The Good:  Michael Bradley's three-goal performance for Dutch Eredivisie club Heerenveen in last Sunday's victory over FC Groningen.  He made the difference in the match and he's ours, all ours.

The Bad:  Juan Carlos Osorio dumped the Fire for New York.  Hey, it's a free market out there (well, not really in MLS), so why shouldn't he use Chicago as a steppingstone?  I had to laugh when Luis Arroyave reported that the entire Osorio family was stunned to learn that Bruce Arena's salary was so much higher than his.  Juan Carlos should surf over to HousingTracker.net and compare median asking prices of single family homes in New York to those in Chicago.  Poor Chicago does indeed lag behind the Big Apple:  $285,000 to $439,000.  Oh wait, high housing prices are a bad thing, aren't they?  Maybe that's why Bruce Arena's salary was so much higher than JC's:  NY's substantially higher cost of living.  Or maybe it had something to do with Arena's extensive coaching experience in the US, including his long tenure for the USMNT?  Whatever.  Who cares, anyway?  It's not as if Osorio is Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Ugly:  DaMarcus Beasley's season at Glasgow Rangers is probably over.  He just had major surgery on his right knee and is expected to need up to six months of recovery time.  I'm still pretty possessive about DaMarcus.  I remember when he first came up with the Fire--speedy, skinny, and super-exciting on the left wing.  I was sad to see him go, but was greedy for maximum Euro-exposure.  In his first season with Rangers, DaMarcus had scored four times, including twice in the Champions League.  Oh well, wait til next year, as we say in Chicago.

The Beautiful:  the sound of The Girl's voice on the phone just now.  In just nine days, she'll be back home after her Nantes semester.  I imagine that this time may pass as slowly as ninety days, so I'm especially grateful that I've got the Manchester United-Liverpool match as a diversion this Sunday.  And after that, Arsenal - Chelsea, and after that...just five more days...