On the spot

The infamous Clint Dempsey article of mine that Matt Zimmerman thought didn't go far enough.

Though I was surprised at the amount of negative emails I got from people convinced I hate Dempsey (I actually admire his talent and creativity on the field, his unabashed enjoyment of hip-hop and most of all, his obvious love for his family) it still didn't compare to the flood of emails I got from Chelsea fans after the MLS all-Star win against the squad.
The funny thing is, while I praised the MLS team's play in my article, especially considering they'd had practically no practice as a squad, I didn't say much about Chelsea at all. I did say they didn't play their best, or something to that effect.
But most of the people blasting me were convinced I'd insulted Chelsea's players horribly and took pains to let me know that Chelsea didn't care, the goalkeeper was a third-stringer who would never get off the bench, and the standard of MLS was disgustingly low.
Of course, when I watch Chelsea these days, I see Hilario in goal (Yes, Chelsea fans, I know the other goalkeepers are injured) and Drogba, whose team was the first squad to go scoreless in the All-Star game, scoring plenty in league play.
Anyway, I was pretty impressed at how many Chelsea fans took the time to spout off to me about my apparent ignorance. U.S. fans have a long way to go in terms of oversensitive defensiveness.