Tag: soccer (Page 7 of 9)

Hot Sports Takes, Part 1

July 14, 2014 / DB

A few topics of importance that must be addressed. Turns out I wrote more about the World Cup that I expected, so I’ll split it into two posts.

The World Cup

As tends to happen, the final was a bit frustrating for those of us who enjoy soccer. Another game that went deep into extra time before a brilliant goal saved it from being decided on penalty kicks. It was frustrating because, as the natural conservatism of most coaches/teams took over in the knockout rounds, the beauty of the group-stage of this Cup got sucked away. At least to those who only look at the final score.

This game, though, was a fine one all around. Neither team sat back and waited for mistakes. Both teams pushed forward when they had the chance. Argentina missed two terrific chances to score in regular time. Germany missed one. Both defenses were aggressive and stout rather than playing the “park the bus” defense that has appeared in these games in the past.

But the fact is no one could convert until very late, and for the soccer haters it’s more evidence that “soccer is boring.”

Oh well. To each their own. If you didn’t enjoy this game, I’m not going to try to convince you of why you should have.

Some bullet points scribbled down during the game:
* I love the singing of the national anthems before World Cup games. Especially when the stands are full of fans of each team. The shots of spectators singing along gloriously are fantastic. Argentina may have the greatest national anthem ever, based on what I saw Sunday. Apparently there are no words, but that didn’t stop the fans from jumping up and down and “singing” along with the music. That was a gorgeous site. Also, props to the Argentinian section that had a huge banner of the Pope. That made me laugh out loud.
* I loved ESPN’s Ian Darke saying German coach Joachim Loew looked like a “Bond movie villain.”
* Speaking of Darke, he and analyst Steve McManaman were terrific. They both understand the game well, have all those lovely British phrases that make soccer sound better than when Americans broadcast it, have tremendous rapport, and are often quite funny. McManaman isn’t afraid to call out players, coaches, or referees either. More former players who sit in the broadcast booth need his candor.
* I loved how they both uttered a long “OOOOOHHH!” when Lionel Messi had a wonderful move early in the game. It wasn’t a sound of hype. It was a sound of genuine awe. To the casual fan Messi had the ball in the box and lost it before he could shoot. They saw, though, him making a couple phenomenal moves that few other players in the world could make.
* Props to FIFA for getting these games started quickly. They bring the teams out and play the national anthems before the top of the hour. The players run around for two minutes and the game starts. None of this 8:37 kickoff bullshit you get in the Super Bowl.
* Perhaps it was just how the crowd microphones were placed/processed, but both sets of fans sounded very loud. A far cry from the often sterile crowds that you get at US events like the Super Bowl and Final Four that are played at neutral sites. I’m sure a significant portion of the crowd was given over to corporate sponsors and celebrities in Rio. But it sure sounded like the majority of seats were filled with Germans and Argentinians.
* I laughed out loud at how German Michael Ballack and the Argentinian (I forget his name) who worked in the ESPN studios both used “We” to describe their home teams. We give all the Dukies that ESPN employs in their college basketball coverage a lot of grief. But they never say “We,” when discussing how the Blue Devils can play better in the second half.
* There were 75,000 and change at Sunday’s game. If you watched, you know that the old stadium on the same site held 200,000 people for the 1950 final game. Can you imagine that many people watching a game in one spot? That’s two Rose Bowls. Two Michigan Stadiums. Nearly three Texas Stadiums. That’s nuts.
* Mario Göetze’s¹ game winning goal was an astounding piece of work. Collecting a beautiful cross on the run, getting a perfect first touch, and then immediately shooting to past the goalie. That’s how you win a damn World Cup! He’s drinking for free forever.
* Enough with the pictures of crying children when their teams are about to lose. The camera folks (not sure who was in control of them, ESPN or someone else) seemed more concerned with finding distraught Argentinians than showing the action after Göetz’s goal.

Good on Germany for winning their fourth title. Had they lost, their epic, astounding, unreal destruction of Brazil in the semifinals would be a footnote to history. Winning the final confirms that they were the best team over the last month. They beat the three of the four other best teams along the way. Given how Holland played against Argentina in their semifinal, I don’t know that the Dutch would have had the answers for their arch-rivals.

I was neutral for this, not really having any strong rooting interest either way. I was kind of hoping Lionel Messi would play well and take his place among the game’s historical elite. But I enjoyed how the Germans played as a team. That said, pity how people are piling on Messi already. So he’s not in Maradonna and Pele’s class. He’s still one of the three best players in the world now. And based on what he’s done for the past decade, one of the all time greats. It’s possible to say he’s not quite at the top without ripping the dude apart.

I remember thinking, when the Germans won their last cup in 1990, that with reunification coming, Germany would turn into an unstoppable soccer force for decades to come. They won the 1996 European title, but had consistently failed in the semifinals in tournament-after-tournament since. They were regularly very good, but never great. It’s taken longer than I thought, but with a vibrant, diverse young crop of players, might Germany be on the verge of becoming the world soccer power? I guess we’ll find out in two years when the next European championships roll around, and then two years later when the World Cup goes to Russia.

Finally, looking back on my pre-tournament predictions, I was right about 50% at each stage. I picked 9 of the Round of 16 teams correctly. Then picked half of the next stages correctly; four of eight quarterfinalists, two of the semifinalists, and one final participant. Alas, I had Argentina beating Brazil 3-1.

I’ve seen it spelled Göetze and Götze across different sites. Is it really that hard? ↩

Sports Be Bummin’ Me Out, Yo

June 23, 2014 / DB

That title is how I think L., the most hip-hop of my girls, might describe the past week’s worth of sports for me. There have been a few bummers. Let’s break it down, in reverse order.

I’ve watched five minutes of the World Cup.¹ Those five minutes were the last five minutes of the US – Portugal game. We were at my in-laws’ house, I was following the game on my phone, and saw the US had gone up 2-1 late. I scrambled to their TV, found ESPN, and prepared to watch the the US clinched a spot in the round of 16.

Whoops. Hello, Jinx!

I hate Christiano Ronaldo. Hate him. But his pass to Silvestre Varela, who headed it in to snatch the late tie, was a thing of absolute beauty. On the run, with defensive pressure, he fires a ball forward and across the field, curling it around the US back line and right into Varela’s path. It was an utterly amazing.

It was a tie that felt like a loss for the US. They had a European power beaten, were through from the Group of Death, and had found ways to win two games late. And then it was gone. They can still get through, but it will take help. It will be a travesty if Ghana hammers Portugal and get through after the US finally beat them a week ago.

One other quick Cup thought: the Holland – Mexico Round of 16 game could be epic. Both sides are playing very well, with Holland being the most dominant team of the round robin stage. Feels like the team that comes out of this one plays Argentina in the semi-finals.

OK, back to the bummers. The Royals. I was set to write something about their hot streak and how they were, improbably back in the AL Central race after their 10-game winning streak. Then they promptly lost four-straight and fell back into second.

And as I type this, they’re beating Zack Greinke.

I guess they’re proving the Internet adage that you can’t predict baseball.

We’ll table the Royals talk for a few more days, to see how this week goes, but it was a huge bummer of a weekend after their great stretch before that.

Finally, Joel Embiid’s latest injury.

What a bummer. He’s still going to be a rich man after the draft. But not nearly as rich as everyone thought he would be. And he now has the stigma of falling into the Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, Greg Oden list of big men with bad wheels who saw their careers cut short.

I really hope he heals and can have a long, successful career. And there’s a part of me that still thinks that anyone who passes on him is insane. I think the math remains the same with him. He has the highest ceiling of anyone in the draft. Even in the age of the marginalized low post player, Jojo could be the most dominant player in the NBA, should his best-case scenario come to pass. Both Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker could be very, very good players. But neither will ever be the best guy in the league.

I know general managers are all about assessing risk and making the smart choice, sometimes passing on the highest potential payoff because of the dangers that come with it. A guy who scores 18 points a game for five years might not be sexy, but he’s better than a guy who shows flashes of dominance but can never stay healthy. Or at least he is to a GM worried about making the pick that costs him his job.

I hope Jojo heals and plays for years not because I want to see what he can do with more experience, more strength, more basketball knowledge. Not just because KU needs another dominant pro with Paul Pierce’s career winding down. I want him on the court in the NBA so I can have more of those moments that I had this past winter, when he would do something ridiculous on the court and I would just start laughing in amazement.

More on the draft, of course, later this week. It’s tradition, after all!

Remember, we are currenly experimenting with the cable-free lifestyle. I’d be watching every game if we still had ESPN. ↩

World Cup 2014

June 11, 2014 / DB

I’m not the soccer fan I once was. That’s not because I like soccer any less, but rather because I just have a harder time squeezing it into my schedule. Which is kind of a shame because this is the glory age for American soccer fans.

When I first began following European soccer after the 1994 World Cup, viewing options were extremely limited. ESPN would show a few Champions League games each year, sometimes just the final. Each week I checked my local listings and set the VCR to record the Italian Serie A highlights show that the Prime Sports Network usually broadcast at 3:00 AM.¹ Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Fabrizio Ravanelli, and Gianluca Vialli! Good times.

A few weeks back, NBC turned every one of its TV outlets over to the English Premier League, showing each match of the final day of the season live in the States. ESPN devotes significant time to the Champions League, shows the UEFA European Championships, and carries many US and Mexican national team matches. In addition to NBC and Fox’s coverage of the Premier League, shooting a few extra bucks to your cable provider opens up a whole tier of channels that carry pretty much every European domestic league.

If you want to see soccer, you can. We’ve come a long way.

All that is a long-winded² introduction to my World Cup predictions. I’m excited about the World Cup, but reservedly so. I don’t think the US is getting out of its group. My Italians are in the midst of a changing of the guard, and not likely to advance deep into the tournament. And then there’s the fact we’re in the midst of our cable-less stretch, so I can’t watch the ESPN games from the comfort of my couch after the girls go to bed. And we’re generally out-of-town on the weekends, meaning I’ll miss the weekend games on ABC.

Oh well. Sometimes it’s more fun to read about the World Cup after the fact. I’ve been reading a lot of retrospective articles about past Cups this week. I suppose that will be my way of experiencing this year’s event, too.

Anyway, on to my half-assed picks!

Quarterfinals

Brazil over Italy. Sigh. No magic for Andrea Pirlo and Gli Azzurri this time.
France over Germany. My first upset. The tournament sets up nicely for Les Bleus and I think the Germans are vulnerable.
Uruguay over Spain. My other big upset. Cup holders Spain go out valiantly, but fall to the hungrier South Americans who hope to match their big brother neighbors with a deep tournament run.
Argentina over Portugal. Christiano Ronaldo has, for now, surpassed Lionel Messi as the world’s best player.³ But Ronaldo does not make Portugal better than Messi’s Argentine team.

Semifinals

Brazil over France. I think Brazil plays under a tremendous amount of pressure in this tournament. I don’t think it gets to them here, though. Or at least France isn’t strong enough to take advantage of a nervous effort by the hosts.
Argentina over Uruguay. The game of the tournament. Free flowing. Fast paced. Beautiful soccer. Luis Suárez scores two early, but Messi matches him. And Sergio Aguero gets a late winner to set up the Dream Final.

Final

No surprise that FIFA, the most corrupt sports body in the world, gave Brazil and Argentina fairly easy groups on opposite sides of the draw. So kudos to them, I guess.

Here’s where the pressure hits the hosts. They clamp down on Messi and take him out of the game, but the rest of the Argentines pick up their game, and then some.

After, Brazilians complain about how their team has shifted to playing a more European-style, forgoing the classic jogo bonito that Brazil made famous. Which is ironic. In all the retrospectives of past cups, the 1982 Brazil team is often listed as the best to ever play in the Cup Finals. That team, however, lost to Italy in the semifinals, ushering in an era where Brazil dialed back the fun in interest of not letting teams back in the game. It’s time to put the bonito back in Brazil!

Argentina 3, Brazil 1

There’s a whole generation of sports fans that don’t understand the concept of the highlight show, whether it is the Serie A review show, “This Week In Baseball,” or something similar. We get our highlights in real time now. No more reading about a game and then finally seeing grainy highlights a week later. ↩
From moi??? ↩
Uruguay’s Luis Suárez might have something to say about that. ↩

Soccer Wrap Up

November 7, 2013 / DB

It’s been a nice, relaxing week. With the exception of C.’s Daisy Scouts meeting yesterday, we’ve not had a single event outside of school. Which has been nice after two-plus months of soccer practice and games.

M. and C. wrapped up their seasons on Sunday. M.’s team had a great game against an opponent that had not lost all season. It was a tense affair, as the coaches for the other team were being very aggressive, throwing all their defenders forward the entire game, in an effort to clinch the undefeated season. M.’s team went up 1-0 in the first half, trailed 2-1 late in the fourth, and got a tying goal on a free-kick just outside the box with less that two minutes to play. It was a fun, entertaining game, and all the parents were super into it.

M. got better over the course of the year, but still struggles with the physical part of the game. It’s frustrating for us to watch her start from zero again when each season begins and have to slowly build confidence and remember technique. The thing is, as I’ve said every year, is that she loves being out there with her teammates. She never really gets down when she messes up, or when her team loses. But, as the other kids get bigger and improve, she’s also going to be the target of harsh words from teammates if she’s the weak link. There were a few times this year when some of her male teammates yelled at her. I have a feeling she won’t be able to shake that off much longer.

In her defense, even the girls on her team who are more skilled than her exhibit some of the same on-field behavior: standing around staring at the sidelines instead of watching the ball, talking to their friend next to them, or getting caught flat-footed when a faster player runs right by them.

Most of M.’s teammates from the past two seasons are moving up to the U-13 league in the spring. She’s not old enough, or skilled enough, to go along with them. So we may hold her out of soccer in the spring, and beyond that we’ll just have to see.

C. scored another goal and had an assist in her game. Her team came a long way this year. They were awful the first couple weeks. In one early game I don’t think they ever got the ball near the other goal. By the end of the season they had figured it out and were consistently pushing forward and getting scores. We thought it was cool that C. and the other Kate on her team scored the first two goals this past week.

C. kills me on the soccer field. She’s always running and always giggling. As long as she doesn’t get kicked or take a shot in the stomach, she’s constantly working to get close to the ball and has a big grin on her face. We’re not sure if we’re going to do soccer for everyone in the spring, but she will move up to the next league in the fall. I’ll be really interested to see how she fits in at that level. She’s fast and can control the ball, but does get frustrated and upset more than M. does.

L.’s season ended a week earlier. She was excited to get her trophy and team picture, both firsts for her. I lost track of how many goals she scored this year, but she had at least three five-goal games. She was the only player on her team who knew to go to the goal when she got the ball. She almost always kept the ball in the middle of the field and worked towards the center if she was outside. She was persistent, getting in the middle of the scrums and kicking to force the ball out. And she understood that when the other team breaks out, you run to the ball and take it away rather than running all the way back to the goal. As a coach, her most significant accomplishment this season was only crying once, by far a team low.

Seriously, I know we had a bunch of kids that began the year as just four-year-olds, but there was a lot of crying. In practice. In games. Crying because they got kicked or knocked over. Crying because they didn’t get to play. Crying because they had to play. Crying because they didn’t get to take throw-ins. Crying because we were using their ball. Crying because we weren’t using their ball. And I’m sure there were tears for other reasons I’m forgetting.

One kid clearly had some issues. He was the biggest kid on the team, was fast, and when he focused could kick the crap out of the ball. But he was really reluctant to get in and mix it up, generally content to stand just behind the action. If the other team took possession, he would run full speed back to the goal and turn to guard it. Even with me yelling, “Come back to the ball!” he’d just keep running.

And he didn’t deal with negativity well. One game we gave up two-straight goals after he did his turn-and-run act then failed to try to stop the ball. His mom yelled something to him about getting in there and playing after the first goal. I didn’t hear what she said after the second, but as I was walking the ball back to midfield for the kickoff, I saw him running, full-speed, off our field, across the next, then through the baseball fields and towards the parking lot. Dude just took off! By this point in the season I had seen this a few times so I calmly looked to the sideline and yelled for one of our other players to come in. Good times.

The league has a nice socio-economic mix, with both well-off families and working class ones, with a decent number of black and Latin families. L. had one teammate named LaMont and another that preferred to go by Juice. Both were white. Perhaps my favorite details of this season.

L. had a great first year of soccer. She was aggressive, had lots of fun, and lived up to the Wiggins-like hype from those who saw her dribble around while her sisters played last spring. I kid. Kind of. The parents who watched her last spring were not surprised when she would march over and tell them how many goals she scored after each game this fall. No truth to the rumor I’m repurposing our garage this winter so that L. has cones to dribble through and a full net to fire on.

Fall Break Notes

October 28, 2013 / DB

Wrapping up our break of fall while watching Game Four of the World Series.

Lots of fun crammed into the past four days. We headed down to the LVS Thursday afternoon. It was cold, rainy¹, and the LVS lacks cable and internet. This was our first time trying such an outing. I’ll admit, I was a little worried. But everything worked out pretty well. The girls played and read and watched movies and, yes, fought and annoyed us on occasion. But for the most part they were pretty good.

Friday we headed over to Bloomington, which despite being only about 20 miles away as the crow flies, ends up being an hour trip because of the hilly terrain of Brown County, Indiana. But if you have to drive through Brown County, this is the time of the year to do it. Lots of good fall foL.ge to look at as we headed to B-town.

Surprisingly, this was the girls’ first trip to Bloomington. S. picked one of her favorite spots for lunch, which turned out to be the place I ate lunch two days after C. was born. That made her kind of happy. After lunch we walked over to campus and I tried to get the obligatory picture of the girls in front of the Sample Gates. They weren’t having it, so we headed into the main campus. S. led the way with C. and L. and I was just behind. I noticed M. wasn’t with me. I turned around and she was hanging back, and inching away from campus.

“M., what are you doing? Come on,” I yelled at her.

“Are we allowed in there?” she asked.

I laughed out loud and said, “Sure, anyone can walk in.” I loved that her understanding of schools is that strangers can’t just walk in, and she thought the same rules that apply to St. P’s applied to setting foot on a college campus.

We made a big circuit of campus, showing off some of the buildings where S. took classes, the home of the J-school where I took classes, and some of the other landmarks. We walked all the way to S.’s old sorority house and showed the girls the brick with S.’s name on it.

M.’s favorite building was the Union. She told us at least three times that she loved it because it was “a hallway, then it turned into a coffee shop, then there was a place to eat, then there was a toy store (the gift side of the bookstore), then it turned into a bookstore, then another hallway, then another coffee shop…” She will happily tell you this with a gleam in her eye like it’s the greatest thing in the world, cramming all this stuff into one building. And we didn’t show her the bowling alley, which might have made her head explode. She also didn’t understand how S. didn’t know who the principal of IU was when she was in school. There’s just no easy way to explain to a nine-year-old how 40,000 people attend one school.

It was a clear, crisp day, and, being a Friday afternoon, campus was kind of deserted. We had to explain why so many people were just walking around (“College isn’t like your school. You might have a class in the morning, a couple hours off, then another class after lunch.”) I liked the kid on a campus tour who was wearing a Louisville shirt. Nothing like trolling while checking out colleges.

Back to the LVS for a campfire, yard work, and putting the watercraft away for the winter.

Saturday we headed south to Louisville. We have friends who have a family member on the management team of a casino just on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. They brought their boys, so the kids used the pool, played games together, and otherwise had fun. It had been a long time since I had been to a casino, especially a Midwestern one. I forgot the joys of walking through rooms full of smokers and all the terrific people watching you can do in a casino. Man, there are some pieces of work down there.

My buddy is a Cardinals fan, so we retired to the bar after dinner to watch Game Three, which ended up being a great, crazy, nutjob of a game. It was fun to watch it with a nervous Cards fan. More fun was the idiot Sox fan a few empty chairs away from me who only got part of the final play of the game. “HOW CAN THEY CALL HIM SAFE? HE NEVER EVEN TOUCHED HOMEPLATE! THAT’S HOW THEY JUST ENDED A WORLD SERIES GAME!” she kept screaming to her friends. I kind of wanted to tell her why the runner was safe, but figured it was more fun to let her rant like a loon.

The big bummer of our time at the casino was that we missed ZZ Top by two nights! Apparently the concert hall was totally packed on Thursday night when they rolled through. Kind of a shame they’ve been reduced to the casino circuit, but I bet they’re appreciated by the crowds there.

Sunday we got up bright and early and hightailed it north to get home in time for soccer. This was supposed to be the last week of games, but all our rainouts mean we’ll play again next week. L., after being shut-out in the humiliating 857-1 loss last week, scored three quick goals and finished with five for the day, her second five-goal game of the season. C. played at the same time and also scored a goal as well. As L. and I walked over after our game finished, C. came running at me screaming that she had scored. M. again had the late game and played pretty solid, including a pretty nifty save while she was in goal. One more week and we’ll finally have our weeknights and Sundays back.

Man, another crazy end to a World Series game. This has been a super entertaining series. It’s a shame every game is ending at approximately midnight Eastern, which cuts the already small audience further. You really have to make a decision whether you’re going to stick with it and be miserable in the morning or just catch up on the craziness in the morning.

We actually drove through mixed snow and rain on the way down. ↩

Kids, Football, And Seeing My Name In Ink

October 15, 2013 / DB

Slapping together some notes while attempting to actually stay awake past halftime of a Monday Night Football game, as the Colts are battling the Chargers. Not sure why I’m bothering. The Colts vs. San Diego has been nothing but bad news for about ten years.

My assignment last Friday was to cover RHS going to play DCHS, the team that lost the 83-78 thriller earlier this year. DCHS came in averaging 56 points and 550 yards per game. Their average gain on running plays this year was 8.5 yards. They had not scored less than 40 points through their first seven games.

So naturally RHS held them scoreless in the first half and won 41-28. It was an impressive, and surprising, performance, and made for a decent story. Although there were so many numbers to deal with – DC held to half their season average in points, lost as many turnovers as they had lost all year, gained 50 yards fewer than their average, etc. – that it was hard to squeeze it all in. But another beautiful night at a stadium.

Since we don’t live in the delivery area for my paper, I’ve only read my stories online. But we were down that way Saturday and I ducked into a gas station to pick up a copy. It was kind of fun to show the girls my name in the paper. Hell, it was cool for me to see it.

Last academic year, we made it all the way to April before any of the girls puked. This year we didn’t even make it to fall break. C. woke up sick Friday night and threw up a couple times Saturday. We learned at soccer Sunday that one of her teammates was also sick that night. At practice Monday we heard of other kids from St. P’s who have been puking. Really hoping this bug doesn’t go through the whole family like that April one did.

I’ve been fighting a cold for a few days. It’s one of those annoying colds that isn’t full-blown, but is worst at nighttime. Trying to sleep my throat gets scratchy, then I can’t breathe, and I spend a couple hours tossing and turning. So I was thoroughly wiped out Sunday night and went to bed when the Red Sox were still being no-hit. Sadly I missed the late-game fireworks. We’ll see if Big Papi’s grand slam was more Kirk Gibson 1988 or Albert Pujols 2005.

Your girls soccer update: L. scored two more goals this week, bringing her total to 12 through four games. Again, not that I’m keeping track. C. struggled with the after-effects of being sick and was not much of a factor in her game. And I missed M.’s game coaching L..

Well, I made it through the entire game. And, as expected, was rewarded with a Colts loss. I wish I knew what it was about the Chargers that makes them the Colts’ kryptonite. But man do I hate losing to them. Well, mostly losing to Philip Rivers, even if he is my fantasy QB.

Bits And Pieces

October 9, 2013 / DB

It’s been a busy and frustrating couple of weeks. And some of it is beginning to catch up with us.

The last two Sundays we’ve had torrential rains, which have wiped out soccer games each week. L. had her first make-up game last night (She scored two early goals, then none after that.) and M. has one tonight. Plus regular practices on top of that has us rushing around even more than normal. Throw in a Daisy Scout meeting, my two shifts at the school library, and this week has absolutely flown by.

I had another quality football game last Friday. I watched FHS win their fifth game of the year, getting an impressive road win over a team they had only beaten three times over the previous 19 years. I had the odd experience of hearing the coach say variations on his post-game comments four times. I caught part of his speech to his team, then listened in as he did a radio interview. I grabbed him next for a few questions for my story. Then, as I was driving home, he called into the state-wide scores and interview show where I heard him talk once more.

The coach is very young and in his first year at FHS. He has them playing good football and is full of enthusiasm. I have a feeling if he can get them winning consistently, he won’t be there very long. It’s kind of cool to get to see him in the early days of what could be a long and very successful career.

Other weekend football:
KU.
Ugh. Remember when I threw out the possibility that the Jayhawks could be 4-0 coming into last week’s Texas Tech game with a huge chance to make a statement? So much for that. The offensive line is so bad that it’s really hard to know if the team is better than last year or not. Jake Heaps rarely has time to throw, and when he does his receivers either can’t get open or can’t catch the ball. So I have no idea if he’s good or not.
The weak o-line has rendered KU’s terrific set of running backs nearly useless. And Charlie Weis can’t help himself not to make 3-4 wacky calls a game, always at the worst possible moment. All that keeps putting a defense that has improved on the spot to bail them out. You have to be able to score in the Big 12, no matter how good your defense is. It feels like the defense will make plays in the first half and then get rolled over in the second half for the next two months. But I guess two wins is a doubling of last year’s total, so that’s progress. Right?

All that has made the hype for Wiggins and his pals even more deafening, something I didn’t think was possible.

Colts-Seahawks.
Man, what a game! I was literally shaking for nearly an hour after the game ended from all the adrenaline pumping through me.¹ The Colts just keep making plays, on both sides of the ball, when the result is in question. I’m still not convinced it’s the right thing to go to this balanced offense but I’m being swayed in that direction as it seems to be working. Now, if they can just get Trent Richardson running better. He almost looks too big to me, as if he’s bulked up to survive the NFL and that’s taken half-a-step from him. That trade will be discussed for years, but with Ahmad Bradshaw going out for the season, it makes even more sense.

Finally, I broke my losing streak and won my first fantasy game of the year last week! And I had to make a deal with the devil, picking up Phillip Rivers, to do it. But I won’t go 0-13 and I’m still in the running for the last-place money. Win-win.

There have been some great games in the MLB playoffs. Between all the other things going on, I wasn’t able to watch the quadruple header days in full. ² But still, the Detroit-Oakland series has been incredible. Game three of the Boston-Tampa game was a classic. I hope the LCSes are as much fun as some of these games have been.

Finally, I sent a message to my local Cardinals fan friend just before St. Louis closed out Pittsburgh last night asking if his boys were allowed to stay up and watch. A few minutes later I got a response: a video of his seven-year-old in his baseball pants, a Cards hat, and no shirt, sitting at their keyboard, playing a perfect version of “Charge” on their keyboard. Duh-duh-duh-DUT Dah-dah. Charge! It looked like they were having a good time.

Maybe someday I’ll keep the girls up to watch the Royals close out a playoff series. Then again, since I dropped a big, fat F-bomb in front of them and their Cardinals buddies when Peyton threw his pick six in the Super Bowl three years ago, maybe it would be best to treat a Royals playoff game like an important KU game in March/April: the girls go to one part of the house with S. and I get the basement to myself.

Of course, that could have just been the extra caffeine I poured into myself to fight a nasty migraine. ↩
And we don’t have the MLB Network, although I could have streamed those games. ↩

Walking Off The Weekend

September 23, 2013 / DB

Your weekly weekend wrap-up, featuring a two-hour stretch from Sunday that was as good as any sports moment this year.

This was no ordinary weekend. No, we had visitors! The Nesbitts traveled from Kansas City (with the Belfords also traveling here, but staying with the Heberts) for the Missouri-Indiana football game Saturday. There were plans to attend the local high school football game Friday, but rain ruled that out. ¹

Saturday we cruised down to Bloomington for several hours of excellent tailgating and then the big SEC – Big 10 matchup. ² Fortunately for those of us who weren’t terribly interested in the outcome, IU made it a game for a little while, and then MU pulled away at the end of the third quarter so that we could leave a bit early. These 8:00 kickoffs are rough for old folks with sitters watching the kids 90 minutes away.

It was great to have good friends visit and to enjoy absolutely perfect weather for football on Saturday.

Sunday was a soccer day for us, and we got the ideal schedule, at least from the parents’ perspective. Three games, all at the same time. S. had to do some shuffling around to catch glimpses of each girl, but I was tethered to L.’s field as a coach. She scored two goals, and seemed a bit down on herself for just scoring that many times. Never mind most of the kids in the game didn’t come close to scoring and the competition was a little better than last week.

I was able to swivel my head and see C.’s field, but missed her scoring her first goal of the year. By the time we got to M.’s field, after the two younger sisters had slapped hands with their opponents and gathered their post-game snacks, we got to see the last 4-5 minutes of the U-10 team’s game. And they were clearly either up big or down big because M. was playing forward. Turns out her team won easily and she was happy, so it was a solid day all around.

Race home in time for the Colts game. As I’m watching their bruising first touchdown drive, I’m following the Royals game on my phone. When Eric Hosmer doubled to lead off the tenth, I turned the TV down and toggled the audio on MLB. Bases loaded, no outs, became bases loaded two outs. The Royals seemed to be Royaling the chance to win away.

3-2, two outs, and, well, many of you know what happened next.

Justin Maxwell ends the home season with a swing that will never be forgotten, no matter what happens over the final week of the season. It’s a shame the Royals aren’t just a game back and Cleveland was playing someone difficult this week. Because Maxwell’s home run could be like one of George Brett’s three home runs against California in that epic September 1985 series, when the Royals won three-of-four and leapfrogged into first place on their way to the World Series title. But, even if it’s not perfect, that was a pretty amazing way to end the final home game of the year, clinch a winning season, and send a capacity crowd home happy.

By the time I listened to all the post-game stuff on the radio, got the kids inside, and began getting dinner ready, the Colts were up 10-7 at halftime. Surely the 49ers would make adjustments at the half and take control of the game in the third quarter. But the Colts’ defense kept containing them and forcing them to punt while the offense missed a couple chances to increase the margin.

A missed Colts field goal seemed to set the Niners up to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, but the defense held once again and the offense put together another long drive, with Andrew Luck running the bootleg to put the Colts up 17-7. A Colin Kaepernick fumble followed by Ahmad Bradshaw’s second touchdown gave the Colts two scores in 72 seconds, and a huge road win.

As I wrote last week, I thought the trade for Trent Richardson was a great move for the Colts. I was a little surprised that so much of the national reaction was mixed. When I read Bill Simmons’ reaction Sunday morning, I started to get worried. This line was especially sobering.

After the Colts lose in San Francisco this Sunday, they’ll be 1-2 with a home-and-home against Houston, home games against Seattle and Denver, and road games at San Diego, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Arizona and Kansas City remaining. They won’t be favored in any of those nine games. It’s true.

I mean, wow. I hadn’t thought of that at all. And, as Simmons wrote, if Luck gets injured this year the season is completely shot and they traded away a top quarter of the draft pick for a running back with serious questions.

Turns out the Colts didn’t lose Sunday, though, and who knows if San Diego, Tennessee, Arizona, and the Chiefs will be as dangerous when the Colts play them as they are now.

I still don’t buy all those questions about Richardson. We’ll have to wait and see how he fits in in Indy. And who’s to say that if the Colts do suck this year and they would be in position to draft in the top five next April, the guy they picked then would be any better than Richardson? I still say it’s a perfectly reasonable risk to take given the rest of the roster.

And, more importantly, I’m hoping this new level of toughness the defense showed on Sunday is a regular thing going forward and not a one-week fluke after last week’s loss. They shut down a very dangerous offense, on the road. Keep that effort up and life should become much easier for Luck, Bradshaw, Wayne, and Richardson not needing 30+ points to win. Now, if they can just find a way to protect Luck better. He can only take that beating for so long.

Between the walk-off grand slam and the Colts terrific performance in San Francisco, Sunday afternoon was a great capper to a fantastic weekend.

I can sit in some rain to watch some football. We weren’t so sure the kids would hold up as well, though. ↩
Or B1G as the Big 10 now refers to itself, even in graphics on the Big 10, errr, B1G network. ↩

Weekend Notes

September 16, 2013 / DB

Well, that was pretty easy. As you can tell by reading this, the site is up and running just fine. It took me about half an hour to make the final changes and move the site over to its new home. I’ll write about the changes in the next day or so, but the important thing is that everything appears to be working fine.

The weekend was chock full of activities for us.

Friday night was a series of special nights for our girls. M. and her buddy next door went out to eat and to shop with their moms. C. and her pal went with the neighbors’ dad to a jump place and McDonald’s.

Which left L. and I. I did not have a game to cover – I covered the county tennis meet on Thursday – so I asked her where she wanted to eat. And after shooting down her first two ideas – McDonald’s or Wendy’s – by reminding her we could eat at those places anytime, she shouted out, “Barbecue sandwiches!” Alrightie, then! So we went to a local ‘cue joint where she had the had pulled pork, I had a combo plate, and we had fun eating together. After that, I took her for her first ever round of miniature golf. She played it a little more like hockey, following her ball and batting it forward constantly, but she loved it.

To top off the night we hooked up with the big sisters and other parents at another neighbor’s home where a fire was roaring and the kids made smores while the parents drank beer and enjoyed the fire.

Saturday was a damn perfect day here. It was one of those fall days I kind of hate, as it was gorgeous outside, but there was lots of football on inside. And we have a couple new soccer channels so I could flip between soccer games in England, Italy, Spain, and France all at the same time. It’s a fine way to avoid Big 10 football. C. had a friend over to play, so they made cake pops for us all to enjoy. In the evening, S. and I got to go to a very nice restaurant for dinner with her partners. There’s never anything wrong with eating steak.

Despite all that, Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. It was our first week of soccer. The girls’ teams all opened the season a week ago while we were flying back from Boston, so they were anxious to catch up.

C.’s team is the opposite of her team a year ago, which featured three large, older boys who could power through the other teams at will. This year’s team is tiny and very young. And they were playing a team that was much bigger. It didn’t go all that well. But C. just runs around with a smile on her face and giggling the entire time she’s on the field. She got an assist late in the game.

I missed M.’s game, but her team lost a tough 1-0 contest. It sounds like she spent a lot of time on the field, but as has been her way over the years, she’s still kind of skittish early in the season and tends to shy away from action.

I missed her game because I was coaching L.’s team at the same time. Man, was she excited to finally play a game! Remember, this is the kid who would wear shin guards, cleats, and a hand-me-down uniform to her sisters’ games last spring. Her team is also pretty young, and we have some issues getting everyone to show up. But we had all five kids, it was warm but not hot, so things were looking good.

It didn’t take her long to score her first goal. Then another quickly after that.¹ Two goals in her first five minutes of action! The rest of her team did great, too; I was worried after some dicey practices that involved multiple meltdowns. I think every kid scored at least one goal. One girl scored two. Another boy scored three. And L. ended the game with five! I know, we don’t keep score, blah blah blah. But L.’s team won because homegirl scored three second-half goals. She knows how to finish strong.

So I had lots of high fives to hand out as the regular head coach was gone and I was on the field the entire game. I hate to read too much into one game this year, and C.’s team’s performance last year, but kids seem to score goals when I’m coaching them. It’s a gift, I guess.

The weekend wasn’t a total success. The Royals dropped two of three in Detroit, with an obligatory maddening managerial decision that affected the outcome Sunday. The Jayhawks lost their make-or-break game in Houston Saturday. The Colts let the Dolphins come to town and beat them. And I’m headed to 0-2 in fantasy football.

But that stuff would just have been icing on the pie. As I sit here watching Sunday Night Football on the big TV,² drinking my first Sam Adams Oktoberfest of the year, I can let those disappointments slide and savor an otherwise tremendous weekend.

Her age level is three-on-three, no goalies, although there is always a kid that turns tail and runs to guard the goal when their team loses the ball. ↩
As I recall, I used to say around this time of year that the basement was open. ↩

Farewell, Sir Alex

May 8, 2013 / DB

There are some soccer fans amongst my regular readers, so that gives me freedom to write about the massive news from Manchester: Sir Alex Ferguson is retiring as manager of Manchester United.

I hate ManU, and by association, I hate Sir Alex. I came by my hate honestly. When I was first discovering European soccer in 1994-5, ManU star Eric Cantona took his infamous flying kick at a. That’s all I needed to put the Red Devils in the hate column and they’ve been there ever since. I have learned to grudgingly respect Sir Alex and ManU. But as I became more interested in English soccer and adopted Arsenal as my club¹ there was never a chance I would hop on the ManU bandwagon like so many other Americans have done.

But good grief! Twenty-six years, 13 league titles, two European titles. He stayed and imposed his will on the entire organization in a way that rarely happens any more anywhere. ALl while speaking in his impenetrable Glasgow accent. Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs is the most similar American example. But as central Popovich is to the Spurs’ success, I don’t think he is a Mt. Rushmore coach the way Ferguson was. Great coach, absolutely. Under-appreciated, for sure. But I don’t think he’s in the discussion as the greatest ever the way Sir Alex is.

The manager/coach tends to be the most expendable element of an organization’s success. If things are going poorly, often the simple, obvious way of fixing things is sacking the manager, to use a British term. ManU had very few lean years, but Alex navigated Arsenal’s run of success, the emergence of Chelsea and Manchester City, and countless egos on ManU’s roster to always kept them in the running for the league title and playing deep into the Champions League tournament.

Manchester United was, until a few weeks ago, the biggest and most valuable soccer club in the world.² Their money went a long way towards building and sustaining their success over the past 26 years. But even with all that money and talent, I don’t think they would have been nearly as successful without Sir Alex chomping his gum on the sidelines.

All because of reading Fever Pitch. And it’s been a pretty weak adoption. I hope Arsenal does well but I don’t follow their scores or their place in the league table terribly closely. ↩
Barcelona finally passed them up. ↩