"Come hug me or the referee isn't going to allow it."

Last week, I posted a link to a BBC article about Diego Maradona's new Argentinian talk show. Well, this week he finally addressed his infamous "hand of God" goal", explaining "I was waiting for my teammates to embrace me and no one came. I told them, 'come hug me or the referee isn't going to allow it.'"

Ives Galarcep has written a great piece on US International Bobby Convey. It is almost inevitable that comparisons are drawn up between Convey and fellow US International Landon Donovan, who gave up on Bayer Leverkusen in Germany after only a few months. Whether this is a fair comparison or not, I don't know (it's being discussed on Bigsoccer, here), but it is very clear how Landon and Bobby view their soccer careers, and they really couldn't be more different. Landon sees his job (rightly or wrongly) as growing soccer in the United States. He does not feel that this could be done abroad, but that he could better achieve this aim by playing with MLS. Some may see this as an excuse for Landon's home-sickness, but whatever his reasoning, it's hard to dispute his importance to the American game. Bobby on the other hand, only wants to become a better player. Yes, it'd be great if he could help grow American soccer, but Bobby, like DaMarcus Beasley, is an ambitious young player. He wants to succeed in Europe, something that was complete ancillary to Donovan's ambitions.

Finally, the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu match between an MLS Select Team and Real Madrid, is today, live on Fox Soccer Channel (and maybe available online at MLSnet.com) at 3:30 EST. Landon Donovan said of the game:

"At the end of the day it doesn't matter. It's not like we're battling to get a 0-0 draw. We're going to go play and make the game fun."

I sure hope so.