US Nats
Check out The Don to the right of Sunil with his leg up snapping pics on his camera phone. I wonder
if they'll end up on his Facebook. Probably not since that is soooo 2007. They'll probably end up
as a background on his Twitter page (I hear it's very popular right now).
[H/T to my dudes at The Original Winger]
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A quick video from US Soccer of US supporters taking booze buses from a couple of Chicago bars to
the Trinidad match at Bridgeview. Watching it reminds me that I'm going down to D.C. for the
US-Cuba World Cup Qualifier next weekend. I'll be embedded with the North Jersey Brigade, who are
rolling down to the nation's capital 60 deep.
Happy Independance Day y'all. May your grill be as hot as a Daft Punk show and your beer as cold as
Landon's finishing. Enjoy your day...and the video.
TOR reader Jeff K sent me some video of footage he gathered from the belly of the Sam's Army beast on Sunday. Recognize anyone?
My apologies for starting the day out like this but the most recent US Soccer ad has touched a
nerve with me. I'm generally a big fan of most of their --and Nike's-- promotional campaigns,
including the most recent one dubbed "It Starts Here". But I'm not feeling this
particular ad.
Maybe I am just nerdy for noticing and nitpicky and Andy Rooney-ish for caring, but why are they
using a foreign stadium for this?
Hello young world! Did everyone in the U.S. of A enjoy their long weekend? Did everyone in the U.K.
their rainy weekend? I hope so since I had a cracking time away from the phone and the computer
except for that sh*tshow at Giants Stadium on Sunday. I honestly believe the words
"debacle" and "revenge" might have been created specifically for use in
statements referring to RBNY's epic beat down at the hands of Chicago and that up until now we have
been using the words just to keep them in circulation until their true calling was revealed to all
just 2 days ago.
Now that The Rumpus in Columbus™ is but a week away, expect the hype to start arriving at
NME-pace. Frank "The Tank" Dell'Apa over at ESPN Soccernet gets us started with a great
piece on the origins of the U.S.-Mexico rivalry in which Alexi Lalas makes liars out of Bora
Milutinovic and Sunil Gulati; His Ginger Majesty™ is the only one of the three prepared to
acknowledge the full range of passion involved in this rivalry while the latter claim their is
"no hate" between the two sides.
The only Olympic preview you'll need to read. Courtesy of ESPN's Jeff Carlisle.
With apologies to Salt Lake City (and a few trigger happy writers) there really is no option as
attractive as Crew Stadium for the WCQ against Mexico. ESPN's Steve Davis is laying down why, it's
up to you to pick it up.
Steven Goff took advantage of the Nats being in the Beltway region to take young Michael Bradley to
his first go-go concert catch up with young Michael Bradley and chat about what it was like to grow
up in that family. Good stuff from the nation's Minister of Soccer Propaganda.
Personally I would have preferred the INXS take on this; I firmly believe that no one really likes
Dylan, they just say they do because they are supposed to. Same thing goes for Patti Smith. But
whatevs, I just love that U.S. Soccer is pop-culturally astute enough to announce the roster for
the match v.
Obviously, US men's national team coach Bob Bradley is not a frequent reader of this publication.
If said 'gaffer' did was would well know that calling in Kenny Cooper to his squad for the upcoming
World Cup Qualifiers was of paramount importance and that his persistent insistence on leaving the
streaking striker out of the selection was tantamount to treason.
Bob Bradley has announced who he's bringing into camp for World Cup Qualifying. Sadly it includes Eddie "Let's face it he's ok but not great" Johnson and not Kenny "I am currently hot & second on the Golden Boot list" Cooper.
For the love of God & all that is holy, if Brian Ching can get called in can't we give the big man another look?
Y'all don't be mad at our Stuart. Can't you see that the Dutch just used him to get what they
wanted? I'm not saying he's victim but saddling him with all of the blame might be a bit much.
Stay up son, we've still got a task ahead of us.
Don't let the picture (from the US YNT blog) fool you...Kljestan hasn't gone Blanco on us. He's
still the new All-American boy of US Soccer. With it being Olympics time and everyone getting all
nationalistic and whatnot, our Sacha is quickly becoming the poster child for the American Dream.
With the Olympics sneaking up on me all Viet Cong-style, I figure there may be a few others out
there who are also on the verge of ambush. If you go over to NBC's Olympic website there's all
kinds of video, bios and stories on the competing athletes, including the soccer players.
From the US pool I found this gem on frequent flying Sacha Klejstan --whose mustachioed mug is soon
to grace the new Milk campaign-- amongst the riches.
Everyone knows that soccer is bigger in Europe than it is in the states and this is the
over-the-top proof. How big is the game in Italy? So big that they have half-naked, sexy pitch
invaders AT TRAINING SESSIONS. And what do we get at our training sessions? Un-sexy, aged
ambassadors who no one outside of The Beltway would recognize.
Everybody gets thier 15 minutes of fame, but only a select few are capable and/or lucky enough to
extend it. I mean where is the Spitzer hooker now? She could have cashed in and become a known part
of the pop cultural lexicon. But she didn't and is now nothing but roadkill upon scandals highway.
The Rest
What a nice group of young men, so innocent and child-like in their ways. Back in my day we would
have named off girls we that we would love to get with but with which we never had a prayer, not
candy. Millennials...where is their sense of self-deprecation?
You think it's bad when you f*ck with a black man's stereo, just see what happens when you f*ck
with the whole car. Now I wouldn't condone murdering someone over vandalaizing my fine
European motor car...but I would understand.
I really hope Run-DMB doesn't kill anyone over this this holiday season; it would be a real bummer
if he had to miss Bob Bradley's US camp in January because he was serving at Her Majesty's
Pleasure.
Stevie Goff is down in Guatemala somewhere --sweating like a bastard I presume-- and posted an
update on the security detail surrounding the stadium and the team hotel for the U.S. men's
national team, who are in-country for tomorrow night's World Cup Qualifying match. Check this sh*t
out:
- 1,200 police officers
- 1,000 soldiers
- 100 special forces agents
- 250 transit police
- 180 private security guards
- 1 anti-riot squad
Impressive.
Press play on the image of US Olympic midfielder Maurice Edu in China (from his personal website)
and you will see 1st hand why this maybe the most low-energy athletic event in history. Ever.
Period. FACT! When you have superb physical specimens like Edu, Jozy Altidore, and Brian McBride
saying that it's too hot, they can't see and they can't breathe WHEN THEY ARE JUST WALKING you know
there is a very real problem.
Our man Dunny (aka the player formerly known as Brian Dunseth) from The Original Winger has an idea
that's kinda out there, but kinda genius. Check out and let me know what you think.
This interview is the soccer equivalent of a one-on-one with D.B. Cooper. It is also the definition of "prick tease".
Just a heads up that tickets for a slew of non-league games are on sale now, including tickets for Red Bull New York & Chivas de Guadalajara in Arizona aka The Barnyard Cup. I know it's stretch but it'd be nice to see a few fans supporting the New York in this one so if you are an MLS fan in exile get your ass there because this circus is in town for one night only.
So to counter this mornings "boo, hiss" post about US Soccer/Nike I'd like to counter
that with a post about what I love about them. I love their ability to frame American soccer
players as real, live pro athletes and jet-set, international men of culture. When you watch clips
like this (which you can see in all it's Hi-Def, full-screen majesty at Nike.
