GOOD WITHOUT TRYING:

Top 10 American Soccer Players In Europe: Some of the country's best aren't playing at home. (Monte Burke, 05.03.10, Forbes)

Who are the best Americans playing in Europe? To get a list of the top 10, we turned to Castrol Rankings, which bills itself as the world's first soccer rankings system based on actual player performance in Europe's top five leagues--La Liga (Spain), Premier League (England), Bundesliga (Germany), Serie A and Ligue 1 (France). It also takes into account play in the Champions League.

Castrol relies on data gathered by Opta Sportsdata, which tracks individual player statistics in these leagues. The company tracks and scores every touch every player on the field makes in every match. A goal or completed pass is scored as a positive; a giveaway is scored as a negative. Matches are weighted by importance: For example a Champions League match would be given more weight than a regular season Ligue 1 game. Opta refreshes the statistics every month.

Fittingly, four of the best keepers in the EPL are American. But the real revelation this year was what a good coach can get out of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan just by using them right. If Dempsey's club manager, Roy Hodgson, were given the team USA job we'd have a realistic shot at winning the World Cup this summer.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2010 7:25 AM