Saturday's Winners and Losers

A busy day all around, but there were a lot of surprising performances today.

WINNERS

Columbus Crew - Are you freaking kidding me? Three straight wins for the YMCAers. And Saturday they did it without Szetela, Gaven, Ward, Rogers and Schelotto. Hejduk's return did wonders, but to shut down JPA and the potent Toros Rojos offense is amazing. And we finally have our first Jacob Thomas sighting of the season. To top it off, Szetela scored the lone U.S. goal today.

Chivas USA - Another team who got a great win with a depleted squad. No Guzan, Kljestan or Bornstein, and they still beat the Revs 2-0? I don't know whether to be more disappointed with New England or more impressed with Chivas. I'm starting to think Houston and Chivas are the class of the Western Conference.

Polonia - What a huge win today over Brazil (with 10 men, no less). They have a stronghold on Group D, with a bad-looking U.S. team up next on Tuesday.

LOSERS



U.S. U-20s - The kids looked awful today. They were outplayed for the entire match, but fortunately converted their one good chance to get the draw. I will give them credit for sustaining for the second half and dealing with horrible refereeing, but they now have to play a Poland team full of confidence and a Brazil team that will have to scramble to qualify for the next round. A win and a tie should suffice in getting the U.S. through, but it will be very difficult.
Altidore and Adu both looked invisible out there. Zizzo played well after being given the surprise start, but this team could have used Andre Akpan out there. Too bad Johann Smith is injured because he could have been the game-changer that the U.S. needs.

Brazil U-20s - Has to be said even though it's obvious that they aren't of the same caliber as the last two Brazil U-20 squads. They simply lacked the creativity to put anything together offensively. If they go into the U.S. match needing a result, things could get ugly for the Americans.

Fox Soccer Channel - With Copa America and the Under-20 Championship going on at the same time, FSC got stuck with a horrendously stale Houston-Dallas match that ended 0-0. I tried watching some of this match but it put me to sleep. I would have loved to see the Columbus-RBNY match instead, but I can understand MLS wanting their Texas derby to be on national TV. Too bad it sucked total ass.