Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts

Episode #130 4/4 - Grab Bag


Episode #130, Segment 4/4

The guys talk Terps basketball and football and TJ talks some soccer.
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Episode #127 4/4 - Grab Bag



Episode #127, Segment 4/4 TJ talks about MLB draft rights, the Terps and US Men's Soccer
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Episode #125 1/3 - US Women's World Cup Final

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Episode #125, Segment 1/3 The guys re-cap the Women's World Cup Final
Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi), MP3 Audio (.mp3)
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Of Underdogs and Epiphanies

Is it just me, or does the world seem a little upside down today? Maybe I’ve just watched too many sports movies – Hoosiers, Rudy, Miracle, or take your pick of Sylvester Stallone flicks, Rocky I – IV, Victory. We’ve been conditioned throughout our lives to root for the underdog; the little guy. I know I’ve spent my life rooting for the VCUs, George Masons, and Bemidji States of the world (and anyone playing the New York Yankees). It doesn’t help that Hollywood has dramatized so many moments of the United States filling that role. That makes it hard to reconcile emotionally what happened yesterday in the Women’s World Cup Final. It is made even more difficult by the fact, that despite the USWNT being the number one ranked team in the world (we all know FIFA rankings are joke, but still), the U.S. women had exhibited all the pluckiness, spunk, and fight usually reserved for only the scrappiest of long shots. They were the last team to qualify. They needed a 122nd minute equalizer to avoid defeat against Brazil. Their style had been criticized right and left to the point where many said the best team did not even win their game against France. So it was easy to get the full weight of my spirit behind this team. It was easy to get sucked in and feel emotionally attached to a team that I had no stake in three weeks ago.

But in the aftermath of the U.S.’s defeat, now I feel conflicted. 24 hours ago I was riding high as I watched the U.S. Women play their most technical, attractive, and dominating soccer of the tournament… with nothing to show for it. But when young star-in-the-making Alex Morgan put the U.S. on top in the 69th minute it felt like we were on our way. I say “we” because at this point I was full in – living and dying with every promising cross and wasted finish. When Japan equalized in the 80th minute, it was a blow, but nothing I didn't feel this cast of characters couldn’t overcome. And when Abby Wambach put the U.S. ahead in extra time with another one of her trademark headers, it looked like the Hollywood script was nearly finished. The grizzled veteran, in possibly her last World Cup, scores the game winner to finally achieve the one prize that has eluded her for her entire career. Studios were lining up to buy the rights.

But then the real story happened. Homare Sawa, the grizzled veteran playing in her fifth World Cup, equalized. Ayumi Kaihori put Sylvester Stallone in Victory to shame. And Japan’s young star-in-the-making Saki Kumagai put the game away. It was then that the realization hit me. All the stories and all the stats I had put out of my mind before and during the game all gained terrible clarity. That Japan was still recovering from one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the world. That one of their players, Aya Sameshima, actually worked at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. That Japan had never beaten the U.S. in 25 previous attempts. What does it feel like when in a battle of David vs. Goliath you suddenly realize that your team is Goliath? I feel like the world is trying to tell me I was on the wrong side of this all along. I can argue about which team deserved it more. But I can’t argue that my team lost and the underdogs won. And with that cruel twist, I feel angry and sad and bitter and jealous. But maybe, in this case, that’s okay.
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Morning Roundup: Coming Up Short - Lefty, US Women, Nats

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Episode #124 1/4 - US Women's Soccer

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Episode #124, Segment 1/4 USA vs. Brazil Women's Soccer Recap
Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi), MP3 Audio (.mp3)
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Morning Roundup: Nationals Start Johnson Era With Extra Inning Loss

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Episode #122 1/3 - Grab Bag: Soccer, NHL & NBA Finals

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Episode #122, Segment 1/3 TJ and Kevin start with the Grab Bag segment waiting for Big J. to arrive.
Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi), MP3 Audio (.mp3)
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Of Futures or Lack There Of

The impetus for this piece came from my wife. While it physically pains me to credit her, I would be remiss if did not mention that I would not be sitting here typing if it were not for her (well her and a 5 hour flight to Phoenix). You see, in our household, the only times when I can pry the remote from her icy grip, is for a sporting event. These times are brief and usually pass with her sitting on the couch, poised to reclaim what she considers rightfully hers when I inevitably grow tired of watching whatever horrible team I’ve been cursed to root for by growing up in the Washington DC Metropolitan area. One sport she will usually tolerate more than most is soccer, specifically the U.S. National Team. She grew up playing the sport and we bonded over it back in the early years of our relationship.
Back then, I thought she knew a lot about sports. Being a simple man, this of course impressed me and was part of what initially attracted me to her. My world was shattered, however, the day she asked me, “Which ones are the linebackers?” I like to give her a hard time about that to this day, claiming our relationship is built on a foundation of lies. Good times. Seriously though, she knows way more about sports than a girl probably should. This is one of the many reasons that the Big J tells her, “You can be such a guy sometimes.”
When my wife and I watch a sporting event together, she often makes a number of off the cuff comments. Most I do my best to ignore, as they are based on some irrational bias she has developed from god know where – on this day, her hatred for Clint Dempsey could not be quenched – but some can be quite insightful. While we watched a U.S. squad toy with an overmatched Canadian squad in the first round of the CONCACAF Golf Cup, I thought to myself what a difference 3 days makes. It was 3 days earlier that a young and inexperienced (at least on the international stage) U.S. squad was thoroughly dismantled (thrashed, destroyed, annihilated, humiliated, and de-balled would also work here) by the reigning World Champions from Spain. Seriously, if the Spaniards had so chosen, they could have won that game 12-0. I honestly believe that.
A quick aside on this match: What was the point of scheduling this game? Was it to tune up for the Gold Cup? If so, it might have been helpful to actually feature players that would be playing in the tournament. But that was impossible with the start of said tournament only 3 days away. Was it to break in new players? I guess throwing players with only a pittance of international experience up against the best team in the world is one way to break them in (or just break them). And was that really the time to be evaluating new talent? If U.S. Coach Bob Bradley really holds this iteration of the Gold Cup in as high esteem as it seems he does, shouldn’t he be doing everything within the realm of possibility to prepare for it? Instead, it seems the U.S. chose to half-assedly cram two goals into one poorly scheduled match. The result was as I described above and with little to no benefit to the U.S. National Team’s goals, either short term or long term. Perfect. But I digress…
It was as I was in the middle of this thought, feeling good about what a U.S. team can do with all the players they count on on the field, that my wife uttered the following sentence, “Yeah, it will interesting to see what they do when their big guys aren’t playing anymore.” It’s not unusual for my wife to take the Buzz Killington approach. Our glasses cannot be more differently half filled. But usually, I have enough positive energy to overcome her inherent negative-nanciness. On this occasion, however, I became troubled by her statement. I was even more disturbed when I actually went and looked at the U.S. roster. Without a doubt, this team is built around 4 key players: Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and Tim Howard. When these 4 players are humming at top gear the U. S. can play some effective, dare I say attractive, and sometimes spectacular soccer. But we have seen how this team plays without them in the lineup (first half of the Spain game) or when they don’t all show up (first half of the Panama game). Now take a step back and ask yourself who on this roster will be contributing when the next World Cup rolls around in 4 years? Are you ready? Michael Bradley. That’s it. If this team is still running a 33 year old Donovan and a 32 year old Clint Dempsey out there and expecting them to carry the load, they are in dire straits. Tim Howard will be 36. And that’s if these guys don’t retire from International Soccer before that. Soccer is a year round sport and it takes a serious toll on the body. That’s why you have guys like Thierry Henry (33) and David Beckham (36) just trying to hang around in MLS. The greatest player of the last generation, Zinedine Zidane, was done at 34. But as far as I can tell, that’s what the plan is (at least if Bob Bradley is still the coach).
A word to Bradley: What’s with the slow starts Bob? This is way past becoming a habit. I fully expect this team to be down 1-0, 6 minutes in when they play Guadeloupe tonight. Whatever you do in the planning and run-up to games is just not working. Maybe try a George Costanza and do the opposite. Or pull out some tapes of those sweet pregame speeches Lou Holtz used to do on College Game Day. Those were NICE!
I will not claim to know enough about the U.S. National Team development program to tell you which young hot-shot is going to be next the Landon Donovan. Hell, Landon Donovan wasn’t even LANDON DONOVAN until he stepped on the field against Portugal at the 2002 World Cup. I can just tell you that it worries me that I’ve been waiting 30 years for the first dominant striker to emerge for the U. S. Jozy Altidore could be that guy but he hasn’t shown me enough yet. And I’m still not sold that heading over to play in Spain was the best thing for his career development. He can talk to Freddy Adu and Oguchi Onyewu about how being stuck on the bench at a big name club can derail a career. I’m still waiting for the first play-making central midfielder since Claudio Reyna to show up. I hear good things about Mix Diskerud. Maybe he’s the answer. Maybe. The point is there are far more questions than answers about this team as currently constructed. The biggest may be just who is going to coach them in 4 years. I hope that younglings like Diskerud, and Joe Gyau, and Teal Bunbury are able to live up to their hype. I hope Stuart Holden can stay healthy for more than 5 seconds. I hope that Charlie Davies can somehow recapture his form from 2 years ago. I’m less sold on the last two statements than the first which should tell you something about just how not optimistic I am about this team. Who knows? The U. S. only seems to thrive when there are absolutely no expectations placed on them. So maybe in 3 years when they are really and truly terrible, they’ll actually be good.

That last line made my head hurt.
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Morning Roundup: Nats and O's lose but the women of MMA are hot

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  • Nationals (42-56)
    • Nearly everyone gets to play in 4-3 loss to the Brewers. [Federal Baseball] [Box Score]
    • Martin's back strain leads to rotation woes. [Goessling Game] 
  • Orioles (31-66)
    • Matusz finally settles in but the Orioles still lose 7-2 to the Twins. [Baltimore Sun] [Box Score]
  • Redskins
  • D.C. United
    • Portsmouth loses equipment, plays United in United away jerseys. [SB Nation DC]
  • MMA

Pic O' The Morning


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USA vs Mexico

I guess this forum will have to do for my rant on soccer since there is little to no chance of me getting to talk about it on the show. And really, there is not much to say about another weak performance from the US National Team in a big game. At least that was my thinking immediately after the game on Wednesday. But given some time to think it over, I've actually become even more enraged.

I wrote in my previous post how this country does yet get excited for soccer but only for big events. Well here was a big event. USA vs Mexico in Mexico City. A place where the US has never won...

If I may take a minute for an aside. Why wasn't this game on ESPN? I mean, it wasn't even on ESPN the Ocho. Why wasn't this game on something better than Telemundo (in Spanish) and Mun2 (in English)? Mun2, by the way, is a normally Spanish language station that is not part of the basic cable package and was only available for the day via a free preview. It gets better. Telemundo actually offered the English broadcast to ESPN last winter. ESPN refused! WHAT!? Are you fucking kidding me!? What could you possibly have to show at 4pm on Wednesday that would be better than this? The craptastic Sports Nation, starring that asshole Colin Cowherd and some average looking chick? Jim Rome is Burning? Unless he's going to have a reunion with Jim Everett, I don't wanna see it. Okay, I'm done.

...So here was soccer's chance to grab headlines in the US. And they blew it. They blew it because of US Coach Bob Bradley's shitty game plan and his irrational fascination with playing veterans who aren't half as good as the subs behind them. No one thinks forward Brian Ching is an international level player except for Bradley. 87 year old Steve Cherundolo at right fullback? Where was Jonathan Spector, who had just shown himself to be the best the US has had to offer in years at that position with his excellent showing at the Confederations Cup? And when will Bradely begin to understand that the MLS is shit!? Where was Jose Francisco Torres who plays professionally IN MEXICO? If anyone was built to handle the pressure of playing IN MEXICO it's him. And what about tactics? The strategy (what little there was) the US employed appeared to be sit back on D and absorb run after run from the Mexicans and when actually gaining possession to just boot the ball up the field like a freaking six year old. Where upon the Mexicans would regain possession and begin their attack again.

This loss is not world ending for the US. In soccer terms, a road loss in World Cup Qualifying means very little. The US will continue their qualifying run for South Africa. And they will qualify. It's just that now, no one will be watching.
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Soccer Fever

I can see the headlines now: USA Takes Brazil to the Brink - Soccer Fever Grips America. Umm. No. Well not quite. In just one day I've read a lot of stories and heard a lot of sports talk radio posing the same question: Is this the event that pushes soccer into the mainstream in this country? The answer is a resounding....maybe. Just the fact that I was asked to write this blog (by a normally soccer hating Sports Guy) says something about the reaction people have had over the last week to the incredible run by Team USA in the Confederations Cup. People were excited. People tuned in. ESPN actually moved the broadcast from ESPN 2 to ESPN. But let's get one thing straight. This country gets excited for big events, not for soccer. The casual fan gets fired up every four years for the World Cup but soon returns to the familiar comfort of his football (the American kind), basketball, and baseball. And the excitement from this game will fade just the same. Soccer was supposed to explode in this country any number of times over the past 30 years only to fade back into obscurity. More kids start playing soccer every year but most of them quit before they ever get to high school. No, soccer is not on the brink of passing baseball (or more appropriately football) for the national pastime. But it is growing in popularity every year thanks to an ever growing Latino population and an ever improving US National team. Maybe the excitement from this game carries over to next year's World Cup and the US makes another more improbable run there. Maybe that steam lasts to when the US hosts a World Cup in 2018 or 2022. Maybe in another 30 years we'll look back and say this was the moment it all began to happen. Maybe....but probably not. Anyway, aren't there some Redskins OTAs to catch up on?
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