As the Senate gets ready to vote on a new bill to stave off economic disaster, and Sarah prepares (feverishly) to debate, and George Will joins the ranks of those who see her as unqualified to serve ... and some (unfortunately) find themselves feeling sorry for the lipsticked pitbull ... my thoughts turn (feverishly) to [.

Courtesy of the Trinidad and Tobago Express....

"United States Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs Columbus Crew, New England Revolution and San Jose Earthquakes all wanted to sign the fleet-footed Guyanese, following his terrific showing over two legs in the CONCACAF Champions League against the Revolution, including scoring a hat trick in Public's 4-0 victory, in the away leg in Boston earlier this month.

On the USWNT front, Lindsey Dolich has posted a nice preview on ESPNsoccernet about this post-Abby team. Abby's injury "forces the issue" as far as the USWNT's transformation goes. And I have my suspicions that the "liberating" aspects of the change may be quite strong for this team that has played laborious and [.

First (from The Writer's Almanac), a wonderful poem by Marge Piercy to start your day with something introspective - before diving into the usual sports-centric deluge! This poem runs along the thought-path I was pursuing last night just before sleep. Guess it may be time to get reacquainted with myself .

In Boston, no less. It's on the second page of this article. What's funny is that the first part depressed me a little. Economics nearly always does. The second part actually cheered me up, though.

Grant Wahl has another excellent article on SI.com - this one focusing on Heather Mitts. Who knew that she ran with the bulls at Pamplona? ... and from the St. Petersburg Times, another take on this evolving USWNT - this by John Romano. He offers a nice summary of the challenges faced by [...]SHARETHIS.

Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz' gold medal record last night -an amazing feat, indeed. I don't know about you, but I find such milestones diminished by the hype ... the marketing ... the hoopla ... the commentary. The events and the raw footage about the events is enough. The look on Michael [..

I'm happy to see that the Bay Area (San Jose, to be specific) will be joining the WPS for the 2009 season.  "Play kicks off in the spring of 2009, with WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league will expand [...]

All I can say is what a day. Sunday might go down as one of the best days of sports in a very long time from Tigers dramatic putt on the 18th to force a playoff at the US Open, to the Lakers holding on to beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals to force a game six in Boston, to the Turks dramatic win over the Czechs in Euro 2008 at the end of the day all I could say was Wow!

Some members of the MLS soccer team (not the players) the New England Revolution, were of some assistance on American Flight 725 from Boston to Las Angeles. The Man decided to take off his cloths in the bathroom and emerge naked, after being asked to put his cloths back on the man did and [...]

Take three Major League Soccer rookies, and force them to live in a house, where they stop being polite - and start getting real!

Real Life - Secaucus - Only on Red Bulls Reader!

Pretty cool stuff actually. Danleigh Borman, Luke Sassano and David Roth show us what the life of a rookie can be all about (and boy, am I ever happy that my modest apartment is better than a pro players hole in the wall).

Tomorrow, the New England Revolution will play Chivas USA in a SuperLiga match. But three members of the Revs staff have already distinguished themselves by subduing a disruptive passenger on their Boston-Los Angeles flight a few days ago. I'm pretty sure that Mike Burns, Craig Tornberg, and Gwynne Williams don't necessarily see themselves as heroes but rather as people who did what needed to be done at the time.

Tomorrow at 6AM we'll start the next leg of the Olympic tournament journey. There's not a lot in the way of soccer news in the interim. The WNT Blog is a good place to track the USWNT's travels and preparation for tomorrow's showdown with Canada. An upbeat and determined Canadian squad is [...]SHARETHIS.

The USWNT and Brazil both won in convincing fashion and will face off on Thursday morning (9AM ET) in the gold medal match. Germany and Japan (maybe it's me ... but doesn't that sound awfully World War Twoish?) will square off in the Bronze medal match-up (6AM ET). Kudos to Japan for making [...]SHARETHIS.

Seeing Nicole Petignat on Monday reffing the USWNT-Japan game brought back some really, really bad memories. Having a moment or two, here, I thought I'd Google her and see what came of it. I found, as one might expect, that she's probably human, and probably interesting, and probably not the evil (or at least unnecessarily [.

Germany-Japan are underway and Japan is looking goo so far (17th minute). meanwhile, I can't imagine what the USWNT must be feeling right now. Hopefully they are focused and confident. Their making it to the gold medal match is a wonderful accomplishment and, at the very least, has brought the eyes [.

I had a cool story passed my way yesterday. I would add to it, but the email sums it all up best:

Soccer stud and Survivor: Africa winner, Ethan Zohn, kicked off a 3-month, 550-mile journey of a lifetime yesterday evening. In the name of Grassroot Soccer UNITED, Ethan will be traveling from Boston to Washington, D.

It's been far too long since I've written about the women's game, so here's some fodder for that anticipated water cooler discussion.
I expected the returns of Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly to Boston. No surprise there. With another recognizable name like Heather Mitts on board, the Breakers have positioned themselves well with their selections.

Women's pro soccer is back. Well not quite yet. At least it will be in Spring 2009. Hopefully, some people will notice this time. WUSA folded in 2003 after only three seasons. The league went all-in after the 1999 World Cup, tried to grow too soon and eventually busted. The losses were huge (of the $100 million variety).

I read on The Writer's Almanac that it's William Carlos Williams' birthday today.  He wrote one of my favorite poems - The Red Wheelbarrow. so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. It makes me think of looking into crystalline water ... absolutely transparent and absolutely mysterious!

Been awhile since my last post. I've moved to Boston (Roslindale to be precise, slightly less riff raff but still in my price range) and it's taken a long time to get settled in. Since I last posted, the New England Revolution have rebounded from a slight slump with two solid victories. [...]

According to an FBI statement, an American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles was diverted to Oklahoma City on Friday after a passenger got naked and tried to open an emergency exit door.
None other than Major League Soccer's New England Revolution were on board traveling to LA to face Chivas USA in their final group match.

From the Yahoo/the AP:

OKLAHOMA CITY - An American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles was diverted to Oklahoma City on Friday after a passenger stripped nude and later tried to open an emergency exit door before being subdued by members of a professional soccer team and others, the FBI said.

The Survivor: Africa winner, Ethan Zohn, made history by dribbling a soccer ball 550- miles from Boston to Washington D.C. A trek that will take him 3 month to complete. He's doing it in the name of Grassroot Soccer UNITED who have organized a fight for HIV/AIDS infected patients in Africa. For more [.

If you're heading to the Revs match versus the Goats tommorrow night I'd encourage you to bring a deflated soccer ball. Strange request I know but hear me out. The Revs are collecting deflated soccer balls on Thursday at match to ship to Iraqi children. The initiative, dubbed Operation Soccer Ball, is a humanitarian effort to spread universal goodwill, camaraderie and friendship between nations and provide hope to the people of Iraq through the "universal language" of soccer.

Considering that Dema and Mathis are two of my all time favorite Metro Bulls, and I won't be at the game, I feel compelled to announce their return, and show a little love..

But the lovefest ends there!

With Espindola sidelined from a celebration gone awry, RSL will be searching for the net all night.

Boston Head Coach Tony DiCicco (far left) and WPS Part Owner and two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash (far right) pose with the Breakers three allocated players: Heather Mitts, Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly. (Women's Professional Soccer) September 16, 2008 - Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) announced the allocations of the U.

The five-time world champion Brazilian national team will play two matches in the United States this year. The Brazilians will face Canada at Qwest Field in Seattle on May 31 before traveling to Foxborough, Mass to square off against Venezuela on June 6. The latter contest will be part of a doubleheader as the New England [.

According to Frank Dell'Apa over at his blog Corner Kicks at Boston.com, Shalrie Joseph was at training yesterday with the Revolution and should play tonight against the Red Bulls. Joseph played for Grenada on Saturday and is expected to return to play for them again this weekend.

El actual campeón de la liga mexicana que participa en la SuperLiga 2008 gracias a este logro, no pudo hacer valer su condición de equipo fuerte y cayó ante el New England Revolution por un gol a cero la tarde de este Domingo, en Boston. El único gol de Kehli Dube colocó a los de la [...]

El actual campeón de la liga mexicana que participa en la SuperLiga 2008 gracias a este logro, no pudo hacer valer su condición de equipo fuerte y cayó ante el New England Revolution por un gol a cero la tarde de este Domingo, en Boston. El único gol de Kehli Dube colocó a los de la [...]

Yup - Michael Phelps won another gold in world record time. Just amazing! And yup, here we go with game three of the preliminaries, starting with Germany v North Korea and Brazil v Nigeria - both interesting match-ups - both now underway. Then, starting at 7:45 the remaining 4 matches get underway.

First, congratulations to gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on their gold and silver in the all around, and to Michael Phelps on his 6th gold and 6th world record. On the Browne front, I love it that Jackson Browne is suing the McCain campaign for stealing his music. How dumb are they? Another [.

The Survivor: Africa winner, Ethan Zohn, made history by dribbling a soccer ball 550- miles from Boston to Washington D.C. A trek that will take him 3 month to complete. He's doing it in the name of Grassroot Soccer UNITED who have organized a fight for HIV/AIDS infected patients in Africa. For more [.

In our world, death is inevitable. Except when you decide it's not. It took me 14 years to apply this perspective to my soccer fanaticism. Like many things that apply to soccer, it applies to real life as well. This may sound a bit dramatic, but what's soccer without a little drama? The story of my support for the Spanish national team begins and ends, as many stories do, with short gentlemen from Southern Europe sporting bad haircuts.

I wote both the capsule previews for the Galaxy and Chivas USA games today. Read them here.

This is the view from Boston.

This is the view from Toronto.

I'll blog from the HDC tonight.

Conceding three goals inside the last nine minutes of the game condemned Chivas USA to a 4-0 defeat against the New England Revolution Thursday and put their place in the third and final playoff spot in the Western Conference in jeopardy.

The result tied Chivas USA for their second highest margin of defeat of the season.

Amazing!  Unbelievable!  That's the Red Sox in October.  Coming back from a 7-0 deficit the Red Sox mounted a comeback for the ages and nipped the Rays in the 9th, 8-7.  Hang on to your hats, folks, and tune in on Sunday night.  It ain't over ... and a Sox-Phillies Series may still be in [...]