Friday Coffee means splurging for the Mocha

VANNEY/BOSWELL PROFILED:

Charles Boehm at MLSNet talks about the new center of DC's backline, and Tom Soehn explicitly endorses the idea of Vanney as mentor to Boswell:

"...we've got a veteran to play alongside him, which is going to be another experience for Bobby. So far it looks pretty good."

Does that mean I'm now sold on the deal? Not yet. It still seems like a bit of a roll of the dice to me, and even with The Devon McTavish phenomena, we're still a bit short of depth on defense. Still, overall, the defense is playing better, and that should be acknowledged. After allowing two goals a game at minimum for most of April, United has only allowed 2 goals twice since then. That's at least enough to keep you in the game.

DALLAS PREVIEWS TRICKLING IN: Alex Yi joins Cooper and Mina on the disabled list for Dallas. So far, Yi had actually looked decent (and very, very feisty) on the Dallas backline, so I'm relieved that we'll be passing him by. He seemed like a player that could seriously hack up the timing of DC's offense. We'll try and get our preview up later.

THURSDAY NIGHT SOCCER REVIEW: I-66 has had it with ESPN missing the action, but in their defense I thought last night's game was a better showing for ESPN than usual. We saw, even if it was in a still replay, some off-side line technology, and it looked useful. That being said, when Rob Stone announced that there would be a Beckham interview at the half of the all-star game, my wife turned to me: "What, they couldn't ask him to call in on the phone around the 50th minute?"

THIS MUST BE COLORADO'S NEW MASCOT: For one thing, it's more in the Edson's the Eagle's backyard. For another, Talon's wouldn't go down so easily, he'd be taking that sucker out and then would take out his good-for-nothing beaver friend:

During a last-call stroll through Pioneer Square early Sunday morning, Seattle's top law dog helped break up a sidewalk fight between a bar patron and a man in an eagle suit.

Lt. Kenneth Hicks, shift commander at the precinct that includes Pioneer Square, was leading Kerlikowske on a closing-time tour of the club district when the senior officers witnessed a man-on-eagle fracas, according to police documents.

The officers watched as a 30-year-old Seattle man shoved the eagle to the curb and then stomped on the costumed man's back as the eagle's costumed confederate -- a man dressed as a beaver -- looked on.