There’s some debate in the comments over at Dirty Tackle as to:

• Whether this goal should have even counted.
• Whether it was, in fact, counted.

But there’s no denying that this own goal in a match between German lower division sides TSV Wimsheim and TSV Grunbach last Sunday (Grunbach was the team at fault here), seemingly caused by the wind is rather unusual.

I have a sneaking suspicion Dr. Manhattan was involved. Dude probably had a lot of money on this match that seems to have been played at a neighborhood park.

Because international soccer is not my strong suit, I turned to former MPS soccer expert Eamonn Brennan for some anaylsis on the US’ pool for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. By all accounts, the US had a very favorable draw. Outside of England, the US should be able to handle the other two teams — Algeria and Slovenia. And, at least on paper, should advance to the next round.

Some thoughts about each team from Mr. Brenann:

First, England:

It’s better than playing almost any other great club, but England is good. They belong in the elite. I don’t think they’re a great matchup for the US. They have a recent history of choking in World Cups, but they are really good top to bottom and probably have the best midfield in the world. Their back line is bad for Landon Donovan because John Terry and Rio Ferdinand are both like 6′4″ and strong. They will own him.

Algeria:

Good draw. They have no real high-level club players to speak of. it’s a lot easier to qualify out of Africa; there are good African teams but they are not among their best. It should be an easy win.

Slovenia:

Great draw. We don’t have to even worry about England at this point. Because England should finish with three wins (nine points). We’ll likely lose to England but beat both Algeria and Slovenia (six points).

Slovenia and Algeria should lose to both us and England, and one will beat the other, or draw, or whatever. So three points and zero points, or one point each, if they draw.

Hey, so you know how people like to complain about rich, young people getting treated too well and coddled and such, before they earn their keep?

WELL GUESS WHAT? This doesn’t always happen. Take the case of Manchester United’s Gabriel Obertan. You see, Obertan — who is 20 years old — came over from France to the English Premier League this summer on a £3 million deal. But he had a bit of a back injury for a while, so instead of just chilling and collecting his scrill, they put his butt to work.

From the Sun:

When the French winger arrived in England, he did so as a £3million wonderkid, raking in around £20,000 a week.

Yet United coaches were at pains to make sure playing for one of the world’s biggest clubs didn’t go to his head.

While Obertan was recovering from a back injury, he was given a variety of light duties which included watering hanging baskets, pruning the rose bushes - and even washing staff cars at the Carrington training ground.

Well how about that. Oh, and if anyone from the Bulls wants to send over Taj Gibson or James Johnson to  clean my room, feel free. These clothes just aren’t going to pick up themselves.

HT: Unprofessional Foul/DS

Ha! I’m just joking. You can be good at Guitar Hero/Rock Band/DJ Hero/Orchestra Hero/Big Band Hero and be a good athlete. The skills are not mutually exclusive.

Though, I’m betting anyone that can play expert mode on Guitar Hero wouldn’t survive a minute at this:

(HT: FirstCuts/Joystiq)

Last night, U.S. soccer closed CONCACAF qualifying with a pretty thrilling tie with Costa Rica. Non-soccer fans probably consider the previous phrase an oxymoron, but when you score a goal deep in extra time to draw the game at 2 — especially when that game’s major purpose for the U.S. was to honor injured teammate Charlie Davies — that’s a thrilling tie.

But it really didn’t matter for the U.S. Their place in the World Cup was secured. It did matter for Costa Rica, who needed a win to qualifying, and Honduras, who needed to beat Ecuador last night (they did, 1-0) and the U.S. to beat or tie Costa Rica to sneak into the World Cup. This is what happened. Hondurans were pleased by this development. Notice the love for the U.S. at the end:

Forget soft power and diplomatic common sense. This is how the U.S. improves its international standing. If our soccer team gets really good and starts beating everybody, at least half those teams will love us, right? There is literally nothing wrong with this theory.

David Beckham’s had some bad publicity surrounding him lately: the Grant Wahl book, the loaning out to Milan and getting mouthy with fans.

So perhaps in an effort to get the Internet to talk positively about him again (my own baseless speculation, to be sure), the LA Galaxy tossed up this video of him onto YouTube, in which forward Alan Gordon challenged him to kick a ball into a specific window in the press box at RFK Stadium. (It’s the one above the “I” in the “TRAFFIC” sign.)

So does he do it? Yes, he does it:

Beckham was/is known as one of the best free kickers in the world. Now you know why.

Tremendous find by Who Ate All the Pies (via Littmann) wherein we get to see one of the most amazing, albeit violent, kicks of all time. According to Dirty Tackle, this happened Sunday, and the two teams in question are Oriente Petrolero and Club Blooming. (The dude that bust out the karate kick is from Blooming.) It starts out innocently enough, sure, with just some random soccer-skirmish-type-stuff, but then all of a sudden, BAM, 30 seconds in happens. And it’s ridiculous.