't want to read too much into these games, the fundamental problems - an inability to score and a failure to work in tandem in the back - still bedevil the American side. And by the way, in the game of soccer, "scoring chances" are not rewarded - I have yet to hear of a match in which the "six scoring chances" created by, say, Scotland, negated the three goals scored by Brazil. The point is, creating chances - something which the team's coach likes to trumpet - means little. Scoring goals, however, wins games. This team needs to focus less on creating and more on finishing.

An informal poll shows that Eddie Pope is leading the dead pool to go down next at 5-2. John O'Brien is 3-1; Brian McBride is 6-1 and Tim Howard is 11-1.

Over by the Chelsea Piers here in NYC, there's a new machine that sells soccer balls, fully inflated for $20. It's pretty hot and tagged with Nike's "Joga Bonito" campaign logo. If anyone out there has used it, let me know.