After seeing his name mentioned by US Soccer for the first time in a mid-week report about youth national teamers in Europe that Mooch Myernick had scouted, I looked up to see how Jemal Johnson is doing at Blackburn. For those that don't know, Jemal is a forward and attacking mid who was born in New Jersey in 1984 and has lived in England most of his life. He was originally in ManUnited's youth academy but latched on with Blackburn a couple of years ago. Johnson is doing fairly well, playing for Blackburn's U19 team. He has started all 12 games for a team that is 3-4-5 and has scored 13 goals. Of those 13 strikes, Johnson has scored four of them and set up one more by drawing a PK that was described on the Bburn site as "well deserved." Jemal scored twice against Sheffield United Sept. 20, once against Wolverhampton OCt. 25 and, last Saturday, scored against ManUnited. I forgot to mark down which game he drew the PK! Apparently he's pretty fast and likes to take guys on 1-v-1. That's about all I got. As he has played in every U19 game, I can only assume he hasn't played up with the reserves yet. Also, because he was born in 84, I have to figure this is his last year of being eligible for the U19 team. So, he basically has to show well enough this season to earn a professional contract and play with the reserves next year, or he will be cut loose.