The 6-1 victory over Cuba not only secured passage to the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, it provided a stage for DaMarcus Beasley to exhibit his dynamic skills on the international stage again and for Landon Donovan to orchestrate the attack with blinding results.

It allowed Jose Francisco Torres, a Mexican-American midfielder who had his choice of countries to represent, to make his debut, for Potomac's Freddy Adu to contribute close to home and for Olney's Oguchi Onyewu to cap a stirring second half with a late goal.

The Americans improved to 4-0 in group play, and with two inconsequential matches remaining, Bradley can test young players and expand his player pool before the six-team final round begins in February.

Oh and of course Jozy Altidore had to get in on the action in the 87th minute.

The Cubans played a man down for much of the match after a pair of yellows in the first half hour. Worse yet, another pair of players took the opportunity to defect. Welcome to DC, my new friends. Would you happen to have any cigars for sale, perchance?

The rest of yesterday's World Cup qualifying results can be found here.

U.S., Bradley Enjoy an Easy Night

That could have been ugly. England failed to crack the score sheet in the first half against Andorra before Joe Cole finally opened things up. The Chelsea winger pulled Fabio Capello's nuts out of the fire in the 49th minute, and then gave England some breathing room with another successful strike six minutes later. England was never in any real danger in this match, but going scoreless in the first half against a terrible opponent gives their supporters another reason to get pissed.

A bad day for the hosts. As host nation of the 2010 World Cup South Africa doesn't really need to worry about qualifying in the traditional sense, as their inclusion in the final is guaranteed. However, they do have to qualify for the 2010 African Nations Cup, and that is not going well. The South Africans fell to Nigeria 1-0, and now they'll likely face the embarrassment of missing out on the Nations Cup final.

Sacre Les Bleus! Samir Nasri and his French teammates were determined to come into qualifying stronger than when the exited Euro '08 prematurely. He's probably pretty pissed right now, because they came out and conceded two first half goals to a weaker Austrian side, including an unfortunate own goal from William Gallas. It was Sidney Govou who brought Les Bleus back into the contest with a goal in the 61st minute, but they would not get any closer. Mexes was called for a foul in the box followed by a successful conversion by Austria's Andreas Ivanschitz in the 73rd minute. Not good times for Raymond Domenech.

Full Scoreboard

The teenage striker created an instant goal-scoring opportunity when he shook loose in the penalty area only to be brought down before he could net his first international goal for the big team. Landon Donovan took over from there, scoring his record breaking 35th goal as a member of the USMNT with the penalty shot. Landycakes is now the nation's all-time leading scorer while wearing ugly ass orange boots that were probably provided from by Home Depot.

The team's next friendly comes next month against Mexico in a match that's sure to be a hell of a lot less "friendly."

Things will surely look different tonight then when the Swedes hosted the Americans back in August. Star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic carried the home side to a hard-fought 1-0 victory in a match against an American roster stacked with European talent. The biggest stars remain with their respective European clubs which means increased opportunities for several young stars looking to break into the starting 11.

Enjoy the battle, and follow along in the comments if you're in to that sort of thing. I'll be back with an update later in the night.

• Yalla Yisrael!. Omer Golan stayed onside while corralling a through ball in the second minute of injury time to give Israel a huge 2-1 victory over Russia in Group E of Euro 2008 qualifying. Israel's win means that England can control their own destiny within the group despite playing like absolute shite throughout the process. Russia's pretty much screwed now. I wouldn't want to be one of those goofy dolls on Putin's coffee table right now.

• Goooooool! x7.Real Madrid defeated Mallorca in thrilling fashion today in La Liga. Robinho, one of the world's most dazzling talents, scored two goals himself in the first half only to be equaled by Guillermo Pereyra. Raul added a goal in the second half and Ruud van Nistelrooy put the The Whites ahead for good slipping a ball past the keeper in the 72nd minute. Even the Gamecast is entertaining.