After One Year, Eddie Lewis Is Still #1 In My Blog

If there's one thing that I absolutely love is when one of my off-the-wall predictions comes true.

So regular readers of the footcer sections will realize that I've long made fun of Ecuador for their complete inability to win when they're off their mountaintop. Well back on May 18 in a thread on myspace.com, I made the following claim:

"Look for [Ecuador] to lose to Colombia in a warmup friendly in the United States (Ecuador is Colombia's whipping boy and beat them almost every time) followed by a loss to Macedonia in Spain.

Seriously, they will lose to Macedonia but they couldn't find a weaker UEFA team willing to play them. :)"

Sure enough, by giving up a late game penalty kick, Ecador managed to lose to one of the worst team in all of UEFA 1-2. That's a 53 place gap in the FIFA ranking (39 to 91) outdone by the fact that Ecuador is a joke.

Uruguay has got to be really pissed off right now that they're not the 4th team representing South America.

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I just love this time of year for the very kind of phallus measuring going on in the footcer world as teams that would ordinarily never play each other meet in Europe (or wherever) and kick the ball around in friendlies.

Other fascinatingly meaningless scores today include:

Ukraine 4, Costa Rica 0 - speaking of embarassing results for a federation, Costa Rica is quickly becoming, for my money, the worst CONCACAF team at the World Cup. Sure Trinidad & Tobago lost to Wales but they scored in the effort. And had a 1-0 lead at one point. Meanwhile Costa Rica lost to Iran (don't even get me started about Iran as I've been in an argument with a few of their supporters in which I've had to, of all things, defend Mexico).

New Zealand 3, Georgia 1 - this match answered the question of just how bad Georgia is. Or it could just mean New Zealand is ready to take over the mantle of OFC team that no one respects despite their results.

Serbia & Montengro 1, Uruguay 1 - besides being one of the last friendlies that S&M play as one country (possibly the last one), it marks the first time they've been scored on in ages. Maybe the defense was ready to split in two or something. Or the goalie went schitzophrenic.

France 1, Mexico 0 - la, la, la. Tin foil hat on. Mexico is a legitimate contender for the quarterfinals. La, la, la. France was the much better team in this match and I don't see El Tri's chances being better against Holland in the next friendly. Like I said, phallus measuring. There's no real reason for Mexico to have scheduled france. Though Holland was a good idea as they actually have to play Portugal which is similar.

Spain 0, Russia 0 - of all the foreign friendlies I chose to watch live, why'd it have to be this one? It was a good match but by the 20th scoring chance Spain botched, I was honestly hoping for a good fight.

Czech Republic 2, Saudi Arabia 0 - the good news is the Czechs looked human, for a while. At least the Gol TV announcers were high on the United States' chances after this one. La, la, la. Tin foil hat on.

Chivas USA 1, Chicago Fire 0 - this international friendly really sucked. Though to call Pablo Palencia's performance friendly is a misnomer.

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Of course the only friendly that really, really mattered yesterday and today was the United States against Latvia. Wow! How was that game not 5-0?

Who game the United States team magical spinach? Was it Landon Donovan, the California hippie?

The picture of Brian McBride's forehead needs to be made into an inspirational t-shirt!





Good thing he's right headed. :)

Speaking of which, I noticed something really odd. The United States could, if it starts a midfield of Beasley, Convey, and Lewis could start a 3/4 or 3/5 left footed midfield.

You could line it up Lewis - Beasley - Convey - Donovan.

Reyna and Mastroieni lining up behind it.

That could confuse the opposition. Though it probably wouldn't be the best formation idea.

Yeah, always thinking like a left hander. Sorry, it's a hard habit to break.

By the way, Bobby Convey can impregnate my future wife any time he'd like to (so long as this girl I've yet to meet agrees). I want a little piece of Convey's recent performances to keep for my very own. Videotape just isn't good enough. I want any kid I have to be that good a crosser from the left.

And, well, Eddie Lewis is going to be too old to have truly healthy seed by the time future children come into the picture.

On that pleasant note, I think I'll end this entry here. :)

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Oh, not quite yet. It all comes full circle as one year ago tomorrow I wrote about Eddie Lewis' attempt with Preston North End to secure promotion to the Premiership as the first entry ever in footcer!

Happy One Year Anniversary to the Footcer Socblog. And, hey, why does no one include Socblog when they talk about this thing? It's half the name.

I Have Become Footcer Blind

It's very odd that I have completely missed the fact that Northern Ireland and Romania are playing at Soldier Field tomorrow evening. The crackhead is with the Romanian team so it would be cool to see one of the most talented players on Earth in Chicago.

Though I don't think I'll be bringing the Romanian flag that I picked up right before taking the 36 hour train ride back to Warsaw. That would probably be pretty dangerous.

If I miss the match, it won't mean that much since Northern Ireland, who are crap to begin with, is apparently missing half of their team. Odd when the underdogs bring their "B" team.

I'm just confused as to why this match is happening at all since neither team have anything to prepare for and neither team has any fan base in the United States.

The first match that Northern Ireland played on this tour was against Uruguay at Giants Stadium. It drew 4,152.

I have to guess that the attendance at Soldier Field will draw even less since there are more Uruguayans around New York than Romanians around Chicago.

And the cheapest tickets are $35.00. This crap match should probably be free.

I mean Adrian Mutu is a force to behold but even Andriy Shevchenko isn't worth $35.00 all by himself.

Though a Ukraine match would be huge here!

And this isn't the ROI. I'm not sure there are that many people from "the north" here in Chicago.

That and, cripes, if I didn't know about it chances are no one else has a clue. Though apparently it made the news because there are "hooligan worries."

Yeah, from the 15 Northern Ireland supporters who show up. :)

Where I Try To Play Serious Pundit

So as regular readers know, strategery is not my strong point when it comes to footcer. I understand formations and the like but somehow I can watch the same game and come up with different results than anybody else. This is why I usually stick to the circus around the match, which is more my forte, rather than the match itself.

But yesterday I was too upset to come up with anything funny about what had happened so I wrote a relatively serious synopsis of my feelings on the United States/Morocco friendly.

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How can we lose to Morocco on a last minute goal? Morocco wasn't even trying to win!

Seriously, I love my Yank Footcerlers (I mean they're my default icon) but they seriously embarrassed me tonight. Morocco came into the game ready for ritualistic slaugher at the hand of the Yanks. They clogged the midfield and hoped for just some sort of counterattack. Unfortunately both teams fulfilled their parts of the bargain. The United States pounded Morocco's goalie at least in the second half one John O'Brien was pulled for Bobby Convey. And Morocco scored a goal against the run of play.

Can I just say that if Bobby Convey wasn't going to be playing in the Premiership already come August, we'd all be screaming that he's good enough to play in the Premiership without being pulled up with his team (though to be fair, he was a major, major reason Reading is coming up).

But I will say that tonight Bobby Convey secured his place in Reading's midfield for next year (not to be replaced by a close season buy). Wow! I forgot how good that guy was.

He may still be snatched up by a bigger team in the Premiership if he plays like that.

DMB was a little spark plug like always, O'Brien proved he is still amazingly talented (damn you Landon Donovan for missing a sitter when O'Brien lobbed the ball over two defenders for you) though still not healthy, Josh Wolff showed unexpected international level class I didn't know he had. Eddie Johnson showed he's still better than Wolff when he can actually play. Brian Ching came in too late to evaluate.

Our defense gives me heart palpatations. They got away with some things against Morocco that any of the three teams they play against in the World Cup are going to knock into the goal without blinking. Even Gooch. Even Gooch. :(

And of course the big news is Claudio Reyna got injured again.

Now I'm not saying this is a good thing because Captain America is a lynch pin but I am not arguing against the chorus of some people who say it's time for him to give up the armband to let a young midfielder who's not injury prone start.

Anyhow, like I said, the United States offense looked good, but not great. Once they got through some jitters, they put in a few shots. And they were not content to leave it 0-0 in front of a home crowd.

I think if Ghana does the same thing in Germany, the United States won't open themselves up in the back trying to put on a fireworks display in the last five minutes. Unless they need the win against Ghana.

I thought two things at the end of the match:

1) There goes our #5 ranking so now I won't hear about that on the message boards anymore.
2) I'm going to hear about losing to Morocco for ages on the message board - especially after all the shit I've been talking about Iran not being able to beat second tier teams and can't advance (defending Mexico in the process doesn't exactly allow me to sleep at night).

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And now back to the silly rumors from the silly season...

While Wigan looks to be the prime contender to snatch Andy Johnson away from Crystal Palace (their bid now stand at 8.5 million pounds), there's an interesting thing that could happen instead...

Everton may re-up them and put in a higher bid (and Johnson is reported to want to play for Everton and not Wigan). Now rumor has it (a Jennifer Aniston movie I refuse to watch) that Everton is also interested in Eddie Johnson based on his performance at the World Cup.

I think if they land Andy Johnson, they have to also pay for Eddie Johnson (though their reported bid is less than Benfica offered for him).

How cool would it be for Everton to have Johnson and Johnson up top?

I mean if they do something that cheesy, I might have to actually care about them!

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The other news is England's got a B team match against Belarus tomorrow. The starters are as follows:

G David James
D Owen Hargreaves, Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole
M Aaron Lennon, Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas, Stewart Downing
F Peter Crouch, Michael Owen (captain)

Interestingly enough, Theo Walcott is on the bench. Now he may still get a start for England's first team in the near future but, wow. That's certainly something to talk about.

Also Hargreaves being put back to left back. This is just proof that Sven wishes he were Bruce Arena. Owen Hargreaves is better than Eddie Lewis but neither of them should be playing left back.

Oops, slipped into on-field pundit again -- time to back up and go back to making fun of Serie A's eventual downfall en masse.

Proving Once And For All I'm Not A Cartoon Dog

For those people who live in Chicago, read the Red Eye, and also actually read the entirety of my footcer related entries in here, let me tell everyone once and for all that I am not Whizzer.

Though I think that Whizzer, who is a cartoon animated dog with a daily column who also makes Red Eye's pro football predictions, reads my mind.

Here's the proof that I am not him. He does much better than me picking the football. Though we do seem to have an unnatural obsession with mascots and making fun of David Beckham whenever possible (even if he's not in the news).

But there is distinct proof that I could be him in today's column as he devotes three items to footcer and in a funny, yet educated manner. Hades, I should ask him to guest write an entry of footcer.

I mean, I really need the street cred!

Anyway the three items that I'm on a similar wavelength to Whizzer on are:

"I'm amped for soccer but I'm already sick of the World Cup hype. Either that or I had some bad sushi."

- O.K. I lied. I'm really still giddy about the World Cup so it's now obvious I'm not Whizzer.

"My money is on the Netherlands as Ruud van Nistelrooy tries to lead the nation's squad back to the finals for the first time since 1978. Plus, I enjoy hollandaise sauce."

- Creepy! Though I don't think Holland is going to win the World Cup, I am going on the record as saying van Nistelrooy is going to win the sacred Golden Boot.

"Once the soccer games start, Cubs fans will have a familiar feeling since they're used to seeing their team get kicked all over the place. But seriously, folks..."

- Mean on a few levels but true. I am not, however, one of the total doomsayers, as Whizzer seems to be, that is predicting the United States to lose to Ghana - a team so desperate for world class players that they tried to steal Freddy Adu from the United States in order to have greater depth. Now had they done this in 2010, it might have made sense, but I'm talking this year.

Let me just also say in conclusion that I am also not Sparky, the Fire's dalmation costume mascot (aka the best mascot on Earth), as there are people, mostly my friend Nicole who can verify that we've been in the same place at the same time (and is down with the team to an extent so probably knows who Sparky actually is).

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I pulled this little gem from Football365.com's Mediawatch:

"It's what we've all been waiting for. Rio Ferdinand, the man who claims that his ideal day involves curling up under a blanket and watching Trisha, has finally been given the chance to present his own TV show. And, oddly enough, it's not a chat show. From The Sun:

'England star Rio Ferdinand has played a series of hilarious 'Gotcha' pranks on his World Cup team-mates for a new TV show.

'The Manchester United ace winds up crocked striker Wayne Rooney - who is told his dog has been KILLED. Roo's fiancée Coleen McLoughlin plays along with the trick - before Rio bursts in to tell him it's a joke.'

Before we go any further with this, we feel we should let you know that Rio apparently 'spent months planning the elaborate stunts'.

To which Mediawatch's first response was 'surely telling someone their dog's dead isn't an elaborate stunt. It's not a trick, a joke or a gotcha either - it's just a lie'.

But then, we would pay good money to see this:

'In another Candid Camera-style prank, fiery full-back Gary Neville's anger boils over when he is confronted by bogus traffic cops. Man Utd team-mate Ryan Giggs joins in on the gag as Gary is collared in the car park underneath his Manchester flat.

'He fiercely protests his innocence, then Rio steps in with a camera crew to a tirade of abuse from his furious club colleague.'

Incidentally, if you're a fan of Rio's work, you'll be pleased to know that he also has a 'film in the pipeline' (we don't know any more than that, but given Rio's past memory lapses we're expecting it to be along the lines of Memento) - and that three TV channels are 'bidding for the rights to a Rap Idol show - featuring Premiership footballers.'

We'd sell our soul to watch The Neviller freestyle.

Rio Ferdinand. The U.K.'s answer to Ashton Kutcher. I think we should all hope the end is near! He really does take asshattery to a new level. Right now Anton Ferdinand is walking to the cliffs of Dover to throw himself off before Rio can do any more damage to the family name. Roy Keane is right behind him but it's going to take a bit longer as he's walking from Scotland. :)

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Finally, just a couple of links that I've been storing up that are footcer related:

http://www.pa-sport.com/en/products/actim.html: The final Actim index for the Premiership and the Colaship. The Colaship one is especially exciting because Bobby Convey is #2 and Marcus Hahnemann was #6. Hopefully this will mean that teams in England's second division will finally see that the way to have a kickass awesome team is to bring over a bunch of Yanks and then have them lead you to the Premiership. :) Or, hey, bring over the Yank's manager after the World Cup. Not that I want to lose Il Bruce but I have a feeling he would make the United States so proud as the coach of Derby or Leicester City or whatnot and leading them to the promised land. Hey Cardiff City's coming over to play some friendlies in August. Wonder if they're going to bring Bruce Arena back with them. :)

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/MLS/chf/fans/offers/2006/banners/: This is probably a dangerous link to post with all the D.C. United and Columbus Crew fans circulating around these parts but it's a link to make a banner for Fire matches once they come home from the road trip of insanity. No mean anti-Fire suggestions. :)

We Interrupt Footcer To Bring You This Message From My Other Blog

So the danger of my new policy of just dragging the footcer specific stuff from my LiveJournal over here without editing (besides the spelling errors) is that some things sneak in - like politics. I apologize if I offended anyone else with the "idiot George Bush followers" comment.

Well, sort of. I still believe it. :)

Anyhow, another danger is that I tend to talk about movies a lot in my general personal blogging life away from footcer. My consumption of movies (so far this year I've watched 128 movies in 132 days) has really distracted from my footcer time. It's rare that the two collide but on Saturday I went to see "Goal! The Dream Begins."

It was truly a heartening experience as the theater I saw it at had sold about 75 tickets for the 4:00 p.m. showing. After the box office disaster that was "The Game Of Their Lives," it's good to see us Yanks finally coming out for a footcer movie where the footcer is played by grown ass men and not school kids.

The box office for "Goal!" for the weekend was $2,003,000 on 1007 screens.

For those who pay more attention to footcer than movies, this is a small run. To contrast, the other two movies of any consequence that openened this weekend were "Poseidon" and "Just My Luck." The upsidown boat movie opened on 3,555 (total box $$20,325,000) screens and the teen girl movie opened on 2,541 ($5,500,000).

To extrapolate, if "Goal" had the same number of screens as "Just My Luck," it would have taken in $5,054,000 (just barely less). Had it taken in $120,000 more - basically about six tickets to a U.S. cinema? :) - it would have cracked the United States top 10.

SO GO AND SEE IT THIS WEEKEND IF YOU ALREADY HAVEN'T!

Oh, but don't expect pure brilliance as it's pretty much "Rudy" but with a player with talent. Here's my review on Yahoo Movies (well my LiveJournal but it will be posted to Yahoo Movies shortly):

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LOGAN SQUARE MOVIE QUEST, BONUS MOVIE

"GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS" (Yahoo Rating: B-)

We football (soccer) supporters who were born and live in the United States are a weird lot to be certain. Many of us go to MLS matches knowing full well that the quality of play is less than that in Europe and those who do this support the league wholeheartedly. Now of course there are the Eurosnobs who go to the bar every Saturday, pretend they're British, and then ignore that football (soccer) is played in the United States too. Except every four years when even we "Yanks" turn on and watch the game the rest of the world is rivited to most of the rest of the time in numbers.

On that timing logic, it's very fitting that the first movie in the goal trilogy (or maybe even more, who knows based on the worldwide success - especially in the United Kingdom and Mexico) come out in the United States exactly one month before the United States kicks off in Germany against the Czech Republic. Therefore the rest of the people in the United States who don't follow football (soccer) will probably realize this movie exists just like they realize MLS exists for about a year after the World Cup is over.

"Goal! The Dream Begins" is the story of a young Mexican illegal working in Los Angeles for his father's landscape company who while playing in a local Spanish language rec league is discovered by a former player and scout from England. So impressed is the scout that he goes to bat (pardon the mixed sports metaphor) for the kid - his age is never revealed although he's definitely young enough not to be out of place with other U-23s in the film and is said to be the youngest player on Newcastle United at one point - with the current coach of Newcastle United (who had fired him when he took over) making him promise to give him a tryout. Once he gathers the money together (in a heartwarming moment) he flies to England. The rest of the movie is the story of Santiago's trying to get into Newcastle United's first team facing such obstacles as learning the physical nature of English football (soccer) in the reserve team, being forced to realize he's no longer the big fish in the small pond and the like. All in a very English context.

This film is worth promoting for one simple reason - it's really the first movie made by an American production company that treats the game with the respect it deserves. Almost every United States production involving football (soccer) has portrayed it as some kids game just like the media likes to do. I haven't even bothered with the likes of "Kicking And Screaming" and its ilk for that reason. Unlike all of these, this film tries to get to the pulse of the actual top quality sports that only top quality athletes can play.

The movie makes a point of this early on when it has a bunch of little kids playing kick and chase and then it flashes almost instantly to Kuno Becker's Santiago Munez dribbling in ways the even the casual observer will be floored by (though the question if it's actually his feet being shown is brought up). The professional teams in England are treated with the same quality of treatment as NFL or baseball teams are treated in most United States produced sports films (and better than most basketball films which just degenerate into stereotypes).

In short this is the first movie that treats football (soccer) like a real sport from the American perspective.

And therein lies the problem. It's given the American treatment. There's the older bully who's trying to thwart Santiago's progress, for example, because he wants one last shot at the team. There's the senior player who takes Santiago under his wing. But most importantly, it's the underdog trying to overcome obstacle after obstacle that's thrown at him in an attempt to inspire the crowd.

And in the end, it is an inspiring film of about the same quality of most. Kids and their parents are going to love this movie for that reason alone. "Follow your dreams, you will reach your goals," may as well have been plastered across the top of the screen the whole time.

Therein lies the overwhelming problem with the film, however. In an attempt to reach the widest under 18 audience it can, all of the really complex emotional issues are left on the cutting room floor (I really want to see the PG-13 version the rest of the world got to see because it seems like it would be much better). All of the really gritty (even dirty) aspects surrounding the English game are left out - such as the constant threat of match fixing due to legal gambling, violence in the supporters' groups, etc., etc. But the bigger sin of omission is actually those dirty secrets of Santiago. It's mentioned he was in a gang only because he had a gang tattoo. But where are the emotional scars?

The only storyline not handled with the kid gloves is the relationship between Santiago and his father. In this the film has its one unique and guiding force that makes it worthwhile. There are some surprising decisions that both have to make and there is genuine character development. Where was this in the rest of the movie?

So in the end the question is: is MLS ready for general public consumption in the United States but more germane to this actual review is if "Goal! The Dream Begins" is ready for general public consumption in the United States?

Unfortunately, I have to say, "not quite." So just like we actual football (soccer) fans in the Unitd States try to get our friends to go to MLS matches (or USL matches or just watch international matches on TV), it feels like a lot of the reviews on here are really trying hard to convince the general public to see this movie. And will I be guilty of trying to get my friends to see it (despite the flaws it has)? You bet I will. I'm part of the weird lot that promotes the lesser American product because it's our lesser American product of the world's game (on the pitch or on film).

Though I do have to say that this is not the film to try to win over the football (soccer) haters with. Eventually there will be a great football (soccer) movie made by an American production team. And hopefully that will be way before the 2010 World Cup.

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NOTE: As this came from my movie reviewer hat world, you'll note me using the s-word. :)

I do have a bunch to say about the World Cup rosters for the various nations as today was the deadline for managers to submit them. But that will have to wait until later. Maybe until I've watched another movie. :)

One Month, One Month, One Month, One Month

This entry is from my LiveJournal from yesterday night. I am in not some sort of timewarp and I know the schedule in Germany. :)

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One month. Exactly one month from much earlier today, the United States kicks off in Germany with the long awaited (or dreaded) match against Czech Republic.

And if I'm not mistaken, I will be watching it in Seattle. Yes, phew, I didn't accidentally schedule my flight home on the 12th. That would have been asinine.

Thinking back, I think my best World Cup experience happened on the road. It was in Boston during the 1998 World Cup - because everything good happens in Boston - when Wellman and I (back when he wasn't a leach who I should have punched in the face) were on a trip out east in both the United States and Canada (this was the only time I've been to Ottawa and Montreal). Anyhow, the joy was spending three days of the tournament in the hostel in Cambridge and seeing everybody gather in the TV room.

Now I would stay in the hostel in Seattle (ugh, I still need to figure out where I'm staying on the 10th through 12th) but staying in a hostel in the United States with no backpack at my age would make me seem like the world's biggest sicko.

Especially asking tourists from other nations ten years younger than me where they're watching the matches. :)

The hotel I'm staying in for work is something like $160 a night. And I don't have that. Maybe I should take my backpack but then I'll look like the biggest sicko at the work related functions.

This is why it's always awkward for me to travel for work. It's like I'm living a double life. Only this time the non-work life is for longer than any trip since I went to Denver in 2002.

I'll probably just stay at a Red Roof Inn. I mean, sure it might not have cable to watch the matches (though the United States matches are on ABC of course) but at least I'll be supporting an MLS sponsor.

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Speaking of footcer, as you know I tend to do on Fridays, go Hammers. Yeah, I have no shame in pulling for the mid-sized London team. There's no neutral here.

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And still speaking of footcer, I've collected a couple of links that I need to get out on my inbox on the subject.

The first is a somewhat politically neutral story on Dubya.

It's really odd that he was more forthcoming about footcer than he's been about most everything else during his entire administration when he said the following:

"As a boy I never even saw a soccer ball. Where I'm from soccer wasn't played. The sport just didn't exist. So there is a generation of Americans who really aren't soccer fans. A lot of us grew up without any connection to soccer -- me, for example. But there is a new generation that has grown up with soccer. They obviously have a great interest in the World Cup. And some of us older fellas are starting to understand how important the World Cup is for the whole world. Of course the U.S. is my team. I've been told that we have a good team. But who knows whether it's good enough to win."

Now, it would be so fun to dissect this comment line by line like I would the State of the Union address or something but instead I'll just say that on this particular subject it's good that Bush is a uniter and not a divider.

Though I don't think he's going to be convincing any of his friends to help with the school district plan for building the soccer specific stadium in Houston but baby steps I guess.

For a baseball man to admit that footcer exists is definitely a step ahead of what has gone on in the past.

Now if only the idiot followers of this man would join suit!

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Now a lot of people still discount the United States' chances of making it out of the group phase (except people who know nothing about the sport who expect them to win it all) but there is going to be one representative of the United States in Germany all throughout the tournament - Budweiser.

The great war on myspace.com about footcer's place in the sporting world rages on (I think this has been three weeks now) and in relation to that news bit, there was actually the stupidest statement of the entire war made:

"It's one of the many things you fellas have that we Americans have improved upon. Other examples would be beer and dental hygiene."

The irony of the statement being that this comes from someone of the footcer side of the debate - a fellow footcer Yank. He drew some friendly fire (not from me) over the beer comment - mostly by the European participants.

Does this war ever stop? I hope not since it's not yet lost its fun. It's like a battle scar of footcer. Kind of like debating footcer with some Aussies in a hostel in Boston in 1998. It was actually the first time anyone declared me winning a footcer debate.

Ah, the memories. :)

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LINK OF THE DAY

http://www.coolgorilla.com/ipod/germany.html

Speaking of the World Cup as I've been doing all entry, this is a great little iPod resource. It has all of the rosters, club stats, international stats, schedules. Oh my fate it has it all! It's just a thing of beauty. If only my iPod was World Cup size compatible! :(

Sven Should Just Pick The Winning Team In Division One For England's Squad

As is usually the case when Sven-Goran Eriksson makes a decision, I'm glad to be a United States supporter.

I don't think Sven is qualified to coach the Columbus Crew, let alone England and today was a confirmation!

But I would like to thank Sven for doing one thing - choosing England's version of Freddy Adu for a starting spot. One of England's four strike choices is 17-year old Theo Walcott. Theo is supposed to be, well, the second coming of Wayne Rooney (sad when you're already being replaced at 20 by the next wunderkind). But while he's on the books at Arsenal, he hasn't played a single minute in the Premiership.

He's spent most of this season at Southampton where he scored four goals.

Now to be fair, he only played half the season there so he was on pace for eight goals in the Colaship! Meanwhile, Darren Bent...

Oh never mind!

The stupidest thing is that Sven decided this when he woke up this morning. Nice to know his final selections were based on a whim, eh?

Another funny fact from this whole selection. If Wayne Rooney doesn't play, none of England's three strike choices (the other two being Peter Crouch and Michael Owen) scored as many goals in England's top flight as Brian McBride. :)

Oh and one more note - serves Shawn Wright-Phillips right. If he were still playing for Manchester City, he probably would have made the squad.

Hope he enjoy sitting at home thinking about his three starts for Chelsea and counting his money.

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I have no idea if I'm supporting Preston North End or Leeds United in the second leg of their Colaship semi-final right now. PNE is my favorite Colaship team due to last year's support of Eddie Lewis.

But now Eddie Lewis plays for Leeds and there are no Yanks on PNE.

Therefore, now that I think about it, I'm pulling for PNE because Eddie Lewis needs to get himself to United States national team camp to get more practice at left back.

Oh, and Watford looks like they're going to cruise to Cardiff after beating Crystal Palace 3-0 last week.

If they make it to the Premiership next year, however, they are going right back down. Then again, I said that about Wigan, eh?

And Now My Footcer Heart Rate Can Return To Normal

On the bright side, I'm now free of worries on Saturday mornings until August. But, this is still the saddest day of the year - the end of the Premiership for another year. This year was especially sad since Alan Shearer retired and Highbury closed. Sure it's two teams that I could care less about but it's still the end of something big.

Just a quick aside on a related note, "When The Lights Go Out In London" by The Charlatans U.K. is possibly my favorite new song in the past couple months of 2006.

And as the lights go out on another Premiership season, I guess it's time to look back on all my smack talking predictions and see how accurate I was.

First the biggie (the whole league predicted #1-20):

Actual place in parentheses.

#1 (1) Chelsea - Got that one, but that was a gimmie.
#2 (2) Manchester United - Nailed this one too and I'm much more proud of it since everyone was predicting Malcolm Glazer would mean the apocalypse way before January of the year.
#3 (4) Arsenal - My exact reasoning was: "still looking for a goalie and Viera is going to hurt." Huzzah, got the logic right, just the place one wrong. :)
#4 (3) Liverpool - This is one where I should have gone with my gut because I stated: "actually considered putting Liverpool ahead of Arsenal but there's no way the Gunners finish 4th." I could claim oracle like wisdom on this one since really the Gunners should have finished 5th or 6th. :)
#5 (8) Bolton - My picks start turning to crap here. ;)
#6 (5) Tottenham - Another place where I thought one thing and typed another. For the record I said, "more talent than Bolton. This is the year they take the next leap." Yeah, next time I say a team has more talent, I should probably place them ahead of the other team.
#7 (16) Aston Villa - Looks like I bought into the big club hype. Relegation next year? :)
#8 (14) Middlesbrough - Well, maybe the reading I was getting was on a UEFA Cup run, not near a UEFA Cup spot.
#9 (11) Everton - Oops, just the wrong side of mid-table. But I did predict their meteoric fall back down the standings.
#10 (13) Charlton - Who knew they would start their new year swoon in October?
#11 (18) Birmingham - The exact comment I made was: "no real comment, they're just there. Teams that are just there finish mid-table." Or teams that are just there with no scoring punch at all get relegated.
#12 (6) Blackburn - I did have them rising ("the team everyone will love to hate will make people hate them by actually winning this year.") but I didn't realize the heights.
#13 (15) Manchester City - Close enough predicting gloom and doom. Ironically I said they were in disarray to begin the season but really the chaos only started once Andy Cole got injured. Which is odd because last year the chaos ended at Fulham when the same thing happened.
#14 (17) Portsmouth - I said people were underestimating Pompey. No, I was overestimating them but it all evened out in the end.
#15 (12) Fulham - They were all ready to make me correct and then they had to start winning to make me happy instead.
#16 (6) Newcastle United - My news of Newcastle United's impending death proved false. 6, 16, they look similar. The crystal ball was just foggy.
#17 (9) West Ham - "they're putting the pieces together to do some damage in the future. Enough is in place now to keep them up." To which the Hammers responded, "this season is the future."
#18 (20) Sunderland - Hey I said they were going down, didn't I?
#19 (19) West Brom - This was my favorite of my predictions: "won't be pulling any escaping acts this year except escaping the Premiership." Therefore I'm glad it was 100% correct.
#20 (10) Wigan - Again, 20, 10, they look similar. Here's my prediction: "you can't compete in the Premiership on an MLS level salary structure." In other news, the Los Angeles Galaxy just signed Henri Camara. Just kidding. :)

I'm much more proud of my side bets, however. The one I'm most proud of was getting the number of losses for Chelsea exactly right. I wish I had put down money on it because I think the odds of Chelsea losing five was probably enough to let me quit my job. I can't find where it's in writing but I've reminded people of the prediction in my LiveJournal every time Chelsea lost.

Next year, however, Chelsea is back to losing only three so we should all revel in how many times Chelsea got beat this year. :)

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By the way, I also predicted the top three in La Liga correctly and won my fantasy league if anyone wants to hire me next year.

The actual picture of the victory standing tomorrow (as I'm sure Yahoo is just calculating accuracy) but I had goals from Defoe, Pires, and Saha today (with Saha's being the game winner) with assists from Greening and Nolan. Jaaskelainen got a clean sheet as did Gary Neville.

My main competitor bet the house on Steven Gerrard. He no longer has a house. But he does still have his second place trophy. I finished ahead of him four weeks in a row to end the season. Yeah, I just spotted him a 90 point lead as of week 34 to give him a false sense of confidence.

I had some really crap weeks, but I can't argue with having a good week when it actually really matters.

Too bad he's a sore loser and even though he made five changes he said that he forgot to make any. I wonder who it really is and if I can rub it in his face at Fire matches since it was a Chicago Fire Fans league.

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FROM 5/6/06:

I almost turned off the Revolution match on ESPN2 this afternoon because there was a really close Valencia (who are battling Real Madrid to the wire for 2nd in La Liga) match on Gol TV. Then I said to myself, "why not just watch the Revolution demolish the Galaxy until the end with a huge smile on my face."

Sure the Galaxatives won the match that mattered last year and are MLS champions but the Revolution proved yet again who the better of the two teams are.

And , Cobi Jones is still an overrated bigmouth who can kiss my ass! :)

Anyhow, back to the positive. Taylor Twellman scored the first goal of the match after only five minutes to show something to Bruce Arena before leaping into the crowd in front of a giant red, white, and blue sign that said, "WHY NOT TAYLOR?"

While I really appreciate the sentiment, I'm one of the few people in the entirety of the United States footcer community who agrees with Bruce Arena for the selection of the fourth striker (assuming Josh Wolff was the third).

Here's the reason (that I probably should have expressed on here some time ago), Brian McBride and Taylor Twellman both wear #20. That's not saying the reason not to include Taylor Twellman is because there would be a numbers squabble but because they wear the same number for a pretty good reason - both are the same type of player.

Now, mind you, I think Brian McBride is the best player the United States has behind DaMarcus Beasley but he's not the world's greatest goal creator. He's a great goal scorer - as a poacher. He can get his head to any cross and he sniffs out rebounds like a bloodhound. But don't run him at a defenders - it's not his strength. The same is true of Taylor Twellman. Twellman needs the rest of the United States B Team Revolution to create for him. Hence why he's not a #9.

Which of course is a position that the United States really, really lack and why we're not considered a real world power. I mean there are entire clubs in Europe and many other national teams that don't have one - at least a real one. But why bring a spare poacher when you can bring three creators along with one of the better poachers currently playing.

But I do understand the logic of bringing the best player available in each position and Twellman is our second best striker available.

Though that being said, the joke that I've made to other "WHY NOT TAYLOR?" folks is that he's the next big United States star in Europe so why would we want to give him a free ticket over - he might not come back. And, well, this way only one Revolution player is going to get taken away during the summer transfer window on European wings.

But back to the sillier footcer news which I do better rather than that boulderdash serious stuff that I get wrong half the time anyhow. Or not as the only story that I've come across is "next year maybe in England?"

For those who don't want to click the link, it's the story on Shakhtar Donetsk playing Dynamo Kiev for all the marbles as the teams stand deadlocked at 74 points at the end of the second and final half of the Ukrainian split season.

Hades, what am I saying next year in England. Next year in the United States? MLS needs to institute split season by the time of 2010 World Cup at least.

When The Worlds Of Footcer And Yahoo Collide

Yahoo and I are not friends right now. They have done so much recently to screw me over that I may...

I was going to say that I might find some other be-all, end-all complete interweb experience (besides AOL) but who am I kidding? The amount I would miss Yahoo Movies alone would make that more painful for me than Yahoo. Especially since Yahoo, you know, is just programming code and has no feelings. :)

What did Yahoo do to piss me off, you ask.

Yahoo created an amazingly technically advanced World Cup information system including making Matchcast streamable on cell phones. The only problem is the content is only available on Cingular (and Cingular still hates me so I wasn't about to beg them to take me back) and T-Mobile.

Well, thanks to Yahoo, you're now looking at the proud owner of a T-Mobile controlled Nokia 6101.

Can anyone who was bored enough to actually follow that last link guess what feature lured me to that particular model? I mean besides the fact that it was one of the free phones.

It's the built-in FM radio. I mean the only time I really use cell phones to an outrageous amount is when I'm on the road for business or pleasure. And, conveniently enough, that's also the only time that I really use a FM radio. I don't think I've actually heard terrestrial radio since I blasted it in the car on the way home from Columbus last August. Hearing "Hollaback Girl" just turned me off to new music forever I guess. :)

Except I just remembered something - BBC Radio Five Live is an AM (I mean medium wave for all the actual Europeans reading this) station. Oh well, I guess listening to live footcer while I sightsee later this year will still involve a radio. Except Fulham's usually on BBC Radio London anyhow and don't warrant the nationwide coverage. And that's a FM station.

But I digress, sort of. The other reason that I got this particular phone is that it's tri-band with capabilities to pick up a signal on the 1800mhz wavelength (er something else scientific sounding - which basically means it can jump onto the T-Mobile UK or Orange UK networks but not O2 or Vodaphone, but, you know, fuck those two companies anyhow for not so obvious sponsorship reasons). Any European will also realize why this is important since European cell phones use 900 and 1800 mhz while cell phones in the United States use 850mhz and 1900 mhz.

For this first time, I have a phone that's European compatable without having to buy an entire new card. Hooray international roaming!

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Oh one last related note on Yahoo's World Cup coverage. I really am pissed off that they chose to use this as their sample match on their front page modulator:





Though if the United States does end up playing Germany it means that we got out of the group phase and most likely through Brazil. Hades, I think it could even be in the final. Maybe I don't hate Yahoo as much after all. Oh, but, come on, Landon Donovan doesn't really even draw that many yellow cards let alone red cards for double yellows.

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Oh yeah and Yahoo is pissing me off about fantasy footcer in general. I survived Middlesbrough benching Mark Viduka for all three matches last week and beat my closes competitor in the Chicago Fire Fans league 96 to 88. This makes me tenuous lead going into the final week 2864.5 to 2830.5.

Oddly enough the second place team FC St. Pauli played Wayne Rooney in a 3-4-3 formation and his getting injured helped my fantasy team as much as it hurt England. But, again, being from the United States, I'm not much bothered by the Rooney injury. ;)

I mean I've definitely clinched a trophy (168 points ahead of 4th) and a 34.5 point lead is pretty hard to blow in one week. The only way I can do it is to play a bunch of players who end up benched in the garbage 38th games. I made semi-sure only to play those who don't really have cover or whose teams are playing in meaningful matches - that being Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United, and Liverpool.

Though for some reason I'm also playing Stellios, Brian McBride (probably a mistake because he proved that his mind is already back in the United States in the Fulham loss to Sunderland), and Milan Baros who is returning from injury and playing Sunderland in the Villa end of Birmingham. I smell hat trick. :)

So why do I hate Yahoo over this? It's pretty simple. Even though there is no match until 9:00 a.m. United States central time on Sunday, Yahoo wants the picks by 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I really don't want to think about my lineup tonight.

Therefore, Yahoo sucks.

Are Arsenal Going To Sue For Copyright?

This isn't really fair. I think Chicago and FC Dallas started up their rivalry far too early. Look what the Waldos have chosen as the reward with their inner-state rivals Houston Dynamo...





A FRIGGIN' CANNON!

When Milwaukee comes into the league, I want the Fire to play them for a pirate ship (hey it is the Lake Michigan derby) just to out-do those sillies in Texas!

What better way to publicize the match? Even footcer haters who are obsessed with the pirate trend would show up. We could be like Chivas and have a mascot player. Except instead of being a clown, it would be a guy in an eye patch.

Alright, that's taking it a little far but man I want a pirate ship to be up for grabs to be docked in whichever harbor belongs to the "Cup" holders.

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For some reason Ethon Zohn, the professional footcer player who won a million dollars on one of the United States versions of Survivor, came up yesterday in World Cup discussion.

I think the rest of the world thinks the United States must be the most desperate country ever in picking World Cup squads if we'd take a person who never made it above the USL-PDL to a training camp.

I don't know Englishy types, do you all draw players to your World Cup side from the Conference?

But that's completely besides the point. The more interesting aspect is this little piece from his Wikipedia entry:

"Zohn is currently dating Survivor: Amazon winner Jenna Morasca. He previously dated Survivor: Pulau Tiga contestant Jenna Lewis, and Survivor: Australia contestant and Survivor: All-Stars winner Amber Brkich and Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt."

When did he actually find time to play footcer before he retired? Maybe that's why he alway played in crap leagues.

Hopefully The Anouncement Won't Be Underground As Well

Unfortunately the big announcement of the USMNT World Cup team is this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. if you live in the United States central time zone. Stupid ESPN and trying to put the announcement of the provisional United States World Cup squad in prime time on the east coast. Sure the midwest is a footcer wasteland but it's just not fair that I'll be on the train when Bruce Arena is live on ESPN telling the world who the United States is going to send to be sacraficed.

I think more upsetting to miss is that Arena is going to be on PTI this afternoon staring the haters right in the eye.

I'm willing to bet that Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon don't ask him a single question about the actual selections and instead make him spend his entire time defending footcer itself and why the World Cup is even relevant.

I probably will make it home in time to watch the post-coverage on ESPN2 - fate, the World Cup roster announcement is starting to sound like the NFL Draft or something. :) There are supposed to be interviews with the European based players. And, hey, nothing says good quote like tired other side of the Atlantic calls. Too bad Brad Friedel retired because Blackburn is playing Chelsea today so he'd be extra tired. ;)

Although it's not like Il Bruce has any really difficult decisions to make. Sure there are bubble players to pick and choose from but Claudio Reyna is healthy *knocks wood* and such so there's no injured players to decide whether to take or not. Unless you count John O'Brien but he's not currently injured, he's just not entirely match fit but would be by June 9.

It's just great that the United States team has a dilemma of having to choose between six strikers whereas England's strikers seem to be dropping like flies.

I'm not sure right now if a higher power just hates England's MNT and doesn't want them to win the World Cup and will smite any player who could make this happen (Frank Lampard is probably next now that he or she has struck down Rooney) or if a higher power just hates Wayne Rooney. I think I'm betting on the second but I wouldn't disregard the first.

Fate has been relatively nice to France (but who knows why). But while not striking down any major players, it did make a member of the French MNT look really silly. Fabien Barthez, playing for his club team, Olympique Marseille in the finals of the French Cup. When his team lost to PSG, he decided to skip out on the runners up ceremony since he had to go to the bathroom.

Hopefully he'll be just as absent in the World Cup and annoying France will be eliminated early. Though he's not necessarily be the number one goalie as France may choose Gregory Coupet.