Zips get zip

FEAR THE ROO!

Dear Caleb,
Please recruit a frosh that knows how to keep his head up in the final third and can deliver a killer through ball.

Wait, they're probably playing in Europe already. :)

They find one, and the Zips would truly be perfect.

Well done boys. You made me proud to be a Zip.

WOO-HOO!

Okay, not as much pain as I thought. The US should be able to get through to the knockout phases.

I'm a pothead.

It's official. Here are the pots to be drawn from for the World Cup draw.

POT 1- Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Netherlands, England, Italy, Germany, South Africa

POT 2- USA, Mexico, Honduras, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand

POT 3- Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria

POT 4- France, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia, Greece, Slovakia, Serbia, Switzerland

My prediction for the US? PAAAAIN.

The Yanks have gotta avoid France and Portugal from pot 4. No one will take the US lightly this time around, and to be blunt our form hasn't been to most impressive lately. That includes the Confederations Cup.

Let's be honest here, The only difference between the Spain semi and the Brazil final was that Brazil found a way to finish their chances in the second half.

Les Bleu Hand

I guess my Arsenal Henry jersey is gonna stay in the closet for a little while. I don't want to get hit in the back by a chair thrown by an angry Irishman.

They got a beef, though.

video from stephizzo01 on YouTube.

Hey Becks! Sign my book!

I just finished reading The Beckham Experiment by Grant Wahl and I gotta say Posh Boy gets off lighter than I expected. The LA Galaxy were the zoo I expected they were the previous two seasons, but Becks seems more like the guy who was handed the reigns of a golden elephant and that bad boy just took off stampeding wherever the hell it wanted to. Davy's just holding on for the ride. I don't think Beckham's smart enough to be the man behind the curtain.

It's more like he's the puppet with some pretty powerful puppetmasters.

Either way it's a good read. Great insight on the inner workings and string pulling behind the scenes.

WTF?

I got nothing.

video posted on YouTube by hjgjaxson

Sometimes things are bigger than the game.

My heart goes out to all involved in the accident, their families, and their friends.

Number one in the hood, G.

Zips still ranked numero uno en EE.UU., y'all!

Old and slow...

I recently got back into playing again. My housemate and his co-workers have a pick up game every Wednesday in Berkeley. It's the first real soccer I've played in several years.

It's amazing how much I've picked up just from watching all these years. I see the field so much differently than when I was a kid and teen playing the game without access to seeing professionals.

It's also amazing how much my body hurts after the game. At 41 the body no longer keeps up with what the mind wants to do. Add fat and diabetic to that and well, it can make things, well, challenging. Just this week I slightly pulled my groin while trying to defend.

I think I've hit the Blanco / Valderrama phase of my soccer career. Stay in the middle and spray pretty passes out to the younger, faster players. :)

Now where did I put those shoes?

"This has to be a marathon, not a sprint."

This oft used sports cliché is usually used to describe the philosophy a team takes over a season to help win a championship. Steadily building up the team over months to peak at the end of a season.

In this case, Lew Wolff is using it to explain the struggles he's had in running the Earthquakes. For me, this cliché doesn't quite work. It really hit home for me as I watched the Seattle Sounders take home the Dewar Cup as U.S. Open Cup champions. This team in it's first MLS season is already successful on and off the field. Yet, my dear Quakes struggle on and off the field in its second season back. If this is a marathon, the gun went off last year, and the Quakes are still at the starting line.

What's the answer? If I knew, I'd have a job. Toronto FC showed that you didn't have to have a winner out of the gate to bring in fans. Chicago and Seattle showed that you can have a good team on the field right from the start. Are soccer fans in the Bay Area that fickle? Are we that poor? I know I couldn't afford season tickets this year. Could it be a combination of all of the above and more? Again, I wish I knew the answer.

That's our lad...

Presenting Mr. Jozy Altidore,

video courtesy of iphoney777

Soccer for the people

This weekend the Chelsea/Hull game was broadcast on ESPN2. Tomorrow, not only will Fox Soccer Channel be broadcasting UEFA Champions League games, but games will be shown live on the regional sports broadcast networks, and DirecTV has set aside a series of channels to show those games as well.

It seems that US TV has taken notice of the sport, and it seems that they believe that an English speaking American audience wants to watch. I'm still stunned at the amount of viewing options that have suddenly appeared on the scene. This is gonna be fun.

I still don't hate Mexico...

...but I hate losing to them.

The U.S. played the best 10 minutes of soccer I've ever seen them play in Azteca. Then they scored, and something switched off. I kept watching the midfield back off time and time again, and conceding the ball to Mexico. That can work when you're a fast passing counterattacking team, but for that game they weren't. Mexico made them pay for it.

For the love of God, step up and challenge players on the ball, especially when teams are attacking up the middle. Crosses for the wings tend to be Gooch's bread and butter to break up, but I've seen Rossi and now Castro nail blasts from right outside the penalty area because no one steps up to them quickly.

Charlie Davies looks poised to be our latest great forward. I hope he can sustain his form. His goal was positively cool, calm, and clinical.

It was probably the altitude, but some of their decisions were atrocious. There'd be open folks, but the back line wouldn't see them, and started hoofing the ball upfield. Or Landon would try to use his speed to run by players, only to get caught when he didn't have anyone to pass to. In a place like this, you've got to let the ball do the work, because running around will leave you gassed. I've never seen Donovan get passed like he did during the lead up to Mexico's second goal. This team seemed to run out of fuel pretty quickly.

Oh well, this game wasn't a must win, but the next one is. This home game against El Salvador is huge now that the hex has become a log jam. In fact, they'd better win these next two. T & T away might not be the cakewalk people keep assuming it will be.

On the flip side, Mexico/Costa Rica in Costa Rica is gonna be a fun game to watch.

I don't hate Mexico

The biggest soccer rivalry in North America adds another chapter tomorrow afternoon in Mexico City when the U.S. Men take on Mexico for a World Cup qualifier in Estadio Azteca.

I fully admit that nothing would please me more than to see the Yanks finally get their first win against El Tri on Mexican soil. A trouncing by the U.S. would bring a wonderfully Grinchy smile on my face as I walk around in my U.S. jersey.

However, I will also say that the rhetoric surrounding any game with Mexico by some of my fellow supporters can be problematic. I can recall hearing an individual yelling "Mow my lawn!" in the Sam's Army section in Columbus during the 2005 qualifier. I usually challenge such bigoted stuff when I hear it live, but memory fails if I managed to find the culprit that time around. There's a lot of racism and xenophobia when it comes to this game, and there are a fair number of U.S. fans who let their fear of brown people color their feelings and language around this matchup.

People, you need to let it go. Spending the last decade here in the Bay Area, being around communities of color, and of course being a soccer fan has given me respect for Mexican fans and their passion. I had Mexican co-workers at my previous job, and our passion for our respective national teams never clouded the respect we had for each other as people. I'll miss the bet we usually had, especially for this game. Last time I had to grow out what hair I had left for a month.

I got to see the Chivas supporters Legion 1908 put on a full display last Saturday at Candlestick Park. It was incredible to see. Did they sneak most of that stuff in? Probably. However, that wasn't where my head was. Most folks would find that display frightening. As for me, I wondered if the Casbah took notes. :)

Taking their medicine

I had a feeling that the US men would finally have their decade long home winning streak against Mexico snapped. I just didn't expect it to come in such an embarrassing way.

Oh well.

I'm looking forward to revancha en Azteca. Even though the A team did not play this final, they should be pretty fired up to face El Tri just to save face.

That Becks thing

I've never been a huge fan of Beckham coming to MLS. The whole thing smacked of bringing in the pretty show pony, except that this pony had his eyes focused elsewhere and not with the rest of the herd.

It was with great glee that I saw Grant Wahl's continued questioning of Beckham and his commitment to MLS at a press conference. Beckham didn't help himself with the snarky beginning to his answer referencing Grant's book. At this point, I think it's best if MLS cut ties with the man, and let him on his merry way. Despite what news pundits said when Beckhamania first hit, MLS didn't need him to save the league. The bump in awareness for the league has been nice, but as with most fads, this one is waning.

10 years ago today

I was getting one of the worse sunburns of my life, and the famous ending took place on the other side of the field.

However, I wouldn't trade the experience of being there live for anything.

Gooch hits the big time

I have to admit I'm not a fan of Italy's Serie A, but now that Oguchi Onyewu has been signed to AC Milan. I'll have to watch a few games. I was a little worried about how the refs will treat such a big physical defender, but then again if Gattuso and Materazzi can thrive with their play, so can Gooch.

Go get 'em big fella.

Eric Frimpong, convicted rapist

This is a sad story all around.

Eric Frimpong was a defender on the 2006 NCAA champion UCSB Gauchos men's soccer team. He's now serving six years at the California Correctional Institution for rape.
The accuser was raped, but the evidence presented at the trial is iffy at best.

I believe Frimpong is innocent. A victim of a racist and xenophobic judicial system in rich white Santa Barbara. Feel free to judge the story for yourself.

ESPN the Magazine's Sam Alipour covers it in this online article.
A special shoutout to Soccer by Ives where I first saw the story.

Oh, San Jose.

A man up with a one-nothing lead in stoppage time.
Way to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

You'd have thought that the Quakes were the ones playing a man down. They couldn't string together passes to save their life towards the end of the game. It was like watching the Brazilian onslaught during the 2nd half of the Confed Cup final.

C'mon guys you can do better.

Politics and sport

Every now and then I hear someone who claims that politics and sport should be separate.
Every now and then naïve people speak too.

Listen, when team owners stop going to the public for funds to build their stadiums.
When sports stop using their games as advertisements for the military.
When governments stop using teams as their mouthpieces, or suppressing players free expression.

Then maybe I'll consider not mixing sports and politics.

Who am I kidding?

Fight the power.

A cruel game, indeed.

I think it was J.P. during the end of the ESPN broadcast that said and I'm paraphrasing, "You wouldn't have expected the U.S. to be so disappointed to be on the losing end to Brazil."

Watching the tears on Deuce's face before they got their silver medals spoke volumes about how they let one slip away.

Nonetheless, well done boys.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!

!!!!!!!!111!!!1!!!

I might owe poor Simone some therapy for the screaming I did after the second goal.

Soccer is a cruel game, sometimes.

Despite my telling my housemate that the US would advance in the Confederations Cup when pigs fly, the US did just that.
Not only did they beat down what had been to that point a really strong Egyptian team, but Brazil clobbered Italy 3-0 to allow the US to sneak into the semis.

Now they get to play the number one team in the world, Spain.

This tournament has been an absolute trial by fire for the Yanks.

Meanwhile, keep your eye out for low flying pink objects.

Phffft.

Rico, keep your damn leg down when you tackle!

I knew Rossi would score against the US. It was his destiny. Fucker. :)

Day-um

Egypt held it's own this morning against Brazil. I think the US is in deep shit in this tourny.

Soccer, futbol, football

If you ever want to get on my bad side, try to correct me when I call the game I love soccer.

Even better, especially if you're an American, call it the "real football".

It snobbery and bullshit. I'm an American, the game is soccer. In England, the game is football. In Italy, the game is calcio. Which does not translate to "football", I might add.

Rugby, Gaelic, American, Aussie Rules...it's ALL football. All of these games basically came from the same source.

Finally, the term "soccer" has an English origin, so when some English snob tries to correct you, tell him he better learn his history.

By way of introduction...

Is it me, or does Clint Dempsey seem lost when playing for the National Team? I mean no disrespect to the man, because he can play, but it's like he just can't find in groove out there with the other Yanks. Please don't be another Twellman.

Oh hai.
It's me, Guy. Yeah, that Guy.

I figured my non-soccer fan friends were sick of my rants and raves so I'll just take them here. I'm sure some of you will be challenged by some of the things I say. Feel free to disagree in the comments, but don't expect a back and forth debate from me. Cuz, I don't have time. So if you wanna say something make it a complete statement. Comments by trolls, racists, homophobes, and annoying motherfuckers happily deleted.

Humor appreciated.

Here's a interview I did with Under the Blue Banner last week. I talk about how I got into The Casbah. I come on about 15 minutes in.

Under the Blue Banner: Episode 13

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