The only difference between the recent performances of Bob Bradley's USA against Poland and Switzerland, and the display against England yesterday, was that the USA won the first two games. Yesterday it lost, thereby exposing the truth that all three games featured a side that is virtually devoid of attacking ideas.

Who'd have thought it? Hull City in the Premier League! After 104 years of trying, Hull has made it into the top division for the first time. Years and years back, when I thought maybe I could be the English Ogden Nash, I dedicated a few far from flattering words to Hull:

As we've more or less given up expecting great finals, Chelsea and Manchester United provided the sort of game we've gotten used to -- a Champions League final that was good, but not great.

Inter Milan, as usual making things just about as difficult as possible, captured the scudetto, the Italian league title, yesterday. It should have made sure last weekend, but that customary brewer of trouble, Marco Materazzi, pushed his way, quite literally, into the action -- shoving his teammates out of the way as he insisted on taking a crucial penalty kick, the one that should have given Inter a win over Siena, and decided the title.

I have just had the melancholy experience of watching Glasgow Rangers lose the UEFA Cup final to Zenit St.Petersburg. It has left me feeling immeasurably disappointed, and really rather sad.

I've heard it put forward as a reason why soccer won't make it in the USA: that betting on soccer is simply too chaotic an affair to capture American interest. Actually, it sounds like quite a good point.

I suppose it's a pretty safe bet that no one would argue against the idea that soccer is all about movement? Running, jogging, jumping, twisting, turning, falling -- that sort of thing.

The English Premier League will be decided later this week and, as we all knew before the season even started, it will be either Chelsea or Manchester United that wins it. Maybe Arsenal could have won it, but, to no one's surprise, the Gunners didn't last the course.

So Gordon Bradley has left us, carried away by the dreaded Alzheimer's. To be honest, I guess I said goodbye to Gordon Bradley a decade or so ago -- certainly I hadn't spoken to him for years. And now I'll not have the chance to bid a proper farewell. Well, so what? It's not something I want to do, because above all, I want to remember Gordon.