Monday, May 22, 2006
The Countdown Has Begun...
While work obligations (and the NBA Play-Offs) have kept me from making a post, I was reinvigorated by the fact that I am inside of three weeks of being in Germany. It’s an incredible feeling which has been stoked by all of the soccer advertisements and miscellaneous World Cup programming that I’ve seen over the last few weeks.
Believe or not, I actually saw a feature on the random dope testing that players have to go through during matches. The feature was filmed when the US played Germany in the March friendly so I got to watch the tension in the faces of Jimmy Conrad and Pablo Mastroeni as they got to pee in a cup in front of a few grown men. Very strange stuff.
Some other random thoughts from the last few weeks:
- My favorite WC commercials are the Nike Joga Bonita ads. The one with Henry playing pick-up always amazes me, especially when he chips the ball into the net from behind. I still can’t figure out how he does it. The newest one with the Brazilians doing ball tricks in the dressing room just shows how amazing they are. I like the fact that even though Kaka is an Adidas guy, they still make sure to show him in the footage.
When you see the joy in their faces, I’m reminded of when an Argentine player (I think it was Crespo) said when he was asked what the differences where between them and Brazilians. Crespo said that if both groups were walking in the desert, totally lost and then suddenly heard music in the air, the Argentines would start to worry and complain that the music was taunting them. He then said that the Brazilians would immediately start to sway and dance to the music. They just love life, I hope to get a glimpse of that during my time there, especially if it’s true how many of them will be hanging out in Cologne.
- Speaking of commercials, a great Adidas ad would have been to have those two little kids pick players who wouldn’t be playing in the World Cup. Just imagine how that draft could have gone: “Seedorf, Morientes, Zanetti, Thuram, Blanco, Baptista, Cassano, Defoe”…oh wait, he’s already in the original commercials. Poor guy, he deserves to be there instead of Walcott.
- I’m excited to watch tomorrow’s friendly versus Morocco. I’ve been so starved for USMNT action that I’ve watched 6 v 6 from training camp in Cary matches on the US Soccer website. I have to imagine that JOB is going to play at least a half perhaps more so I’m interested to see how fit he is.
- Speaking of excitement, did anyone notice how many goals were scored in MLS this past weekend? It’s like Don Garber, taking a cue from other commissioners, took matters into his own hands. He realizes that in order to keep some attention on the league since they are going to play through the WC, he needs to generate some good game action. So, he orders more scoring and the players respond. The Red Bull-Chivas match seemed like a futsal match, teams were scoring left and right. I watched about 10 minutes of that game and saw a couple of goals myself.
Dallas held up their end of the bargain by hanging four on the Revs before the 20 minute mark. Nicol looked sick to his stomach and I wouldn’t have blamed him if he and Paul Mariner went to a strip club for the 2nd half. The most interesting thing was to hear the Revs play-by-play guy, who is a tremendous homer, try to blame the Revs’ woes on things that Dallas had done unfairly. An example is when Ruiz got hacked and went down, this guy starts to blame Ruiz’s reputation as a bad guy. Greg Lalas finally sets him straight by pointing out that it was a clear foul on the Revs.
Another example is that their half-time feature was on Steve Ralston. His lead-in was, “Even though Steve Ralston scored the goal that sent the US to the World Cup, he was still left off of the World Cup roster.” No mention of his injury, poor form or that his teammate Dempsey claimed the right mid spot as his own.
- Lastly, congrats to Watford for their EPL promotion. I feel bad for Lewis and Leeds, but Watford was the better side. Before the match in the tunnel, Leeds seemed to be tight while Watford was more relaxed, by chanting and whooping it up. Sure, that’s not always a precursor, but I’m sure that the high expectations of their supporters put added pressure on Leeds. They are, after all, a big club who not long ago was playing in the EPL and the Champions League. There’s enough pressure in a match that’s worth nearly $80 million to the winning team so Watford was definitely playing with house money. In the long run, it will be better for the USMNT that DeMerit is playing in the EPL than Lewis. After all, Lewis won’t probably have much of a future for USMNT after the next few years while DeMerit has a bright future ahead of himself. (George)
Believe or not, I actually saw a feature on the random dope testing that players have to go through during matches. The feature was filmed when the US played Germany in the March friendly so I got to watch the tension in the faces of Jimmy Conrad and Pablo Mastroeni as they got to pee in a cup in front of a few grown men. Very strange stuff.
Some other random thoughts from the last few weeks:
- My favorite WC commercials are the Nike Joga Bonita ads. The one with Henry playing pick-up always amazes me, especially when he chips the ball into the net from behind. I still can’t figure out how he does it. The newest one with the Brazilians doing ball tricks in the dressing room just shows how amazing they are. I like the fact that even though Kaka is an Adidas guy, they still make sure to show him in the footage.
When you see the joy in their faces, I’m reminded of when an Argentine player (I think it was Crespo) said when he was asked what the differences where between them and Brazilians. Crespo said that if both groups were walking in the desert, totally lost and then suddenly heard music in the air, the Argentines would start to worry and complain that the music was taunting them. He then said that the Brazilians would immediately start to sway and dance to the music. They just love life, I hope to get a glimpse of that during my time there, especially if it’s true how many of them will be hanging out in Cologne.
- Speaking of commercials, a great Adidas ad would have been to have those two little kids pick players who wouldn’t be playing in the World Cup. Just imagine how that draft could have gone: “Seedorf, Morientes, Zanetti, Thuram, Blanco, Baptista, Cassano, Defoe”…oh wait, he’s already in the original commercials. Poor guy, he deserves to be there instead of Walcott.
- I’m excited to watch tomorrow’s friendly versus Morocco. I’ve been so starved for USMNT action that I’ve watched 6 v 6 from training camp in Cary matches on the US Soccer website. I have to imagine that JOB is going to play at least a half perhaps more so I’m interested to see how fit he is.
- Speaking of excitement, did anyone notice how many goals were scored in MLS this past weekend? It’s like Don Garber, taking a cue from other commissioners, took matters into his own hands. He realizes that in order to keep some attention on the league since they are going to play through the WC, he needs to generate some good game action. So, he orders more scoring and the players respond. The Red Bull-Chivas match seemed like a futsal match, teams were scoring left and right. I watched about 10 minutes of that game and saw a couple of goals myself.
Dallas held up their end of the bargain by hanging four on the Revs before the 20 minute mark. Nicol looked sick to his stomach and I wouldn’t have blamed him if he and Paul Mariner went to a strip club for the 2nd half. The most interesting thing was to hear the Revs play-by-play guy, who is a tremendous homer, try to blame the Revs’ woes on things that Dallas had done unfairly. An example is when Ruiz got hacked and went down, this guy starts to blame Ruiz’s reputation as a bad guy. Greg Lalas finally sets him straight by pointing out that it was a clear foul on the Revs.
Another example is that their half-time feature was on Steve Ralston. His lead-in was, “Even though Steve Ralston scored the goal that sent the US to the World Cup, he was still left off of the World Cup roster.” No mention of his injury, poor form or that his teammate Dempsey claimed the right mid spot as his own.
- Lastly, congrats to Watford for their EPL promotion. I feel bad for Lewis and Leeds, but Watford was the better side. Before the match in the tunnel, Leeds seemed to be tight while Watford was more relaxed, by chanting and whooping it up. Sure, that’s not always a precursor, but I’m sure that the high expectations of their supporters put added pressure on Leeds. They are, after all, a big club who not long ago was playing in the EPL and the Champions League. There’s enough pressure in a match that’s worth nearly $80 million to the winning team so Watford was definitely playing with house money. In the long run, it will be better for the USMNT that DeMerit is playing in the EPL than Lewis. After all, Lewis won’t probably have much of a future for USMNT after the next few years while DeMerit has a bright future ahead of himself. (George)
