WC Qualifying Roster Call-ups

Here’s the list of players that have been called up for the next couple of World Cup qualifiers for the USMNT, and I have to say I just don’t get some of these picks.

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Danny Califf (Midtjylland, Denmark), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Michael Orozco (San Luis, Mexico), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany), Marvell Wynne (Toronto)

Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Heerenveen, Netherlands), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Eddie Lewis (Los Angeles)

Forwards: Brian Ching (Houston), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Eddie Johnson (Cardiff, Wales)

Goalkeepers: No problems here.  I’ve been a big fan of Tim Howard since he took over for Kasey Keller, and the more exposure Guzan gets, the better he’ll be once its his turn.

Defenders: I have no real issue with these selections.  Our two center backs are pretty much decided, but we’re still trying to find the right people to play at outside back.  Cherundolo will be serving his suspension for his red card against Guatemala so he sort of doesn’t count at least for the first game.  The one selection that raised an eyebrow a little is Michael Orozco.  After his stupid red card in the Olympics that put the US team in a real bind for almost the entire match, I’m not sure he should be getting rewarded with a call-up to the full men’s side.  He served the team well in the qualifiers for the Olympics so perhaps Bradley is looking to the future, but a little surprising to me none-the-less.

Midfielders:  I hope the reason Adu didn’t get called-up was to try to help him get situated in with Monaco.  Sacha kljestan is the only player that typically shows any kind of dynamism on attack, and he hasn’t been getting a lot of starts with the full men’s side.  Perhaps Bradley is going to change things up a little (doubt it).

Forwards: (Preface: Like Adu, I’m working from the assumption that Altidore is either injured or they’re letting him try to get settled in with Villareal) *smacking my forehead*  Isn’t one definition of crazy: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?  Does Bradley think that Eddie Johnson is about to find some International level talent?  Or perhaps Brian Ching is going to bust out with an unexpected hat trick?  I recognize that the teams we’re going to play don’t represent the powers of CONCACAF, but wouldn’t this be a perfect opportunity to try someone who hasn’t gotten much time with the National Team.  We really need to stop calling up players that haven’t performed in the past and haven’t shown much sign of performing in the future.

To me, its a crime to continue to call up Johnson and Ching when they’ve displayed their inadequacies at the International level when you have someone like Kenny Cooper, who is scoring a ton of goals in MLS right now, that you haven’t even given a chance.  Maybe Cooper gets called up and he’s a total bust too, but at least we’d know then.  Give Charlie Davies a chance to try to see if he can pull something off.  Again, maybe he stinks up the field, but at least we’d know.

This leads me to my final point.  When Bradley was named the interim coach, I was fully up to giving him a chance.  The first couple of games, I was really pleased with some of the choices he made in terms of calling up new players and giving people a chance.  We came out with a different attitude and we were taking on teams that were a much better challenge for us that would help the team improve.  I was pretty pleased with Bradley’s choices and his selection as the full-time head coach.

Since then, I feel like we’ve really stagnated and haven’t continued to push ourselves.  We’ve developed a more solid defense, but our attacking as a team continues to be dreadfully inconsistent.  We can’t ever seem to develop dangerous opportunities with any kind of consistency.  We try the same players up front that haven’t really produced any kind of results.  If we don’t try anything different up front, we’re not going to improve in the ways we need to in order to get ourselves through the group stages in the next WC.

They always say if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it.  Well, I’m not sure I’d say things are completely broken, but things definitely aren’t working great and we need to try to fix it.  If Bradley doesn’t start doing things to try to fix something, perhaps we need to start looking at different options for a coach.

Unfortunately, I’m concerned we won’t realize a change  is needed until its too late.  The US should make it through most of CONCACAF qualifying with few real problems.  With a solid winning record during qualifying Bradley will look like the right choice.  But if we get to the World Cup and have the same troubles as in 2006, we may realize too late that Bradley wasn’t the coach to take us where we want the team to go.

Bring on the College Football

For any of you that don’t know (and I’m very disappointed in you if you don’t) college football officially kicks off tonight.  There are a number of games to be played tonight, but really, the match-ups don’t matter.  What matters most is the the withdrawal shakes that I’ve had since the first week of January will finally subside.  As a born and raised in the South college football fan, I have found my sports watching happy place again.

There are quite a few in the country that still don’t get college football, and they definitely don’t understand the fanaticism of college football in the South.  In honor of the beginning of college football season, and in an attempt to provide a clear comparison between college football in the South and other parts of the country I wanted to share one of my favorite email forwards I’ve ever received.

Without further delay, “College Football Southern Style: A comparison of college football in the South and the North”

Women’s Accessories:

• North: Chapstick in back pocket and a $20 bill in the front pocket.
• South: Louis Vuitton duffel with two lipsticks, water-proof mascara, and a fifth of bourbon.  Money not necessary – that’s what dates are for

Stadium Size:

• North: College football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
• South: High School football stadiums hold 20,000 people.

Fathers:

• North: Expect their daughters to understand Sylvia Plath
• South: Expect their daughters to understand pass interference

Campus Decor:

• North: Statues of founding fathers
• South: Statues of Heisman Trophy winners

Homecoming Queen:

• North: Also a physics major
• South: Also Miss America

Heroes:

• North: Mario Cuomo
• South: Paul “Bear” Bryant

Getting Tickets:

• North: 5 days before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and purchase tickets
• South: 5 months before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and put your name on waiting list for tickets

Friday Classes After a Thursday Night Game:

• North: Students and teachers not sure they’re going to the game, because they have classes on Friday
• South: Teachers cancel Friday classes because they don’t want to see the few hung over students that might actually make it to class

Parking:

• North: An hour before game time, the University opens the campus for game parking
• South: RVs sporting their school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities.  The really faithful arrive on Tuesday

College GameDay:

• North: A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
• South: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting “Game Day Live” to get on camera and wave to the idiots up North who wonder why “Game Day Live” is never broadcast from their campus.

Tailgating:

• North: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in it, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
• South: 30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn.  Cooking accompanied by live performance by “Hootie and the Blowfish,” who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off the bottle of bourbon.

Getting to the Stadium:

• North: You ask “where’s the stadium?” When you find, you walk right in.
• South: When you’re near it, you’ll hear it.  On game day it becomes the state’s third largest city.

Concessions:

• North: Drinks served in paper cup, filled to the top with soda.
• South: Drinks served in a plastic cup, with the home team’s mascot on it – filled less then half way with soda, to ensure enough room for bourbon.

When National Anthem is Played:

• North: Stands are less than half full, and less than half of them stand up.
• South: 100,000 fans, all standing, sing in perfect 3-part harmony.

The Smell in the Air After the First Score:

• North: Nothing changes
• South: Fireworks, with a touch of bourbon

Commentary (Male):

• North: “Nice Play.”
• South: “Dammit, you slow sumbitch – tackle him and break his legs.”

Commentary (Female):

• North: “My, this certainly is a violent sport.”
• South: “Dammit, you slow sumbitch – tackle him and break his legs.”

Announcers:

• North: Neutral and paid
• South: Announcer harmonizers with the crowd in the fight song, with a tear in his eye because he is so proud of his team.

After the Game:

• The stadium is empty way before the game ends.
• South: Another rack of ribs goes on the smoker.  While somebody goes to the nearest package store for more bourbon, planning begins for next week’s games.

And in closing I’ll simply say GO NOLES! and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS, Sicke ‘em!

Awesome, Awesome Political Cartoon

I came across this cartoon by John Deering today at Slate.com.  Not only do I tend to agree with the message of the cartoon, its also a reference to one of my favorites scenes from anything Monty Python ever did.  Its a bit dated, but still definitely worth posting.

Interesting Little Web Game

Beware, this thing will steal your life away.  Someone linked to this on a web forum I frequent.  Clicked over to check it out.  Looked at the clock just a second later and an hour of my life had disappear.  I didn’t want to be the only one wasting my life away on Internets games so I thought I’d share and try to bring some of you with me.

Enjoy the Fantastic Contraption.

WC Qualifying: Guatemala 0-1 United States

A win for the US, but boy was it an ugly game.  In terms of style, this game isn’t one either team should be proud of.  The adjective “street fight” that was used by the commentators during the game is probably a very apt description.  Guatemala came out extremely aggressive, displaying what some would call gamesmanship, but what I call rubbish, hackery.  (More on that later)  On top of the scrappy play, the field was in pretty poor condition after an apparent heavy rain earlier in the day, and the quality of the lighting at the field was really bad.

All that being said, we should have dealt with it much better b/c we knew it was coming.  We’ve always had problems going down there and playing.  The game environment in Latin America is always extremely hostile and getting a result there is never easy.  We definitely didn’t show the needed discipline or composure to deal with the high pressure and needling that Carlos Ruiz and Co. pushed on the US.  Once again we required a set piece to get a win after producing very few opportunities from the run of play.  We didn’t do a very good job of keeping possession in the midfield, and we didn’t deal well with Guatemala’s flank play.  Really, about the only positives from the game we can take was a pretty solid central defense, excellent goalkeeping, and one really good set-piece.

Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard get my vote for man of the match last night.  Along with the goal he scored, which is obvioulsy crucial, Boca was repeatedly in the right place at the right time to help intercept balls into the box or block shots right in front of Tim Howard.  Howard, came up huge on a number of occassions with big saves when we needed them.  The one thing that did bother me about Howards’s game was his clearances sprayed out of bounds quite often, which is unusual for him.

On to Guatemala.  I got a hold of the Guatemalan national team’s training schedule and their sessions are broken down something like this.  One hour for soccer training, 20 mins for diving and theatrical acumen, 20 mins vocal coaching to improve yelling at the ref and whining, and 20 mins mixed martial arts training to learn how to be hacks and get away with it.

Carlos Ruiz is a dirty player and generally a pain in the ass, and sadly enough, he’s their captain.  I’d really like to use stronger language, but I’m trying to keep this a family friendly post.  Every time I’ve come across a player like him, I always hope to be around when someone puts him in his place.  Tim Howard, who took a Ruiz kick to the face during a save, had this to say in an interview with the AP.

“Carlos kicked me straight in my head,” Howard said. “With Carlos you expect that. He is dirty. I wish I could say it otherwise, but he’s played MLS for five years and I’ve seen him.”

“That’s what he does. I think you would rather have someone man up and say, ‘Look, I don’t like you. I am going to kick you. I’m going to do all that.’ You can almost respect it in a funny way,” Howard said. “He has this way about him. He kicks. He punches. … And he wants to come and be your friend. There is no place for it.”

I think that’s what bothers me so much about divers and hacks.  They do all that kicking, tripping, shoving, punching and then pretend they’re good soccer players as a result of it, and when they try to be friends with you right after its even more insulting.  The really evil devil sitting on my shoulder wishes I was an MLS player playing in a match against Toronto FC (Ruiz’s club) just before the US-Guatemala match.  I think I would find a way to send him a message of what kind of player I think he is.

I guess I’ll just have to try to take comfort in the fact that our chances of getting to the WC are much better than Guatemala’s, and Mr. Ruiz and his henchmen will be watching the games in South Africa from their couches instead of playing in them.  Our next match comes 6 September at 8PM in Havana, Cuba.  That should be another really interesting game to watch.  Talent wise, we should be head and shoulders above them, but Cuba should present a crazy atmosphere to play in.

As a side note, I want to mention that the US Women won Olympic gold today against Brazil.  I didn’t see the match, but ESPN’s Jen Ching did and he has a great write-up about it here.

Sfitzi Italian in Fairfax, VA

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I had to post about our night last night.  My sister was in town for a business meeting yesterday morning and she decided to hang out with Cris and do girl stuff during the day and then we all went out for a low key meal after I got off of work.

Our choice for the night was a little Italian gourmet deli cafe called Sfizi that doubles as an Italian market and wine shop.  We’ve been there a couple of times but it had been a while.  We’ve always had good experiences with the food, but last night was by far the best.  I think we benefited from having the owner of the place serve us.  I’m not exactly sure why he brought us menus b/c they had about 15 or 20 specials that all sounded excellent.

I’ll try not to butcher the Italian names, if I can remember then at all.  We started out with a bufalo mozzarella capreze, which is basically buffalo mozzarella slices paired with tomato slices with a scattering of basil leaves and drizzled with olive oil.  Not something I would normally get form myself, but it was delicious.

I don’t remember what my entree was called, but it was awesome.  I had a chicken breast covered with a layer of prosciutto ham, which was all covered with mozzarella cheese.  There was some kind of sauce on it, but I honestly don’t know what it was except for good.  It also came with a side of penne in marinara sauce, and I think their marinara sauce is one of my favorite things about Sfitzi.

Cris had gnocchi bolognese (meat sauce).  Very simple but very, very good.  My sister had pasta putanesca.  The pasta was hand made and one of the specials for the day.  Puttanesca is a traditional Italian sauce that can have a variety of ingredients depending on how you want to make it, and I don’t remember what was in hers exactly, but she was very pleased with her meal as well.

The whole meal was topped off with some really good garlic bread and oil and vinegar dipping sauce, a great bottle of chianti, and some of the best company you could ask for.

We sat outside at one of the handful of tables they had.  The only drawback to sitting outside at sfizi is that its located on a pretty busy road and there was a bit of traffic noise when we first sat down.  There are a couple of tables inside, but its not a very big place.

If you’re in the Fairfax area and you want some very, very good authentic Italian food at a very reasonable price, Sfizi is definitely a great place to go.

Olympic Soccer: USA 2 – 2 Netherlands

What a maddening result for the US today.  Getting in late from a movie last night, I wasn’t able to get up for the first half, but I caught the second half and talk about having being crushed early in the morning.

For all intents and purposes the US deserved to win this game.  The first half may have been a completely different story, but the performance of the US in the second half was definitely enough for them to deserve a win against a side that many were expecting to be a lock to go through to the knock-out stages.

I was really impressed with our ball movement through most of the half and we had some very impressive build-up play.  The goal by Kljestan was the product of some very nice passing in tight spaces by the US, and although Altidore’s goal wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, half of being a good striker is being in the right place at the right time.

I also thought the US was doing a good job of maintaining the lead and killing the game off.  The Netherlands started to rely on long balls into the box to try to produce an opportunity and the US back line did an excellent job of maintaining shape and their composure and dealt with almost everything quite competently.  I’ll also tip my hat to Brad Guzan who really put a stamp on the game today.  Guzan has been questioned at times for his ability to control the box, but I think he performed excellently in that regard today.

In regards to the goal that tied the game, what can you do about it?  I’m not going to argue whether it was a foul or not.  I think Holden should have been a bit more careful at that point in the game in that position on the field.  The big mistake was the guys in the wall that jumped on the free-kick.  The announcer (who I’m not a big fan of) suggested that jumping was the right thing to do there, but I have to heartily disagree.  There aren’t a whole lot of players in the world that can get a ball up over the wall and back down under the bar from that distance.  For my money, you make sure that a low ball doesn’t squeak through and you leave it up to the kick taker’s and goalkeeper’s skill to determine if there is a goal or not.

With the final score being what it was, our position in the tournament went from being perfect to not so great, as I see things.  We’re tied with Nigeria at the top of the table with four points.  The Netherlands is in third with two points, and Japan doesn’t have any chances of getting through to the quarters having no points.  To be assured of going through, we have to win against Nigeria, which unfortunately isn’t a given by any means.  If Japan manages a draw against the Netherlands, then it doesn’t matter what happens in our game.  If the Netherlands wins and we draw with Nigeria, I believe the question would be the goal differential as I think that is the first tie breaker.  I think the Netherlands has a good shot at beating Japan, so its incumbent upon us to do everything we can to get a win.

The final match day for the group is Wednesday, and I’m thinking I’m going to have to get up at 5AM to see how things play out.

Sports Writer Kicks a Field Goal in Training Camp

Randomly came across this video on Slate.  Though I played soccer my entire life, I also dabbled a little bit in other sports growing up, and kicking in football was one of my adventures.  Because my team was so terrible I basically only punted, but I did get the chance to attempt one field goal.  As the fates would have it, I also missed mine and like this guy, there was a penalty on the play.  The difference was mine was legitimate and I have the badge of honor of being roughed on a play.  The coaches didn’t give me the chance to kick another one.  They figured that we could get a yard and half and get a two point conversion; we didn’t.

I can’t say the pressure on me was as bad as sports writer Stefan Fatsis when he attempted a field goal at Broncos training camp for a book he was writing, but I’m willing to bet taking the last penalty in a shootout to win a soccer game (which I’ve done) could probably compare.  Check out the video.  Its a pretty entertaining story and it gives you a little glimpse of what athletes sometimes go through during competition.