The Road to Germany started with a pulled hamstring and a stunning loss. Last night, Morocco beat the USA 1-0 in their first of three exhibition games before the World Cup starts June 9. Playing with their full roster, including most of their players from overseas, should have been a mismatch for a Morrocan team that is ranked 36th in the world (USA is #5). Instead the USA team looked like they ate McD’s before the game and the fries were just digesting. Coach Bruce Arena admitted that his team was probably tired from 10 days of training leading up to the game.

The biggest loss could be midfielder Claudio Reyna. For those who don’t know him, he’s like the quarterback of the team. More Tom Brady then Peyton Manning. He controls the tempo of the game. He doesn’t have the gaudy stats. He’s the playmaker and one of the best for the USA. In the 11th minute he streteched for the ball and his hamstring decided to do the same with a bad result.

You could call Claudio the Grant Hill of US soccer. He has all the accolades and potential to be great when he’s healthy. But like Grant, the injury bug always seems to hit him. He missed the 1994 World Cup because of a bad hamstring. He missed the first game of the 2002 World Cup with a quad injury. He had ankle surgery last December, then dislocated his right shoulder in March, leaving him able to play only 23 of 44 matches during the 2005-6 season for Manchester City, his club team in the English Premier League. Hopefully he’ll heal quickly enough to come back soon.

Losing this game was embarassing but doesn’t cause panic. It’s a damn good wake up call. Play like this against powerhouses Czech Republic and Italy in the first round and the world will be laughing their asses off.

Over the weekend Barry Bonds yada..yada..yada…enough said. What I wanted to learn more about was the fan who caught the ball.

Lucky millionaire fan, Tyler Snyder, was in the right place at the right time. After the game he was asked if he would give the ball to Bonds.

“Hell no, I hate that guy.”

Okay Tyler how bout meeting the man himself.

“Maybe. But I don’t really care for the guy.”

You rock in my book Tyler. I don’t know if he’s more of Bonds hater because he’s cheated his way to the record or the cheating has greatly reduced the value of the baseball. Speculation has it the ball would be sold for five figures instead of the 700 HR ball which sold for $804,129. I’d hate him for making me buy nice car instead of a really nice Ferrari.

From his 15 minutes of fame, I like Tyler already. He turned down an offer of $50,000 for the ball from Giant fans in the stands. He wants to be on Jimmy Kimmel. So cool. So what will he do with the money assuming he auctions off the ball? He said he plans on using it to help his father, a retired carpet installer who has Parkinson’s disease.

I like this kid even more.

Let’s get ready to rumble!! This is what I expected of interleague baseball. Getting down and dirty with your rivals.

Michael Barrett doing his best Mike Tyson’s punch out impersonation hits AJ Pierzynski with a straight right hook. AJ got his shot in with the tackle at home. Very clean play but Michael must not have like what AJ said. As nasty and cheap as that shot was there are a group of AJ haters, fans and players, out there that loved what Michael did to him.

Really that’s the best hit the Cubs have had the past few games.

One of my favorite parts of this NBA playoffs is hearing Charles Barkley talk basketball on TNT. Barkley says it like it is and doesn’t care who he says it to. All of that turns out to be comical.

Depending on your sense of humor you love his style or you hate it. But what I enjoy is that he’s just naturally funny. This is not scripted stuff read off a teleprompter. I doubt he spends his free time thinking of what to say. He just says what comes to his mind and it’s funny.

A fellow fan enjoys Barkley one-liners so much that he compiled a list of them. We know Charles likes to talk so it’s a fairly long list. Here are some of my favorites.

- At halftime of the all star game, in response to seeing Beyonce in the crowd, Barkley said, “All I wanna know is when ya see someone that pretty, how can you go to Brokeback Mountain?”

- “I love Sam Cassell, he’s a great guy… but he does look like E.T.”

- “Craig Sager is the only guy on TV that can’t get a date. It is almost impossible to be on TV and not be able to get a date.”

- When Chuck was asked by the judge if he had any regrets about throwing guy through a window in Orlando he said, “I regret we weren’t on a higher floor.”

- During the NBA finals, Ernie Johnson points to a sign that reads: “Barkley = Dumb, Van Gundy = Dumber” Barkley responds, “Hey, at least that guy knows who I am. I have no idea who that guy is.”

- After Ben Gordon made a floater in the Bulls vs. Cavs game…
Charles: That is one shot that every player should learn
Kenny: Yea I am teaching my daughter and son that shot.
Charles: I thought your daughter and son were the same person.

There’s even a running joke this week about Barkely trying to describe an up tempo game. He said “varn vurner” instead of “barn burner”. He tried a couple times to say it correctly but couldn’t. They haven’t let him live that down all week.

At the beginning of this series the only thing we witnessed was a Detroit ass whooping on Cleveland. Now we could be witness to what no one would have expected after the first two games of this series.

Detroit played without the heart of a lion and looked more like the Cowardly Lion last night. Who truly believed the Cavs would go to Detroit and even keep the game close? Not me. I thought surely Detroit would get mad and not let a team of beards beat them at home. After Detroit toyed with Cleveland the first two games who would have though Cleveland would even win a single game. Now who’s Detroit’s daddy? It’s Lebron and his posse. Detroit looks old and one step too slow. They don’t look like a team that’s been in the NBA finals the past two seasons.

Next stop is back in Cleveland. Can Cleveland win one for the home fans? Any more guarantees from Rasheed? In a post season with close and exciting games I think we want a decisive Game 7 in this series.