Ah, school starts, things ramp up, time disappears. So, quickly:

Brazil 4, US 2. Not a bad showing considering this was Brazil’s full team and the US had moments of luck and anti-luck. What find most impressive is that the US actually has enough composure to play Brazil, to stretch them at times and makes things difficult. This is a huge improvement over the bunker mentality in the 1994 World Cup, and the scrap-and-fight mentality of Copa America ’95 and Gold Cup ’98. Even though this was a friendly, the US—at times—moved the ball rapidly enough to put the Brazilian defense under pressure.

For once, the midfield looks pretty sharp. Michael Bradley is a stand-out as the midfield enforcer, timing his tackles better than hack Mastroeni (of whom I’ve never been a fan) and probably offers a bit better offensive distribution than Chris Armas (who I loved but had a knack of getting injured at the worst possible times for national team service). Donovan isn’t a superstar but he can certainly be a threat; Beasley and Dempsey, who is growing with each game, add pace and some flair.

My concerns are in the front and back. None of the central defenders—Bocanegra, Demerit, Conrad, and especially Onyewu—impress me. There’s potential for them to improve, but when? Bocanegra still switches off mentally too often as does Demerit, Conrad’s positioning has to be spot-on because he has no pace, and Onyewu is a hulk who is only good against stationary strikers. This is a problem. They’re the kind of defense that can boss undersized CONCACAF opponents handily but are prone to getting shredded against skillful or bigger strikers—the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic… These are the teams the US wants to be able to beat on a regular basis. They won’t be able to do it giving away 2, 3, 4 goals a game.

And just as worryingly is the lack of out-and-out strikers. For years, the US relied on Eric Wynalda and whoever else was on form; then it switched to Brian McBride and whoever else was on form. Now there is no go-to striker. It’s not Eddie Johnson. It’s not Taylor Twellman. It’s not Brian Ching. It’s not Josh Wolff. These guys all benefit from having a strong partner up top. That striker is currently MIA, and that’s a big problem.

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Badgers win, Packers win. The Badgers won ugly, the Packers won ugly. Both are far better than losing pretty.

I just finished The Scar moments ago and I am taking a break before pushing on to finish Dubliners. I’m of two minds about the ending of The Scar—half of me really likes all the stuff about possibility; the other half feels like the book wanted to be open-ended but wound up feeling unresolved. Still, a fine book nonetheless and one I’d recommend.

I’m getting strings of what I’d call very positive rejections of the “very well written but not quite right for us at this time” variety. Which are prone to drive a fella crazy.

I need to boost my stock of submission-ready stories and get them out before I get swamped with school. I have two are three that only need a final round of touching up before they’re off. I really should just make time to do it. I’ve vowed not to start another new story until I get these three off my back. And then there are novel revisions to start working on… Ack.

What’s strange is that writing is 100% self-motivated. No one is pressuring me to get these stories out or to revise the first-draft of the novel. I can put it off for months and no one will know or care. Except me, of course.

It’s official—Brother Todd and his lovely wife are moving to Switzerland in November. This makes me happy because they’re been wanting to engineer a move abroad for years now and it’s exciting to have a family member with a European home-base, but it also makes me very sad because we love having them only a few hours down the road in Chicago and will miss them deeply.

They have started a blog to document the experience, and if you’re interested in a fantastic condo in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, I can give you the details. They’re selling their car, too. Why not help them make sure they go to good people, huh?

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