Excepting anything that the Ars* may have accomplished tonight, there was plenty to be happy about.

Tottenham continued their unbeaten streak, drawing with WBA away from home. That gives Spurs five points out of nine, four points coming on the road. Jermaine Defoe seems to be the genuine article and Keane got some minutes tonight. Excellent. Not as good as a win of course, but I’ll take fifth in the league any day. Even when it’s only three games in.

DaMarcus Beasley helped PSV Eindhoven into the Champs League proper tonight. He got a defender sent off for a tackling him when he was through to goal, and then Beas scored himself two minutes later. He also registered an assist later in the match. He’s making Hiddink look like a genius for snapping him up.

And the Chicago Fire outlasted the Charleston Battery tonight in the US Open Cup semis, winning 1-0 off a goal from Dipsy Selowane in OT. This means the Fire will be gunning for their fourth Open Cup title in seven years and the chance to win back-to-back Open Cups, a feat no MLS team has accomplished. In fact, no team has done it for twenty years. Go Fire!

I also noticed that Benfica crashed out of the Champs League tonight and thought, “Poor Zack Thornton.” Then I looked up the match results and found out he’s not even playing! I wondered whether ol’ Zack should have gone abroad to a team like Benfica. Give the guy credit, he probably just wanted to play in Europe before his career ends, but in Portugal? I wonder why he’s not playing…