History

I wonder if Iraq will repeat history or create new history. Will they be able to get over the revenge mentality that according to the press is sending them to civil war? Or will they pull an annhiliation such that Iraq is left desolate? Only The Shadow knows.
Most civil wars end with everybody getting so tired of the killing that everybody abandons the area or peace is called. Maybe the Iraqis are stubborn enough to stick it out such that a new result occurs, that of annhiliation. This should be interesting.

Ahh politics, sweet politics

Well, now that the race for the Senate is over and the Democrats have control, I think about what the future holds. Do I care so much about stem cell research? No. Do I care about what happens with the war in Iraq? Sadly, only a tiny little bit. I realize that when the Dems cut and run, we'll have an influx of people who need jobs which will depress the labor market and negatively affect my stocks. Ah well, what do you do.

My burning question is this; what are they going to do with the taxes? Will they raise them so I'll be more in demand, or will they just leave them the same so I'll just be in demand?

And that my friends is what they call "voter apathy."

Soccer, Again

My brother asked me for my thoughts on soccer as he pointed me to an article on Yahoo! News. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061104/ap_on_sp_so_ne/soc_nancy_armour

My response is as follows:

Hey, I liked the article. Do I think the US will get into soccer enough to dominate by 2010, no. I'd love to see a WC trophy for the US in Africa, but realistically, I don't think it'll happen. However, I do think that we'll make it out of the group stages and into the round of 16, maybe even out of the round of 8 (finger, toes, eyes crossed). With the US Soccer trying to get a hold of Juergen Klinsmann, I think that the US would finally have the coaching necessary to get into the elite stages of the World Cup. I also think the sponsors can come in line, and I think TV will pick up on it if people will watch MLS Soccer Saturday more consistently.

In the next 10 years though, I think there will be a major shift in sporting money. I think soccer will take a huge gouge out of the Trifeca of Tragedy i.e. baseball, basketball, and football. Soccer is a poor man's sport, you need a round ball, and a couple of shoes, and flat space to play. In this nation, there are a lot of places that are breeding grounds for brilliant soccer players. Unfortunately, the way players are tapped is by going through ODP where creativity is quashed in favor of X's and O's on a chalkboard. If recruiters visited the slums where people have nothing else to do other than play soccer, I think we'd have our picks of Ronaldinhos, Peles and Maradonas. Our midfield would be as good as any other in the world. Our defense is pretty solid, and poaching strikers can be found anywhere. Soccer can be broken into thirds. First, solid defense. We have three keepers playing in the Europe. Our defense is pretty solid if a little inexperienced (read, the US got knocked out of the World Cup by a diver and a bad ref watching the US defense.) OK, the past is behind us, live and learn. Next third is the finishing third. Basically, you can play soccer two ways, Long ball over the top to a creative striker who can make hash out of a defense. Second, midfield works the ball through the field and sets up a poacher for an easy tap in. Always, there's Brasil (when it's anybody but Zinedine Zidane) i.e. can do either. Creative strikers make hash out of a defense after the midfield makes hash out of the midfield after the defense gives them the ball and goes back for more milk, cookies and settles down to watch the rest of the game. I've watched several plays where Brasil has six men in the opponent's penalty area, they play keepaway for about 10 passes, and finally tap it in. It's absolutely amazing. Having said all that, I'm still a die-hard American soccer fan. The final third is of course, the midfield. The midfield must be creative to slide the passes through that will set up the poachers. If you bypass the midfield, you need strikers who can do the same thing.

Scoring at some point is going to be about creativity. If you don't have it, you don't score. Look at the US record in World Cups. I don't know about 90 and 94 but that's not important. We barely score 8 goals where Argentina scores six in one game (against a tiny country, but still...). In our spectacular showing in Korea-Japan, we scored 8 goals to make it to the round of 8. Germany scored 8 goals against Saudi Arabia; you get the idea. Americans lack creativity. Some of that is tactical, but there is a huge technical part to it. American footwork is not anything like Brasilian, English, or Cristiano Ronaldo (NOT Brasil's Ronaldo, this guy is from Portugal). If we visit the slums, that's where you find the footwork, instead of ODP where fitness is the watchword. Fitness can be created over a couple of seasons, footwork and the ability to "see" opportunities takes a lifetime. Landon Donovan was shut down in this 2006 because people knew they had to watch for him. They knew he was quick, but you can stop that by getting in his way. Zidane was unstoppable. His vision, passing, crossing, and footwork was beyond unreal. His fitness, well, he's 34, fitness ain't what it used to be. The result? France v. Italy in the final instead of in the Group of Death.

Back to ODP, I think it's a great system, but needs more scope. More people need access to it, not just kids whose parents can pay and travel for it. I think the grass roots are strong for soccer, I just think that there's a gap between planting and harvesting. The US can plant and harvest, it just needs to learn to cultivate better. As to cultivation, I think the knowledge of soccer has finally past the first generation. I read an article on soccernet.com about some of the US players and how soccer was a family thing. Clint Dempsey was introduced to soccer by an older sibling (I think brother but I can't remember details, don't bug me for them). Not only was he introduced, but he was trained by that brother, i.e. bigger brother made Clint work harder to be competitive with him. As for me, I'm already teaching Jack how to kick the ball. I hold his hands and he walks around chasing the ball. He has even learned to alter his stride length in order to have his foot hit the ball midstride. He's not perfect, but he's not even a year old yet. The point is that as a parent, I'm beginning to train my little boy to play soccer. I think there are other parents out there with soccer skills that will be passed (ha, ha!) on to the next generation. I'm excited to see what the next generation has in store for US soccer.

Short question, long answer. I hope you enjoy it.

Armchair Quarterbacks

First, this post inappropriately named, and only slightly humorous. Armchair quarterbacks have generally at least seen a football other than on a TV screen. The person described here has NEVER actually touched a real soccer ball. He just "really thinks this game is cool."

I was watching a soccer match between Benfica FC v. Manchester United in the cafeteria a while ago and the most irritating guy alive (TMIGA) sat down at the table to watch the game. I don't mind this as it's a cafeteria and the game was on the TV. If it had been my living room I might have felt differently. Soon, and by "soon" I mean about two minutes later, I wished that I was not there. TMIGA was eating, but instead of eating quietly with his mouth shut, he was smacking with every movement of his jaw. It was driving me nuts. Pretty soon, he asked me who I was rooting for. I said Manchester United. He said, "They're an OK team." My jaw hit the floor, rebounded, smacked, and hit the floor again. I asked him if he was a Benfica fan. He answered no, smack, smack, smack. I asked him what league, if any, he followed. He replied that he followed all leagues and proceeded to give the life history and statistic of every single team, player, smack, coach, league, ball, flag, referee, net, and blade of grass in, smack, the history of the sport dating back to ancient Rome; smack, smack, smack.

Needless to say, I was impressed by the exhausting amount of information in his head. As I didn't know the complete history myself, I didn't have much to add by way of opinion. I asked him what team, if any, was his favorite. He replied that Pumas from Mexico was his favorite. I nearly threw up, but held it in. I asked him why. He said that they had a very attractive style of play and great players. I felt a great and burning desire to stick his head on a fork as a warning that fans of Mexican soccer were not welcome at this table. Instead I asked a crucial question, "How long have you been playing soccer?" What he said changed the course of the conversation, i.e. ended it. "Never, I just really think this game is cool."

As the game progressed, he became the third announcer with such comments as "good idea, poor execution" and "good idea, poor execution". Sometimes, he would even come up with something so creative as "good idea, but poor execution." By the end of the game, I was ecstatic because Man U beat Benfica at home, but I had quit listening to the monotonous drone of the TMIGA.

Later in the same cafeteria, I was watching a game between Barcelona and Chelsea. A large group of my friends had come because this was not a game to be missed, It was large enough that there were two rows of chairs. Sure enough TMIGA showed up again with his lunch and sat down in the second row. The endless stream of statistics and good-idea-poor-execution's started up again punctuated with his infuriating smacking noises. As the game continued, the entire front row was throwing him dirty looks which he appeared to be too dense to notice. At 1:15 a few people had to go to class. The girl on my right stood up and left. TMIGA moved as quick as lightning and took her spot. Unfortunate because one of the group was about to take the chair and use it as a foot rest to prevent his sitting next to us.

A couple of times, I asked one friend who has played some fairly high level soccer a question or two and almost incomprehensibly, TMIGA answered instead of my friend. I don't think TMGIA even understands some basic social skills required to be accepted in polite society. What most irritated me was that TMIGA pulled out his laptop and began announcing the results of other concurrent games. He even announced a goal for Chelsea. The funny thing is that we were actually watching when Chelsea scored. His announcement came a few seconds after it happened. By the end of the game, we had all quit talking to him or responding to his comments.

I understand why TMIGA is TMIGA. He would never get the joke of "Came apart like a $7 ball." He doesn't know the first thing about supplying the perfect pass or putting a volley past the keeper for the win. It's all X's and O's to him; theoretical, chalkboard information. He's never experienced the heartbreak, or exhilaration that comes from a good game. He'd be confused by the tension that arises in the final minutes of a crucial match, because the solution to him is just to be the X's and O's and you'll win. Sport to him is the same thing as a video game. If you push the right buttons at the right time, you score goals. He likes sport, but doesn't realize that you have to join to truly understand it. Good idea, bad execution son, go back to your X-box, smack.