Amen.

Wow - couldn't have said it better. I'm sick of that question, too.

Ha!

Funny - my last post on this trusty blog was about how disappointing the Confederations Cup was. Funny how that changed in the few days after that entry. (To Future Todd - we got to the final and had Brazil 2-0 at the half before it all went horribly wrong.)

But here we are again - I've got to admit that posting here has long been an afterthought, particularly in light of the key fact that my beloved Orange Chair left my (back)side two years ago, but it's smooth, velvety spirit lives on.

Yeah, that was weird.

But anyway, it's World Cup time - well, in about 10 1/2 days it will be. And it's time to prattle away about the coolest sporting event on the planet. It's amazing how much more there is on the web to read and process about the US team compared to 2006. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to watch as many of the games as I did 4 years ago (when the Orange Chair was at its peak of nonsense). That was the first World Cup where I watched a bunch of the games, and it was a blast. But this time around, I'm in summer school and working, so I just won't have the time. Alas.

Here, have a punch in the gut.

So much for the Confederations Cup.

Maybe I should apologize here - due to my school schedule, I've only been able to watch half of the first two games, losses to Italy (3-1) and Brazil (3-0). I can only assume that I'm the problem, since I could only watch the second half against Italy, where we gave up the 3 goals, and the first half against Brazil, where we gave up 2. My running tally is now 90 minutes, 5 goals against, 0 for. I couldn't be prouder.

Even worse, I just read a thoroughly depressing (and shockingly logical) article from Paul Oberjuerge about the current status of the team. Here it is. I've read and heard from a lot of overreacting loons about how it's the coaching, it's the formation, etc. etc., but his article actually makes sense, and I don't like it one bit.

Plus, it naturally explains why the whole Giuseppe Rossi situation is so frustrating. He would have instantly been the best player on our team and could have been the first true American star. If we're Brazil, he's not even a second thought. The problem is, we're not Brazil. Those of us who care (maybe too much) about this team are just dying for that one special player to lift them.

Naturally, I'm going to watch the Egypt game. I'm a fan. And I've never thought that Egypt would be an easy game - in fact, I thought that Egypt would get through to the semis from the beginning (I figured Italy could stumble).

(Quick aside here - why do we keep assuming that the African champions are pushovers? And why was Egypt beating Italy a 'shocker'?)

Obviously, I'm hoping that we show up for this game. Last time we thought, "Oh, we'll beat them, it's the other two we need to worry about," we got embarrassed by Ghana in the World Cup in a game we looked hopelessly lost in. The same knuckleheads who were predicting that we'd get through the group stage in 2006 in a similar fashion are the same ones who predicted it for this tournament (led by the wonder-analyst Alexi Lalas).

Either way, come Sunday, I'll be watching the game. By the way, I can only catch the second half of the Egypt game, so don't be shocked if it turns ugly in the final 90.

In unrelated-to-soccer news

What must it be like for Eddie, now that his brother is clearly funnier than he is?

Let's pretend that didn't happen

In hockey, when two guys are going to fight, they typically skate around and at the point where they are within arm's distance of each other, they'll grab the other guy's sweater and try to pull it over his head so he can't see anything. Then, the beating begins.

I feel like the 3-1 loss to Costa Rica tonight was a lot like that. Except in this case, the Costa Rican goon grabbed our sweater somewhere around the national anthem and rendered us blind. That was ugly.

(I admit that the hockey analogy is pretty anachronistic. After all, we all know that the sport folded years ago. Right?)

I hate to just blame this one on the awesome turf field - after all, AstroTurf is the latest breakthrough in stadium fields here in the '60s. But it was atrocious. Not to say that it was the reason we looked so bad, but it sure didn't help. Make no mistake - Costa Rica fully deserved the win. I'm not even particularly mad - just confused about what we just saw.

Jozy looked great tonight, though. If he hasn't cemented a starting spot at this point, I don't know what he'd have to do.

US v. Costa Rica

I promise to never, ever, bring any insight to the world's game. That is my solemn vow.

I will talk about tonight's game anyway. First, I love the fact that Alexi Lalas just made some snide comment about MLS being a league where a couple of victories will put you to the top of the table since everyone's so equal. I'd like to know how Lalas knows that - are we to believe that as a GM, he watched other teams do that? We definitely know it's not first-hand knowledge.

But beyond the wisdom of "The Sitter", I'm excited about seeing Torres and Wynne in this game. Here's hoping they both take the opportunity to make some noise for starting positions down the road. We'll see...

I used to update this thing...

I meant well...honest. And since at this point, I'm talking to myself, that seems like a good time to start again.

2007 Highlights

Ah, the turn of the new year - it's always a time of reflection, gazing wistfully at what's happened in the last 365 days.

Too bad it's already July of the next year, but I just found this today, so give me a break...


.

Bipod Bob!

Bob Bradley has been (finally) named the real-live U.S. national team coach, and I'm happy about it.

Yeah, when we swung and missed on getting Jurgen Klinsmann I was upset and I wasn't happy with the initial appointment of Bradley as the interim coach. But that wasn't really a knock on Bradley, it was frustration at the long, drawn-out process that was occurring that seemed to be going nowhere.

And now that I've seen him in action over the last few months, particularly the way that he's handled himself even with the 'interim' tag hanging over his head, I really like the appointment.

I call him Bipod Bob because of his distinctive stance. The picture here isn't the greatest example, but it'll do for now.

Congratulations, coach - glad that you're leading our team.

The Best Commercial Ever

He's good.

Continuing with the things about MLS that I'm excited about, I present Landon Donovan's recent hat-trick against Ecuador:



If Donovan plays league games with the confidence that he's been showing in national team games this year, the LA Galaxy will be a very good team long before Mr. Beckham arrives. He can go a long way toward making people forget about his horrible World Cup and help us all to remember that he's the most talented soccer player this country has ever produced. He just has to tune out his too-sensitive ears and focus on what he does well, and he'll put together a great season.

Here's the irony

The sad thing about the Chair's lack of posts is that there is so much stuff happening with soccer in the U.S., in terms of MLS (that's Major League Soccer), the U.S. team, etc. In other words, it's not for a lack of material.

I'll just go ahead and say that since the Chair was causing people at the other blog not to comment, I will try to calm the situation.

Here's the cool thing about MLS this year: I know things that I find interesting about each team, which makes me more of a fan of the league overall than of any specific team. And really, since my favorite team of any sport is the Men's National Team, what's good for MLS is going to be good for the national squad down the road. The better our domestic league, the better the chance for young players to improve against quality competition. The season just started and there has already been some really good news.

We'll start with the New York Red Bulls, tastefully named after the 'energy drink', which apparently tastes awful. They picked up this guy from the English Premier League the other day. Look at the control on the ball...ridiculous. Ladies and Gents, Juan Pablo Angel:



Not only is Mr. Angel joining the group, they also picked up Claudio Reyna, a.k.a. "Captain America", who did in fact captain the American team for many years. He has come back home to the New York area (also from the English Premier League) and is playing for his old U.S. coach, one Bruce Arena.

Sadly, it's time for the Chair to go to sleep, so it's goodbye for now. I'll try to continue the train of thought another time...

110 US Goals

YEAH!

DOS A CERO! (clap clap clap-clap-clap)
DOS A CERO! (clap clap clap-clap-clap)
DOS A CERO! (clap clap clap-clap-clap)

Eat it, Tricolor!

The Quest

The Quest involves finding a place to watch the U.S. vs. Mexico match tonight. The problem, naturally, is that (a) I don't have cable, and (b) no one that I hang around cares about the sport, therefore I can't go to someone's place and watch.

One of these days, I'm going to talk about the U.S. vs. Denmark game that I actually attended...

Closing in

Just two weeks from my first foray into the Home Depot Center in L.A., where I'll see the US team play Denmark. Even though I was definitely upset at the loss of Klinsmann as the potential coach, that frustration faded fairly quickly.

I'm interested to see what Bob Bradley will do over the next several months as the 'interim' manager, particularly excited to see what young players will step into important roles on the team.

DaMarcus Beasley's first Premiership goal...let's hope he stays in the first 11 at Manchester City.

Oh, one more thing - he's kind of fast.

You have got to be kidding me

Jurgen Klinsmann removed his name from consideration for the US job, apparently over disagreements on how much autonomy he would have in the position.

Bob Bradley, currently coach of Chivas USA in Major League Soccer, is going to be the 'interim coach' for 6 months and the search will supposedly continue at that point.

To use a British phrase, I'm absolutely gutted. Here's an analogy for you: it's like if you were a kid and your parents took you to Orlando because you had a free vacation to Disneyworld, and you ended up hanging out at the local Wal Mart instead. Unbelievable.

There's a press conference tomorrow about it. I'll definitely be listening to see how this gets spun. We waited 6 months for this?

Ripped from the headlines

(a.k.a., blatantly stolen from The Onion)

Sports Fan On The Street

On German Jurgen Klinsmann, The 1990 World Cup Champion, Being Hired To Coach Team USA:

"All I'm saying is that one-loss Michigan deserves to go to that game a hell of a lot more than one-loss Florida."



(Sadly, that hire hasn't actually happened yet, though there are rumors that it's a done deal. But I found this very funny.)