FanHouse CharlieDavies

It's only a small sample size, but it's starting to look like some members of the U.S. national team were cursed following Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. Landon Donovan revealed last week he played the match with the H1N1 virus and over the weekend Tim Howard was in goal while Everton were thrashed 6-1 by Arsenal in the Premier League season opener.

We can safely say Charlie Davies didn't suffer from any post-Mexico hangover, even if on the mun2 English broadcast Marcelo Balboa repeatedly pronounced his name "Davis" during the telecast. In fact, the former Boston College standout carried his sizzling form into the weekend with his new club in France -- Sochaux -- were he scored twice in a second half loss to reigning Ligue 1 champions Bordeaux, 3-2.

The trickle down effect of the U.S. national team's run to last month's Confederations Cup final is coming into fruition this week. First we saw defender Oguchi Onyewu ink a deal with AC Milan and now it appears that young forward Charlie Davies is on to bigger and better things with a possible move to Sochaux of France's Ligue 1, as reported by the French sports daily L'Equipe.

Probably more than any other player on the American roster, Davies broke out during the two weeks in South Africa thanks to his blinding speed. The New Hampshire native has carried that form into July's CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring a goal and pacing the attack in Saturday's 4-0 stomping of Grenada as well as playing off a perfect lay off to Santino Quaranta for the U.S.'s first goal in a 2-0 win over Honduras Wednesday night.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Playing without its top stars, there was some concern that the United States would struggle to generate offense during the heading CONCACAF Gold Cup. That doesn't look like a problem anymore.

The Americans, fresh off a stunning runner-up finish at the FIFA Confederations Cup, thoroughly dominated Grenada, 4-0 on Saturday night, as they began their quest for a third straight Gold Cup title.

When the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup in the midst of the U.S.'s surprising run to the Confederations Cup final, the general consensus was that the lineup was thoroughly a "B" team. After all, the supposed "A" team had done enough work in upsetting then-FIFA No. 1 Spain, and giving newly minted top dog Brazil a run for its money, before losing 3-2 last week.

On Wednesday, CONCACAF said it would allow the U.S. to add seven players to the already 23-man roster for the Gold Cup due to playing in back-to-back competitions barely separated by a week and, more importantly, over 10,000 miles. Thursday the USSF announced those seven players -- all members of the Confederations Cup roster -- upgrading the roster to a solid "B+."