SPL Up and Going

It's still a few weeks away from the starting gun for Arsenal and the English Premiership, but the Scottish Premier League hit the gates today in the land of kilts and red hair. My Bhoys, Celtic, stormed all over Killmarnock 4-1. Hoops manager Gordon Strachan laughed at critics who complained of Celtic's pre-season form. You may recall that the Bhoys lost 4-0 to DC United a few weeks back. No matter. I guess the MSL is just a might stiffer competition than the SPL (wink wink). Hopefully, Fox Sports will have some highlights tonight.

US Womens' Team Looks Good

Ok. Finished the US v. Ireland match I had recorded over the weekend. The women's team looks pretty darn good. They weren't spectacular, only dominant, over Ireland, a side ranked 32nd in the world. Ireland packed the back, leaving the US midfield to have their way across great swaths of green, and completely owned the side channels. The defense was rarely troubled. There were a lot of young players on the field and they looked promising. Heather O'Reilly, in particular. If she ever learns to finish, she's going to be a handful. UW's Tina Frimpong also looked good. Still as speedy as ever and played strong defense.

My post-World Cup ennui has been lifted with the realization that the Women's World Cup will be 13 months from now! And in this one, we get a US team with a real shot at glory.

Despite initial hesitation, I've shelled out the bucks to see Real Madrid play DC United at Qwest Field in 11 days. How could I resist?!

Bummer deal in Wednesday's game. 10 minutes in and the Quadriceps tweaks out. Muscle tear. And we started out the game playing so well. To quote the Jagger-meister, "What a drag it is getting old." Now, if I can only find some of those daddy's little helpers...

You Can Smell it All The Way From Naples

Oooh, Oooh That Smell (Cue Lynyrd Skynyrd music)

Yes, it's Italian soccer time again. You look at all the ways that different countries try to ruin the Beautiful Game and no one tops the Itals. Brazil's inept management, Colombia's violence, England's inept formations (please, will someone teach Peter Crouch how to shoot a jump shot), America's, well America's lack of talent. Not one of these countries has been able to run a professional league that is little more than a cesspool of corruption like Serie A.

And just when the legal authorities look like they want to really do something about the corruption, they decide they were just kidding. Give the big teams a little slap on the wrist and a hug for everyone and on to the season. Unbelievable. I always fast forward past the Serie A highlights on FSW, because Italian soccer bores me to tears, but it's worth mentioning because the Itals have won the World Cup and because this kind of corruption can spread. If FIFA cares about the game, they should act, because the Italians have shown that they can't guard their own henhouse. Of course, as they say, if my grandmother had cajones, she'd be my grandfather...

On to Footie That Really Matters...
I'm still on Cloud 9 about the championship my daughter's team won over the weekend. Don't ask me about it, though. I rattle on worse than a new father talking about his newborn...

I see Arsenal has a new kit. Brought back Fly Emirates as a sponsor. I guess I've got to get me a new strip. Can't be seen in last year's fashion now, can I?

Real Madrid is coming to Seattle to play against DC United. Can't pass that one up. How many times do you get the chance here in the states to boo Becks up close and personal?

Started to watch the weekend's match between US and Ireland with little princess. Caught the first 15 minutes and in which, the US ladies looked competently dominant. I'll have to watch the entire game here this week (don't tell me the score). It was nice to see University of Washington grads Hope Solo (in goal) and Tina Frimpong on the field. Frimpong was a striker in college, but they have her playing central back. She did get to push up early on one play and really infused the offense, beat the defender around the corner with a really nifty dribble and pushed the ball back to the top of the box for a great opportunity. I'd love to see Frimpong at striker...she was one of the fastest players i've ever seen on a run, but the US team is loaded. It's good to see her on the pitch with the Nationals.

Horse Gets Zizou'd

This is equally hilarious and sad. Apparently, the horse had been trash-talking the jockey all day long with comments about his height and suggesting his sister dates basketball players.

Exciting Soccer Weekend

It was off to beautiful (yes, I'm kidding) Lake Oswego, Oregon for a soccer tournament this weekend with my daughter's team. Unfortunately, we visited in the midst of a heat wave that brought 100+ temperatures and a humidity that can best be described as Minnesotan...or Hellish.

It was all worth it, though, as the little princess' team won the championship! This was very exciting as it was the team's first tournament championship in 3 years together. They are a talented little bunch but have underperformed the previous 2 seasons. They seem to have it working now. Two weeks ago they came within a whisker of winning the Diadora Cup, only losing on penalty kicks. And now, they've bagged their first championship trophy. And these are high level tournaments they're competing in. To get to the finals, they had to get through the defending Oregon State champions in the semi-finals.

They played some great soccer at times this weekend. At other times, when they couldn't get the style of soccer they wanted, they did what they had to do to win. After the championship match, I heard the losing coach telling his team that they were the better team, but things didn't work out their way. It's true that the other team created more pressure and more opportunities over the balance of the game (our keeper made an astounding 12 saves in the game; I think we had 4 or 5 shots). However, at the end, we had 2 goals and they only had 1. I think that makes us the better team. I couldn't help recall former University of Washington football coach and NCAA basketball gambling analyst Rick Neuheisel's famous retort when University of Oregon coach Rick Bellotti complained that his losing Ducks played better than Slick Rick's triumphant University of Colorado team in the Holiday Bowl: "Scoreboard, baby!"

Champions are the team that perseveres, that finds a way to win on the off days, as well as the days when everything is working. Champions are the team that surrenders individuality to a collective goal and purpose. Champions are the ones left standing after all the punches that could be thrown have been thrown.

It was wonderful to see these girls be the ones that jumped and screamed as the referee blew the whistle to signal the game's end. They willed themselves to victory. And, I was happy to see my daughter place the corner kick that was slotted home by a teammate for the game-breaker!

I was elated to see these girls - my daughter amongst them - achieve a goal they'd worked so hard for.

People Who I Am Not

So, I'm playing soccer last night, right? In the second half, we're setting up to defend a corner kick. I'm in the box, marking a player, looking toward the kicker. The ref is about 15 feet away from me. I think I hear the ref say, "David Burns, that's who you look like." Since I don't know any David Burns, I assumed he was talking to another player, but when I don't hear anyone else respond I turn toward him. Sure enough, he's looking right at me.

"You look just like David Burns of the Talking Heads," he says, as if this is suddenly more important than the corner kick that is about to take place in a 2-2 game. "It's been bugging me all game long, who you look like."

There's a long list of famous men I wouldn't mind being compared to. Antonio Banderas. Pierce Brosnan. George Clooney.

David Byrne (not Burns, by the way), is not on the list. Sure, I'm relatively slender and dark haired, but I hope I don't carry the geek factor that Byrne does.  I make a quick wisecrack about the comment and get back into the game.

However, this continues to bother me the following day. This comparison is not an isolated incident. All my life I have been hearing, 'hey, you look like so-and-so.' Don't I look like myself? And, how can I look like so many divergent people, with different looks? Do I have some sort of Zelig-like effect on people. Instead of seeing me, they see the projections of their own inner wishes (yeah, but David Byrne? I know).

Here is a quick list of people I've been told that I "look just like:"
As a kid:
Donny Osmond

Jimmy Connors

Adult:
Rick Springfield
Jimmy Connors (still)

Oliver North (this at a particularly surreal evening at the Blue Moon Tavern at the height of Iran Contra)

Lothaire Bluteau

And there you go...

Community service and a few bucks and for l'animale, a week's vacation and a few lire. BBC Football. And respecting last night's linked article to Newsweek, to the contrary, FIFA will go on pretending that rough and illegal play doesn't happen and isn't marring the beauty of the game.

Back on the Pitch, Part Deux!

I love soccer. Back on the pitch tonight after 7 weeks rehabbing from the latest misfortune of age (a slightly twisted lower lumbar, combined with a weakenend muscle on the left side of the vertebrae that sent everything crashing out of sync and sending me into physical therapy. Oh yes, and there was the three or four weeks I spent in a Vicodin-induced cloud, shuffling around like George Burns, only not as straight...but I digress) and it felt great. No, great is too mild a word. Exhilarating! Elating! Electrifying!

Hey, and we played well. We utilized short passes, and the long ball when it suited us. We maintained posession and distributed smartly to the wings. We pressured the other team. In short, we did everything we usually don't do. We even took the lead 2-1 for a time in the 2nd half, but unused to being ahead, we lost our focus and surrendered the equalizer shortly after. That's the way the game ended. But the last time we played this team they beat us something like 4-0, and they were playing a man down all game long. So, chalk it up as a tie that feels like a win.

The odd thing is how good it felt to me to touch the ball, to run with it at my feet, to feint a move one way, then pull the ball back inside and hit the pass I intended to hit all along. To run like it was the night my legs would ever work again. Seven weeks away. I really missed it. And to think I only picked up the game two years ago. If I'd been playing from my youth, there'd really be no hope for me at all.

I keep saying 'last word on Zidane' and I keep breaking my promise. This time I'm not even going to promise anything. Bill Saporito writes in Time Magazine that FIFA should punish the real villian and dedicate itself to ending the type of ugly, foul-plagued, foul-mouthed football represented by Marco Materazzi. Here! here!

IKEA, I Kee Ya!

I hate Ikea. Several times while shopping their Renton, Washington store over the past 15 years, I've vowed never to return. And yet, like Charlie Brown and the football, I find myself back within the big blue box again, tempted in by the lure of cheap, pine furniture, only to leave in frustration. Yesterday I was back again, and my reward was five hours of furniture-assembly-hell.

My daughter wanted a new closet for her room. She browsed IKEA online and settled on a model they sell. When we went down to take a look at it awhile back. When I saw it, I counseled against buying it. The closet was about what you'd expect for $130, cheap pressboard material that would fly apart if left outside in a mild windstorm. (Since we don't put our closets outside, she thought this was a stupid argument). Anyhow, we left IKEA that day and looked for alternatives. After two fruitless months, I found myself back at IKEA yesterday hauling said cheap wardobe home.

When you buy one of these self-assembled furniture pieces at an "American" store, you get instructions with English words to help you interpret the illustrations. With IKEA, since they're Swedish (and probably hate Americans), you get the illustrations. No niftly little clues, no coded pieces that correspond to numbered parts on the illustrations. Nothing. It's like trying to assemble furniture by Roshach test. This is a big closet, so we're talking lots of pieces.

We get the frame assembled and lift the piece upright and it becomes clear that something is wrong. Very wrong. The closet is reversed. There is a very basic decision early in the process and that is which board is the top of the closet and which is the bottom. Again, the instructions are silent on this point. It's up to you, the consumer, they seem to say. You'll know best. WRONG!

So, down goes the closet again. We dissemble the structure, flip the boards around, and re-assemble. Four hours after we start, the closet is up. My back is sore. My shoulders are sore. I feel like I've been working on the most depressingly dull assembly line job for the last 5 days. But, daughter is happy. I vow never to return to IKEA. Then, she tells me we need to go back today for the desk. sigh...

My Dogs...They're Nuts
I've got two big, beautiful dogs.

One's a labrador-pit bull mix.

The other, a labrador-Rottweiler mix. They are the two most nervous Nellies on four legs. We can't leave them at a kennel because they suffer separation anxiety and become almost catatonic by the time we pick them up again. So, if we go on vacation we have to get a house sitter. They can't stand any change in their routine at home, either. My youngest is having a sleep over party, so we put the dogs downstairs in a hallway with a child-safety gate to keep them from going upstairs again. All day long, they paced and drooled like prisoners awaiting the dead man's walk to the gallows. Then, with my work on the closet - some hammering and nailing, a few mild swear words - the LPB mix would shake like the end had come. Every time they see me come down the hallway, each one looks up at me with mournful eyes that seem to say, "Please, stop the torture." I think they need dog psychologists.

Italians Break The Trophy
Yes, the Italians have broken the damn trophy. I can't think of a more symbolic act for the boring, defensive tactics of the Italians taking the championship.

Well, I lied...
I said no more about Zidane but I couldn't resist when I found this website. And if you think Materazzi didn't have it coming, watch this video. He deserved it just for the last hit on the clip. You think someone who'd take a deliberate whack at another player's testes wouldn't talk a little trash about your mama and sister?

Last thing about Zidane, I Promise

Alright, one last thought about Zidane. It certainly does seem that the saga has taken on a larger-than-life hue, and in many ways has overshadowed the World Cup, which has become a footnote to the Headbutt Heard Round The World. But, let's be clear. This was nothing more and nothing less that one footballer - albeit, an exceptionally talented one - losing his cool and attacking another, lesser player. No psychological dramas. No social or historical overtones. Hey, football is a violent game. People get hurt. People do stupid, rash things.

If any good can come out of this it will be two things: 1) coaches will explain to their youth players that you never, ever, under any circumstance plow the bone shell that holds your brain into anything else on purpose, other than a soccerball, and 2) don't hit another person hard in the chest. Imagine what we'd be talking about if Zidane's headbutt caused Materazzi to suffer cardiac arrest?

And finally, in five years time, any true football fan will still remembe the name of Zinedine Zidane. In five years I will still remember the transcendent game he played against Brazil. However, in five years time, I doubt that many fans will remember Marco Materazzi, except as a goon who ended up on the wrong side of Zizou's dome.

What's That Smell?
Why, that's the stink of Italian soccer. Today, the verdicts were handed down by Italian authorities on one of the worst corruption scandals in the international history of soccer. Juventus, Lazio & Fiorentina are relegated to Serie B. And AC Milan, while avoiding relegation, gets docked 15 points to start the season. I never watch Italian soccer, so the main fascination I have here is a revenge factor for the painfully dull Italian side winning the World Cup, and the potential transfer of top players from the relegated teams. My Gunners are reportedly after Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon, which would be a nice pickup, indeed.

Bye Bruce
The inevitable has happened - quicker than I expected. US Soccer has said goodbye and good luck to Bruce Arenas. While the most successful coach in US Mens Soccer history, Arenas appeared to be out of ideas at the latest World Cup and it was clearly time for a change. Kudos to the US Men's Soccer Gods for making the right decision. Now, let's get Juergen Klinsmann on board ASAP.

Apparently, Ashley "Used to be the Best Right Back in Football" Cole is pissed at the Gunners for allowing him to be used by Chelsea when he tried to secretly arrange a deal with the London club that has not been paying him millions of dollars to play football.

So, let me see if I get this straight. Let's say a guy gets caught by his wife meeting another woman on the sly, say in a posh London hotel. They haven't consummated anything, but they're clearly headed in that direction. Instead of being red-faced and apologetic, busted hubby should blast his wife for "hanging me out to dry" and using him to get back at the other woman. And, he should castigate said wife for not rewarding him for "all those years of loyalty." Like to see how that one plays in divorce court.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Ash. Wenger should sell this chump, cash in while he still has high value, and use the money to help buy Saviola and Ribery.

From the Stupid is as Stupid Does Dept. (no, I'm not still talking about Cole. Proving once again that desperate and stupid are a volatile mix.

I've always felt that squirrels (at least the nonnative Eastern grays) we get in the Pacific Northwest are trouble. Now, I have the proof. 

Kermit the frog is pretty badass too.

Pretend today was yesterday...

Actually, the previous post was posted yesterday - before Zidane's announcement - but due to some gremlin issues, the blog service did not post it. So, just pretend you're reading it yesterday.

Today of course, all hell is breaking loose with the Zidane-Materazzi fiasco. FIFA announced that it's beginning an investigation of what Marco Materazzi said to Zidane on the pitch. Meanwhile, Materazzi opined that Zidane deserved the Golden Ball award. Of course, Zidane apologized to the children (and that's really all that matters; the kids...) but pointedly left Materazzi out. Still BBC thinks the jury is out.

Newsweek's Ron Borges weighs in to share his shocking levels of ignorance with the world. Yup, the fact that international soccer has not quite sunk to the trashtalking low of NBA streetball basketbrawl, or NFL football, is a condemnation of one of the world's great soccer players. By the way, while Zidane was dumb to overeact, let's face facts. If Materazzi was indeed trashing Zizou's mom and sis, he deserved to be bitch-slapped (or dome-bashed as the case may be) and put to the turf like the bad dog he is. This is the sort of reaction that serves as a reminder to trashtalkers that there are lines best not crossed.

Frankly, I'm beginning to grow weary of this headbutt affair. Let's move on and find out what's going to happen to all the cheating Italians. I'm beginning to think that the whole thing is a well orchestrated provocation by Materazzi and certain other unnamed Italians to distract the world from the fact that Italian soccer is slightly less scrupulous and well-managed than the Bush Administration.

What is this?! Celtic lost to DC United 4-0?? OMG. Even worse, the DC boys were resting several of their starters. Celtic looked to have most of their regular lads on the pitch and certainly should've shown better against the MLS side.

Franck Ribery's agent denies an Arsenal bid. Marseille tell Man United to keep away from the little midfielder. What does this all mean? He'll end up a Gunner for sure. Certainly, Thierry Henry has warned him of the evils of being a Red Devil.

Oh, and I took the kids to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 Electric Boogalo (kidding about the last part). I loved the first movie. Unfortunately, everything that made the first flick work was missing from the sequel (surprise!). The movie was overlong by half, contained too many plot threads with little connecting material, a minimum of character development, and a host of other sins. The thing that amazes me when I see movies this bad is that people made incredibly good sums of money creating a colossal dump heap of celluloid.

Could this be the sign of the impending Apocalypse? Be afraid, very afraid.

A Quick Sift Through the Football News

A little later today, Zinedine Zidane will break his silence on his 'butt - headbutt, that is. Our favorite football troll and master of the long-winded, unecessary quote, Sepp Blatter, has jumped in and said that FIFA may take Zidane's Golden Ball award away. Blatter, or is Blather, did not explain how FIFA would rescind an award that is determined by an independent journalist association. Being Sepp means never having to make sense.

Now what am I going to do with the World Cup over? There's over a month until the English Premiership throws its balls onto the pitch. Even with the Dennis Bergkamp testimonial, there's over a week until 'real football' restarts...

I'll have to make do with player transfer rumours and gossip! Argentine striker Javier Saviola is coming to Arsenal? Could be, according to his agent. I'd be OK with that. Adebayoor is not our answer. Arsene Wenger says that Cesc Fabregas is going nowhere, but back to the Gunner starting 11. Cesc is the present and future for the Arsenal midfield, a huge talent at age 19. The French Professor is smart enough to know to hold on to the kid. Now, how about going out and getting Frank Ribery to play on the wing? And with Sol Campbell leaving (thanks for the memories, big guy!) and Phillipe Senderoos still on the mend, Arsene better find a centre back.

And finally, California Klinsi is stepping down from as the German team's coach. Hmm. Lives in California. Coached a no-hope German team to within a whisker of the finals. World Cup experience as a player. Hello USA soccer. Hire this man. Hopefully, the conversations have already begun. If US Men's soccer is ever to become anything on the international scene, it needs an infusion of a talented and big name soccer coach. Klinsmann has proved himself to be that.

Back to Work

Well, it's back to work this morning after 6 days off. The World Cup is over. No, I haven't watched it yet.

A last few words on the 'butt' heard round the world. Everyone's waiting to hear the explanation. What did Materazzi say that made Zizou see red? Did he call him a racial slur? Did he call him a terrorist? (Frankly, that would be a pretty mild insult, I think). Did he call his mother a terrorist? Materazzi himself says it was only a mild insult. A couple of news outlets have hired lip readers to translate what the Italian said and the results are not good for the Italian.

Commentators are piling, like termites from the woodwork, to weigh in against Zidane. Dumbest act in sports history. Act of infamy. Madness. Blah blah blah. Yeah, it was a stupid thing to do. But the dumbest act in sports history? I have to think Zidane is still several slots on the list below the Top Ten Dumbest Things Mark Cuban Has Done This Week.

Does this checker his career? Sure, a little. But you have to put the act in the context of Zidane's career. He's blown his cool a few times, including a few past head butts. That's part and parcel of why Zizou's one of the greatest footballers of this generation. The dude's a little intense. You could seen the look in his eyes in the game against Brazil, or Portugal. There is a fire burning inside. I didn't see that look in anyone else's eyes in this tournament, save another footballler par excellence prone to occasional acts of madness, Wayne Rooney.

With any player whose got any kind of passion, there's always a risk of it boiling over. I think the Italians were well aware of this - Zizou was suspended in the Serie A for occasional acts of madness; you think they didn't know this? - and taunting Zidane was part of the game plan. Finally, Materazzi crossed the line and Zizou exploded. The Italians got their trophy.

A player of Zidane's experience and pedigree should've known better. Yes, it's true. But I'm willing to cut him some slack. I've got an Irish temper and over the years, I've learned to control it. But, occasionally, I hit a flash point and explode. Sometimes with the right combination of factors, even a man who should know better loses control of his temper, even for a brief moment of madness. I think that's what happened to Zidane Sunday. There's no doubt he should've chosen otherwise. There's no doubt he wishes he could take it back. But does it truly mar what he's accomplished in the previous 12 years as a footballer? Does it change the fact that he led France to its first World Cup Title in 1998? Or the 2000 Euro Championship? Does it erase all he's accomplished in club football. No, it's an asterisk, at best.

The real villian here, is Italy. We were supposed to have the beautiful game. Instead, we got the Italians ugly, defensive game. Joga Bonito? No. Joga Feo. They have some wonderful players, indeed. But they don't play. They pack their half and sit back and pound on you, launching balls forward for a quick counter. They give you 118 minutes of trench warfare, then try to win by playing some football in the last 2 minutes (as they did against Germany). Italy is successive games of penalty kick shootouts. Italy is like going to see the ballet and finding clog dancing instead. They won by playing a very conservative game. Their strategy was to target France's best player, physically and mentally; disrupt France's game, not beat them on the field. Football is a game in which the better can often lose and Italy was well aware of this.

Zidane shouldn't have fallen into this trap, but he did.

Football, She is a Cruel, Cruel Mistress

Well, I was enjoying this World Cup...For the past month I watched every game, save for three qualifiers and the third place game. I savored the final match between France and Italy; A French side that had been playing strongly, behind Zinedine Zidane; An Italian side that was playing impenetrable defense and patient, condfident football. It was going to be a match that would not be beautiful, but would be thrilling to the final whistle.

The complication came in my daughter's soccer tournament, in which her team reached the finals, which was being played at the same time as the match in Berlin. My theory was that I could preserve the excitement of the final if I could just avoid hearing the score and make it home to watch the match which I had taped on the DVR.

It looked good on paper.

My daughter's team went down 0-1in the first 5 minutes on a very questionable PK call. They stormed back 10 minutes later to equalize on a long-distance shot. The rest of the match went back and forth, with our team gaining dominance but not able to penetrate the goal or get the same kind of charity in the box to which the ref had offered the other team. We continued through two overtime periods and then to penalty kicks. After 2 rounds we had a 2-1 lead and then the bottom fell out. The girls lost 4-2 on kicks. At this point, I was feeling somewhat deflated but still thinking I at least had the World Cup ahead of me. Then a parent from the opposite sideline walks by, and because he is inflated by his daughter's team's victory, is talking very loudly: "Italy won on PKs too."

Now, I'm crushed. Both my teams have lost, and in the most cruel, underserving way that the soccer gods can conjure. By the time I arrive home, the interest in 120 minutes of World Cup Final watching has left me like Englishmen fleeing a pub that has run out of ale.

In the end I watched the highlights on FSN. I still have the game taped. I may watch it, but I don't know. What happened with Zidane truly marred the game. And the PK round holds no interest, only sadness for me. In the last 2 days, at this tournament, I saw 5 games decided by the PK shootout and I've just lost the excitement in that specific brand of torture.

So, Italy won. Read about it here and here and here. Zidane sent off for violent behavior. Read about it here and here. Unfortunately, this World Cup was defined by cards and fouls, more than it was by football. Jamie Trecker and Nick Webster Weigh in as do the BBC pundits.

Playing football, or being a fan, is a lot like being in love with a very, very beautiful woman who is at turns loving and extremely cruel. When she is good to you, you can't imagine why you do anything other than play or watch football. When she is cruel, you condemn yourself for your foolishness at playing and/or watching a game with such depths of cruelty and injustice. You tell yourself that you will change that, but deep in your heart, already you know that you can't.

Saturday Soccer Thoughts

Ever have one of those days? At yesterday's tournament game, my daughter's team dominated the other team, rained down shot after shot on the opposing goal...and came away with a 0-0 tie. It felt like we couldn't score if we put the ball in a truck and tried to drive it across the goal line. Oh well, if they win today, they'll finish top of the table and play in the semifinals.

Pele is predicting a classic final match tomorrow. Alan Hansen gives Italy the edge. The AP Solidly favor the Italians. I don't disagree. Italy has a slight edge and it is up to France's stars - Zizou, Henry, Patrick Vieira - to deliver a game of inspiration and genius to grasp the victory away from the Azzurri. Defensive affair? No doubt. The first question France will have to answer will be can they score against Italy from the run of play.

I don't understand the criticism of the quality of play in this cup. It's been an oustanding tournament with plenty of exciting games. No, they haven't all been high-scoring affairs but it you want scores, then go watch arena football. For my money, you can't beat the excitement and energy of this tournament. There's been some great free-flowing soccer (France-Brazil, Australia-Brazil, Germany-Costa Rica, etc.) along with a number of nervy, defensive games (anything with Italy in it), but they've been great fun to watch. There's been a number of last-minute shock victories (Australia-Japan, Italy-Germany) that'll last in memory. When you compare this tournament with some of the professional sports in America, where the dominant teams are as few as the surprises, the World Cup has been wide open. We easily could've seen a number of teams go through to the Finals.

MIchael Owen is taking Sven Goran Ericksson to task for his decision to play Wayne Rooney as a lone striker. What else can I say but, duh!SGE is to coaches what Fabien Barthez is to goalkeepers. Playing Rooney as a lone striker is but one of many strange and/or stupid decisions of Ericksson. England will probably never win a World Cup again. Nonetheless, their future looks brighter with the coach gone.

France-Italy facts and figures from the Hindu Times. Some local World Cup flavor. I don't know about their trash-talking; pretty lame, actually.

...and finally, the perennial question: Will the World Cup help ignite soccer here in the land of obesity? TV ratings are up...but who cares, really? We don't need to be obsessed with soccer becoming a mainstream professional sport in America. We will only ruin it. Look what we've done to baseball, basketball and NFL & NCAA football. Once ABC is regularly televising MSL games with Brent Musburger announcing, and television time-outs, the game will be dreck. And hey, ruining soccer is FIFA's job. Let 'em do their work.

In the meantime, soccer - the game - is firmly rooted in America as the most popular youth sport and a highly popular sport for adults to participate in. Sounds to me like it ain't broke. Now, I'm going to Redmond to watch a couple of girls teams duke it out!

C. Ronaldo Suffers From His Antics

Cristiano Ronaldo's antics have caught up with him. The FIFA committee selecting the best young player award gave the nod to Lukas Podolski over CR in large part because of the negative points of CR's ref-baiting and flopping.

In other wacky World Cup news, German police have arrested the pranksters preying on the stupid and drunk among the WC fans. Hey, at least they didn't paint, "Can you head this?" on the balls. Now that would've been Darwinian! The 10 Spot has a few items on the World Cup. Check out their take on the pranksters. I think he was talking about Portuguese players.

Also in the funny (but completely unrelated to the World Cup) department, check out Star Trek 2.0 on YouTube.

Back to soccer. There seems to be a consensus that this Final game will be very tight. Oddsmakers are not picking clear favorites (which means it will probably be a blowout). Some say Italy by a hair because of its defense.

Coach Domenech is not worried about his older players ability to recover in time for the Final. While not as popular as Juergen Klinsmann is in Germany, Raymond Domenech is one of the odder coaches in the World Cup. I agree with Clauio Rainieri that Italy has the coaching edge with Lippi. Domenech is too cautious and conservative. If he tries to sit on a one-goal lead with Italy, I believe the Azzurri will eat France alive. Jamie Trecker says its the French by a goal.

The ongoing match-fixing scandal in Italy could result in a fire sale of top talent. Gianluigi Buffon? Arsene Wenger, are you listening?

Reports are that Big Phil will quit the Portuguese team in coming weeks. Where's he going to? Hopefully not America. While we need a coach with the tactical genius of Big Phil, the last thing we need is the sight of Landon Donovan and Company becoming another side of divers and whiners.

And finally, my daughter's team got off to a great start in their tournament, winning 5-0. It looked like a replay of the Czech Republic-USA match. Serious mismatch. Today's game should be tougher. But if we continue to play smart, attacking football we should do well.

France V. Italy For Football Glory

France booked their spot in the finals against Italy. And I have to see it is sweet justice to see Portugal not rewarded for their prancing, diving, whining and complaining ways. Honestly, there were so many dives by the boys in maroon they could've just as easily been playing in swimsuits. If Scolari had subbed on Greg Louganis in the 2nd half, it would've made perfect sense.

But that aside, Portugal actually showed up to play an interesting game of football. They finally showed me why they were in the semifinals. They opened pressing forward and got the better of the early chances. France came back and took control of the game until about the 60th minute. Thierry Henry did not have a great game; he operated in fits of genius, punctuated by absences that made you think he'd gone into the Witness Protection Program.

Carvalho's penalty on Henry was clearcut and deserved. Why he felt it necessary to both fall on his back and blatanly trip Henry, I don't know. Then again, the last time he fell, he had Wayne Rooney step on his groin, so it may have been a post-traumatic stress disorder response. Anyhow, Zidane is the coolest footballer I've seen. He looked at Ricardo, he who had guessed correctly on 4 England PKs, and then slotted the ball, with conviction, right past the lunging keeper's fingers. Zidane appears unstoppable at this point.

Zidane had a strong game. Not as dominant as against Brazil, but good enough for the semifinals of the World Cup, for sure. I thought Vieira and Makalele were vital forces in the center of midfield. Portugal's central midfield - including the oft-fabulous Deco - was rendered impotent. It was Luis Figo and C. Ronaldo who generated the attack for Portugal. Beyond that, they had nothing, except for Maniche taking long, 35+ yard blasts, like a mad bomber.

The key for france was their back four. Magnificent again. Sagnol was again, superb - I love the way he plays. Lillian Thuram was the anchor, the rock. This cup is the first time I've seen Thuram and he has been impressive. He blanketed Pauleta like a Halliburton CEO all over a no bid contract. He was kind enough to allow Pauleta one fleeting glimpse of the side netting, but that was it. Between him and WIlliam Gallas, the spine of the French defense is stout, indeed.

The weak link in the defense is Fabien Barthez, the um, creative goalkeeper. It seems that he will make at least one crazy, stupid play in every game. His volleyball service to Figo would rank right in there. He also punched a ball right into traffic and was kindly left unpunished by the Portuguese, who were likely too busy flopping around on the ground like spilt goldfish to notice the opportunity. So unpredictable is Barthez that I believe the dangerous play in defense for Les Bleus is the back pass to the keeper!

Now a few words about Portugal. It is a shame, an international travesty that a team that dives this much could get within a whisper of the World Cup Final. It is also a shame that such a team would not only lead the World Cup in diving, but also whining about the refereeing. Every time someone fell down, players would jump up, throw their arms out the side and start barking at ref (Figo is a notable exception. He let's his play speak for itself). On the replays, invariably, the "foul" would be shown to be the coarsest act of floppery. Even Carvalho, who admitted he fouled Henry, complained that the ref should've "played the advantage," and didn't because he was biased. OK. Where is the advantage when the attacker is flat on the turf??

The last time I saw this sort of immaturity, it was on my daughter's soccer team. It's amazing to see it among grown men playing at the highest level. Have they always been this way or is this something Scolari has instituted? The so-called penalty he wanted, on the replays, was clearly a dive, with minimal contact, if at all. It's a good thing that the refs avoided the FIFA directive to issue yellow cards for diving, for Portugal would've ended the game with 7 or 8 players.

And finally, the golden child, Cristiano Ronaldo. I've always saw CR as a tremendously talented player, whose two chief problems are an excessive focus on his importance and the fact that he is a punk. In the England game and against France, he showed the latter to the entire world and they didn't like what they saw. The chorus of boos he received every time he touched the ball should serve as a wake-up call to CR. And in true Portugeezer style, he complained about the ref stealing the game from his team after the game. The scary thing about yesterday, particularly if you are, unlike me, a Manchester United fan, is the way CR is returning to his diving, flopping ways that Sir Alex had largely cured him of last season. Of course, if you read the reports, that won't be SAF's problem next season. One English punter has even tried to sell him on eBay. National Emergency? In England, maybe. And there is already the I Hate Ronaldo website.

It's going to be a long four days until the final. One of my daughters has a soccer tournament, so I'll be catching some football in the interim. I'll have to be at the tournament during the Final and will be taping. My biggest worry is that someone at the tournament will reveal the score prematurely. Maybe I'll wear my iPod to prevent the possibility.

Azzurri Triumph!

Wow, what an incredible semi-final game betwen Germany and Italy! 120 minutes of tough, defensive soccer with a few great offensive plays in the mix. The two teams battled like champions for two hours to decide the first entrant to the finals. When the game looked like it was heading to a penalty kick shootout (where Germany held the decisive edge), Italy pulls out a shock game-winner; a brilliant goal from Grosso to (just) beat the keeper. And the Italians go on to win 2-0.

Today, the other finalist will be decided between the diving thespians of Portugal or the old (but not too old) men of France. I put my money on France. Portugal has not showed me enough attacking mentality to score off the run of play, while France has shown stout defense, a revived (indeed, posessed) Zinedine Zidane and a potent offense with the world's best player at the front.

Hopefully, one of these teams can win it in 90 minutes, these overtimes and shootouts are wearing my nerves thin!

Germany V. Italy

This should prove to be a great match. I expect it to be a defensive struggle, but we should see some excellent soccer from the Germans, who have featured one of the Cup's better attacking sides. Unfortunately, FIFA, that bureaucratic monolith of myopia, has suspended Germany's Torsten Frings for his bitch-slapping of an Argentinan player, after Argentina initiated a handbag session after the Germany-Argentina match.

Will Germany be happy that it was an Italian news channel that dug up and presented the video evidence that got Frings suspended? Hmmmm. Doubt it.

Aside from the fact that Argentina started the fight (and so far, I don't believe any Argies have been punished), suspending Frings from his team's most important match to date, seems a bit out of proportion to the "crime." (by this reasoning, Wayne Rooney should serve a lifetime ban for his soccer boot-near-vasectomy of Ricardo Carvalho)

In the videos I've seen Frings was guilty of nothing more than a love tap to Julio Cruz during a moment of Argentine-created madness. Suspend the sentence entirely. Ban him for a game in the next international match after the World Cup. Don't reward Argentina for their action by hurting Germany and the World Cup by removing a key squad member for a silly (but probably deserved) smack across the mug.

That being said, Germany wins without Frings, 2-1. Ballack finally gets on the scoreboard with a big game. Oliver Hinz weighs in on the match.

Wayne Rooney explains his views on the incident that led to his red card in the Portugal match. Maybe I was a bit harsh on the lad earlier. I really like the way he plays football. He's very intense, but I don't believe he'd intentionally try to ground another guys groin to dust (though it certainly looked bad on the replay, and yes, he was fouled before the incident; should've gone to ground, Wayne). Read to the end of the story. C. Ronaldo's actions causing pain for others.

Les Bleus Charge Through!!

It's hard to believe that a few weeks ago, I wrote that "How can a team studded with stars, including one of the world's great strikers Thierry Henry, score so few goals?" I apologize, Raymond Domenech! You are brilliant! Well, at least your players are.

As I wrote earlier, I had a feeling that France would win this game. They have been on the rise since the Togo match. But I was not prepared for the way they dominated Brazil. 1-0 is a thin margin and they were one quick counterstrike away from being tied but France owned the midfield, rendered Ronaldinho nonexistent (and by the way, I love the guy, but he's been missing lately: this game and others in the WC and the European Championship game. Somebody put his name on the back of a milk carton.), and their defense didn't allow Brazil to create real threats to their weak link (AKA Fabien Barthez) until stoppage time (!).

The Ghana game exposed Brazil's weakness. France blew it apart. For a team that pledged to played Henry tight, didn't he appear a wee bit open on that goal? Oops.

Zizou is the Man!
This is the first WC game I'm going to commit to DVD and it's because of Zinedine Zidane. He was absolutely posessed today (as in the previous game against Spain). Time after time, he took posession of the ball in the midfield, held it or dispelled it with a variety of trickery and guile and guts, and refused to have anything else than victory. Zizou owned the midfield and terrorized Brazil's players. It's hard to believe that he is 34 years old, and Ronaldo is only 29. Also hard to believe that France also has Patrick Vieira in the middle - he was not bad at all today, either.

I can't say enough about Henry, either. They kept him bottled up in the 1st half, but he exploded in the 2nd half, causing constant trouble for Brazil's backline. The goal he scored was a brilliant goal - scorer's touch into the ceiling of the net. He almost got one earlier on a corner that was intercepted and turned wide by Vieira, off of a corner kick. And his back heel pass to Vieira, later in the half, was so close to the game capper. If this man isn't the FIFA player of the year, they should just suspend the award for this year.

If there is any justice in this world, the finals will be between Germany and France. I cannot pick right now, though my heart will be with Thierry Henry and Zizou.

Oh, and England and Portugal played a match, as well. England is like a dreary cloud that darkens every stadium it inhabits and renders every match involved a dull, passionless affair. Today, was no different, however, Portugal (do they miss Deco that much?!) shared the culpability. Actually, England played pretty spirited football towards the end and into the overtime. If they had just managed one goal they would be through.

Their PKs were abysmal. The team had no self-belief whatsoever. Lampard missed badly. Stevie G. Missed badly. My God, Sven Goran Erickson can ruin the best talent in the world! It's not as if Portugal put 5 in the net. They were pretty awful on their own. But England was determined to be the worse team on the night and they delivered!

Has anyone had a more disappointing World Cup than Frank Lampard? The man is a proven scorer from mid-field (broke the midfielder scoring record in the EPL, he did) and he comes into the WC, takes more shots than anyone else, with less to show for it than anyone. Can't even hit a gimme PK. Boo!

Oh, and Wayne Rooney. Grow up, Wayne. You step on another player's nuts and any referee with balls is going to red card you. Way to suck the life out of a team that was working hard for victory. When you were 17 and 18, this crap was cute. Now, people expect more out of you. Think about that for the next four years. Oh, and by the way, you've got a couple of weeks to think about how you're going to thank Cristiano Ronaldo for his work demanding the ref red card you.