Welcome to The 2006 Shirt Cup Presented By F.C. Camena, our semi-serious interactive sartorial soccer tournament. Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to give you, our loyal readers (we have loyal readers, right?) the chance to decide which 2006 FIFA World Cup Finalist has the coolest shirt.

The Shirt Cup will run roughly the same way as the actual World Cup. We’ll start with Group Play over the next eight days, with the top two vote-getters from each group advancing to the Round Of 16. The first four days will feature groups A-D, and the next four days will be groups E-H. After that, we’ll go to the knockout rounds, and we’ll use the same format as the actual World Cup in terms of pairings and seedings. Note that we’re using the home shirts, as best as we can tell from the FIFA site (and soccer.com).

And that’s about it. Just vote for the shirts you like best.

Group A: Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador

Group B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden

Group C: Argentina, Cote D’Ivoire, Serbia and Montenegro, The Netherlands

Group D: Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal

Well that wasn’t a terribly impressive evening for the USMNT World Cup squad. Though they largely outplayed an inferior (but spunky) Moroccan side, the U.S. lacked for ideas in the final third of the field and were beaten 1-0 on a counterattack just minutes before the final whistle.

Though it’s pretty weak that the U.S. lost this game, it was good to see this squad out there. I’m pretty excited about what this team can do with its midfield. John O’Brien had some good ideas, Beasley and Landycakes looked like Beasley and Landycakes, and Bobby Convey demostrated that he will get some time in Germany. When Reyna went down, Mastroeni did a perfectly good job in his spot. The defense was mostly composed, though Cherundolo made a bad decision on the goal (dude, you’re the only one back, launch it).

If there’s a position where this team looked deficient, it’s forward. Yikes. These guys just don’t do a great job of threatening the goal (Landycakes doesn’t count). We know what we’re getting with McBride, but past that…I dunno.

Also, this Reyna thing better not be serious. Mastroeni played well, but it’s pretty important that Reyna be fit. Not to get all screechy about it or anything.

U.S. Soccer Official Match Report [ussoccer.com]