What’s Wrong with Sepp Blatter’s Plan? Reflecting on the era of segregation in baseball, the great baseball union organizer Marvin Miller characterized the so-called Gentleman’s Agreement to exclude black players as a conspiracy to fix the World Series. He note, likely correctly, that at any time a bottom-tier team in the American or National Leagues could have signed all of the top players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, or Oscar Charleston and instantly have had championship-caliber talent.

The Houston-FC Dallas clash last Sunday raised the question: Why the heck aren’t more people watching the MLS? The game was about as exciting a soccer game as you’ll see, an incredibly North-South game, a game that produced goals, brilliant runs, and flair.

A few weeks ago, I went out for a beer with a few friends. We visited an Irish pub and, of course, there was soccer on the tube. Our discussions eventually led us back to, shockingly, soccer. We made a conversational foray into Concacaf qualifying and discussed who the most likely teams to qualify for it were.

Ah, nothing like the start of a season to make wildly premature predictions. However, qualms must be set aside and 2008 Major League Soccer playoff predictions must be made. When it’s all said and done, I predict that the 8 playoff teams will be split evenly between the Western and Eastern Conferences. The Chicago Fire, DC United, New England Revolution, and the Columbus Crew will represent the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile the Western Conference playoff teams will be the LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA, and the Colorado Rapids.

The well-worn maxim reminds us that to be the best, you’ve got to be the best. The natural extension of this, of course, is that to beat the best, you’ve got to play them. Playing in CONCACAF, the United States has the decided disadvantage of having only one true world footballing nation to call its rival. So, in order to bolster the overall level of its competition, it has to schedule top competition for friendlies, else wait for the World Cup.

There’s no question it’s wildly premature to name a starting lineup for the US Men’s National Team for the 2010 World Cup. Possibly insanely premature. However, with that disclaimer out of the way, I’m going to unveil my starting 11, my ideal current lineup, my list of subs who should see ample playing time, and hopefully a compelling rationale for my picks.

Though almost nobody in the United States is seeing, the African Nations Cup is providing some of the most exciting and spirited football I have seen in a while. By all accounts, Ghana has put on a compelling a well-run tournament, something that portends well for South Africa 2010. Indeed, many fans of African football look at the constellation of stars playing in Ghana 2008 and feel hopeful about the prospects of Africa’s entrants into the 2010 World Cup. What have we learned about the prospects of the various African nations?