I am an idiot. And a genius. And everything in between.

What I really love about writing this column for Yahoo! Sports is the variety in the feedback responses I get.

The same comment about Eddie Johnson, Michael Bradley, Hope Solo, David Beckham or Cuauhtemoc Blanco is capable of eliciting replies that are polar opposites.

And that is what soccer is all about. It is a game that has always been more about opinions than statistics and that is why it is probably the No. 1 topic of conversation around the world.

Thank you to everyone (well, almost everyone) who wrote in. As always, the level of interest has been overwhelming, and humbling. It is greatly appreciated.

My comments below appear in italics.

EDDIE JOHNSON ("Making the leap," Sept. 13, 2007)

Don't get me started. Eddie Johnson is a rubbish player in comparison to any striker in the Premiership. He will be a flop over here, guaranteed.

Mike
U.K.

Great article on Eddie Johnson. I think Eddie has a chance to make it in the

After spending most of the last two months on life support, suddenly the Los Angeles Galaxy's season has burst back into life.

When David Beckham went down with a knee injury in the SuperLiga final on August 29, it appeared to be the last chapter in a fractured, frustrating and unfulfilled campaign for the club.

Yet five weeks later, and with his teammates having finally shaken free of the brain-freeze which condemned them to six straight league defeats and jibes that they were no better than a pub team, Beckham's impending return adds weight to the feeling in the Galaxy organization that the season need not be given up for dead just yet.

It's a miracle that such an outcome is even a remote possibility. During one miserable week in the middle of September, Frank Yallop's team were taken apart by Chivas USA and the Houston Dynamo and managed to throw away a late lead in a draw with equally lowly Real Salt Lake. L.A. seemed to be destined for the bottom of the MLS pile.

Instead,

FRISCO, Texas – It began as an offshoot of the most storied knockout competition in world sports and boasts 93 years of history. So how is it possible that the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup registers little more than a blip on the North American soccer calendar?

Even since 1914, when British whiskey tycoon Sir Thomas Dewar decided to promote U.S. soccer by donating a trophy for a tournament to be run along the lines of the famed FA Cups held in England and Scotland, clubs from across America have conducted a yearly battle for U.S. Open Cup silverware.

Yet while the English FA Cup is watched by an international television audience of half a billion people in more than 200 countries, its American cousin struggles to get even hardcore soccer fans to raise an eyebrow.

The latest Cup final took place at FC Dallas' Pizza Hut Park on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 10,418, less than the Texas club averages for a normal Major League Soccer game.

Don't feel bad if you missed it. Media

In soccer, heartbreak and anguish are usually delivered in the form of dramatic late goals, controversial red cards or nail-biting penalty shootouts.

But for Patty Rodriguez, the Beautiful Game turned ugly when it took her boyfriend Michael Munoz – then of Chivas USA – 400 miles north to San Francisco and strained their relationship.

Munoz spent this season with California Victory of the United Soccer Leagues (USL) after Chivas released him following an ankle injury. For Rodriguez, an assistant producer with the "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" morning radio program in Los Angeles, that meant months of long-distance telephone calls, fleeting visits to the Bay Area and countless tears.

After an emotional phone call last week, Rodriguez decided to take drastic action to get her man back to Southern California. She took the remarkable step of starting an online petition aimed at convincing Chivas brass to allow Munoz to revitalize his Major League Soccer career.

She has already convinced over

Cuauhtemoc Blanco is one of the most colorful characters in Mexican soccer history and even after moving to the United States, he still attracts magnified levels of adulation and controversy south of the border.

Yahoo! Sports followed his three-day trip to Los Angeles – the USA's biggest Hispanic market – as Blanco's Chicago Fire took on Chivas USA, the only Mexican-owned team in Major League Soccer.

The result: plenty of fireworks, verbal battles, accusations, a magnificent free kick – and a telling insight into the life of one of the league's genuine superstars.

Thursday, Sept. 27, 5 p.m., Los Angeles Airport

Many of the travel-weary patrons have no idea what all the fuss is about. The area normally occupied by waiting taxi drivers, charity collectors or airport staff has been invaded by a cheering posse of 50 flag-waving soccer fans.

All the attention seems to be on a small and unassuming man in a navy blue polo shirt who's surrounded by well-wishers as he waits for his luggage.

Roman Abramovich's Russian revolution at Chelsea changed the English Premier League's status quo when he bought the club in 2003 and began pumping millions of pounds into high-priced transfers.

Two miles down the road from Stamford Bridge, fans of Fulham can claim a revolution of their own – one draped in red, white and blue.

In Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra and Kasey Keller, the Cottagers have the highest concentration of United States internationals of any club in Europe. None of the four are household names or can claim to have drastically altered Premiership history, but all of them have had a positive impact.

McBride, currently sidelined with a dislocated kneecap, has a reputation as an exemplary professional and an outstanding role model, having played more than 100 Premiership games.

Bocanegra, who captained the U.S. in its recent friendly against Brazil, is an integral part of Fulham's starting lineup as a hard-working defender, while Dempsey has emerged as a

As Hope Solo battled to keep her voice steady and eyes dry, and allowed her ill-feeling toward U.S. women's soccer coach Greg Ryan to erupt on television, she probably had no idea that her comments would actually shield the target of her fury from the inquisition he deserves.

Solo's impassioned rant against Ryan's decision to replace her at goalkeeper with Briana Scurry for the USA's 4-0 World Cup semifinal defeat to Brazil on Thursday was emotional and had merit, but it did her no favors.

Because now, as the post-mortem of the second consecutive U.S. failure to reach a World Cup final begins, there is just as much scrutiny and analysis of Solo's outburst as there is of Ryan's bizarre lineup change.

All the talk Thursday was about Solo – about how her remarks claiming she would have performed better than Scurry (the recalled but off-the-pace 2004 Olympic gold medalist) would affect her future position in the team, and about whether she should have sounded off behind closed doors rather

Coach Greg Ryan knows the United States' Women's World Cup semifinal against Brazil on Thursday will provide the ultimate contrasting battle between teamwork and individual brilliance.

Ryan's team is a collective unit, having lived together in a residency program leading up to the tournament and operating with a high level of understanding and organization forged by hundreds of training sessions and more than 50 matches over the past two years.

While there are experienced veterans like Kristine Lilly and standout stars such as Abby Wambach, no one in the U.S. squad is put on a pedestal.

"With us, it is never about one player," said Lilly, who is playing in her fifth World Cup and hopes to add to the championship medals she won in 1991 and 1999. "The team means everything to us."

With Brazil, things are different. In playmaker Marta, the South Americans possess arguably the greatest talent in the women's game. The current FIFA Women's World Player of the Year is capable of turning