Studs Up

As confusing as it may appear to be on the surface, Oguchi Onyewu’s move to Milan gives him the best chance to succeed in Europe to date. At Newcastle, he was at a terrible team with a pourous midfield and defense that highlighted his lack of mobility and experience.

At Milan, where they regularly play 40 year olds at the back, he should have a much easier time keeping play in front of him. He’s a giant, giant lumbering hulk with some pretty intimidating physical qualities. With proper coaching from the Italian masters of defensive nuance, this could be huge for his development.

I mentioned before my eagerness to see the US make it over the hump and begin to give football the respect it deserves because, let’s face it, it’s rather embarrassing for them to gloss over it simply because they’re rather s**t. So I’ll be interested to see how Onyewu pans out.

I also received a nice surprise in the mail… ANTHRAX. Well, actually it was two samples of a rather peculiar new football collectible that’s being released later this summer. I can’t give too much away right now but I’ll be posting a full review in the next couple weeks.

Over on the SU Forum, member Marph is pimping a youngster by the name of Marc Muniesa. A teenager who is on the cusp of the Barca first team, but got sent off in his debut. Apparently the same fate befell one Lionel Messi, so it’s probably not a harbinger of doom.

Finally, kudos to my Twitter buddies @DirtyTackle, @aristeia and @the_carebear for helping me with the Italian for today’s comic, as well as all those who volunteered to help.