The United States men's national team needs to get nastier. That's not the fans saying it or the media saying it or even the players saying it. Head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is saying it, and everyone you talk to after the 4-1 loss to Brazil seems to agree.

"We mixed it up a little bit and we ruffled their feathers (in the second half)," said U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard. "That needs to start a little earlier on. We need to impose that will and turn it into a scrap earlier than we did."

There's a definite balance to being nasty, though. The U.S. was booked twice in the match and was very lucky an awful challenge from Jermaine Jones on Samba superstar Neymar was colored yellow, not red. Nasty is one thing. Cheap is another.

That said, the U.S. played a rather clean game otherwise, and the score line was not indicative of how hard they played.

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In the wake of yet another major match-fixing scandal in Italian soccer, where police have arrested 17 people, including 11 players, and are investigating more than 50 players from 22 different Italian clubs, we are once again left staring straight into the ugly, unscrupulous world of professional sports.

Could something like this happen in America? It would be naïve to think it can't.

Clearly, there are issues in Italian soccer.

Just six years after a match-fixing scandal that rocked Serie A to its foundation—relegating the likes of super club Juventus and knocking AC Milan and Fiorentina out of Champions League play—Italian authorities have built a case so strong that they're arresting people during Italy's training for Euro 2012.

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To call the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Celtics and 76ers ugly is a disrespect to general ugliness. This series has been beyond run-of-the-mill ugly—it has been epic playoff ugly.

Somehow though, the uglier things have become, the prettier the results have been for the Sixers.

Winning is winning, even when it's ugly. For either team, the idea of getting to the Eastern Conference finals—no matter how ugly Game 7 gets—sounds pretty darn good.

It's clear that if the 76ers stand any chance to upset the Celtics in Game 7 at the Garden, things are going to have to get ugly—very ugly.

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American soccer fans, can we please pool our money together to buy out the last few years of Landon Donovan's contract with the L.A. Galaxy so we can send him back to Everton and the EPL where he clearly needs to go? This would not just be for his own good, but for the good of American soccer. Let's do it for the good of the country.

Donovan is too talented and, yes, still too young to give up on his career. Yet if you read between his lines to a group of assembled media in Florida for this weekend's U.S. national team friendly against Scotland, you'd think America's most recognizable soccer commodity is ready to hang up the cleats for good.

Via Grant Wahl of SI.com:

Please read the entire conversation and try not to bang your head into a wall. He sounds like a guy trapped in a loveless marriage, just waiting until the kids go off to college so he can finally get a divorce. 

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Ticket to Wednesday's series finale between the Phillies and Nationals? Check. Money for cheesesteaks and beer? Check. 2008 World Series Champions t-shirt? Check. Value pack of D-batteries to throw at the right fielder? Wait, what?!

Before the much-ballyhooed series between the Phillies and Nationals began this week, rookie phenom Bryce Harper made a joke to reporters that he hoped to get a few boos and, "I’m excited to get up there and play and hopefully they don’t throw any batteries or whatnot at me.”

Har. Har. Or whatnot.

Harper was six years old when some idiots in the outfield of Veterans Stadium hurled batteries at former Phillies first-round pick J.D. Drew, but the story has been told and retold so many times as part of the lore of Philly fandom (yes, up there with the lazy booing Santa references) that a 19-year-old kid can use the story to stoke the flames of a budding baseball rivalry. 

Harper's comments were the latest in a long line of yapping coming from our nation's capital this season, most of which has been directed at the Phillies and their fans.

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It's hard not to like 40 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists.

LeBron James put in a ridiculously clutch performance for Miami, helping the Heat take Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers. For the first time since "The Decision," and maybe for the first time in his career as a professional, I found myself rooting for LeBron. I found myself rooting for the Miami Heat. 

This is an uncomfortable feeling. I suddenly want LeBron to win.

There was a point in the second half of Sunday's game where a switch clicked and all the off-the-court nonsense went away. LeBron wasn't the guy who sat across from Jim Gray in a Boys and Girls Club outside of New York City, holding America hostage for an hour. He wasn't the guy who strung along his entire hometown before breaking the hearts of Cleveland fans in the most public way possible. 

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After creating the two best rosters in the history of world football and debating ad nauseam whether the adidas roster led by Lionel Messi and Xavi is better than the Nike roster headed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, it became necessary to finally play the match.

Using the EA Sports FIFA 12 title, we were able to simulate the match to determine–once and for all–which team would come out on top of this epic super-match.

Despite trailing 3-1 just after halftime, Nike came from behind to tie the match in the final minutes before scoring two extra-time goals to win the match, 5-3.

Swoosh!

Adidas got out to a fast start, as Messi took a pass from Xavi in the 17th minute and slid a shot past Nike keeper Tim Howard for the game's first tally.

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We created a series to determine once and for all which brand—Adidas or Nike—has the better world football talent.

Messi vs. Neymar. Xavi vs. Iniesta. Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Gareth Bale. 

Which brand actually boasts the better players?

We narrowed down the list of more than 1,000 players to 23 per brand, including 11 starters, seven on the bench and five reserves.The Adidas list is here, while the Nike squad is here.

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