. . . . . . The Daily Soccer . . . . . .

I finally finished the US/Poland game. Sadly, a multiple day viewing is the common experience for these midweek, mid-day games. They are TIVO'd and viewed over the following week; I was pretty pleased I made it through this one in a few days.

I have many thoughts on the game in general, but instead, I want to discuss something that continues to leave me perplexed and frustrated. This could be the big mystery in US Soccer: Why does Marcello Balboa have a job broadcasting MNT games rather than an assistant coaching position with a lower level Belgian side?

To put a positive spin on the situation, the US broadcast team is benign.

To be more honest, they continue to make me wish I had taken more than 1 semester of Spanish so that the Telemundo/Univision broadcasts would give me an alternative. There is much that makes me grate my teeth, whether it is O'Brien repeatedly talking about Jason Wolf; the endless repetition of surface level background, comments along the lines of 'Bobby Convey plays with Reading, a team that is really making a move in England's Coco-Cola Championship'- 'Convey displaying the moves he has been perfecting with Reading a team poised for promotion to the EPL' - 'Convey, showing the speed he has used to make himself a mainstay for Reading a team that is enjoying a wonderful run in England's second division'; the inability to watch the entire game (should it really take 5 minutes to realize Boca received a yellow card, let alone know why?); or the hard-hitting interviews do we really need to ask each of the three players interviewed, two of whom are in mid-season with their northern European clubs, if they have ever played in snowy conditions. I live in Chicago. It's not often I get to listen to Eddie Lewis and wonder why he's starting to channel Brad Friedel's faux-British accent, for the few minutes I get to hear Mr. Lewis, I'd rather hear him speak about something useful, like soccer. Instead of catching his thoughts on if the white stuff makes the game difficult.

What I'd like to call special attention to is a comment Balboa had in the pregame announcer gabfest. After some glowing words about Oguchi Onyewu, Balboa stated the US should be very strong in central defense at this coming world cup. Nothing shocking there, I agree and have spoken a number of times about how this could be the strength of our squad.

He then closed with this beauty (I'm paraphrasing), that adding Gooch to Eddie Pope will provide a strong backline for the US during the Cup. This was stated as if Gooch is the new option and Pope starting in Germany has been set in stone since Korea.

Hmmmm.

Really, Eddie Pope? The guy who plays for Real Salt Lake? That Eddie Pope? The one who was universally regarded as having had the worst year of the 2002 World Cup veterans (except for Mathis, I mean the Mathis saga and his Sosa like disappearance is an epic for another day and would require terabytes to handle the discussion threads)? The one who had a dismal performance against England last year? That guy?

It's not that I think Eddie Pope is an unskilled lout. By most accounts, he has acquitted himself quite capably thus far in 2006. It's just that after his past year, he doesn't give me the confidence in the back that he used to. In fact, he actually makes me nervous.

There is a common school of thought that his continued inclusion in MNT talk is more a result of Bruce Arena's loyalty than to Pope's current level of play. Folks who buy into this theory are really concerned Pope could be this cup's Jeff Agoos, a guy Arena stuck with when his performance didn't merit the faith.

What bothers me is Balboa's complete refusal to accept that Pope may not be the best central defender on the planet. It seems as if hardly a game goes by where Balboa doesn't find 5 opportunities to mention that Pope is not just a mortal lock to make the final 23, he will also wear the captain's armband, split an atom at halftime, and steal Heidi Klum from Seal immediately after the Italy game.

It's one thing to take an unpopular opinion just to create separation from the masses; see also these two examples, Jim Rome's distasteful but successful Jim/Chris Everett interview and Steve Forbes' unfortunate and unsuccessful espousal of the flat tax. Another possible example is whatever Wynalda is doing with the Taylor Twellman fan club he is heading up. However, I highly doubt if that is the approach the bland one is taking.

I really think he is convinced Pope is that good and that he somehow missed the Gooch coming out party, incidentally, the "Gooch" nickname causes a few problems for me. I once worked with a diminutive credit approver nicknamed Gooch. One day after walking into Gooch's office, I noticed he was rocking back and forth in his chair in a seemingly bear catatonic state while shivering in a sweat soaked shirt. He did snap out of it and was back at work the next day, however I never did find out what had happened. He was reassigned shortly thereafter. It's not that anything about the hulking central defender reminds me of flop sweat and really frightening rocking trips to catatonia, but I thought you might want to see why I always pause before actually saying "Gooch"; something in my brain needs to click through and make sure it's the right name. Anyway......

But in reality Gooch is where it's at for this year's MNT. You'll have a hard time convincing me that any of his US teammates are on more watch lists going into the cup. He's 6'4", 210 lbs., with skills and he can run. That's impressive, especially if we begin to see more forwards the size of Peter Crouch. Granted, my opinion may be skewed having sat with Sam's Army as Gooch dominated Mexico's Jared Borgetti last summer in Columbus.

Don't forget he was rumored to be a ManU target this past winter, although if all the rumored ManU targets were put in a room, they'd be spilling over the gates of Old Trafford. However, there wouldn't be many other Yanks in that pile of soccer playing humanity.

So is Balboa so bad that I'll stop watching the US games? No, but I may need to turn the sound down and listen to Ron Santo and Pat Hughes to keep my sanity.

-fritz