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.