The happy soccer fan who follows England&#8217;s Barclays Premier League closely is no doubt relishing the prospect of the next couple weekends.</p><p>Manchester United, the Old Money god of the place, and Chelsea, the nouveau riche one, are separated on the table by nothing more than goal difference. Both clubs have played 36 games. Both clubs have accumulated 81 points. Both have two more games in which to claim the title (and, for the daydreamers among you, Arsenal at 77 points still could snatch the thing, but that&#8217;s not going to happen).</p><p>In fact, the stunning finish will, very likely, be no more than a bit of &#8220;squeaky bum time&#8221; for United, as they finish up with two clubs in mid-ish table security, and nothing more to play for in West Ham and Wigan (away, but still).</p><p>So, to see what actually matters in the closing weeks of this year long grind of a season, we have to turn to the other side of the table, and miserable soccer fans.</p><p>Because the real drama this year is the relegation race. The relegation race is very much alive. For those not familiar, relegation is a system that takes the bottom three teams in the league down from the top league to the second (oddly called the Premier and Championship in England). It&#8217;s the flip side of promotion, that moves the top teams in the second up. It&#8217;s all the rage in European soccer.</p><p>So take a look at the teams at risk of, as they say in both relegation and hanging, the drop. Now, while hanging probably hurts like anything and leaves you dead, does it create a $60 million plus loss in television and gate income and the inevitable (these days) threat of bankruptcy?</p><p>I think the answer is no.</p><p>And so, for an American soccer fan, this is particularly painful month. It is true that there are Yanks playing on cozy, safe clubs. Tim Howard at Everton. Brad Friedel at Blackburn.</p><p>And &#8230; well, no one else, really, is there? This looked to be a banner year for the American field player, and it looks like it could end in tears. Get down to the (loss of) business end of the standings, and there are Americans aplenty.</p><p>First, Derby is down, and Eddie Lewis and Benny Feilhaber with them (assuming they are kept/stay). After 36 games, they have 11 points. They&#8217;ve won one game and given up 63 more goals than they&#8217;ve scored. Very tough to argue they deserve survival, isn&#8217;t it?</p><p>Next up is Fulham. This one really hurts. At times this season, they&#8217;ve started Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey, Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson and Kasey Keller. Team America. Five Yanks, all on the last World Cup team. Three almost certainly on the next one. Man, it&#8217;s almost like the old bar argument: How would the U.S. national team fare in a top European league? Well, on evidence, they&#8217;d get relegated. With two games to play, they have 30 points, three off the survival pace. Their goal differential is bad, negative-25. That is depressing.</p><p>What&#8217;s more depressing is that if they survive for another Premier League season, it could well come at the expense of another club with two Americans, Reading. Reading is an enigma. They&#8217;ve tied Manchester United, beaten Liverpool. In general, they&#8217;ve played very well against the top clubs. But then there are the bottom ones &#8230; Reading is one point above the relegation zone, with games remaining against safe and sleepy Tottenham and, at the death, Derby, who will have either mailed it in by then, or want to leave the top on an up note. Most distressing there for the club with Marcus Hahnemann in goal and Bobby Convey (occasionally) on the wing is that their goal differential is horrible, negative-28, meaning they need the point cushion to stretch for two more weeks to survive.</p><p>Aside from that are the very mild Bs, Birmingham is now in the relegation spots, and Bolton is even on points with Reading, but ahead on goals.</p><p>So go ahead and enjoy the top of the table, you happy people. Those of us who follow progression of the beautiful game will focus on its ugly side for the next couple weeks.