Howard cleared to play

No surprises today on the pitch or in the news, the Netherlands took care of business and Japan beat a Cameroon team that just hasn't played this well - the Indomitable Lions did not win a single friendly leading up to the World Cup (0-2-3) and were not much better at the African Nations Cup going 1-1-1 in group play before getting knocked out in the first knockout game.

But the biggest U.S. news was that the MNT's best player and most valuable player - Tim Howard - was cleared to play Friday after sustaining bruised ribs on the challenge from Emile Heskey Saturday vs. England.

Anyone who thought Howard might not play just wasn't paying attention. If he had been forced to come out of the game vs. England, then I would have been more worried, but he stayed in and played brilliantly. And this upcoming game with Slovenia Friday at 10 a.m. is very important because Slovenia took care of business vs. Algeria and are ahead of the Americans now on points therefore we really need to come out of that game with three points to feel comfortable going into our last game.

One last point I want to go back to is that Heskey should have been carded for his challenge on Howard. It was a two-footed, studs up challenge where although he was going for the ball he was very late. That not only has to be a foul, it has to be a card and neither were given. Don't be surprised if the U.S. gets screwed again on cards again at some point in this tournament, it's happened before and because the Americans don't have international superstars they don't get preferential treatment.