Confed Cup: USA - Spain 1st Half

8:28pm - First Carlos Puyol sighting. I snort my beer. I don't think there's much question that he has the most recognizable hair in World Soccer.

8:29pm - Am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious all the black players stood on one side of the "Say NO to Racism" banner?

2:10 - Apparently Dempsey's good play ratio of 1/game is enough for a start.

3:50 - Jozy Altidore does not look 19. He and Freddy Adu must have the same Dominican broker for their birth certificates

4:34 - Donovan gets a card for a rather innocuous challenge.

6:30 - HI-YOOOOO! Charlie Davies is making Bradley look smart (for playing him the last 2 games) and stupid (for ignoring him in the 1st 2 debacles) with a spectacular bicycle that just goes wide.

8:00 - Dempsey goes just wide. The USA is really taking it to Spain here. Shades of Cuba, Teddy Roosevelt-era. Probably the best run I've seen by the team in a loooong time.

9:30 - The book is out on Howard -- shoot from distance.

11:00 - Being captain doesn't keep you from napping -- Bocanegra almost gives up a goal.

13:10 - Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to assume that Bradley got the scar in a knife fight with his son Michael after tiring of young Michael's fear of being carded.

15:25 - Offsides or no, you have to give it up for David Villa's soulpatch.

17:40 - The USA finally catches a break with Villa being ruled incorrectly offsides, though it really only robs Howard of a sweet save. It's OK Tim, we saw it.

21:25 - While the USA strategy of telling Spain the match started at 20:45 worked splendidly for the first 20 minutes, the Euro champions have finally showed up. This is not a good thing. On the bright side, while Torres and Villa are fabulous, they're not really threatening Onyewu and DeMerit on corners.

26:00 - GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Jozy is so excited he forgets to keep his jersey on while celebrating, getting himself a yellow card. And also giving me the chance to point out that this is one goal more than Germany scored against Spain last summer.

29:15 - In a show of solidarity with the other US backs and wings, Spector puts a cross into the 10th row -- directly behind the goal. Just hideous.

31:00 - Clark is taken down at midfield leading to Villa skying a shot over the bar -- the bar for the luxury boxes.

34:00 - It's nice of Spain to keep setting up Gooch for headers. And what is up with all these offsides calls on Torres?

35:30 - Capdevilla pulls down Altidore leading to Dempsey missing a header -- that Bocanegra would have had an easy shot from. Perfect ball from Donovan, who is playing extremely well.

38:00 - WHEW! Torres was about 6 inches from making it 1-1.

45:00 - Puyol is El Rey of blatantly shoving an offensive player but not getting a call or a card. He has yet to go for a ball instead of a man, yet has remained uncarded. I'm thinking it's the perm.