Pseudo Corner Kick

There will always be a home for you in the MLS, Gooch.

Friggin’ European thugs. And they have the nerve to wag their fingers and lecture us?

I’m already sick of Wolff and Cherundolo transfer rumors, especially since Cherundolo seems to have denied any rumors associated with him. Also, continuing the walking wounded parade, Cherundolo injured something or other and will be out for about two matches. Not wanting to be the only one to miss out on being injured, Bruce Arena will tear his ACL next week.
So D at The DCenters came up with the idea for Operation Deflower, which is basically a plan wherein bloggers will take someone who has never been to an MLS game to a match, buy the new attendee a beer, get them to love the game, and then post about the expierence afterwards. Well, I had to be Mr. Fancy Pants and do him one better. I got the graduate student government at my school to fork over the cash for 25 tickets to this Sunday’s DC United home opener. At the group discount rate the tickets were $18, and we asked for $5 per ticket. We would have given them away for free but charging a small amount ensures that those who get tickets actually use them. Also, each student was limited to one ticket for themself and one for a guest. After ordering the tickets (Scott Miller, Senior Account Exec. at DC United is a really good guy by the way) and getting them shipped out, I distributed them today. I wasn’t sure what to expect for demand. I did minimal advertising as I do my thesis research at an off campus location and couldn’t take the time to hang up a bunch of fliers. I did have fliers given to the representatives from each department at the graduate student government meeting, but who knows what they did with them. Also, an email was sent out to the grad/law student email list. A previous grad student ticket event sold out in like ten minutes, but that was for Harry Potter movie tickets, and well, that’s different. So anyway, I started handing out tickets at 2:00pm and was done about 15 minutes later. When I started I had a few people waiting in line already and the rest showed up promptly thereafter. Everyone who showed up wanted two tickets (I took the extra one) and I had to turn quite a few people away after the tickets were sold out. As I was handing out the tickets I was taking an informal survey, and it turns out that 20 out of the 25 people have never been to a professional soccer game before! Exciting stuff, as getting newbies interested in soccer is the whole point of the Deflower movement. I figure that Sunday’s game will be a good one for new fans since there should be a great atmosphere being the home opener, Screaming Eagles & Barra Brava vs. bussed in RBNY fans, etc etc. The only down side is that I will be unable to fulfill the “Free Beer” part of the plan due to the large number of people.

I’ll post the results after the game Sunday. Hopefully there will be a few more soccer fans to speak of after DCU thrashes RBNY.

There is one thing I feel bad about. In my advertising for the game I made gratuitous use of Freddy Adu’s picture and name. I figured he might be the only recognizable name for the non-soccer fan. For some reason it felt wrong doing it though. D, tell me it’s ok, tell me I’m still a good person.

Two young and very highly touted, but often disappointing, players were traded for each other when New York sent Eddie Gaven to Columbus for Edson Buddle.

Their career paths thus far have not reached expectations. It wasn’t too long ago Gaven was considered an answer to the National Team’s right midfield problem and Buddle was supposed to be a star striker. Here’s hoping a change of scenery leads to a better future.

Dueling articles from Yanks Abroad debating the importance of the match against Germany. While I agree with Mark Flannery that it is too early to write off Berhalter and Wolff, I’m not so sure about Cherundolo’s role in the defensive break downs. Thanks to the magic of TiVo I have already replayed the goals once (Berhalter did look bad, but not so bad as to knock him off the team), but I will have to go back and double check Cherundolo’s cupability. I completely agree with the sentiment that when the goals come, the defense tends to get the blame. While that is understandable and sometimes warranted, there is often times a mistake made two or three touches removed that could be pointed to as the point where things really started breaking down. Again, I would like to go back and see if that is the case for the Germany match. Neal Thurman is a bit more harsh on Berhalter and Wolff, but the overall tone is optomistic.

Hat tip to Dunord for pointing to a USSoccer podcast of an interview with new USSF President Sunil Gulati. Gulati seems like a very intelligent, articulate and well spoken guy (although he seems to be a touch obstinate in answering some questions). He will be an asset to soccer in the United States. Topics covered, in order: women’s league, his roles as USSF president, professor at Columbia and president of Kraft Soccer, role of immigrants in US soccer, CONCACAF, hosting events, possible contract extension for Bruce Arena, and USSF finances (~$30 million surplus and they couldn’t hire a few extra people to handle WC ticketing?).

In addition to rumors of Josh Wolff going to the Bolton Wanderers, there is now a story that Bolton was actually interested in Steve Cherundolo and is willing to pay a £1.8 million (~ 3 million USD) transfer fee to Hannover for his services.

More John O’Brien to MLS talk. More importantly, his agent says he “has regained full fitness”.

For the game fans out there, Claudio Reyna will appear on the front of EA Sports FIFA 2006 sold in the US. Through sources deep inside the gaming industry I was able to obtain an early look at the design:

Onto more serious matters, what’s the point of this column? Did Andrea have a deadline and nothing to write about? The first part of the column praises Bruce Arena for all that he has done with the team, and then concludes he should leave anyway? Then we are treated to gems like this:

Different leadership would reveal the true measure of the players without any veiled insinuations that Arena is a sorcerer spinning straw into gold.

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. If we win, it’s because of the 11 guys on the field. Sure, Arena can give them pep talks till he’s blue in the face and spend hours coming up with great tactics to deal with opponents, but in the end it still comes down to the guys on the field executing. As long as we are playing well, does anyone really care about ‘veiled insinuations’?

There are now more American players carrying the soccer banner for their country in foreign leagues than ever before. It’s only natural that their best coach should join them as well.

Yes, but is it not also natural those players play for the national team. Why should our ‘best coach’ not do the same? I don’t mean to be too snippy here but Canales seems to be going in circles. Yes Bruce has been good for the national team, but he should leave anyway, for the good of the national team.

Feel free to drop by the comments section and tell me I’m an idiot.

I don’t have much to say about the silliness that went down yesterday. This is the first chance I’ve had to post anything, so by now pretty much everyone has hyperventilated said everything there is to be said. Some general thoughts:

• If you look back at some of my previous posts, I thought it might be a good thing if we lost one of these warm up matches, expose some of our weakness with enough time for Arena to deal with them.
• The MLS All Stars US frustrated the Germans to the point that they were being booed off their home turf at half time. That’s impressive.
• Arena is a stand up guy, trying to take the blame for the loss when it clearly rests with the players on the field.
• I miss you Claudio.
• You tell yourself for days before that this game doesn’t matter. My questions is: Why does it still hurt so much. Why, Bruce why?

Mike H at My Soccer Blog has a nice bunch of posts: let’s not dwell too much on the 10-minutes are crap, Arena tries to take the blame. Also of interest is link to survey on the US Soccer website. Please do soccer in the US a service and give them an earful about the debacle that was the World Cup ticketing process. I’m not bitter, really.

Holy hell does this guy have bad luck:

United States midfielder Claudio Reyna’s injury woes continue. The American captain . . . injured his left shoulder and will miss three-to-four weeks, his English Premier League club Manchester City said today.

Reyna did indeed miss today’s FA Cup match.

Retiring USSF President Dr. Robert Contiguglia gives an interview to Spiegel. I like how he slides in the comment about everyone telling him we should have beat Germany in WC ‘02.

This Scripps Howard column echoes some of my previous sentiments:

Still, the U.S. needs this type of measuring stick to see where it stands. In 2002, the U. S. was demolished 4-2 at Germany. That game served as a wakeup call for the team and may have played a role in some players not starting in the World Cup. Goalkeeper Kasey Keller was in the nets that day, but Brad Friedel started all five of the United States’ World Cup games.

Dell’Apa on the Germany match:

Will the German players be scuffing their passes, blowing scoring opportunities and tripping over each other as Americans go flying past them, with Oliver Kahn reduced to a benign nonpresence in goal? What has happened to German precision, the intimidating qualities of mental and physical strength, the undying confidence?

Much as in Korea. I keed, I keed.

This man must have incredible reflexes:

. . . Kasey Keller, the United States goalkeeper, who once told an interviewer: “I really ought to wear my glasses during matches because, and I’m not kidding here, when I’m on my line I can barely see past the six-yard box.”

I keed, I keed.

Newest link on the blogroll, DF in Deutschland. DF reminds me why I’ll never be a good blogger: I write much the way that I speak, i.e. I am not very volumious in my verbiage.

Finally, we got tapped by The Sporting Rogue to fill out this list of 4’s. I’ll fill it out but if either Bobby or David want to chim in feel free:

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. School library, periodicals section
2. Instructor, science day camp
3. Teaching Assistant
4. Research Assistant

Four movies I could watch over and over:

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Office Space
3. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
4. Saving Private Ryan

Four places I have lived:

1. Queens, NY
2. Washington, DC
3. Silver Spring, MD
4. to be determined

Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Family Guy
2. Law and Order
3. Dog the Bounty Hunter
4. West Wing

Four places I have been on holiday:

1. Lakes Region, NH
2. San Fransico, CA
3. Rome, Italy
4. Disney World, FL

Four websites I visit daily:

1. Drudge Report
2. Bloglines
3. The DCenters
4. Dunord

Four of my favorite foods:

1. French Fries
2. Ribs
3. Turkey Sandwich
4. Pizza, from NY, and damn it I’m hungry now

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Germany, to see Wednesday’s match
2. Rome
3. New Hampshire
4. My own South Pacific island

And four blogs I am tagging:

1. DCenters
2. Record As I Am
3. MLS Fangirl
4. Dunord

According to an article from Yanks Abroad, John O’Brien is in talks to come play in MLS. If true, it would be great to see someone of JOB’s caliber play in MLS. While Chivas holds the first allocation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a deal worked out for JOB to play for the Galaxy, whom he has trained with.

The most important piece of info, however, is that O’Brien is “100% healthy.” Which is outstanding news for the USMNT, but we all know how fragile O’Brien’s health really is.