Soccer birthdays: Which is your most memorable Brian McBride moment? Watching him go off the field for treatment, face full of painful puffiness, in the original La Guerra Fria, the “Cold War,” the United States’ historic 2001 World Cup qualifier win over Mexico? Or going off the field for treatment, face full of blood, after taking a vicious Daniele De Rossi elbow in the famous U.S.-Italy draw at the 2006 World Cup?
He did have some moments that didn’t include getting beaten all to heck. If you live in Columbus, your top memory may be the 1996 day when McBride became the original No. 1 MLS draft pick. Or was it that back post header that made it 3-0 against Portugal 10 years ago? That one’s hard to beat.
Or maybe your McBride moment to remember wasn’t a “moment” per se, but the 2006-07 Premier League campaign, when he led Fulham with twelve goals.
Whatever it was, take a moment to have a good thought for the longtime U.S. striker (96 caps!), who carried himself with such dignity and comported himself as well as anyone can.
He turns 40 today.
Big Important Story of the Day: All the Euro 2012 quarterfinals will be set when Group D concludes today. (The first quarterfinal, Portugal vs. Czech Republic, is Thursday.)
Ahead on the blog today*: Major League Soccer took a little break, so our ProSoccerTalk MLS Rankings did, as well. Now they’re back. So fire up the hot comments of rankings discontent. G’head. I’m not afraid of you! Meanwhile, Richard Farley and I will split the Group D games from Donetsk and Kiev, Ukraine, and go drilling down on them as usual.
What we should all watch on TV:
England-Ukraine, 2:45 p.m. ET, ESPN
Sweden-France, 2:45 p.m. ET, ESPN2
RASNoD (Random American Soccer Name of the Day): Josh Wolff
Twitter daps: Washington Post writer Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider): According to Red Bulls, fewer than 800 tickets remain for Sunday #MLS home match vs D.C. United #dcu
Internet soccer scribes from The Shin Guardian (@shinguardian): Again: Spain is the Oscar De La Hoya of int’l soccer. Highly effective, mesmerizing not explosive, content to win on the cards/not by KO.
We’ll leave you with this: So, UEFA, let me be sure I have this right: you get fined 30,000 euro for racist behavior. But show an unlicensed sponsor on your underwear, and it costs 100,000 euro? You guys might need to think on that one a bit.