The Fool's Prerogative

Just a video link

2007-11-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been updating at all, but Law School is hell and I don't have much to say.

Anyways, here's a link to my Cobi Jones video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tySMkw8cR84

Enjoy.

-Z

Galaxy Jersey Change

2007-07-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't been posing again, and it has not been entirely because of work, although that has contributed. Nearly a year after my entire fellow staff quit, they've finally hired a new person to help me out which is nice, but the real reason for my lack of posts has been that I haven't honestly seen a need.

Consider me the Gustave Flaubert of the American Soccer Blogosphere. I just don't see the need to make frequent posts on subjects that others have covered already (and usually better than I could.) Why bother commenting on the Beckham story when it's been covered backwards, forwards, sideways and widdershins? Or comment on the LA Galaxy changing their jerseys when Luis Bueno has said it better than I ever could.

I am much more comfortable writing an opinion about a subject that brings a new angle. I liked very much contributing to the Blog Carnivals, where everyone wrote on the same subject.

But anyways, that said, I am going to comment on the Galaxy Jersey situation. I dislike the change. But not because I feel like LA has built some kind of tradition on the current look. That look has hardly been around long or been the only one for the Galaxy. Let me show you the history of the LA Galaxy jersey. Below are pictures of most of the plethora of jerseys that the Galaxy have worn. I could go to the bother of finding different players for each jersey, but I will go with the man who has always been the Galaxy's poster boy, Cobi Jones*.

1996:

1996 second half & First Half '97:

1997 Second Half:

1998-9:

2000-2002:

2003-2007 pre-Beckham

And now the New Look with the New Poster Boy:

No, I dislike the change because I *like* the 2003-2007 jerseys better aesthetically. Nothing more "moral" or "principled" than that.

*I find it interesting that at the MLS jersey unveiling, Cobi was not there for the Galaxy. That honor fell to El Tanque. My god they're ugly. And I own 4/10.

Bradley Decision

2007-05-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

So big bad Bob has been named head coach, and the opinions are flowing in. Some for, some against.

Count me in the ‘for’ camp, but not without reservation.

If you look back several months (nearly a year now) at this blog, you’ll see that I have never been sold on the international (i.e. non-US) coach being undoubtedly better. Yes, it would be nice to have a coach with international experience, but there honestly aren’t that many, and of the candidates that were suggested (Quieroz, Houllier, Klinsmann and Pekerman) which has actually had much success in their international time?

Houllier’s primary accomplishment was to fail to qualify France for USA 94.

Klinsmann did well with Germany in 2006, but that’s hardly a lot of background to fall back upon. His experience prior to that was... well none. On top of that, he’s admitted to basing a lot of his style on what he learned from Bruce Arena (what do the people who claim Bradley is an Arena clone have to say to that??)

Pekerman’s history is mostly with talented Argentine youth squads. Yeah, US fans like their youth players, but they’re hardly D'Alessandro, Saviola, Aimar, Cambiasso, Placente, Riquelme or Walter Samuel, the players he had such success with. His full international experience is, like Klinsmann’s only from 2006 where admittedly Argentina did well (although they only squeaked by a weak Mexican side.)

And don’t even get me started on Quieroz. I’ll defer to Brucio on that one.

Some have argued that if the Bradley hiring doesn’t work out, we can appoint another coach before the 2010 World Cup. (Even as early as 18 months from now in late 2008.) I have to say that although it is a dangerous road to contemplate, it’s not a bad idea. Bob should be able to qualify the US for the World Cup. With CONCACAF given 3.5 spots, it really shouldn’t be much of a doubt. After that, we can reassess. And I think that’s the right time to do so.

Several countries have done this. Anyone care to look into when Jose Pekerman was appointed head coach of Argentina? Halfway through qualification for 2006 (and the Argies weren’t even struggling—Bielsa resigned surprisingly.) I think that 2009 is the time to bring in the experienced, short-term, mercenrary coach. That’s when it is time for Guus Hiddink or whoever. He’s not going to stick around anywhere for any length of time, as evidenced by his short stays in PSV, Korea, Australia etc. I wonder what the odds are on his staying in Russia after the UEFA Championships?

I’ve argued for some time that what we need is someone who can provide stability to our program in the years between World Cups. Bradley knows enough about the American player to develop young talent (Beasely, Bornstein, Wolff) and bring along players who are capable but underperforming (Donovan, Razov) and seems to be able to blend youth and experience (Kubic, Novak.) He is a fine person to run the team and develop our players. If he’s the man in 2010, I expect the US to do well. If he’s not, I expect that the US will be looking for someone to do as good a job as him in 2011.

Soccer vs. Baseball

2007-04-26T09:17:00.001-07:00

I am a nerd. I’m not ashamed of it. In fact for much of my life I wore it as a badge of honor. But don’t let me stray too far from the point. The point is I was a many kinds of a nerd, and the one thing that seems to go along with each form of nerddom is segmentation. First, I couldn’t be a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars at the same time without arguing which was better. I couldn’t be a fan of Babylon 5 (in my opinion one of the best shows ever on television) because it was far too similar (which it wasn’t) to Deep Space Nine, which was on at the same time. I couldn’t do Math League, Go Club and Mock Trial at the same time. Okay, maybe I could but I wanted to have some afternoons to myself.

What the hell does that have to do with anything? I hear you cry. Well, it seems to me that people are continuously arguing about soccer vs. baseball. While there are obvious reasons for this—the “National Pastime” is the major summer sport in the US, which sets up a direct opposition to MLS. There seem to be constant arguments in places like BigSoccer where people try to argue that baseball is the more boring sport, since boredom is on of the most common complaints leveled against soccer in this country.

Well I’m here to say that it is time to stop. I like baseball. I tried for years not to; to be a good soccer fan and show nothing but disdain for most American sports with their stop-start action and constant commercial breaks. While those things still annoy me, (I’ve found that baseball on a TiVo is a wonderful thing) they don’t take away from the feeling of excitement when my beloved Twins are doing well. Honestly, I wasn’t as interested with the team when we were forced to watch the likes of Marty Cordova and Denny Hocking. Who could be? But of course, the Twins aren’t exactly lighting up the league this year either, but I’ve say through extra innings losses to the Indians and pretty damn awful performances to the Royals this year.

The newest MLS commercials are a good example of what I’m driving at here. They take sports that we all know and presumably the general population loves, like baseball, football and basketball and points out the similar features in soccer – “You’re already a fan, you just don’t know it” is the tag.

Now, I’m going to point out something that seems obvious, but I want set as a premise. I go to games to watch the games. I know it seems obvious, but it seems to me that many or most people do not. For example, the last Twins game I went to was a student ID discount night (so the upper deck was about twice as full as the lower deck, but I digress.) The masses of people in the ‘dome were cheering and booing at random times that had nothing to do with the game itself. I’d become distracted from the game and look to see what was going on—a beach ball being confiscated by security. A fight in section 245. A streaker (well maybe not.) Even more than that, sitting on the end of a row, I lost count of the number of times I had to get up to let people out of the row by the fourth inning (fifteen by then.) These people aren’t there to watch the game, they’re there because it’s a place to be. To meet with people and talk, and spent $7 on a shitty beer. The game itself is immaterial; it’s just a byproduct of the mingling event.

I think this is part of what turned me off on the game. I don’t like paying money to do something and then not do what I’ve paid for the privilege of doing. But that is the difference between the person who is a ‘sports fan’ and a person who is a fan of the game. I would argue that the vast majority of the hard-core soccer fans in this country are fans of the game. They like to watch the game, and that is where the disconnect is happening with the casual sports fan.

A casual fan of baseball can sit in the upper deck, flirting with the drunk 19 year old college freshman with her fake ID sitting next to him and still manage to cheer at the appropriate time because of the nature of baseball. There is often music or an announcement. In soccer, it’s harder to cheer at appropriate times if you’re not paying attention. There is no music played (hopefully) for a good defensive tackle or header back to your goalkeeper. It takes more to be an active fan at a soccer game.

But I still enjoy watching the game of baseball. There is skill and athleticism involved, and once you learn the rules, it’s quite easy to get drawn into the strategy. No rule is more complicated than the offsides rule, so don’t be intimidated. Even the much hyped infield fly rule is pretty easy when you start to think about it.

So stop bashing one sport just because you love another. Don’t be a soccer geek, be a fan.

Explanation again....

2006-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

So I figured I'd let you all know why I haven't been posting at all. Again.

Basically, my boss quit.

Then my senior coworker quit.

We were a deparment of three. Now it's just me.

And I don't know jack shit.

So I'm working about 60 hours a week as well as taking a class, so I don't have enough time to READ soccer blogs, let alone write one. I apologize and hope to be back up and running when this whole thing blows over.

Love and Kisses

Turkish Zath

Face it, die hards, the USOC is just an exhibition.

2006-08-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

The fact of the matter is that Americans will never understand the importance of the US Open Cup. The way that American sports are set up with a meaningless regular season leading up to a play-off cup championship is not going to change, and as long as it’s there, there will never be a meaningful second cup tournament in the US.

Sure, we could run MLS like that. We could eliminate the playoffs and simply have a single table and a separate cup, but as long as MLS strives to be the ‘fifth major,’ it can’t just stroll to the beat of a different drum. The public at large will not accept it, or will not make the effort to understand it.

It would be nice, but I feel as long as both the USL and MLS have a play-off format, the average fan will not value the US Open Cup. The die-hards who watch the foreign leagues and also the US leagues get it, but they are not the majority, and here is the important fact to note: THEY NEVER WILL BE.

When soccer makes it in this country, it won’t be because the average sports fan is watching the English Premier League or Serie A or the Primiera Division. It will be when the average sports fan watches MLS and the World Cup and roots for the USA at the World Cup. When the trips that I make to the local USL team mean dealing with traffic and paying for parking. When a Revolution game means traffic almost as bad as a Patriots game. That’s when

At that point, maybe the USSF could consider making a switch to a ‘pure’ league championship. However the way in which American sports are marketed practically require an ultimate SUPER MEGA ULTRA Bowl where one team wins and another loses. The awarding of a CONCACAF Champions cup place to the MLS regular season champions is a very big step in the right direction, but as long as MLS Cup exists, the US Open cup will remain an afterthought.

And is that really such a bad thing? In reality, the US soccer market is dreadfully fractured. People in different areas work at cross-purposes all the time in ways that delay the growth of the game as a spectator sport. The US Open Cup as it currently stands is a decent tool to bring MLS teams to smaller markets every now and then. It gives an opportunity to gauge the viability of a market in some ways as well.

Beyond that, the US Open Cup will just have to live in continued obscurity until such a point as the underlying format of US Soccer (or even US sports in general) changes. Whether that would ever happen is another question, but certainly one that won’t be answered for a good 20 years.

Announcing Carnival Four

2006-08-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

MySoccerBlog has been chosen by the incredibly impartial committee to host The fourth Carnival.

The host has chosen the US Open Cup as a topic.

Get your browsers over there and write, dammit!

The Third Carnival of American Soccer Blogs!

2006-07-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Alien races with ears, alien races without ears, and Zooty's friend Bingo the invisible fish! Come right this way for the third installment of the Carnival of American Soccer Blogs!

The topic of this month’s carnival, one month after a disastrous Yahoo Mastercard Budweiser Avaya Adidas Hyundai McDonalds Emirates Toshiba Philips Gillette Fujifilm Coca Cola FIFA World Cup™ is appropriately “The Way Forward.”

We have some great entries and differing opinions, so let’s get right down to it.

First, of the wondiferously splendid du Nord, Mig chimes in with an in-depth piece, hosted here at The Fool’s Prerogative.

Next up, we have Steve over at Soccer Orb giving us some Different Perspectives on the Way Forward.

Then Eric of Off the Wing gives two pieces; one on helmets and one on Gaining Respect through Club Friendlies.

Mike of On the Pitch tries to answer the question that we're all asking: "Now What?"

While Josh over at Throughball, our previous Carnival Host, gives us his Recipe for Success.

Michael gives us his way forward at His Soccer Blog.

Oscar of Record as I Am gives us a dialogue between Oscar and Alejandro

And the god-daddy of the Carnival, D of DCenters chimes in with America's Questions in response to Adam Spangler.

And of course, finally, my own two cents parts one and two.

I'll now start accepting bids for the next carnival. Send in your topics and proposals to here.

Update: I somehow missed posting this piece from Brian Garrison at An American's View. Check it out. NOW!

Mig's views on the future of US Soccer

2006-07-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

Mig of du Nord wrote us this little piece for the Carnival today, and I agreed to host it, as it's not the usual duNord fare:

When MLS started they thought that the drive to the top of the American sports world would be relatively quick and decidedly massive. So they went ahead and booked American Football stadiums as their home venues and figured it would only be a matter of a couple years till they were full of raving lunatic fans.

Then things went and got all realistic (ie. ugly-empty), and after a few seasons - aw hell who am I kidding here, it's been 11 years for the sad empty canyons of Arrowhead, Foxboro, Giants, Mile High (for 9 more months), and RFK – some of the money-power people decided it was time to get something a little more economical to drive around in, a.k.a. their own stadiums.

In comparison MLS has recently been touting a brand new television broadcasting deal with ABC-ESPN that will pay the league some money etc, and in addition ABC-ESPN has bought the rights to show things like the UEFA Champions League and the World Cup.

So my question is: How many years will it take MLS-ABC-ESPN to realize that having announcers/producers act like they are working NFL-MLB-NBA-NHL games is completely the wrong way to go?

From reading the words being spewed by the television executives and on-air personalities lately, it seems that this realization could take a long time.

They don't seem to care at all what actual soccer fans want. In some cases they seem to actually despise us real soccer fans in America and see us as the enemy. And that attitude being directed at us game after game will be a lot harder to stomach in the long run then seeing empty seats. (You do know that ESPN's much beleaguered commentator Dave O'Brien is about to become the voice of MLS on ESPN2 don't you?)

This is not progress.

Why are the big money people who run soccer having to learn all these hard lessons one at a time? Isn't there a point where it all makes sense and several things can be updated at once? Why can't they just suck it up and make the very important leap to simple quality broadcasts right now? No, really. Why not?

Mark my words though, like other things in American soccer, they will come around. But it will take time. It will be with a regime change at the top of the organization that puts on the productions, and it will happen without acknowledgement that they were wrong.

Let's hope that by the time these changes are implemented that MLS will be well down the road to figuring out other very important aspects of their business plan like:

-Teams spending more money on talent. (I highly doubt that giving each team the chance to hire one massively over-paid just-over-the-hill Eurostar is gonna do the trick – Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham etc. – use same argument for big stadiums and terrible TV production values.)

-Teams will actually have to advertise all season long about upcoming matches at their new stadiums, including non-league and playoffs games.

-And, hey, marketing just to families and kids is turning off all those 20, 30 & 40 something's that are the immediate future and have their own cash in their pockets to spend.

Etc etc etc….. (More on those another day perhaps.)

Let's all start by getting the pressure applied to broadcasting issues for right now, cuz I think it can have the biggest, and quickest impact. I implore you to make calls, and write letters & emails. Tell everyone you know to do the same. And don't just start & end with ABC-ESPN. Get after your local teams broadcast standards too. They can all be better. It is massively important to our sports future in America.

PS. If you claim to be a supporter of US Soccer at its highest level, but don't support your local club team (on whatever level you have in your town or region) with your hard earned dollars and beg your friends to do the same, then you aren't a supporter of any soccer in America. It all starts at the local level, and with the bottom line. Without them, we have nothing to build the real long lasting foundation on top of. Now go get 'em tiger.

Brian McBride Tribute

2006-07-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Scaryice beat me to making one, but nevertheless, here are my Tribute Videos to Brian McBride. Downloadable links coming soon.

YouTube link to #1 here

and #2 Here

And stay tuned for the third Carnival of American Soccer, coming late morning on Monday!

Still coming down off the high.

2006-07-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of debate prior to the Yahoo Mastercard Budweiser Avaya Adidas Hyundai McDonalds Emirates Toshiba Philips Gillette Fujifilm Coca Cola FIFA World Cup™ as to whether it would be good or bad for the sport in this country. Would it gain MLS fans? Or would it be a distraction from MLS?

Well, it seems as though it was a mix of the two. Andrea Canales talked to some MLS first-timers as they went to a Galaxy game, so there’s at least anectodal evidence of the World Cup bringing new fans in to the game. And there’s no doubt that the coverage was a watershed event, much of it thanks to Zidane’s moment of madness.

However, there seems to have been a large, World Cup sized hole in my MLS season. From June 9 until now, I’ve taken practically no notice of it.

Part of this is because I live in Minnesota—there is no local MLS team here. I’ve continued to follow the Thunder, my local USL team, but MLS? Nope. There weren’t any matches on (my) TV and I wasn’t about to but Direct Kick and/or internet coverage when I didn’t even have the time to watch all the World Cup games.

On top of that, watching an MLS game so quickly after the World Cup lays bare the lack of passion and the lack of numbers in the stands. They simply fail to hold my attention in the way that World Cup matches did. The play isn’t as fast, skillful or immediate.

That’s hardly surprising. What league could compete with the World Cup? But it makes me question my faith as a fan of the sport. Am I a poor fan? I’m certainly a poor ambassador. Through the cup people around work would ask me various questions about it and I’d usually just get annoyed at having to answer them all the time. I didn’t want to talk to these people about the sport. I didn’t want to have to stop every few words to explain what I meant. Having to explain four to six times a day (often to the same person) what a national team is as opposed to a club team and that we couldn’t just trade for better players.

But I just can’t get myself excited about the MLS season right now. I watched all the games on TV before the World Cup, even some of those on Direct Kick, but since the cup, I’ve watched only the few games on ESPN mostly on fast-forward.

I expect that I will be more intrigued by the playoffs and that next year after the high of the World Cup has worn off a bit more, I’ll be back to fervently watching my MLS.

But what does it say about me, MLS and US Soccer that the world cup has done this to me?

The Third Carnival of American Soccer Blogs

2006-07-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been selected to host the Carnival of American Soccer Blogs #3.

This, I can't help but think is akin to the Olympics being awarded to Lillehammer.

Anyways, I'll begin taking submissions for the Carnival immediately at TurkishZath@gmail.com.

So. The topic: The Way Forward. Where do we go from here? I've given my thoughts in the previous few posts, what are yours? Who is the right man for the job? Why? What does he need to do? How should Sunil Gulati go about making this decision?

Gulati has indicated that there will be decisions made within the next few weeks, that ought to provide plenty of fodder--I mean food for thought.

Please do keep this forward looking. Don't dwell on what coulda/shoulda/woulda happened in Germany. It's not going to help; it's only going to get negative. I'm really much more interested in the very bright future of US Soccer. And yes, it is still very bright.

Where do we go from here? I agree with Sunil Gulati. We go south. To South Africa.

So what route do you see us taking?

Submissions by Wednesday, July 26, for the Carnival to take place on Monday, July 31.

(Begrudging) Congratulations to Italy.

2006-07-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Italy. World Champions.

I was bitterly disappointed in the world cup final in 1998. I didn't want France to win. I didn't like Zidane. I didn't like Barthez, I didn't like Desailly or LeBouf or Petit.

I didn't like the idea of the host nation which I didn't feel was the best in the world riding a wave of home support to an undeserved championship. (They of course proved me wrong in Euro 2000.)

How things changed in eight years time. I'm marrying a German girl in just about 115 days, four hours and twenty minutes from the time of writing this (but who's counting?) so I was pulling for the Germans and California Klinsi up until they were knocked out by Italy (who definitely deserved that game, truth be told.)

However come the final, and I was rooting for France. I still didn't like Zidane, although I finally had to admit how great a player he was. I still, in all honesty didn't much like France (though I rooted for them over Portugal too.) But I liked Italy less. Why? I just don't like the way in which they play. The diving, the historionics, the whining to the ref, the constant defensive play.

It's not that I dislike Italy. There are some wonderful Italian players that I've loved to watch. Baggio, Vialli, Gianini, Zola, Maldini, Baresi, Ravanelli, even Del Piero in his day. The Italy of those men was a joy to watch. But the current Italy--I hated it.

I hated that they pressured until they got the equalizer and then didn't play for the rest of the 100 minutes of time.

And I hate that it was Marco Materazzi who was the hero of the day. I have disliked this player since when he was a hack for Everton, and a hack for Inter Milan. But that's the way it goes sometimes.

I can make arguments all I like about defensive play and not really being the best team in the world, but they won. I could say that after a (very) tough group stage, they had among the easiest routes to the final imaginable. But you can only beat what takes the field in front of you. I could say that they're match-fixers, but it's kind of hard to fix a World Cup win. They won, and congratulations to them.

But I stand by my feelings on watching the Italians play. It's dull, it's uninspiring and it's ugly. But it's effective. If the US played like that I'd probably love it (if it brought a World Cup Trophy.) So as I said, hats off to Italy.

One final thought: Fabio Cannavaro was the Man of the Tournament. Zidane had a great game against Brazil, and won because of his name and his retirement. He was nothing special in most of the games.
Cannavaro was magnificent and took his team all the way though to the championship and deserved the Golden Ball without a doubt.

2006-07-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from the last post…

Well now that Germany is out, the speculation around California Klinsi is growing louder. Is he the solution to the question posed in my last post regarding the intricacies of the US system? He’s got a foreign point of view and has worked a side to the semi-finals of the world cup and yet he’s familiar with the US system. Could there be a better choice?

You’d better believe it, bucko.

While I wouldn’t be surprised or even terribly disappointed with Klinsmann as a choice as coach, he’s not the name I want to see.

Klinsmann took a team which had a decent mixture of age and youth and a hell of a lot of talent and got them further than people expected. Did they look like world-beaters? No; they looked lucky to get by Argentina and unimpressive in most of their matches, apart from the round of 16 match versus Sweden. This is not an accomplishment to be sneezed at; he did quite well, but I am not convinced that his coaching is going to bring anything new to the table for the US team.

Klinsmann has taken a lot of what he does directly from the tactics and methods of Bruce Arena and the USA. Arena already has the fitness coaches and such that so revolutionized the German training field for this world cup. He can’t bring that in to the USA setup and expect to get more success than we currently have.

Is he more tactically astute than Arena has been? I’m not sure. I would argue that if one were to give Arena a team with Klose, Schweinsteiger, Ballack, Podolski etc, he’d have done as well as Klinsmann did too.

I have little doubt that Juergen Klinsmann would be a successful coach for the US National Team. He’d do very well. I predict that he would win the Gold Cup, qualify with ease for the 2010 World Cup and probably keep the US in the top 15 in the New and Improved Coca-Cola FIFA World Rankings™. However, the real test is the World Cup itself. On that stage, he will be found as lacking as was Arena in 2006.

And (and this is the important part) at triple the price, if reports are to be believed.

The US simply doesn’t have enough competitive matches to give the coach, whoever that may be the opportunity to improve the team enough. I ended the last entry with a quote from Steve Sampson. I will now use another piece of advice that he gave his successor:

“I would play only 20 percent of friendly internationals within the CONCACAF region.”

A fine goal, but it’s very difficult to make it a reality. Steve Sampson’s side ended up playing friendlies against Israel, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Bolivia; outside of CONCACAF, but not really much higher quality opposition. The ‘elite’ teams like England, Germany, Italy et al. do not play many friendlies because they’ve got enough competition with qualifiers for the European Championships and World Cups that they don’t need extra exhibitions except to blood some new talent. In this region, that’s just not in step with reality.

People calling for the US to participate in the Copa America are short-sighted are on the right track, but are short-sighted. There are very good reasons that the US has not participated in the Copa America since 1995. The most obvious is MLS. The Copa America takes place right in the middle of the MLS season. Even today, the loss of marquee players for a month or two could be damaging to the growth of the league. In the earlier years, it would have likely been even more dangerous.

What sort of team can the US realistically take to the 2008 Copa America? The European players will be off, but the MLS teams are not going to want to give up their players again. There will be World Cup Qualifiers, and possibly the Olympics to contend with as well, so there’s a lot of food for thought.

One solution is to bring back the US Cup. In the early days, this was a decent competition. It was designed as a trainer for World Cup 1994 and in the first two incarnations included teams like Ireland, Portugal, Italy, England, Germany and Brazil. After the World Cup, it still had decent teams like Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico. However by the end of its run in 2000, it was just another set of friendlies with teams like Guatemala, or a 2nd string Mexico. It’s hard to get teams to take such tournaments seriously, but if we can get the right mix of teams, it can be done. The Tournoi which France hosted in 1997 as a primer for their World Cup is a perfect example. France had the advantage of being within skipping distance from the majority of the big teams, but we really can make it work by inviting a South American team and one from Europe and then one from Africa or Asia. If the European’s can’t be bothered to attend, fuck ‘em. We can do without them. A Europe-less pool could be USA, Argentina, Australia, Cameroon. Or even USA, Ecuador, Japan, Ghana. These sorts of things would still be worthwhile, even without an England, Germany, France or Spain involved.

The hole in this proposal is playing games on foreign soil. The US simply doesn’t do this enough. The Copa America will help, but realistically the US needs to win the Gold Cup in order to qualify for the Confederations Cup, and do all that it can in order to get itself invited to competitions like the one that I’m sure South Africa will run in order to do a dry run before 2010.

Falling back again on good ol’ Steve:

“It's very important that we establish a broad base of talent. We only have 30 or so players who can compete at an international level. We need 60, 70, 80 players at a minimum who have quality international experience.”

Maybe we have more than 30 today, but we’re still a long, long way off of the 60-80 that Sampson wanted, and it’s going to take a lot of work to get there. Once again, I come back to the point of tenure.

A long term approach is still needed in this program. Sunil Gulati headed up the Project 2010 committee, so he must know that there’s a long way to go before the goals of ‘2010’ can be a reality. I remember reading an article about the US and Nigeria contesting the 2014 World Cup final, but even 2014 seems a tad early for me. By 2022, I think the US can realistically expect to be semi-finalists and contenders. If we can host some time around then again, so much the more so. However in the meantime, we need someone who is going to continue to build the program, brick by brick. If that’s Klinsmann, so be it, but I think that there are better options for the price he would command.

Where do we go from here?

2006-06-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

In 1998, Steve Sampson resigned pretty much immediately after the cup. Will Bruce Arena do so as well? Actually he doesn’t have to because his contract ends at the end of the cup. But what is the way forward? There are actually some startling similarities between the situation in 1998 following the cup and 2006. But there are striking similarities before the cup as well.

I’m not going to go for the obvious ones that BigSoccer posters have gone around in circle(jerk)s over for weeks regarding easy friendly opponents and odd formations, but deeper things.

First of all, I want to say: Steve Sampson is not as bad a coach as you think. Okay, maybe he is NOW but he wasn’t in 1995-97 when he took over the National Team Program. Before 1998 ruined him. He had an amazing record as the coach of the USA. Spectacular results and stunning showings given the dearth of talent that he had compared to the present day.

USA 4 Mexico 0
USA 3 Argentina 0
USA 0 Brazil 1
(Yes, it was a loss. But this semifinal of the Copa America marked a huge change in mentality for U.S. soccer. We attacked and actually forced Brazil to play defensively against us.)
USA 0 Mexico 0 (in the Azteca, down a man)
USA 1 Brazil 0

These results restored belief in not only the American player, but the American coach. Gansler hadn’t exactly excelled in Italy in 1990, and Bora was brought in to make the USA ‘respectable.’ Steve Sampson proved that an American coach could get the best out of American players as well. Ironically, he wasn’t even supposed to be the US coach. The US had already signed a gentleman’s agreement with Carlos Alberto Pereira after USA94, but the USSF ended up giving the job to Sampson. Almost all of that good will and belief was undone, however by finishing last in France98.

When the search began for a replacement in 1998, the thinking was we needed an outsider. It had been shown that American Coaches just couldn’t cut it at the international level. Arena was far from first choice for the position, but his success at DC and UVA combined with others’ disinterest led to him getting the job. He picked up stunning results as well and restored faith in the program.

3-0 over Germany
1-0 over Argenitna
Three 2-0 wins over Mexico
3-2 over Portugal.
But now that hard work has been undone again by a poor showing at the World Cup, and once again, people say we need a foreign coach. MLS coaches just can’t cut it at the international level.

Bull.

Sorry, but I don’t believe that for a minute. MLS coaches know MLS players, how they play and how they think. That’s a very important think in this job. More importantly, MLS coaches know the place of soccer in the US and the critical role that the National Team plays in that place. It’s a critical piece of knowledge that I don’t trust anyone from outside the system to understand without at least a year or two to get there.

Realistically, what the coach of the USA needs is time. A great coach like Guus Hiddink would do a short-run job for us. Look at what he did for South Korea in 2002 or Australia this year. Yeah, he’d get us short-term success, but where would that leave us after he left? Look at where South Korea ended up this year. Outplayed badly by France even though they got the draw and well beaten by the Swiss. Not a great showing by any means.

No, we need tenure. Can we get someone who could provide us with both? Certainly the US Soccer Federation has enough money to entice someone into the job, but can the prestige (or lack thereof) hold on to a great coach? If we somehow manage to get Scolari to come to the US job, would he stay with us when England come knocking after a failure at Euro 2008? Somehow, I think the draw of more money and a short-term glory job would be a bit too much for someone like him to want to stay with the USA and where would that leave us?

Where do we go from here? I don’t know. Who can we get? Who do we want? These questions will have to wait until after the World Cup to be sure, but we know that whoever we end up choosing, we have to support the decision and give them time.

I will leave you with the thoughts of the second-most successful US coach of all time:

“The next coach needs to go about his business, especially in the next two years prior to qualifying, where results are less important than exposing players to the international level. But that's going to be very difficult because this is a results-oriented society with commitment to sponsors and their desire to having a winning product.”

''The key for me has always been, whether it's an American or a foreigner - everyone must support him. I'm a firm believer the U.S. will never win a world championship without an American coach in charge, because there are too many cultural nuances that play a part in a team's success.”

-Steve Sampson, upon his resignation, July 1998.

Trying to be philosophical

2006-06-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

I predicted this.

I always said we’d go three and out, but really, in the end, I believed. I knew we had the quality to beat Ghana. We had the ability. We had the results going our way. And then we threw it away.

We didn’t show any drive or heart. That’s what hurts. I can take a loss, although I was sick after the loss to Germany in 2002, but I knew we’d done ourselves proud. We’d outperformed our abilities if we’re honest and reached dizzying heights through determination and a bit of luck.

This time there was little of either. The latter perhaps is just things evening out a bit, but the former is very disappointing.

What hurts is the lack of meaningful games until 2009. I don’t know how I’m going to survive until then without any success to fall back upon. In 1998 it took nearly two years to get back to even wanting to watch this team, such was my level of disillusionment. I hope that it doesn’t go quite so badly. If we get a few good matches and make a strong showing in the Confederations Cup or something.

We need to get some momentum going quickly in order to pick up the hardcore fans who’ve been so disillusioned and maybe just maybe get some press.

If you can't be there, watch with a superstar!

2006-06-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

I could have gone to Germany. I could have been there in Geselkirchen watching the US national team get decimated by the Czechs.

I chose to get married instead. All in all, I’m reasonably certain that I made the right choice, especially as my fiancée and I are already saving up the money to go to South Africa together in 2010. Or at least we will be, as soon as we finish paying the bills for the wedding itself.

Left in the Twin Cities on my own recognizance’s, I decided to eschew the absolutely dreadful Billy’s On Grand (where the Thunder was organizing a watch party) and instead went to the Sweetwater to watch the game. As I pulled up to the parking lot, I was happy to see that the Miami team bus was still in the parking lot—the team was still at the hotel.

We settled in to an empty restaurant to watch the game, getting the large screen, high definition TV set up on ESPN2. Shortly thereafter, Fabian Sandoval entered the restaurant and took a seat in a booth near us. I asked where the rest of the team was and he indicated that they were still in bed. I was disappointed, but soon players began to stream down to the bar to watch the game as kickoff approached.

The man that we wanted to meet was not there, however. Romário de Souza Faria did not arrive at the bar during the match. However, as I went to the bathroom, I saw him in one of the conference rooms, where the team’s breakfast was being served. I waited around for him to exit but he was taking his time, apparently uninterested in the USA vs. Czech game.

After a while, he did exit the conference room and briefly sat at the other end of the restaurant, eschewing the small crowd of players and sprinkling of fans that were watching the big high definition screen, preferring a little more anonymity near a smaller screen.

I spoke with him very briefly and learned that he was indeed impressed with the level of play in the USL, and that he (unsurprisingly) felt that Brazil would win the World Cup. He didn’t seem all that interested in talking, more that he was passing by to watch only a bit of the game on his way back up to his room, so I didn’t want to keep him, but still despite the dreadful match on hand, watching it with a Golden Ball and World Player of the Year winner certainly added a thrill.

Soccer--the Thinking man's game.

2006-05-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

Man, I thought I was busy before, but in the last several weeks, I’ve been working overtime and pulling out my hair dealing with a cranky server. So apologies for the further lack of posts—I’m a lazy bastard.

We’ve had only one Thunder home game, and it was weeks ago… and it’s still nearly three weeks until the next one. It’s a shambles of a schedule with the big break and the road trip at the end of the season, but June and July are going to be chock-full of fùtbol goodness.
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There’s a former Minnesota Thunder player who is now playing abroad that I communicate with via email and such, and a recent conversation brought something home to me. The subject doesn’t matter much, but the fact that the conversation ranged from psychological egoism to Heisenberg and back is not exactly what you expect from a pro-athlete.

There’s a profound difference in this country with the level of players’ intelligence. How many players in England, Scotland, Italy or Spain are likely to spend time talking to a fan about advanced physics or obscure philosophical doctrines? Not many, I’d guess.

I’d even question how many players in the NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA would do that sort of thing. I can recall it being a big story when Robert Smith retired from the Vikings at the ripe old age of 28 because he had better things to do with his life—like write books and pursue his Chemical Engineering degree or something.

The fact that most soccer players who come through the youth ranks in this country and go to college know that they will probably not make a whole lot of money playing tends to lead them to actually pursue their degrees. They need a backup plan much more than star athletes in college football or baseball.

I mean, where are the winners of the Herman trophy these days? Sure even those from the early 90s like Alexi Lalas (’91) and Brad Friedel (’92) are able to get paid for their play, but what about guys like Tom Kain (’85) or Bruce Murray (‘87)? Contrast them with the careers of the concurrent winners of the Heisman, Doug Flutie and Tim Brown respectively. None of those four had their career killed by injury, but while Tim Brown can live off the money he made playing for Oakland (and Tampa Bay,) while Murray, despite being arguably THE best US player in the late 80s must continue to work, even if he’s employed in the game (he’s currently a coach at Harvard,) he can’t be making a heckuva lot of money at it.

This trend is perhaps moving away as the entering rookie class of 2006 to MLS included a lot of players who are choosing not to get a college degree from like Wynn and Arvizu. Is this good or bad for the sport?

While I think it signals a good thing for the pay structure and playing level of the sport, as long as players in MLS are making barely minimum wage ($11,700/52 weeks /40hrs = $5.62/hr) players will always need a backup plan.

But I like to think of soccer players as slightly more cerebral, at least in this country, than the fat heads in the NFL, the toothless NHL players or the gangsta-hip-hop-wanna-bes in the NBA. I suppose I’ll trade the cerebral players for better play, though. Celebrity athletes I’ve been trained to deal with since birth.

So the future probably holds more Adus and Wynns than it does Chris Vorenkamps, but that’s probably good as far as the level of play goes. I just hope that there are still enough of the latter type to fill the ranks of minor league teams and keep us soccer nerds happy.

Anticipation

2006-04-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

While many (most?) of you are reveling in the first two weeks of the MLS season, we Thunder fans are still waiting. We don’t have our season opener until April 23rd. At least it’s at home, but after that it’s another month before we can see our boys live again.

But it’s ok. The season is near and there’s still plenty of soccer to be seen from the ESPN coverage of MLS to the FSC coverage of the EPL, Bundesliga, and Serie A.

But it’s nothing like the real thing. Live in the stands, heckling the opposition bench less than 10 yards away.

The anticipation for this season has been building since last October when Amos Magee was named the new head coach. Since then, we über-fans have spent countless hours trying to figure out who will be on the team, who will show well and who will flop. Where will the team end up? How will Amos’ new system work? How will the players adapt? It’s all been building to a triumphant orgasm of a home opener, complete with Free Beer.

Adding to my own anticipation is the acquisition in my office of a brand new, gun-metal gray, SB-95C confetti shredder with lifetime guaranteed cutting cylinders. This baby shreds through our admissions files like nobody’s business and has thus far made about seven bags of confetti just waiting to be torn open and scattered about the track at the Jimmy after a Thunder goal.

Last season was a disappointment, but that never stops a team’s fans from believing that this season will be different. Each year begins with new hope, before either building to a playoff run or petering out in all-too familiar disappointment. Unless you make a great run to the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup, perhaps.

I’m also living in fearful anticipation of two other events in my life. Foremost in my mind is my wedding, an event that apparently takes more planning for fine detail than the Yahoo Mastercard Budweiser Avaya Adidas Hyundai McDonalds Emirates Toshiba Philips Gillette Fujifilm Coca Cola FIFA World Cup™ itself. Anticipation for this event is greater for me than that for the season or for the aforementioned World Cup. I fully expect it to be the greatest day of my life and the only thing that I think could make me as happy would be for the Thunder to win the USL-1 championship or the US Open Cup or for the US to win the World Cup. None of those events will be happening this year.

Less enjoyable in the near future is my date tomorrow with an oral surgeon. I’m going to be missing several days of work, but at least I’ve got plenty of soccer to watch while I’m in a slightly altered state of consciousness.

Losing season

2006-03-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

What makes you keep going to games when your team keeps getting blasted? RSL and Chivas (to a lesser extent) drew fine crowds last year despite being DREADFUL.

The Thunder last year had a bad season. It was sad that Buzz’s final season as coach was one of very few where the Thunder didn’t get to the playoffs. Maybe it was a season too far for the great man, or maybe it was two—perhaps Buzz should’ve retired when the core of his original team did. But I’m getting off track.

We the fans continue to support our teams when they lose. Why? Loyalty is a large part of it, to be sure but what else causes us to be so masochistic? Some people measure how much of a fan they are by their determination to go to all the games even when their team loses by a large margin every match, but how is that productive? In the leagues in the US are set up all that tells the owners is that you’re willing to pay for a shitty product. Hardly the best way to get your team to be better.

But it’s a catch-22 as if no one goes to the games because the team is horrible the owners can just up and move the franchise somewhere else (seems to me there is a movie plot in here somewhere….)

My (only) regular reader, Lukacs pointed out that there’s quite a dichotomy to being a fan and a lot of toeing of the line that we have to walk.

I’m going to think about this one for a while and get back to you because for me especially it’s a question which is important at the moment.

You’ll eat drink it and you’ll like it!

2006-03-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

So I just watched Super Size Me last week. I know I’m behind the times; it’s sad when you watch a movie that came out years ago; no one wants to talk about it any more. Oh well. There’s quite a mentality I think among the restaurant business that says if they market something, no matter how crappy it is (McDonalds’ hamburgers for instance) people will eat it—and like it.

Now this is true to a degree, but where it’s truer is soccer fans. The things that soccer fans put up with in this country is amazing. As Marc Connolly noted last week, we take what we can get. And we’re happy for it. We pay exorbitant amounts of money to get obscure Spanish-language satellite channels, keep odd hours and request three hour lunch breaks to watch games. It’s kinda like being in a cult.

I didn’t even have cable until 2001. I eagerly awaited games on ABC and had my dad (who got cable at work) record games for me and played the waiting-without-finding-out-the-score game for my own tape-delays.

That’s why when people say that since ESPN’s deal for MLS is bad or because the announcers are bad, US soccer fans should boycott ESPN to “teach them a lesson” I just don’t get what they’re thinking. What lesson is this teaching ESPN? That we’re willing to cut off our nose to spite our face? Cutting out the audience for soccer on ESPN isn’t going to cause ESPN to do better work; it’s going to cause them to cut their soccer coverage. They already lose money on all of it except the World Cup, and only keep it because US Soccer is smart enough to bundle them together.

No, we’ll take what we can get, and be happy for it. Tape delay our friendly from 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM? We’ll stay up for it. Give us Dave O’Brien and Marcelo Balboa? We’ll watch them. We’ll grumble about it, but entirely unsuccessfully. It’s like an alcoholic complaining about the cost of liquor.

We’ll take what we can get, but damn will we whine about it.

That’s why we’d put up with a league of Red Bull NY, DC United Airlines and Real Player Salt Lake. I just hope we don’t have to.

Selling out

2006-03-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Maybe it’s the commie in my coming out. Maybe there’s more to it than that. I don’t know what it is, but Red Bull New York simply leaves a bad taste in my mouth (much like the product Red Bull itself.)

Don’t get me wrong, this is no knee-jerk reaction. I’ve thought long and hard about it. The money coming into the league is good, no doubt about it. Another large company with a stake in the league is good, no doubt about it. Funding for the SSS is good, no doubt about it.

However.

I don’t think it’s hard to see that a matchup between Red Bull New York and Pepsi San Jose isn’t going to sound like a major league sport. It’s going to sound like company sides facing off in extramurals.

One of the things that I’ve come to accept, even if I dislike it is the naming of stadia after sponsors. I like the old names. Metrodome. Astrodome. Old Trafford. Anfield. Highbury. What’ve we got now? Emirates Stadium, Monster Park, Xcel Center. No history; no pride; simply a way to advertise. It’s something that I can live with.

In Europe, having a sponsor on the front of your shirt is commonplace. MLS hasn’t done that. For a while, they had some shirt sponors on the back, but I don’t believe that they’ve even had much of that recently. The reason is largely because of the team names being plastered on the front. I don’t really have an issue with that, but with Red Bull New York, this brings an interesting question. Will other companies suddenly realize that they can get their logo on the front of the shirt if they buy the whole team outright? Will this spark a number of these types of deals?

And if it does will these companies be more or less likely to pull their money when it becomes apparent that they’re not going to start making a ton of money really quickly. Despite what Giorgio Chinaglia says, simply spending a wad of cash on getting a few top-quality players isn’t going to bring back the “glory-days” of the NASL.

We’ll see, but I’ll be watching very carefully to see how Red Bull New York handles its relationship with the Metrostars faithful. In Austria, they’ve banned people from wearing the old jerseys as they’ve tried to brand the club as entirely new. Supposedly, that’s what they’re doing here. Are they going to kick people out for wearing red and black stripes? I can only imagine that this will be ejecting they’re most loyal fan base—the one that Eric Wynalda harangued them for ignoring two years ago. That would not be good for the league no matter how you look at it. But maybe they’ll do it better here since they’ll no doubt be aware of the difference in demographics in New York vs. Salzburg.

Well, forward the future, towards a league of company sides.

Oscars and injuries

2006-03-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

Well I won the Oscar Pool; I got 19 of the 23 selections correct. Despite seeing only three of the movies that were nominated for anything. I saw Good Night and Good Luck, Star Wars Episode III, and Wallace and Grommit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

But that’s fuck all to do with soccer; I’m just braggin’. Hey, it beats me whining about the cat at the Oscar Party I attended (a story which resulted in hypothermia.)

What is it that makes a player injury prone?
Is there some Karma involved?
Is there some inverse relationship between skill and durability?
Is there some law that states that a great player can only be available to a team for 30% of the time?
Or is that just a law that applies to my teams?

The players that spring to my mind when you say the term ‘injury prone’ are:

Tab Ramos
Claudio Reyna
John O’Brien
Kieron Dyer
Craig Bellamy
Michael Owen
Jonathan Woodgate
Elena Marcelino
Eddie Pope

There’s a range of players and of reasons there. Bellamy and Owen are blazingly fast, so it’s hardly surprising that they tweak a hamstring from time to time. Kieran Dyer is a little shit who doesn’t put in the time off the pitch to get back in shape; he’s content to simply pick up his (massive) wages for nothing.

Jonathan Woodgate is simply an idiot who injures himself through reckless behavior (not entirely, but he sure seems to be cursed.)

Elena Marcelino? Never heard of him? Newcastle bought him for Five Million Pounds in the late 90s. He was a Spanish international defender who promptly spent four years on the injured list due to – get this – a FINGER injury!

On to the US: It’s always those guys who we can barely do without. Ramos, Reyna, O’Brien.

John O’Brien must have visited the same voodoo doctor as Jonathan Woodgate. These guys could get hurt brushing their teeth.

Eddie Pope is one of those guys who’s constantly injured but seems to come back quickly. He goes down with a devastating ligament injury only to bounce back mere months later. At least he used to.

Compare these guys to the kind of player who is never out of the team. Cobi Jones, Alan Shearer, Roy Keane, Marcelo Balboa.

All of these guys have had long injury layoffs, but they’ve always been the exceptions. Roy Keane had the broken leg but then was barely out of the team. Cobi Jones was never hurt until a couple of years ago. Balboa had the ACL surgery but was an iron man before and after.

Is there something about these types of players? I notice that Jones, Shearer, Keane and Balboa were all captains of their squads—is there a mental toughness element? I’m sure there is, but surely there’s more to it.

Whatever it is, I can only hope that Johnny O from Playo Del Ray California is fit for Germany this summer.

It's like waiting for a bus....

2006-03-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

You wait and wait and wait… and then two come.

Actually, this morning *three* came. But I digress.

It’s 2006, a World Cup year. Those are the great years for soccer. Not only do you get the actual cup, featuring 30 days of fabulous football feasting (I’d say soccer, but it’d kill the alliteration) but you also get the run up to the cup. So many friendlies to get ready! The build up to the cup is almost as good as the cup itself.

Last night’s friendly against Poland was the fifth of the year and it’s barely March! The games might not have the weight of a World Cup Qualifier, but there are still a lot more of them; not waiting two months to have two games in a week, we’re spreading them out and getting ready for the cup.

And then the cup itself comes! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I do have trouble watching a game when I know the final score. Not if it’s the USA (especially if we played well and/or won) but I can’t really be bothered to watch other matches when I know the score. Keeping up at the World Cup is a full time job…. And I’ve already got one of those. It’s just not possible to watch all 8 round of 16 games as they occur without hearing the score of most of them before you get a chance to see them. It’s a minor annoyance, though, one just has to prioritize which games you want to see. Especially if you’ve got a TiVo.

The withdrawal that I feel after the cup is the real danger though, and it taints my enjoyment of the event, because I know that afterwards the US will have a good long layoff and will probably be back without Bruce Arena. That and my current expectation that we’re going to go three and out. But that’s my pessimism coming through.

As for the Poland game itself, I’ll leave that topic for now, come back to it after I’ve watched the game for the second time—the first was largely interrupted at a bar where I showed up late and missed the beginning of the second half as well.

I do want to take a time out to say HELLO! to our 1000th visitor, hailing from the fine city of Swinefleet in Lincolnshire, England. Come back soon, dude.

On old tapes, old games and older players

2006-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

So recently I bought a DVD component recorder. I have some old tapes that I have been wanting to put into a digital format so that I can save some storage space. (Okay, so I justified buying the thing by saying that I would use it for old family videos—but the soccer games come first.)

But ultimately, why do I want some of these games. Allegedly, I am going to use material from them for the videos that I do, like the Waldo’s Way or Joe-Max Warrior compilations that I did. But are some of these games actually going to be useful for that? Could I really use anything from the 2/3 of the USA vs. Saudi Arabia 0-3 loss in Riyadh from 1992? I kind of doubt that there’s much that I could use in that game, unless I suddenly wanted to do a video remembering Jean Harbor (who scored a goal which was called back in that game.) Or the USA’s 0-0 draw with El Salvador in St. Louis from World Cup Qualifying in 1989, bemoaned for being such a dull game.

So why record them at all? Why save these dull games onto DVDs when I haven’t even watched the tapes themselves since they were recorded? I think that partially it’s the work of a compulsive collector, and part of it is nostalgia.

Ask me who my favorite US national team players are, and I will still answer with John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Mike Sorber or Hugo Perez. Maybe even John Doyle. They’re my frame of reference. That squad; 1990-96 or so. All these players that Bruce Arena is capping now (save Kasey Keller) are young upstarts as far as I’m concerned.

I remember when Jovan Kirovsky was the great future star for the USA. I remember when Brian McBride was never going to cut it at the international level. I remember caps for Brian Quinn, Henry Gutierrez and Jimmy Banks. It’s one of those things where the games from that era are just more comforting. The US starting lineup SHOULD include John Harkes and Eric Wynalda. It’s comforting. It’s just what I am used to.

Nostalgia is an odd thing. The word itself, 'nostalgia' comes from the Greek 'nostos' meaning 'to return home.' I wonder if the comfort I take from these games is really hearkening back to being at home with my parents.

Iran

2006-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

I heard a few days ago that there are some people petitioning to have Iran excluded from the World Cup due to their nuclear program and all of the controversy concerning it. I feel that it's the opposite way to go; inclusion is the only way to eliminate the alienation that causes most of these types of problems.

Anyways, this is mainly an excuse to post a poem by Michael Flanders:

I have seen it estimated:
Somewhere between death and birth
There are now three thousand million
People living on this earth
And the stock-piled mass destruction
Of the Nuclear Powers-That-Be
Equals--for each man or woman--
Twenty tons of TNT.

Every man of every nation
(Twenty tons of TNT)
Shall receive this allocation
Twenty tons of TNT.
Texan, Bantu, Slav or Maori,
Argentine or Singhalee,
Every maiden brings this dowry
Twenty tons of TNT.

Not for thirty silver shilling
Twenty tons of TNT
Twenty thousand pounds a killing--
Twenty tons of TNT.
Twenty hundred years of teaching,
Give to each his legacy,
Plato, Buddha, Christ or Lenin,
Twenty tons of TNT

Father, Mother, Son and Daughter,
Twenty tons of TNT
Give us land and seed and water,
Twenty tons of TNT.
Children have no need of sharing;
At each new nativity
Come the ghostly Magi bearing
Twenty tons of TNT

Ends the tale that has no sequel
Twenty tons of TNT.
Now in death are all men equal
Twenty tons of TNT.
Teach me how to love my neighbour,
Do to him as he to me;
Share the fruits of all our labour
Twenty tons of TNT.

World Cup Ladder

2006-02-22T11:42:00.000-08:00

On the Plane

Kasey Keller – No. 1 Goalkeeper, no questions asked.
DaMarcus Beasely – Playing very well for PSV often described as the best player in camp.
Landon Donovan – Golden boy.
Claudio Reyna – Captain America.
Brian McBride – Still the best forward we have.
Eddie Pope – Back to being steady Eddie. Experience is worth a lot.
Steve Cherundolo – Might be useful as a tour guide in Hanover.
Gregg Berhalter – The only real organizer the US has in defense.
Eddie Johnson – Goal against Guatemala seems to show no ill effects of injury.
Eddie Lewis – Left back, left mid; Lewis makes it three Eddies in the squad.
Pablo Mastroeni – Leadership and bite in the midfield

Must Fancy Their Chances

Bobby Convey – Doing well for Reading.
Clint Dempsey – In great form, versatile and confident.
Carlos Bocanegra – Might play in central defense or on the left.
Oguchi Onyewu – Only concern is discipline.
Frankie Hejduk – Work rate, versatility and tenacity, not to mention the step-over
Jimmy Conrad – Played himself into contention through friendlies.
Steve Ralston – Lack of better options on the right see Stevie making the team.
Josh Wolff – Speedy and smart if not clinical.
Taylor Twellman – Finally able to break his mental block, but is it a false dawn?
John O’Brien – Slipping down the order due to injuries, but goes if fit.
Marcus Hahneman – Regular playing time puts him in at #2 behind Keller.

Bubbling Under

Cory Gibbs – Injuries see him fall behind Conrad, can he recover in time?
Chris Albright – Either outside back position and size make him a strong contender.
Tim Howard - #3 Keeper unless he gets some more games.
Kerry Zavagnin – Consistent DM, but there are better options if they’re fit.
Ben Olsen – In a war with KZ to see who’s the #1 backup.
Todd Dunivant – Looks a good prospect, not enough experience
Santino Quaranta – Injury bug hit just when he most needed to impress.
Pat Noonan – Showing more skills, but will it be enough to find a role on the team?
Chris Klein – Playing a weak position puts him in contention, but hasn’t impressed enough.
Jonathan Spector – Not enough experience. Yet.
Brian Ching – despite finally scoring hasn’t shown enough in games to merit inclusion.

On the Outside Looking In

Kevin Hartman – Hot MLS GK sits at #4.
Jeff Cunningham – Hasn’t shown at the international level, personality questionable.
Chris Rolfe – Currently the #6 forward out of 4.
Greg Vanney – Too slow, with Arena choosing to deploy Lewis at LB instead.
Ricardo Clark – Injury hit when he needed to be in camp.
Freddy Adu – Not enough maturity shown in brief minutes.
Conor Casey – Injuries again.
Eddie Gaven – Perhaps 2010
Justin Mapp – Injury kept him out of camp, but would only have a chance on the right.
Kyle Martino – Didn’t show enough in his minutes (or practice, evidently)
Heath Pearce – Probably going to be a factor in 2008.

Received a look in 2005, but won’t be going

Brad Davis – Not good enough at Gold Cup.
Tony Sanneh – Past it.
Chad Marshall – Too much quality at CB in front of him.
Brian Mullan – Ahem. No.
Ritchie Kotschau – See above.
Nat Borchers – See Marshall.
Matt Reis – Behind Harman in the pecking order.
Danny Califf – See Borchers
Nate Jacqua – not enough from camp.
Clint Mathis - 'nuf said.
Brad Guzan - No.
Zach Wells - no.

77 days later...

2006-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know, it’s been 77 days since I last posted, but I’ve been busy. Out of the country, applying for promotions (and not getting them) and applying to work for my local soccer team (and being given the brush-off.) I’m sorry. I’m back now though and I hope to post more frequently. That’ll happen as the season starts going and there’s more to write about in this country.

Well I guess the biggest news in the country recently was EJ’s move to KC. I think this is a good move all around. Johnson’s rumored attitude problems are not something that Bob Gansler will put up with. Bobby G was the US coach in 1990 and although the US lost all three games, I have to say that I think he did a magnificent job with what he had. There were a lot of decisions that were questionable, like leaving Hugo Perez at home (injured or not—still a debate) and deploying Eric Wynalda as an outside back (!). However, to take a team of college players and a couple of lower-level professionals like Peter Vermes (who was playing in the Dutch second-division at the time) to the world cup is no small feat. I hope that EJ can mesh well with Josh Wolff and tear it up at the World Cup.

Does anyone remember when Ben Olsen was the up and coming promising young player for the US? I do. I remember him coming into the Bruce Arena National Team Set Up in 1999 and looking GREAT. He set up a nice goal for Joe-Max Moore in the US Cup and scored one himself against Chile. Then he went to Nottingham Forest on loan and came back injured. He simply hasn’t been the player since. I think he’d be the answer to the US right midfield question if it weren’t for that. That being said, I don’t want nostalgia to be the reason that he goes to the World Cup. However, with Armas out, I think he has a decent chance of taking that role for himself. He has to pass Kerry Zavagnin and Brian Carroll for Mastroeni’s backup. If he plays as well as he did against Guatemala, I think he’ll do it.

Soon I’ll get together my list of players and how they stand on the trip to Germany.

What makes the Beautiful Game?: The Kantian perspectiv

2005-12-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

When I set out to write this blog, I decided that it would be pointless to simply write about my favorite sport or team, simply giving a rundown of the days (or more likely week’s) news. There are countless better sources for that information. Why run a blog that would only be a pale shadow of the impressive duNord? No, if I were to add to the blogosphere, I would need a fresh angle, one that wasn’t being covered. I suppose I could run a Minnesota Thunder blog, but there isn’t actually a whole lot to write about a minor league team in the offseason, unfortunately.

I decided to go with philosophy, though I discovered soon after beginning that it would be a difficult feat to pull off; finding enough subjects that I could plausibly link to soccer would not be easy. I began with the Germans, I think mainly because I was thinking of the old Monty Python skit of the soccer game between the Greek philosophers and the German philosophers (with Franz Beckenbauer being the surprise selection for the Germans.)

I created a short list of a few updates that I could make regarding philosophical quotes that could be applied to the sport of soccer. I even took a look at the wonderful shirts over at www.philosophyfootball.com (Yes, that’s a Christmas present hint) for inspiration. There were plenty of good ideas, the problem became that each would take a lot more effort than an average blog entry pontificating on the state of things. Not such an easy task to update at work during a crowded part of the year (I made a poor choice as to when to begin my blog.) On top of that I have recently become engaged and so have been planning for a wedding.

However, I think that the best antidote to the constant pressures of these diversions is to take my mind off of them and talk about what I love: soccer.

So, here is an update on Immanuel Kant and the beautiful game.

Immanuel Kant is among the most influential philosophers of all time. And I hate him. Well, not so much do I hate him as I hate his writings. He’s difficult to get through, partly because of his writing style, but I think that it’s more of a function of the amount of thought that went into each sentence. I have to read his words two to three times simply to begin to understand them. I wonder sometimes if it would be easier in the original German as opposed to translations, but I doubt it; he’s just too dense.

On the subject of aesthetic beauty, Kant asks what type of judgment we must make in order to judge something beautiful. He says that such judgments have several

First, he argues a fine distinction between something that is a judgment of taste (that is a beautiful sunset) and a judgment of agreeability (I like bagels.) That is to say, we find pleasure in something because it is beautiful, that is, we do not find something beautiful because we take pleasure in it.

The view is perhaps advanced by the standing ovation that Ronaldinho received recently at the Bernabeau for a goal scored against the home side. The Real Madrid fans didn’t find pleasure in the goal, resulting in them thinking it beautiful resulting in them giving the standing ovation. They found the goal beautiful despite finding no pleasure in the result of it and therefore gave it the ovation.

Next, Kant argues, these judgments must be “universal and necessary.” That is to say that we would expect others to agree with our judgment. We may say things like ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ but we do not actually believe that. We might argue about whether Pele or Maradona was the better player, but we can agree they were both wonderful artists in the game. This is where it is important to note the distinction earlier described. I might find a last gasp, bundled home equalizer absolutely beautiful as it rescues a point for my team, but that goal might be amongst the ugliest goals ever seen by a fan of the other team. However, if that goal came as a result of a beautifully flighted curling outside shot, most fans would have to say that despite hating the goal and the result, the goal itself was a thing of beauty.

Finally, Kant says that beautiful things are ‘final without end.’ By this he means that though they serve no real purpose, they seem to do so in our minds. What purpose does sport serve? That’s a question that I might have to take up later in my blog.

The reason that Kant examines the judgment of the beautiful so closely is to determine why such things are universal. Ultimately the best he can come up with is essentially due to “the interplay of the faculties of perception and imagination with the faculty of understanding.”

So what would Kant say makes the beautiful game beautiful? I think that Kant would argue that we find the beautiful game beautiful because of a ‘common sense’ of taste. Kant presents a tidy deduction for the existence of taste which amounts to the combination of imagination and understanding being able to together consider not only the object (or play) at hand but also the set of things (or game) in general.

Somehow, I don’t feel like I’m making this any clearer than Kant did originally. Perhaps this is too heavy for a Monday morning.

Why is the beautiful game beautiful? It serves no purpose other than itself, though it may seem to and it can be nearly universally agreed upon in certain cases (as much as any art or aesthetic judgment) and we gain pleasure from watching them as a result of that beauty.

I know this comes across as if P then Q and since we have Q we must have P, but I it makes sense when someone smarter than me says it. Trust me. I think I’ll go for someone a little less difficult next time.

Tell me again how a sheep's Blatter can be used in the prevention of earthquakes.

2005-11-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Some of you have been kind enough to express concerns over my absence. I appreciate it greatly, especially as this blog hasn’t been going for very long. Rest assured that when things calm down a bit I will begin updating again more regularly. Problem is that this is likely to occur in January.

But I can write a bit now, as my computer at work has died a fiery death (or at least a hot one—the fan broke) so I’m writing on a loaner laptop which doesn’t have any of my contacts or files.

Besides, how better to spend the last 45 minutes of work on a Friday?

I had intended to write a bit about Sepp Blatter. Common opinion about this man, the President of FIFA is that he is an utter twit. I tend to agree, but for different reasons than most people. There was a lovely article on football365.com about some of his ‘greatest hits’ a while back, but as it has been so long since I updated I can no longer find that article.

Basically, people are getting on Blatter for trying to change the game. At the same time, people like me are going on about how the game has been getting duller recently—am I the only one who sees a contradiction here? The game is getting duller because of the money problem (according to Blatter, at any rate, who says that the money men are ‘ruining football.’) so why shouldn’t FIFA try new things to make the game more exciting?

Like his recent comment “every game should have a winner.” Is that so wrong? Not so long ago, teams were awarded two points for a win and one for a draw. The thinking behind going to three points for a win was that it would encourage teams to play for the win and not to settle for the draw. Is having some sort of overtime really that much of a step further? I don’t know if it would stop teams playing for that tie-breaker or not but isn’t it worth exploring?

How about the much maligned ‘rotating world cup?’ The notion that the cup should rotate continents (I believe the most recent version was something like Europe-Asia-Europe-Africa-Europe-S. America-Europe….) and the argument against this is…? It would seem that the argument is that there are only a very few countries in Africa who could handle hosting a World Cup (S. Africa being about the only one CURRENTLY capable.) Well? If South Africa can host in 2010, that means that there’s at least six cups between that and the next World cup in Africa—24 years. I daresay that might just be enough time to get a cup bid ready. Then the argument was that they are putting it in places where football isn’t a top sport. Isn’t that the point? USA94 did wonders for the sport here in the US—without it we wouldn’t have MLS or likely as good a national side. The sport is on the up here and it started arguably with the 94 Cup. No, this is just Europeans arguing that they want the cup in their backyard every four years—greedy bastards.

BUT, this idea seems have lost its momentum, suggesting that the whole scheme was just a way to get the Cup to South Africa in 2010; we’ll see what comes of this. I for one was hoping to see the hosts win USA 2026.

People have also disliked the transfer window policy that was Blatter’s baby. What’s wrong with it? I think it really WILL do what it was intended to do—force teams to develop younger talent instead of making panic buys. Although we’ll see if ultimately money finds its way around this.

Now, don’t me wrong, Blatter sure is an idiot. It’s one thing to suggest looking into new ideas, but another entirely to put them into practice without trying them out. Not to mention his steadfast (and bizarrely contrary to this idea of progress) resistance to the video referee or goal-line technology. It seems to me that even in the fast-paced game of soccer, we could keep playing and have a 3rd party viewing an incident and signaling the referee that a player was offsides—it should only take a few seconds of extra play to find it out. In the game of rugby, the video referee has actually added drama rather than taken it away.

And I’m not even going to touch his comments about women’s uniforms (while not allowing Cameroon’s one-piece kits—thank god!.)

The upshot of all this? Sepp Blatter is a dumbass, but not all of his ideas are horrible or should be dismissed out of hand. They should all be ‘beta-tested’ like the booking for touching a dead ball rule they tried at the U-20’s cup, but many of them should be tested.

Oh, and he should simplify the offsides rule, not complicated it.

So gentle readers, thanks for your words of support and concern. I appreciate your emails and comments. Things ought to be better when the applicant cycle winds down in early December, and perhaps I can get in several updates before I head to India on the 23rd. Brighter times are ahead, I am sure; things will look better as the USL first division season creeps closer and closer.

Until then,
SSS
(Sit Simplex, Stultae.)

Every hour wounds. The last one kills.

2005-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, it’s been quite a while since my last entry. As I stated, things at work have basically exploded and unfortunately my personal life is a big mess also, meaning that when I usually update (from work) and my backup (from home) have both been pretty well cut off.

I’m afraid that I lack the energy to tackle any of the three topics that I suggested in my last post, but getting the creative juices (not those, get your mind out of the gutter) flowing would probably do me some good.

The big and exciting news is that the US will be playing Scotland on Nov. 12^th. I’m happy about this because it means more soccer to hopefully watch—It’ll be very aggravating if there’s no TV, though. I have been pulling further and further from Newcastle as the play becomes duller and the mood on the message boards continues to darken.

A while ago, Mig ad Du Nord called the EPL “The dullest league in the world” slightly tongue-in-cheek (playing off it constantly being called the most exciting.) I have to say that with all the press, and though I hate to admit that they’re right, it’s true that the English game has lost a lot of its luster (lustre) recently.

Although it’s not alone. I have been viewing a lot of tapes of old USA games recently in order to make compilation videos. Back when I was watching these games live in 1996, every moment was exciting. I watched a World Cup Qualifier between the US and Trinidad and Tobago from Richmond, VA. I watched this game a good 5 times at least. I still have the tape and can pull it out and find it more entertaining than so many matches since. It wasn’t a good game either; it was a dull game played in cold weather and a stiff wind. Chances were few as ground skills were at a premium. Russell Latapy vs. John Harkes. It shouldn’t be so much more exciting than Emre vs. Savage. But it is.

It’s a general ennui in my life, I think, that is epitomized by the loss of excitement in the game. The premiership was more exciting when there were fewer ‘good’ players in it. Back in ’96 when each team had only one or two 5 million pound players. Not now, when teams are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars every week in wages.

Everything just seems too polished and over-produced.

Apologies for lack of posts

2005-10-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks; things have been busy at work and at the moment my personal life is quite a mess.

Some posts that are in the works:

The Brilliance of Sepp Blatter
Thoughts on World Cup Roster as compared to 90, 94, 98 and 02 squads
Immanuel Kant and the Beautiful Game

USA 0-3 Costa Rica

2005-10-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Ouch. I was watching the game at 1:00 AM after getting home from the aforementioned poorly-planned wedding (actually, it was quite enjoyable despite very bland German food somehow giving me heartburn) and just as I allowed myself to think “Hey, we’re not doing that badly” we gifted them a goal.

We of course went on the give up two more.

Do you know the last time we lost by a three goal margin?

It was eight years ago and we were playing a B squad then too. It was 4-1 to Denmark at the US Cup in 97. Per Pederson scored four and Joe-Max Moore curled a great free-kick to keep us from being shut out.

To find the last 3-0 loss, you have to go back to December 1993 when we lost 3-0 to Germany in San Francisco. To find a worse score line, you have to go back to July of that year when we lost the Gold Cup Final 4-0 to Mexico in the Azteca.

Still, the match was pretty meaningless, but it sure isn’t fun to lose. I think that the score flattered Costa Rica just a bit, though not as much as the 3-0 win we recorder in Salt Lake City flattered us.

Please, allow me to pontificate

2005-10-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I work at a University. Today, I was walking through the student union and passed a table for "Women of Virtue" decorated with crosses and such.

I have no problem with this.

Nor even with the sign that said "This so called sexual freedom is really just a declaration that you offer yourself free of charge and therefor without worth."

Though that sounds more like it's saying all women are prostitutes.

What gets me is that the booth was manned by three MEN. How exactly do they feel qualified to tell women on campus how to live their lives?

The karmic ocean dries up and leaves no trace.

2005-10-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to a Live show. I've been really into Live since their first album, Mental Jewelry came out in the early 90s. They reached popular audiences with Throwing Copper which is a great album as in the whole thing; you want to listen to the whole thing, not just a couple of tracks. Same with Secret Samadhi. Their more recent stuff has been up and down, it takes a lot more to get out of it the same things I get out of their earlier stuff, but if you dig deep enough, it's still there.

But the concert was magnificent. Nice long sets, two encores and they even did "Iris" which they haven't done in 10 years or more (so Ed forgot the lyrics.) It was a really energetic show and the crowd was good too. I need to get to more concerts.

All Over You
Selling the Drama
The River
Mystery
They Stood Up for Love
Run Away
Love Shines
Operation Spirit
Lightning Crashes
Sophia
Lakini's Juice
Dolphin's Cry
I Alone
Show

Turn My Head
Run to the Water
Heaven

White Discussion
Shit Town
Iris
Dance With You

World Cup Qualifying, RSL and has Christian Gomez been reading my blog?

2005-10-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Since the last round of World Cup Qualifying in 2001, we have played Costa Rica four times and we are undefeated. The only draw was in a meaningless group-stage match in the Gold Cup. In those four games we have scored eight and allowed only two.

On the other hand, each of those games was at home, and our record in the Saprissa stinks. You have to go back to 1992 to find a match which we haven’t lost, and that was a scoreless draw in a friendly. Our record there since 1975 or so there is

No wins

Five losses

Two draws

Five goals scored

Ten goals allowed

I am not sure about the history before that; I don’t think we ever played Costa Rica before a 1975 meeting (3-1 loss) in Mexico City.

That record is hardly likely to improve with the US already qualified and this game meaningless to us except as a useful exercise to try out some fresh blood. Today at noon Central, Bruce Arena announced his squad. They are as follows:

Albright, Chris
Barrett, Wade
Beasley, DaMarcus
Bocanegra, Carlos
Califf, Dan
Ching, Brian
Clark, Ricardo
Convey, Bobby
Hartman, Kevin
Howard, Tim
Lewis, Eddie
Martino, Kyle
Mastroeni, Pablo
Onyewu, Oguchi
Pope, Eddie
Quaranta, Santino
Spector, Jonathan
Twellman, Taylor

A (strong) starting line up from that list is:

----------------Howard

Albright Bocanegra Onyewu Lewis

Quaranta Mastroeni Convey Beasely
-----------Twellman Ching

I’ll be interested to see who actually starts as I’m sure Bruce will want to get some players used to the atmosphere of a place like the Saprissa. But I will have to wait until Sunday to find out as I’ll be at a wedding Saturday night.

Honestly, people need to look at the fixture list before scheduling such things.

I know I will.

That lineup seems rather light at forward, especially considering that Quaranta has played right midfield for most of his National Team minutes. Then again, last time in the Saprissa, Bruce Arena played a 5-5-0 and didn’t even bring on a true forward as a sub when down 2-0. (Starting forwards were Kirovski and Jones, subs were Moore, Donovan and Preki.)

---------------------------------

I need to give a shoutout to Real Salt Lake. Not only did they graciously roll over for my Minnesota Thunder 6-4 in over time in the Open Cup, but they then took Melvin Tarley up to the big time. Now they’re giving a trial to Matt Schmidt as well.

Props to them. When I first read about Salt Lake City getting an MLS franchise, I must admit that I was a bit taken aback. Actually I was totally confused as I’d never thought of Utah as a “soccer hotbed.” I thought it strange that such locations as Rochester, Portland and Seattle, with strong. long-lasting and long-suffering, (okay except for Rochester) USL franchises were overlooked.

But the fans in Utah have come through. While they were a bit defensive when we Thunder fans came around their message board on BigSoccer, they are passionate fans who have supported their team well through a dour season.

As a result of Tarley’s transfer and such, I’ve taken to occasionally reading the RSL board and as a result have found that RSL has become one of the teams in MLS that I follow a little more closely. That wasn't hurt by the fact that they sent me a nice little thank you package for my help with their banquet.

When the league started, I was a MetroStars man, marginally, because they had four of my favorite players: Meola, Sorber, Ramos and Lagos. Since then, I really haven’t had a team in MLS given my location, so I haven’t gotten into the league so much. I think that the new teams are a real energizer for the league and the more expansion that can happen (fiscally,) the better it is for the league.

---------------------------------

How cool was it to see Christian Gomez in the crowd at the Meadowlands? This is what I’m talking about as far as having a good relationship with the fans. That’s how things will grow and that’s how thing should grow. You don’t see Major League Baseball players mingling with the fans when they’re on the DL. Or NBA players? Or NFL players? The closest I saw was Daunte Culpepper and Michael Bennet sitting near the crowd at a Timberwolves game. I’m sure some people sitting around them could be classed as ‘ordinary fans’ but they were still in the $200 seats, so I wouldn’t count it as quite the same thing as beating a drum in the middle of the Supporters Section.

Maybe some day I’ll stop beating this horse, but I doubt it.

Last night, I got a call from Real Salt Lake

2005-09-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

No, they're not planning on signing me as the solution to their goalscoring woes (Melvin Tarley's confidence must be lower than Paris Hilton's standards right now.)

After I organized the BlueSkySoccer.com 2nd Annual Minnesota Thunder Fans Awards Banquet, RSL felt that such an event was something that they would like to organize for their club. They wanted to ask me a few questions about how it went and how I went about organizing it. They said that they wanted their supporters group, The Loyalists to take over the event. As such, there were a few points that I made as clearly as I was able given that the discussion came after a 12½ hour day of work.

Try to find a location that is suitable to the event. One that is amenable to drunk soccer fans and which will have enough space for them to comfortably speak to players and staff. A sponsor or a potential sponsor is a good place to start.

Bring as many players as possible. In the USL, autographs are easy to get, but in the MLS, not so much (see my post, Small Fish, Small Pond) and the fan interaction is what makes these events work.

further on that, give the supporter's goup as much reign as possible. While it might seem counterintuitive to make them do most of the work, if you want them to run it, you need to give them full ownership of the event. Help out wherever they ask for it, but let them do it the way they want. It's all about making the fans feel like they have a real ownership of the team.

Put ads up (once the fans have figured it out) in the programs, on stadium PA announcements, in season ticket holder mailings, whatever you can to get the word out there. The more people who attend events like this, the more 'true' fans you'll get because these are the sorts of things that create a community feeling amongst fans and keeps people involved.

Probably very little of it will actually help them, but I think I made it pretty clear as to where my priorities lie.

Martin Heidegger is questioning my existence as a fan.

2005-09-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

Martin Heidegger is an interesting figure in philosophy. While most notable philosophers tend to polarize people, in Heidegger’s case this is especially true. Born in Germany in 1889, Heidegger joined the Nazi Party during the rise of the Third Reich. For this, in American and British circles, he is lowly regarded, but in continental European philosophical circles he is still regarded as a highly influential existentialist.

I guess this isn’t entirely relevant except that it gets me to thinking about the relative reputations of different players given who you ask. (Who was better, Maradona or Pele?)

Anyways, what I was thinking about is actually existentialism. What exactly does it mean for an object to exist? I mean, what makes a hammer a hammer? Heidegger would say that a hammer is a hammer not because it has certain hammer-like properties, but because it is used for hammering.

Bearing this question on my home town club, the Minnesota Thunder, I have been wondering what the retirement of Buzz Lagos means for the team. I suppose given Heidegger’s definition, the Thunder are the Thunder because they play soccer in Minnesota, but I have to question if it really is the Thunder.

The question is often framed in terms of a ship: If a ship goes off on a long journey, and by the end of the journey, every single piece of the ship has been replaced, is it still the same ship?

In terms of the Thunder, is it still the same team? Since its inception in 1990, Buzz has been the only constant for the Thunder. They no longer have the same logo, nor the same GM nor even the same team colors or home stadium since the move to James Griffin Stadium in 2004, so can it still be called the same team? Obviously, the name, Thunder is the same, but can the team still claim the right to use that name?

Can I still call myself a fan of the Thunder given this shift? I guess, since I became a fan in earnest probably (again—it’s a long story) in 2003, I can still say that I am a fan of those players (and assistance coaches) who were a part of the team that year—Amos Magee, Zafer Kilickan, Joe Warren and Johnny Menyongar.

Perhaps it’s more significant in the case of my other club, Newcastle United. I became a fan of Newcastle in 1997. That’s 105 years into the history of the club, so am I a fan of NUFC really? Or am I a fan of some club that happened to be called by the name of Newcastle United in 1997? If we apply the same rule of the “same team” as 1997, then the only player who is still at the club since then in Alan Shearer*, and he has indicated that this is his last season. So will I still be a fan of the same team or a fan of something that no longer exists but existed several years ago and is dying a slow death?

This is why philosophers don’t get much sleep.

Martin Heidegger's football career was shortlived due to his assertions that the ball was not a ball.

P.S. You can download my Buzz tribute videos here.

*Actually, Lee Clark and Robbie Elliot have returned to the squad after spells away from it in the intervening years

Buzz retires

2005-09-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Last night, we had a End of the Year Banquet for the Minnesota Thunder fans. We honored Buzz Lagos with a Lifetime achievment award. I also screened two videos that I made. They can be downloaded here:

More on soccer up north

2005-09-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention this yesterday.
Don't think that I was going to leave it out because I am vain; I fully intended to put it in yesterday, but I forgot, seeing as I've been really busy at work.

Playing soccer around those 10 year olds is dangerous. At one point, I figured "Oh, here's my chance to be cool and show off my skills and by extension make my cousins cool to their peers." So I attempted a bicycle kick.

Now, I used to do bikes all the time when I was slightly younger. Most of you know I'm not exactly what you would call "old," although I am what most people would call "fat," "slow" and "out of shape." So when I tried this bike, the ball (instead of flying over the fence spectacularly) hit my shin and went nowhere. The only spectacular thing about the bicycle attempt was my landing hard on my back and the colossal pain that I'm still feeling in my back where some muscle or other is very unhappy with me.

What can I say? I should have turned pro.

America--it tastes good because of all the fat

2005-09-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

I have taken a few days off this weekend. After that 23 hour trip to L.A. I was pretty well exhausted and managed to wake up and then fall back asleep while getting dressed on Friday, thereby arriving at work four hours late. I then slept until 2:00 PM on Saturday (although not straight through, oh no, I had to be woken up at 2:30 AM to go pick up my friend with alcohol poisoning from the hospital.)
On Sunday, I went up north to my home town, Cloquet Minnesota. A little under a year ago, Steven Wells of the English newspaper The Guardian wrote an article entitled How Soccer is Eating America. I thought it was an interesting read then. But having just been up north, I've witnessed it first hand. In my home town, population less than 12,000, there are at least ten soccer fields. The baseball diamond at Meddich field has a soccer pitch in the outfield that gets more use than the diamond. My cousins, triplets aged 10 are all on the local U-11 B squad; that is, they're second string; there is already a full squad of eighteen ten-year-olds ahead of them. Driving down my grandparents street, I saw a sign pointing the way to the soccer fields where there used to be a batter pictured. One of the players on the team was wearing a Norwich City kit and recognized the Newcastle shirt I was wearing. Several of them like to watch what little soccer they can find on TV.

It warms the cockles of my heart. Soccer is growing in the US. Slowly, perhaps. At the youth level up, perhaps. In participation if not viewership, perhaps. But it's growing, and I'm happy to be there to see it happen.

Off to LA

2005-09-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting at home last Saturday night (Okay, Sunday morning; it was about 12:30) and I got a phone call asking me if I could go to L.A. to run a webcast of the Minnesota Thunder's US Open Cup semi-final match-up against the LA Galaxy. I would have had to have been a fool to turn it down, so, despite not yet having clearance to miss a day of work, I am on my way to LA tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM sharp. And I'll be home at 6:00 AM on Thursday morning. And I'll be at work at 7:30 AM Thursday morning. Sleeping. At my desk. Which is being moved across the building.
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Anyways, I am happy to report that the Thunder's (regular) season is over. Don't get me wrong, I love the Thunder and I love going to the games, but this year it has taken a lot out of me. I've worked hard for the team and the organization has benefitted greatly from my (and many others) free time and efforts. Organizing a fan group, banners, not to mention watch parties and helping with post-game stuff occasionally takes its toll and the F.O. should recognize us. But the new owner is a dick, so I am thinking that won't be the case.

And it's been a disappointing season. 10th out of 12 is poor by any reconing, but it's all the more frustrating in that the talent and potential is so obvious in this team (as evidenced by knocking off three MLS teams.) They're young and if they can keep the team together, they will be an incredibly strong team in the not-too-distant-future.

The question is if the players will stay. Most of they're contracts are up, and I heard through the grapevine that none of them like the new owner, Saeed Kadkhodaian. Allegedly, he told them that he would pay for only one pair of shoes for the entire season and players and staff still receive the same per diem that they did when the team first when pro in 1995. I am not arguing that there isn't an extreme need to be frugal in this league (and sport) but there are certain places where you need to massage the money. I believe that Saeed's ownership has expedited Buzz's retirement. I don't know what it would do to Buzz if he saw all the good will he's spent the last 17 years building so quickly destroyed by bad ownership. I can only hope that I'm off base here on my views of Kadkhodaian, but I fear that I am not.

Breaking the rule I stated yesterday

2005-09-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here's my+ assessment of where 44 players stand on their chances of going to Germany:

On the Plane:
Claudio Reyna - Captain and in the squad if even close to fully fit.

DaMarcus Beasely - Described as the best player in the squad by coaching staff.

Landon Donovan - Golden boy of US Soccer. Ever present in Qualifying

Kacey Keller - Undisputed Number 1 GK.

Brian McBride - A "Young" 33 and most likely to surpass Wynalda as all time scorer.

Pablo Mastroeni - Defensive mid spot is his to lose.

Steve Cherundolo - Locked down the Right back slot both defensively and going forward.

Eddie Lewis - Tremendous crosser and new position demonstrates Bruce's desire to keep him on the field.

John O'Brien - If fit, he's the only one who can rival Reyna for control and creativity

Oguchi Onyewu - Gets better with every game.

Frankie Hejduk - Versatility across the back line and boundless energy stake his place

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Must fancy their chances:

Ed Johnson - Needs to recapture injury form and scoring rate

Gregg Berhalter - Surprising rise and the best organizer in the defensive ranks

Carlos Bocanegra - Fading due to lack of playing time and injuries

Bobby Convey - Having a remarkable start to his season. It's a different Convey, folks.

Marcus Hahneman - Regular playing time snares him #2 job

Steve Ralston - Not spectacular but until another right winger steps up it's his spot.

Cory Gibbs - Injuries pushing him down, but if healthy almost certain of a spot.

Chris Armas - Most people didn't want him on the squad in '02, but he can still contribute at DM.

Eddie Pope - Once the best US defender of all time, but age and a bad year for RSL have seen young guns overtake him.

Josh Wolff - Forward is thin and Wolff gives speed and dangerous runs--if not finishing

Chris Albright - Did well for himself in recent caps in defense which is very thin at the outsides.

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Bubbling Under

Taylor Twellman - Can't seem to finish at the international level; Kreis '05?

Jeff Cunningham - His game seems to be too simple at this level

Tim Howard - Lack of playing drops him to #3

Clint Dempsy - Needs to step his game up just a level to gain a spot; can he find a position?

Chad Marshall - Strong showing, but too many good players in front of him, unless he goes wide.

Greg Vanney - lack of speed constantly exposed and dead-ball skills not required due to others'

Santino Quaranta - Most likely to steal Ralston's spot, but must do better if he wants to go.

Jimmy Conrad - Too many good players in front of him, but strongest of the outsiders

Brad Davis - Didn't look bad at the Gold Cup but where does he play? The left is too strong.

Pat Noonan - Not enough games at the Gold Cup. Creativity a plus, but lack of speed a big minus.

Kerry Zavagnin - No caps since the semifinal group stage, but DM is thin enough to get a look.

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On the outside looking in:

Tony Sanneh - Attitude is okay, but too old and too slow

Chris Klein - Not gotten a look in a while, but plays a weak position and does so well.

Matt Reis - Current hot MLS GK stands at #4

Eddie Gaven - Poor U20s showing and not showing in MLS; fading quickly.

Clint Mathis - 'nuf said.

Jon Spector - If he gets playing time at Charlton, could stake a late claim to outside back position.

Nick Garcia - Probably least likely of the CBs to gain a spot

Brian Ching - Needs to return from injury in good form.

Conor Casey - Too many injuries and lack of production (Kirovsky '05?)

Ben Olson - Another player looked at for DM, Bruce knows him but didn't show in Gold Cup.

Cobi Jones - No appearances since semifinal round (not even Mexico!) but can play right midfield role that is needed.

Will update this list periodically.

USA vs. Guatemala, England vs. N. Ireland

2005-09-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

So the US got a draw on the road in Guatemala last night. I was rushing out of the house after lying around with a bad headache for a couple of hours only to arrive at The Local to find that the Atlanta Braves vs. NY Mets game had gone to extra innings so we missed the first 30 minutes of the game. I wasn't bothered by the delay; you can't just cut off the end of the game. , though I was steamed by the fact that despite the fact that the hour after the game was NOT live action but pre-recorded stuff, they didn't delay the game but rather just started 30 minutes in.

Despite what basically everyone else is saying I thought that the game was decent. Everyone else said that it was dull, but I found the stalemate and sloppy play interesting. It gave us a chance to see the players deal with a slippery field and ball. I probably wouldn't have found the match as fun if I'd watched it at home but at the Local it was certainly more enjoyable than many another match I've seen.

I won't go into who helped and hurt themselves with their performance last night; that's always seemed to me to be pointless as I don't actually make any of those decisions. It's fun sometimes to try to predict the roster, but really, Bruce Arena doesn't read blogs or BigSoccer or anything else when considering his squads.
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On to the England vs. Northern Ireland game, and can I just take a moment to say "Ha" and "ha."

I am so sick of smug and arrogant English fans that despite the fact that I love watching the English team I was really quite pleased to see them lose. Sure, the USA only beat Grenada (ranked 149 to N. Ireland's 116) 3-2 but we did beat them. Despite a waterlogged pitch and a dubious penalty.

Also, it gives me an opportunity to give props to one of my aforementioned favorite players in Aaron Hughes who is the captain of Northern Ireland and did a magnidicent job in the center of the defense. His problem at Newcastle was always his versatility. He's best at center back, but rarely got to play there because he was servicable at RB or LB or even DM. Newcastle's loss and Aston Villa's gain I should say. Good on you, Wor Aaron, and I think I'm going to be looking for a Hughes Nor Iron shirt.
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Regarding the nonsense with the Barra Brava and CSC security in DC, it looks as though that might have been resolved satisfactorily which makes me happy, but I still stand by my post about the USL.

Back from the abyss

2005-09-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

54 hours
1700 miles
and a 2-0 victory later
and I'm back from Columbus.

It was simply magical. There are few games that I've watched where the time just seems to flow by unnoticed. The entire crowd at Crew Stadium was on its feet from the kickoff until after the final whistle (well, the Mexican fans sat down, actually.) At the 40th minute, I looked at the scoreboard across the stadium and was shocked to see how late in the match it was--time was just flying by. After Beasely scored his second goal, the Sam's Army section went mental and it was a party on the terraces for the next hour. The final 30 minutes of the game were practically unimportant as we celebrated qualifying for the World Cup.

Ohio?!? But I'm a foreign corespondant!

2005-09-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

I"m off to Columbus to see the USA vs. Mexico game.

But before I go, here is a short video compilation I made for the USA vs. Mexico rivalry:

Right Click, save as

...The title comes from an old rental car ad...

Small fish, small pond

2005-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Today I was reflecting on the fact that the Thunder play in the USL-1 and we all dream of having an MLS franchise here. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm happy with the Thunder being where they are.

Seriously, although in the last couple of years the amount of 'local' talent has dwindled on the team, the squad has still shown tremendous commitment to the fans and making themselves available to the fans. I don't really think that this would be as possible in the MLS. Real Salt Lake have some 'meet the team' days set up, and those seem pretty neat, but I think that it is harder to do that sort of thing with 'major league' players. Staying after and letting all the fans on the field for autographs for example: how many MLS teams do this? I went to a Wizards game in 1998 and I remember going to a room for autographs, but less than half the squad was there and several of them clearly didn't want to be there.

Clearly, a large part of this is the squad selection by Buzz and the rest of the staff where they're looking as much at PR and Camp money as playing ability, but I am not so certain that will fly in MLS.

Then there's the subject of the DCs. I love our group. I love how we're utterly irreverent and will do whatever we want whilst still maintaining a good relationship with the FO. A lot of credit for this goes to the staff who do very well to put up with us, but it could so easily not be the case, and that seems to be the situation with most MLS clubs. Just look at what happened to the Barra Brava and CSC security in DC--they're talking boycott over there.

There's all kinds of stigma and such about 'big club/little club' especially in England where the 'big clubs' like to laugh a bit at the littler clubs who are more 'family oriented' and will never win the big prize. I'm perfectly happy with living as a small club so long as that means that the fun is real and not too glossed over and being careful not to tread on any toes. There's a great degree of freedom in supporting the Thunder which I love. How many Major League teams would let me run up and down the sideline with a flag after each goal? Not many.

With all this reflection, I don't know if I'll ever really support a Major League sport as much any more. I'm in love with the Minor league mentality and the minor league system. Bigger is not necessarily better.

Newcastle re-sign Solano, USA vs. Mexico

2005-09-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

So the big Newcastle news in the last week was that we signed Michael Owen. I'm happy about that, but the thing that is sticking in my craw is that it's overshadowed two other transfers that are in my opinion far more interesting.

First, the sale of Jermaine Jenas to Tottenham. Don't Spurs have enough midfielders? Is Jol actually going to try the 1-8-1 formation? Jenas is most highly regarded by all the fans and managers across England except the Newcastle fans. I have a sneaky suspicion that this will turn into another Jon Dahl Tomasson situation where Newcastle sell a promising player who has stagnated on Tyneside and then he goes on to great things.

The other is that we have re-signed Nolberto Solano. This makes me very happy. Happier than the Owen signing perhaps. Nobby's sale was a sign to me that Robson was on his way out; he was sold for far, far too little money and he was never properly replaced. We may have lost him for a season and a half, but I'm glad he's back. Going the other way was Milner on loan. I hope that reuniting him with David O'Leary will be good for him and that he'll end up coming back to Newcastle United a better player having picked up playing time at Villa.

In other transfers this season, Newcastle sold probably my favorite player on the team: Aaron Hughes. Yeah, I know, maybe I'm crazy, but he was durable and could play anywhere across the back-four or in defensive midfield. He was also a product of the club's system and kept his head down off the field. He is the captain of his national team (even if it is Northern Ireland.) He was honestly my pick to replace Shearer as captain after Wor Al retired. Unfortunately, like another of my favorites before him, Steve Watson, he was sold to raise transfer funds.
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Back States-side, I've been looking forward to the USA vs. Mexico World Cup Qualifier this weekend. I fought tooth and nail to get three tickets for that match, and none of them are together. Tomorrow after work I will be leaving and driving down to Columbus. Here's where the philosophy comes in, as all I've been able to think of regarding the match this week is a quote from Arthur Schopenhauer.

"A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes."

Yeah, the man wasn't called the founder of the school of pessimistic philosophy for nothing.

I guess I just worry that all of the excitement is only going to result in disappointment if we lose or draw or if the trip doesn't go well.

The squad that Bruce Arena called in looks good to me. I get sick of people who constantly criticize him for calling in players like Frankie Hejduk and Gregg Berhalter. These are the players that he has to work with. I agree that Hejduk and Berhalter aren't Roberto Carlos and Sol Campbell, but who would they want called in? Bobby Boswell? Yeah, there are up and coming future stars, but you can't throw them right in; they'll never live up to your hype and they'll never be able to shrug off that initial disappointment. Give them time. I have confidence in Bruce that he will call them when they're ready. He did an excellent job with Beasely and Donovan.
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The Minnesota Thunder sent forward Melvin Tarley to Real Salt Lake. I didn't get a chance to watch the game last night because I was getting my car tuned up for the trip to Ohio. I'm leaving it on this morning while I work, and perhaps I will post about his performance when the game is over.

First Post: Philosophy and Football

2005-08-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

So this is to be my blog. It will likely seldom be updated and surely be of no interest to most. I shall endeavor to combine my love for Soccer and Philosophy into this blog. It'll have a distinct push towards the pessimistic and the Newcastle. Which tend to be pretty close anyways.