Love this. I choose to believe Dempsey missed the pen on purpose. Of course Deuce would want to uphold the traditional 2-0 score.

So what do you do, just give a full spot to OFC? Come on, it's a bunch of complete nonentities and New Zealand. New Zealand was absolutely dreadful in South Africa. Mexico has some quality and were a bit unlucky last night. If they sort out their coaching situation they're still the best team in CONCACAF.

The US is likely to draw a very difficult group and should consider progression to the knockout round to be a very good performance.

They had USA on the ropes for the first 15 minutes and had the better of the first hald. Their press was really effective and USA had no ability to retain possession in midfield during the early stage of the game. But for two very nice saves by Howard Mexica would have been up 2-0 at the half.

What, so you want to take a spot away from CONCACAF and give it to UEFA or CONMEBOL? Or two spots? But it's the WORLD Cup, and FIFA has good reasons to spread out the opportunities to qualify.

Columbus is a fortress mang

Oh please, give the constant hype a rest. I mean, it's a big game when we play Mexico but the stakes are really not at all high for the US. With the games remaining (home against Jamaica and away to Panama) USA is pretty much a lock for the top 3 and automatic qualification. (They're given a 98% chance of qualifying…

I swear I recognize Beardo from somewhere.

That opening sentence was actually really funny and evocative, are you sure you're qualified to criticize people on the internet?

oh shut up you crass idiot football existed before 2005.

Great shout, this is a fantastic book that deserves to be read by more than Spurs obsessives.

At least the game against Mexico is on an ESPN.

Costa Rica away under these circumstances is a game that's begging for us to play on the counter, though. They're fired up to beat us and should be throwing everything at us. To be fair we should be delighted to get a draw from the game though.

http://www.wiziwig.tv/

Who knew Roy Keane's mom posted on Deadspin?

Sid Lowe reported it out http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/…

You're right. It's bizarre. United clearly didn't have much of a plan this summer. The pursuit of Fabregas was an embarrassing fiasco.

They bought Eto'o! Lukaku needs weekly games for seasoning and that was never going to happen at Chelsea.

This piece got a mention on Football Weekly Extra. Well done!

Absolutely. Kagawa is a breathtaking creative talent who has been ill served by his move to Manchester.