It’s hard to make any real judgments on the game, but my overall assessment of how the US played can be summed up as “meh.”  You basically had a new couch very early in the process of figuring his players out and they’re doing the same with him.  A number of guys that haven’t played with the full side in quite some time got time the other night and several guys who would normally be there weren’t available.

If that was a good performance from Castillo, I’m not very impressed.  I have to think Lichaj is first on the depth chart so we just need to find a reliable backup.

I think Brek Shea and Robbie Rogers did well for themselves.  Shea has less history with the team, but I would think he should be ready to be called up for the next games.  Rogers has been consistently inconsistent so I’m going to hold judgment on his future with the Nats for now.

Orozco Fiscal and Kyle Beckerman both solid enough, though Orozco will likely find more chances than Beckerman since we’re much thinner at center back than we are at center mid.

Last thing I’ll say is I’d really like to see if and how Clint Dempsey could pair with Jual Agudelo up top, and I really want to see Stu Holden with the team gain.  I think Agudelo’s energy could be a nice compliment to Dempsey’s “relaxed” approach, and Holden has had so much bad injury luck, but I really think the team could benefit from the offensive skills he has to offer.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing who gets called in for our 2 Sept match against Costa Rica.  Should be interesting to see Klinsmann’s approach.

It started with my pondering dollar coins in the US and why they weren’t more popular.  I knew they were available, but it didn’t seem they got any attention beyond novelty.  I ended up at the wikipedia pages for the Coin Coalition and a gropu called Save the Greenback.

The Coin Coalition wants to phase out the use of pennies and dollar bills in favor of increased use of dollar coins.  The group is backed by vending machine companies that want to decrease the maintenance costs associated with the dollar bill slots on the machines.  Save the Greenback, backed by companies that produce the “paper” for dollar bills, obviously wants to continue the use of dollar bills.

Is it just me, or does it seem like this is a stupid thing to have large lobbies and advocacy groups for.  With all of the major problems this country has, this seems so freakin trivial.

For what it’s worth, I agree with the Coin Coalition.  Pennies annoy me and they’re what end up filling my pocket the most, and I’d personally prefer to have dollar coins instead of bills.  Add to that the finding by the GAO in 2000 that full implementation of the dollar coin could save $500 million a year for the government.

So what does this all mean?  Nothing except we devise stupid problems for us to argue over.  That and maybe I’ll start my own little grassroots movement to expand the use of dollar coins in the country.  Oh and most concretely, I find and waste time reading about dumb things when I fall down the wikipedia trap.

I really dig the design and UI.  The main Stream page is very simple and straightforward, and while they have a little bit by way of bells and whistles, it feels extremely clean.  The interface to create and adjust your Circles is brilliant.  The way pictures are displayed in the stream is great and the shadowbox presentation of zooming in on photos is really nice and polished.

Circles, the heart and soul of Google+, is really awesome.  The way Circles works makes it so easy to organize your friends, acquaintances, and people you just want to follow.  In regard to Circles I really like the ability to click through my different Circles to see what’s in the Stream for each of the individual Circles.

I think the biggest thing that has me so high on Google+ right now is the people and the content.  If find a lot more interesting stuff and meatier posts from the people that I’m following on G+ than I usually find on Facebook.  I think FB’s start as providing status updates set the tone for generally short posts.  G+ posts allow much more for a little bit longer posts, and almost have the feel of short blog posts.

Another huge part of my liking the service is the ability to follow a good deal of the Google team that is continuing to build and refine the service, and having some direct contact with with some of them, I can honestly say that they are listening to the feedback they’re getting.

So now a couple of things that I don’t like.  Hopefully the first will be taken care of through time and that I’d like to have more of my friends on the service.  The second thing is that I’d really like to have the ability to filter and group circles into my default Stream as I’d like.  Not a huge thing given the ability to click your different Circle’s streams, but for me the fewer the clicks the better.

Obviously, it’s still very early in G+’s life, so we’ll have to see how things change over time.  As more people gain access, it’s sure to change the feel and tone of the community, for better or for worse.  Also, the Google team is still working to incorporate new functionality and refine the bugs that are found all the time.  I’ll just have to see how things develop in the long run.

The heart the United States showed was incomparable.  The way they kept fighting up to the last was truly inspiring.  This rates right up there with the US men’s win over Algeria in the last Cup.  It better get consideration for an ESPY as well.

The officiating in this game was just bad.  I try not to blame results on officiating, but I can’t look at that game and not think that the officials had too much of an impact.  I can see how you award the penalty that was given to Brazil, but I think a red is really harsh there.  The officials truly should be embarrassed about the decision to force a retake of the kick.  While you can argue they followed the letter of the law, the law is never enforced that stringently and to do so on a stage like the WWC quarters was a horrible decision.  Lastly, the lady that assisted Marta on the second Brazilian goal was offside when she received the pass.

This is probably my bias showing through in a big way, but I felt like the Brazilians took part in a disappointing level of gamesmanship.  It’s something I’ve come to expect from most of the Latin American teams the US plays, but it’s not something Brazil is known for.  The usual diving and the like is just irritating, but Erika’s playacting was downright shameful.  The one thing I think the ref got solidly right was to card her upon reentering the field.  Waiting for a solid five seconds after bumping into a player to fall to the ground and claim to be injured is really awful and an insult to the game.

The US has France next and I have any idea how that game will turn out.  On paper, I think we have to be one of the favorites to win it all now; Brazil is out, and one of the other favorites in Germany was eliminated by Japan yesterday.  The big question will be whether the US can recover enough time to take on what will surely be a confident French side that eliminated a strong England in their quarterfinal match up.

Now, I’m totally geeked about G+.  I’m not certain why since I don’t use Facebook near like I used to, but I’m giddy to get an invite (thanks to my brother for continuing to try to hook me up).  I think part of what makes me want to use G+ is that it isn’t Facebook.  No more Farmville or daily horoscope notifications from people is a really nice possibility.

As with many things in life, no one can express this sentiment better than XKCD can.  Yes, they are that freakin’ smart and funny.

Researches at MIT may have hit on a discovery that could move us one step closer to electrics being more common than internal combustions.  Apparently, they’ve invented a liquid lithium ion battery that is rechargeable or refillable, much cheaper, and much smaller than traditional EV batteries.  Some of the primary problems with current EVs is that they batteries are too big to make the cars efficient, and recharging the batteries isn’t convenient enough.

I’m sure there are some problems with this new tech as well, which they didn’t highlight, but it sounds like a really cool step in the right direction.

Check out this article from Lifehacker for some pretty straightforward information on the differences between sugar and corn syrup.  When it comes down to it eat glucose, not fructose, and try to eat fiber when you’re eating sugar.  Read the article to understand that last bit.  Pretty cool stuff.

A woman in Bangladesh, Monju Begum, decided to up her self-defense game when she cut off her alleged attacker’s offending appendage and  gave it to the police down at the station as proof of his assault.

I have to wonder what the reaction of the officer that took her report was when she walked in an plunked a severed penis on the counter.

Jozy’s goal was huge in several ways.  He desperately needed a goal to boost his confidence and I think it gave a shot of confidence to the team to have a striker score for the first time in a long time.  I also loved the simplicity of it.  Great movement off the ball to get himself in position, great first touch, and a simple, quick strike on goal.

Michael Bradley was a freakin beast.  Though Jozy was awarded Man of the Match, I think Bradley was the best player on the field for me.  He was everywhere on the field defensively, he did an excellent job of moving the ball and really controlled the flow and tempo of the game, and his distribution was excellent.  Not playing for Villa hasn’t hurt him at all as far as this game goes.

I was a little surprised by the pairing of Tim Ream and Clarence Goodson, but I thought it worked out great.  I thought they worked really well together and Goodson was particularly sharp in providing cover for the others on the back line.

Next up is Panama on Saturday night at 8 in Tampa.  Don’t really know anything about Panama, but I have to believe that if we come out in the same way Saturday as we did last night, we’ll have no problems.