State of the Soccer

So the field is set for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.  I remember when I first fell in love with soccer.  For anyone my age who didn't grow up during the failure of the NASL and Pele and the New York Cosmos, etc, soccer in America really began in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan/South Korea.  Now I know some older heads may point to the hosting of the FIFA World Cup (internationally mandated to be the FIFA World Cup, as if, if I didn't call it the World Cup, you wouldn't know what it was.  Might get it confused with that other European sport Americans follow so often, rugby.) in 1994 or the creation of MLS in 1996, but the game never REALLY got popular until 2002 when Donovan, Beasley, Mathis, Stewart, McBride, and Friedel captured the hearts (and coffee machines) of American soccer geeks with a surprise run to the quarter finals of the tournament, and really, a poor Scottish refereeing decision away from a chance to play in the semi-finals.

ESPN quickly jumped on board, and like it or not, at least they show national team games and major tournaments, creating a big desire for more coverage in America.  Of course, the 2006 FIFA World Cup was a major disaster for both the national team (two losses, one point, out in the group stage), and ESPN (pilloried for their AWFUL announcers), but a solid showing at EURO 2008 restored some of the network's credibility, Josh Elliot not withstanding - see below.

So now we are about 200 days away from the kick off of the next one, which I think the Americans will perform well at (though probably not win), for a couple of reasons:

1.) History - America has never done well at a WC played in Europe (Italia '90, France '98, and Germany '06).  But in USA '94 and Japan/South Korea '02 they advanced out of the group stages. Every other World Cup has not been in Europe and the USA has advanced.

2.)  There are actual world class players on this team.  Other teams have had good role players and players that have stepped up at certain times, but in Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, and Clint Dempsey, there are players who could play for almost any team in the world.

3.) A feeling to build on success from the Confederations Cup.   The CC is a microtournament with representatives from each confederation, the hosts, and the previous WC winners.  Not a true representation, but a decent measuring stick, including a win over Spain, and the showing of tremendous heart.

4.) A feeling to want to make up for the poor showing at 2006.  A lot of players realized that they could have been on the brink of losing the casual fan if they had followed up the WC 2006 showing with a dud at the CC (and it nearly was).  But they have regained some trust of the fans, and if they get a decent draw, I could see a quarterfinal or possibly semi-final appearance.

Will the USA miss Charlie Davies?  Of course.  Oneywu should be healthy too, as should DeMerit and Marshall.  My roster right now?

Goalies:
Tim Howard, Everton
Brad Guzan, Aston Villa
Marcus Hanneman, Wolverhampton Wanderers

Defenders:
Oguchi Oneywu, AC Milan
Carlos Bocanegra, Rennes
Jonathan Spector, West Ham
Jonathan Bornstein, Chivas USA
Jay DeMerit, Watford
Chad Marshall, Columbus Crew
Edgar Castillo, Tigres
Steve Cherundolo, Hannover 96


Midfielders:
Michael Bradley, Borussia Monchengladbach
Benny Feilhaber, AGF Aarhus
Ricardo Clark, AS Livorno
Maurice Edu, Rangers
Clint Dempsey, Fulham
Stuart Holden, Houston Dynamo
Jose Francisco Torres, Pachuca
Jermaine Jones, Schalke 04

Forwards:
Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy
Jozy Altidore, Villareal
Eddie Johnson, Fulham
Conor Casey, Colorado Rapids

Interesting players left out?  Frankie Hedjuk, DaMarcus Beasley, Freddy Adu.  If anyone can work their way in, it's Beasley.  Maybe at the expense of Jermaine Jones.  Beasley is not hurt - just out of form (hasn't played enough),   Adu is too young, and Hedjuk is too old, most likely, though few on the USA roster are better than Adu on the ball, and Hedjuk is a wily veteran.  Injuries could shake things up though, even as we pray for more smarts and less sneaking out after curfew.

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/11/sbis-mock-world-cup-draw-10.html#more will provide a link to a sample draw.  I think it gives us a decent chance to get out of the group, though I would hope to get in the first group, where the hosts are played.

Success Is A Choice

School starts in 66 days.  And I am slowly feeling excited again.  When I got out here, there was nothing I wanted to do faster than GET OUT, as Tony Kornheiser would say.  GET OUT.  (Incidentally, TK, I am moving close to the area.  We should hang out.)  I've even applied for jobs.  I almost (almost) want to stay. I know now what Ashley talks about when she says how hard this separation might be.  I didn't feel it.  I thought we'd be ok.  I'd go, we'd talk online, on the phone, see each other at spring break, and get back together when we were both done.  I never realized how much my heart would ache in anticipation on this separation, though.  I needed (and will continue to need) to learn to detach myself from this relationship in part.  To find some of the old me, who was ready to take on the world, overturn six colleges, and reform college athletics.  Get back to the Division III mentality.  Education first, then sports.  Sportsmanship, then winning.  But when we are smart, when we get good grades, when we raise funds, when we show the world that it can be done this way, we will win.

Haha.  I need a shrink.

But I am genuinely excited.  I get to work in Division III again.  I get to go to a real school again.  I get to have my own, huge room with no screaming children.  I'll get to be around some smart people.  No more suburbia for me.  (THAT excites me greatly).

I will miss Ashley terribly.  But part of me (the poor, unemployed part), knows this is a step I have to take to get to one of my goals.  So what is a little more student debt.  Peace Corps might be able to help me with it.  Car payments?  I'll find a job.  And I will succeed.

I think I could listen to Octopus's Garden, by The Beatles and just feel good about everything in the world.

On The Road To A Better ESPN

Most people want to go to Europe, I would imagine - most, however, would not go simply to watch a soccer game they could see on TV in their own country.  Only if you lived in SIBERIA would you consider doing such a thing, and yet here I am, looking up ticket prices to Athens, Madrid, and Hamburg, so I can watch the World Cup without ESPN's pandering to every sports fan in America.  There is a reason soccer is an elitist sport.  You need to have more than a modicum of brain cells to understand the game.  (I am not comparing it to American football, which you also need to be vastly intelligent to play.  Knowing what X Jet Y55RDelta Tampa QR4 means is pretty difficult).  But the way ESPN talks down soccer to a dull sludge that only a numbskull would understand, especially with Josh Elliot, who is an absolute MORON, leading the charge, is disgusting.  Elliot, by the way, is ESPNs token soccer fan, much the same way that Chris Berman is supposed to appeal to the every day white American and Stuart Scott to the African-American populace.  Make no mistake - I am trying to do this to spite ESPN, and for no other reason.  ESPN's coverage is actually going to be decent, because they listened to everyone who said that Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa were garbage in 2006, and they listened again to the same people that said Adrian Healy and Tommy Smyth and Andy Gray were good in 2008.  They did something great, and hired Martin Tyler once Sky Sports went bankrupt to have him do the American, English, and other major games (presumably the World Cup semi finals and finals).  But the coverage leading up to the World Cup is what irritates me.  I grew up on ESPN.  I remember when it had a hint of common sense, when Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, and Rich Eisen worked there.  Now it clamors for viewers with desperate ratings ploys like Who's Now.  So their so apparent obviousness to capture the soccer viewer in America is what irritates me.  And THAT'S why I want to book tickets to Madrid, Athens, or Hamburg.  Actually, I'd really like to go to London, sit in the Emirates Stadium with my Arshavin jersey on, and see if America could make it out of the group stage while listening to Jon Champion.

I just finished watching Hoop Dreams, and I wanted to leave a thought here before it left my head.  No one can say that the job of the coach at St. Joseph's High School isn't laudable.  For a kid like William Gates to be able to come out of the ghetto, have a private school education, and get a scholarship to a place like Marquette is wonderful.  But the attitude of the coach, and the largely purveying attitude of all coaches at that time, both in high school and in college, at least for major programs (sorry for that poorly constructed sentence), is that you can never do enough.  You can never give enough heart, effort, commitment.  You could have done so much better if only... and it seems to be, really, to make the coach look good.  To boost his ego.  When does it stop?  When does "working with kids" end and "boosting my own personal success" begin?