Hey! Nothing like setting modest goals and instantly achieving them. I’ve become a huge fan of World Soccer Daily and resolved to get an email read on the air. After the first two losses by the US, I sent an email about Bradley’s record (which is largely summed up by the last bullet in this post) and was quite happy to receive a positive email back from co-host Kenny Hassan.

After the valiant defeat to Brazil, I sent a second (more inspirational) email to the guys about how the US needs to shake off this heartbreaking loss and focus on beating Mexico at the Azteca next month. Happily, Steven Cohen read it on air during Monday’s show. You can hear it around 1:24:45 on this MP3 version of the broadcast.

Pretty pleased about it.

In footie playing news, I broke my scoring streak at five goals in five matches. My touch left me at the worst possible time as our under-strength team went crashing out of the play-off semifinal two weeks ago against a team we’d beaten 3-0 twice during the season. I had an awful personal outing, but injuries and absences of key players really did us in. Having fewer subs on a scorching hot day (90+ humidity) did not help. So we won the league handily but in the end by a couple points plus a massive advantage in goals scored and goal differential, but all for naught.

In happier news, I scored a hat-trick the following Monday night but it wasn’t much to crow about considering we were playing against 8 men on the other team. Still, three decent finishes if I do say so myself. And two days ago I popped in a dandy of a goal off a corner in the first half, then recorded three saves in a 20 minute stint in goal in a second-half shut out. So four goals in two games? Again, I’ll take it.

I put down Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the book I’ve been reading along with a bunch of graphic novels, because I was having a hard time reading it. I finished Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, which I really started enjoying about half-way through, and I’m midway through The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun. All of these are on my reading list for my preliminary exams.

A plurality of voices and abrupt shifts in time in the narrative (jumping from past, present, and future) are common traits of “magical realist” texts. I’m realizing now that while this technique can be interesting and provocative in a single work, it gets to be a bit much when you see it in book after book after book. I’m ready for a straight up beginning-middle-end novel, thank you.

I’m also trying to figure out the shape of the two courses I’ll be teaching in the fall, one of which is Intro to Creative Writing. After reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and a slew of graphic novels, I’ve decided to work “visual narratives” as part of the course.

I’ve also decided not to make it a separate unit but rather work it in as an option over the course of the semester. I wasn’t convinced about the idea until I started browsing through an examination copy of Creating Nonfiction: A Guide and Anthology I received, and noted that the authors use a number of graphic illustrations featuring nonfiction. By scouring the Internet, I’ve also found tons of PDF copies of graphic novels I admire both for their art and their storytelling, so it will be easy to excerpt sections and share them with the class. I’m excited for it, especially since a quick scan of the class roster revealed that nearly a third of the class are coming from the art school.

Current Mood: Fine, Thanks |

Over the past week or so I’ve read From Hell, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and V for Vendetta. Between Alan Moore and Frank Miller, I find Moore’s work to be far more nuanced and compelling. In undergrad I took a course on comics where we read Miller’s Give Me Liberty and, while I liked the graphic novel’s premise, I didn’t like the execution. I would also say that I had high expectations for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and felt a little let down. In Miller’s stories, he does a better job with his characters than the worlds he builds, which far too black and white. Media coverage is one-sided and absurd, politicians are narrow-minded and crooked. I also felt TDKR moved at a breakneck speed and could have easily been longer by two or three episodes. I loved the artwork though.

Moore in contrast understands the need for subtlety. The media in V for Vendetta, for example, simply broadcasts the state-scripted news without any hint of the absurd, which makes it more realistic and chilling than the cartoony reporters in Miller’s work. And From Hell is a brilliant and intricate work that places a lot of demands on the reader. Sunday morning funnies this is not. Good stuff.

The silly season began with a bang when Real Madrid made the double swoop for Kaka and Ronaldo. Why do I feel like I’m one of the few people on the planet who were not surprised at all with the Ronaldo transfer? Of all the news reports flying around over the past year, here are the two things that (for whatever reason) I seemed to home in on as being key:

1) Ronaldo wanted to go Real Madrid last year but Fergie, who was resigned to losing him, convinced him to stay for one more year to try and win the Champions League, World Club Championship, and Premier League before he starts blooding a new crop of players.

2) Ronaldo’s petulance at being subbed against Man City felt contrived. In fact, I suspect that his hilarious histrionics over the past year have been intentional in order to further alienate him from Man Ure fans and ease the pain of him leaving.

Will Real’s mad spending spree result in them challenging Barcelona’s throne? I kind of doubt it. It seems to me that they need to be buying the highest quality defenders available rather than buying purely offensive talent. And now David Villa and Franck Ribery are allegedly next? Not a lot of fellows there who enjoy tracking back to get a tackle in.

And let’s spare a moment for poor Valencia, who look to offload their best players in order to stay afloat. Villa, Silva, Juan Mata and Albiol seem pretty certain to leave in order to pay back the club’s debts. Valencia have unearthed some of the most exciting talents in the modern game, and I used to love to watch them play with the likes of Gaizka Mendieta and Joaquín in their heyday.

The US plays Italy today at 1:30. I predict a loss. I watched Brazil and Egypt play an absolute barn burner this morning. The US plays Brazil on Thursday and Egypt on Sunday. I predict… erm… um… a loss and a loss. I would certainly love to be wrong, but the order of the day at the Confederations Cup has been slick, quick passing on the carpet. The US’ long ball schtick will not work. Will. Not. Work. And if Egypt and Brazil play like they did today, they will both shred the US defense.

Spain? OMG. So frigging good it’s sick. Easily the most fun team to watch on the planet. They made the Kiwis look absolutely clueless. Gotta love it.

I scored again last Saturday. That makes it five goals in five games. Mad City United topped the tables with a record of 13-0-3 and will steam into the play-offs as the number one seed this upcoming weekend. If we win that, I will regrettably be out of town for the final the next weekend.

My end of the regular season stats? Six goals in the twelve games I played. Once again, I have to toot my own horn: a goal every other game from the defensive midfield? I’ll take it!

Current Mood: Fine |

The soccer team has been on a tear as of late. We dropped the first game of the spring season and now we’ve rattled off six straight wins. Happily, I’ve banged in goals the last three games and, unlike the pair I scored in the fall, this trio have been pretty good: a hard low shot with my left (!) deflected into goal for a much-needed second in a tight match; a calmly slotted shot one-on-one with the keeper; and today’s opener, another one-on-one with the keeper that nestled in the side netting.

We’ve won 3-0, 8-0, and 5-1 so none of these were absolutely crucial, but two have come at crucial times in the match so I feel pretty good about it. That makes five goals in fifteen matches from a defensive midfield position, or a goal every three matches. I’ll take it.

I’ve started downloading the podcast for World Soccer Daily and I’m loving it. Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan do a really nice job and the show has an edgier feel than Fox Football Fone-In. The best US-based coverage (although they’re both British) around. I highly recommend it.

US vs. Honduras tonight in Chicago, on ESPN at 7:00 CT. I predict a routine, perhaps dull win for the US. What say ye, 2-0? I laugh when I hear people saying they’ll have to watch out for Wilson Palacios and Amado Guevara. Look, if the US squad can’t shut down this team with its smattering of quality players at home, perhaps they don’t deserve to go to the World Cup. Although they did manage to blow it at RFK to Honduras back in 2001…

After some further reflection and considering the intelligent (but only the intelligent) callers to World Soccer Daily, I’m wondering if Bradley is the overwhelming problem with this team. You look at a team like England under Fabio Capello, where he took a team of good but underproducing players and forged them into a unit that’s now undefeated in UEFA World Cup Qualifying. Looking around this US squad, they shouldn’t be this bad or utterly bereft of ideas. Ultimately, it’s the manager’s job to figure out how to make things work, and so far Bradley’s only solution has been to plunk the long ball forward and rely on set pieces. That’s bush league.

As I posted on Facebook, if your team relies on Brian Ching and Frankie Hejduk, then your team sucks. It seems like there should be enough talent, if deployed correctly, to make this a halfway decent team. I have very little—strike that, no faith in Bradley’s ability to find the right combo. I’m also reasonably convinced US Soccer won’t make a change before the 2010 World Cup. Shame, really.

Current Mood: Is That A Baby I Hear Crying? |

Mad City Utd lost 3-1 in our first game of the year three weeks back. We played listlessly, lethargically, without any energy. Our passing was bad, our movement was bad—we were bad. I played out on the wing and wasn’t too involved. The other team played quite well and deserved their win. Last weekend, our game got canceled on account of lightning.

This weekend we arrived at the pitch to find a triple-whammy—high wind, a horribly slanted field, and muddy turf. We had our full lineup this time and reverted to our traditional 4-5-1 rather than the 4-4-2 we messed with during the opener. The result? A 4-1 win. We had about a dozen other good chances and the only reason they scored is because our keeper literally threw the ball to one of their forwards inside the box. I played in the defensive midfield role and I was happy with the performance, busting up play and getting the attack started. I was rewarded with cleat marks on my thigh and my calves. Onward.

The last thing Chelski wanted to see ahead of their semifinal clash with Barcelona was the Catalan club pasting Real Madrid 6-2 away from home. I haven’t seen the replays, but reports suggest it could have been 16-2. Chelski beware. Hopefully they’ll actually try to come out and play at home…

Things have gone a bit flat as this stage of the Premier League season. Man Ure would have to lose at least two of their last four? Not gonna happen. Villa has faded badly and the race for fourth was over a month ago. Blackburn, Pompey, Stoke, and Bolton have picked up enough points to steer them to virtual safety.

West Brom is down. But who will join them? Newcastle and Boro occupy the last two spots and three points from safety and Hull, who sits on 34 points, has won exactly once in 2009. What must be maddening for these clubs is that the tiniest amount of quality is all it takes to raise them from the mire, but all three of these teams have been as dire as the day is long. Sunderland (playing Everton as I type) is not out of the woods either, but they at least show flashes of competence. It’s almost a shame all of them can’t go down.

Current Mood: Okay |

I ended up finishing Kindred last week and concluded that I thought it was pretty good. My initial critique still stands, and maybe I just got crabby, but I think I got even more critical. In addition to the “As You Know, Bob” dialogues, I would also say there are a number of “messages from Fred,” most specifically when Dana makes an internal comment about having over-planned her escape.

I also became highly suspicious of the nature of some of the conversations going on. It’s hard not to take for granted how much philosophy permeates our daily lives, and if you’re writing about an earlier period, you have to back out whatever philosophy wasn’t around at the time. Two huge examples would be Darwin and Freud—it’s very difficult to imagine how much the concepts evolution and psychology impact the way we interpret the world. I’m by no means an expert on this, but it seems like the 19th Century characters in Kindred seems to have a too-modern perspective on issues of what it means to be a person and ownership of the body. Of course, I don’t doubt for a second that slaves thought of themselves as equally human as anyone, and I’m sure they fully believed that it was a crime to violate their bodies, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily had the vocabulary to express themselves or think of themselves in that way at that time. It’s an extremely complicated issue and one that’s really tough, if perhaps impossible, for an author to get 100% right. I would need to reread closely and come up with specific passages, but my knee-jerk reaction is that a lot of these ideas in these terms came to prominence in the 1960’s and 70’s. But I could be wrong…

I had also remarked on Kindred not paying a ton of attention to language. This is in marked contrast to the audio book I started next, which is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon. For some odd reason, I’ve found myself wanting to dislike Chabon’s work and I have no idea why. That’s going out the window though, since I’ve been enthralled with the opening 100 or so pages of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is blowing me away. There are authors I admire for their ideas, and there are authors I admire for the way they tell a story, but Chabon’s one of those authors where I think, “I want to write more like that.” His sentences are meticulously well-crafted and his descriptions are rich, his characterizations nuanced, and only rarely does he strike a false, or perhaps overly-literary-for-my-tastes, note.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union brilliantly straddles a number of genres—the artful literary novel, the science fictional alternate history, and the pulpy detective novel. I’m not very far into the story yet, but I’m well and truly hooked. The more Chabon I read (most recently before this was “The God of Dark Laughter” in Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology) the more I think I should be a leading fan-boy (not that he needs them) for his insistence on blending ghettoized genres into the more “respectable” world of literary fiction, to the betterment of both.

Oh, the reason I’m reading this? One of my professors practically insisted that I include it on my prelim reading list on postmodernist, hard-to-categorize, genre-bending novels. So yes, it fits the bill nicely.

The outdoor team I’m on played for the first time on Saturday. We lost 3-1 to a team that hadn’t beaten us in five years, according to some of their players. It was a poor performance and we deserved to lose.

I’ve decided too that the guys I hate the most in these leagues are the defenders who think they’re so tough. In this league, the fields aren’t great, no one’s in great shape, it’s tough to move the ball around. The goals scored tend to be of the ugly variety. I played at right back for the opening ten minutes and it was amazingly easy—if you have any question whatsoever, boot the ball up the field or out of bounds. Believe me, it’s about twenty times harder to actually bring it down and pass it with some conviction given these conditions—I know because I played in midfield for the rest of the time and trying to do anything worth mentioning was much harder.

A disappointing start to the season but I think we’ll recover, both by playing poorer teams and by having more guys on hand. We had three subs, they had about eight. Quality aside, it would be interesting how many times the team with more subs wins the game. It was my strong suspicion in the fall that many of our lopsided results only happened because we would score two or three goals in the second half, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence we usually had five or six subs to the opposition’s two or three.

On the bright side, my Dr. Scholl’s gel inserts seemed to have worked extremely well. I was sore from my hips to my toes from the shock of running on hard ground after playing outdoors last Tuesday, but the good doctor’s claims of inserts that provide shock absorbency would, at this point, appear to be valid.

Current Mood: Not Looking Forward to a New Week |

Hoo hoo, man! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed that three of the four teams in the semis of the Champions League were English, but there’s no point denying that the top teams in England are better than the top teams anywhere else.

However, what makes me puke is the veritable cakewalk Ars*nal have had to the semis. They’ve faced Roma, currently sixth in Serie A, and Villareal, currently fifth in La Liga. In comparison, Man Ure had to deal with the current champions of Italy and Portugal, Chelski took on the second-placed teams in Italy and England, and Barca had to beat the reigning champs of France and Germany. Nice luck of the draw…

Still, it’s hard to argue against the format when you get games like Liverpool v Chelski though. Homigod, that was something else. My only regret is that I had it on in the background as I read rather than giving it the undivided attention is so thoroughly deserved.

First outdoor game of the season on Saturday and I have my fingers crossed that all goes well. I’m not sure if it’s the ground or my cleats, but playing outside absolutely destroys my feet. They ache like hell after I’m done and I’m considering going in for an x-ray to see if I don’t have a hundred tiny stress fractures riddling the ol’ pies. And I played like crap in our pickup practice game last night, so that sours my mood too.

Apparently the management team are considering moving from a 4-5-1 to a 3-5-2. Will it work? I’m not convinced that anyone plays with enough discipline to hold these positions regardless, and generally players are always tend to get sucked forward in attack and are too reluctant to hustle back on defense. Either way, I’ve settled into a defensive midfield spot that basically calls on me to slow down opposition attacks, win 50-50 balls through the middle, and distribute the ball wisely going forward. That role doesn’t change much as long as we have a five-man midfield, and I feel pretty comfortable playing there after doing it for most of last season. Wish me luck…

Current Mood: Okay |

Recap: Not nearly as many guys today, probably 26 or so, which meant two fields but only a couple subs. The play was chippy, decent at times, but not great. I have complaints but more on that later.

Health Report: Relatively unscathed, though I did get tackled once way too hard against the boards. I have complaints but more on that later.

Performance: Okay. It was not a great day for footie, that’s for sure, and the general attitude definitely had an impact.

Rating: — Right, so the basic problem was that a few fellows I never like playing with were all on the same field. One guy tackles way too hard and, to top it all off, he sucks. Another guy shoots on site of the goal (and you can see the goal from every angle in the place) and rarely hits the target. Passing is like his seventh or eight option. They were both on my team and tempers were simmering, as the one kept fouling opposing players and the other guy wasn’t passing. This led a third guy on the team to take upon himself to try and dribble through the rest of the team because he got tired of passing to the first guy, who invariably sucked it up, or the second, who shot. So guys are yelling at each other, tensions are high, and the fouls are slowly starting to escalate.

On defense, I nudge a guy off the ball (who is quite good but isn’t afraid of tackling too hard) and start up field at the fullest speed I have. He is behind me clattering into my heels and eventually just scythes me down alongside the boards. Way too close to the boards if you’re running full speed, and I’m imagining, oh, concussions and spinal injuries on the way down but end up getting my arms up falling short of face planting into wood.

So I grab his foot as he’s stepping over me to alert him I’d like a word to explain that I did not appreciate the foul next to the boards. He concedes it was a foul but did not think it warranted further discussion. I informed that I differed in opinion, and by this time a number of other people had waded in. The only thing I left out is the fact that this interaction was done at, say, the top of our lungs and I may have left out a few choice four-letter words. After the brou-ha-ha, things settled down a bit. Actually, the two biggest idiots from our team left and with them, so went the trash talking and bad fouling.

Later, the guy who had taken me out did apologize as did I for losing my temper. I found him and shook his hand on the way out too. Over the last hour, three guys told me at different I had a right to be angry because it was indeed a bad foul and dangerous against the boards, as I had been wondering to myself if I had blown the whole thing out of proportion.

The best part of playing pickup is the camaraderie and I have no interest in playing with loudmouths or persistent foulers. The vast majority of regulars would say the same thing, but it’s funny how just a few idiots can ruin the whole thing. It wasn’t a particularly bad day in terms of play, nor was it particularly good, but I can’t get this incident out of my mind and that’s what bothers me the most.

Recap: Way too many guys, probably about close to fifty, which means six subs per team. That’s just way too many. I was on the marginally better team on the better field but that’s not much to cheer about—we had a couple ball hogs and a couple of guys who didn’t like to sub. With six subs, that’s far more than annoying.

Health Report: Okay. As stated, there are guys who like to get more stuck in and I’ve heard a lot grumbling about it, but everyone simply endures. My feet got kicked a bunch and I got a good whack across the left shin, so I expect a nice bruise to complement the PB&J one I have under my right knee.

Performance: Eh. It wasn’t so bad actually, but it wasn’t my favorite kind of playing either. The last couple Friday’s we had some ethereal passing going on, lots of great movement and the ball zipping around. Today it was more of one or two guys taking on three and dishing it at the last moment, leaving someone to roll it into the unguarded net. Not nearly as much fun.

Rating: — Like I said, nothing special. I had a couple nice turns and some spot-on passing, but I sat on the bench for long stretches (only about four or five of the guys on our team bothered to sub regularly) but the day tended to go like this: split the defense with a nice pass, make a thirty yard run to get open, watch as the guy you passed it to takes on three defenders, then dishes it off at the last moment. Get a thumbs up for the pass and jog back to defense. Repeat. Take a sub, sit out for twelve minutes. Repeat. Nowhere near as gratifying as slick passing, back heels, chips, and all the other stuff that makes the game fun.

Recap: A somewhat strange day yesterday with both fields going and about 28 guys, meaning one sub per team. The quality of play was sporadic, ranging from pretty good to kinda stupid. There wasn’t a whole lot of rhythm to the game, and I was on the slightly better of the two teams on the (allegedly) much better game.

Health Report: Not fantastic. Near the end of the session I had a full-speed collision with another guy where we slammed our knees hard and our faces collided. Overall, the play tended to have a little too much gusto, resulting in my feet getting kicked and trampled more than I would like, and predictably it’s always the clumsiest, worst players who are the offenders.

Performance: Okay. I’ve found that a decent breakfast gives me way more energy (surprise!) and my legs hold out longer, but because of the choppy play it was tough to get in a groove. Plenty of good and bad passing and my shooting was more off than on, but I had a couple nice turns and some decent long-range distribution. Nothing too special, and the only real moment of audacity was a chip from the half-way line tragically hit the underside of the bar and bounced out rather than in.

Rating: — It was a weird day and not conducive to playing really well. Guys were often making really bad decisions with the ball (i.e. trying to dribble through three guys or hit a thirty-yard pass into traffic rather than playing a shorter ball to someone wide open) and I could see frustration growing among the better players on both sides. Had the best players from all four teams consolidated onto one field it would have been a good game, but talent was spread out enough to make sure no one ever got going. That, and there are some trash-talking loudmouths who kind of ruin it. They dress the part, can talk the talk, and are decent enough athletes, but the skills and know-how of where to put the ball and how to make good runs? Not so much. Oh, and they’re not afraid to foul. A less than perfect combo.

Some guys have said that Fridays, the only day I have been able to play due to my school schedule, are always the best. If yesterday was any indication, I’d have to agree.

Recap: Remarkably similar days both today and last Friday. Two fields going with about two subs for both teams. Both Fridays featured skillful games played at an up-tempo pace. Both Fridays, I was on the superior team (a core group of guys tend to wear replica jerseys that are colored, while others wear white or t-shirts so I ended up being on very similar teams) and we kind of whipped up on the competent-yet-outclassed competition.

Health Report: Last Friday, fine. This Friday, one serious whack across the top of the shin pad and some blistery toes. There’s a nice goose egg forming about four inches below my knee. It was worth it.

Performance:Quite strong both days. Last week I had my shooting boots on and scored bundles, this week not so much. My first bunch of chances on goal I was rifling it hard straight down the middle, so I contended myself with assists instead. Passing both days was more or less rock solid. Flicks, back heels, and lots of one-touch passing. Pleased with myself? Yes, thanks.

Rating: — Yep, it’s been that good. It helps that I’m playing with smart guys who move to the ball, know how to get open, pass when they should, and shoot when they should. The opposition (especially today) have been decent enough, but we absolutely slayed with them one-touch team passing. Lots of crazy, diagonal, pinpoint passes pinging around. Lots of dummies, shimmies, off-speed passes, lay-offs. Lopsided games are rarely fun, but these two weeks have been the exception, probably because the teams have been relatively equal in terms of skill level, age, and fitness, but this group of guys I’m with are pretty much on the same wavelength. The passing and movement has been something to behold, enough so that guys have taken to waxing poetic about the beautiful game from the subs bench. Yes, it’s been that good.