We don't quite understand why the Soccer AM interview with Tim Howard began in a basketball court and migrated to a hospital bed, or why Howard and the interviewer both wore NBA jerseys, but it was a fun piece of content nonetheless.

Howard revealed his choice for 1) greatest-ever U.S. goalkeeper and 2) the best Everton player he had lined up alongside. He also reiterated his position on Brad Friedel's long career. (Howard does not intend to play into his 40s.) The video is well worth a watch, so click below.

Adding injury to insult, Sportpulse revealed Sunday that Schalke midfielder and U.S. yellow card machine Jermaine Jones suffered an injury during the Bundesliga club's mid-season training in Dohar, Qatar. The article didn't go into any details about the injury, so we're going to assume it was of the minor variety. How this affects Jones' availability for the Americans' Jan. 29 friendly against Canada and the February 6 World Cup qualifier against Honduras remains to be seen.

Tim Ream fell out of favor at Bolton for a while, which was a bad thing. And then he started stringing together a series of starts, which was a good thing. Or so we thought. When your bad pass is singled out as one of the worst plays of the match, it begs the question: Is it better to ride the pine and avoid making mistakes or get on the pitch and showcase your shortcomings?

The above Brek Shea video was posted over the weekend. We confess we neither appreciate nor understand the musical accompaniment to the highlight reel, but we do think it's worth a muted watch. Shea had an amazing 2011. He followed that up with a hugely disappointing 2012. Which way will 2013 go? It's anybody's guess. But his talent remains intact, and can change the course of matches.

On Saturday Clint Dempsey came on as a substitute in Tottenham's 0-0 draw against a Ryan Nelsen-led Queens Park Rangers squad. The short shift may have discouraged U.S. supporters, but Deuce is set up to get lots of action in the coming weeks since teammate Emmanuel Adebayor will be leaving the squad to play for Togo in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boa heaped praise on Dempsey in the interview: “We went through a period without Adebayor through injury and suspension and Clint did extremely well with Defoe. It was one of the good link-ups we had through the season,” he said.

“So he is a player we trust a lot. He always comes strong in the team and scored three goals in the last two games before this. He is always a goal-scorer, one of our highest goal-scorers, so we believe in him.”