World Cup Roundup Day 4

The Dutch looked convincing in their 2-0 win. They did get the benefit of an own goal on the part of Denmark. They did get a beautiful goal from Dirk Kuyt which is classical of their flowing style of offense. Denmark is not completely out of the tournament since Cameroon, which was thought to be the other power in this group, suffered a loss to Japan. This is only Japan's fourth World Cup and they looked like a squad that has finally materialized into a significant competitor. This just shows how much soccer has globalized at a top level of play. The afternoon game between Italy and Paraguay was a rather boring affair that ended in a tie. Paraguay should have won this game after scoring late in the first half. The Italians seemed to be lackluster and ineffective. They will not win the World Cup if they continue to play like this.
Tomorrow starts play in the "group of death". The marque matchup is Cote d'Ivoire- Portugal which should be electrifying with the play of Ronaldo and Drogba. The key question is whether Didier Drogba, who broke his arm in a warm up match, will start or even play. Slovakia-New Zealand will be a very good quality match. Brazil-North Korea could be a beat down for the Koreans similar to the Germany-Australia match on Sunday. The Brazilian samba speed footwork should overpower North Korea.

World Cup Roundup Day 3: The goal scoring has arrived

Coming into today the goal scoring had minimal with most games ending in ties no greater than 1-1. Today all that changed. Germany came out and put on a clinic in a 4-0 beating of Australia. This should scare all American soccer fans since they may be the first knockout stage opponent. It must be said that half the goals occurred after Australia went down to ten men. Germany may have a young squad, but they didn't show any World Cup opener jitters. They were dominant in time of possession, which is an attribute I wish the US would pick up. Ghana showed the World that 2006 was not a fluke in winning their opener against Serbia. They are in the best position of all the African nations thus far to play. Yesterday's tie between England and the United States has put both of these teams in a precarious position now that Slovenia has beaten Algeria. This goal was once again a fluke type of affair. The Algerian goaltender could have punched the ball to the side, but instead tried to scoop up the ball. The effect of today's result is that England and the US need to win their remaining games to go to the knockout round. If anyone falters they will be out. The onus is harder on the Americans as Slovenia, a good squad, is the next opponent; while England face an altered Algerian squad due to a red card.
Tomorrow's games include Denmark versus Netherlands and a variant of total football. Defending champions Italy will start their title defense against Paraguay will be an interesting Europe-South America encounter. Japan against Cameroon may mean the next African team to notch a win. Cameroon is a solid squad led by their star striker Samuel Eto'o.

World Cup Roundup Day 2: Disaster Avioded for the US

Today was another exciting day at the World Cup and the opener for the US against the powerful English squad. Greece was beaten badly by South Korea and it doesn't look good for their qualification. This is sadly another bad blow to the Greek psyche as they are already suffering through a significant economic crisis. Argentina clearly looks like it will be a very strong contender in the knockout stages. The won very comfortably without scoring from Lionel Messi who was just off several times. Nigeria put up a strong fight and should look to rebound in their next match. The nightcap, in the afternoon for those of us in the US, was a beautiful game of back and forth action between the US and England. Disaster struck in the fourth minute when Steven Gerrard scored for England when his shot was unchallenged and open in front of the goal. The disastrous start was nullified by Dempsey's goal. The rest was fairly neutralized. The US looked it had some jitters which hopefully were eliminated with this game. Our offense showed some evidence of being very potent with the speed it features, but there was not enough consistent play in England's end to put up more than one goal. This needs to improve if the US has any hopes of advancing in the tournament. The US back line was solid when facing the onslaught in the second half. There is still room for improvement in communication. Other than the one missed header, Wayne Rooney was kept off the score sheet and ineffective most of the game. Of particular concern for me was the unmarked shots from just outside the box that were on goal. As for Gerrard's goal this was not the fault of the US defenders, but a mistake by Ricardo Clark. The key for the US seems to be the first ten minutes of the game. If they can survive unscathed they tend to have success. It was quite obvious that the US squad misses Charlie Davies speed threat on the attack even with Robbie Findley. Tim Howard showed why he is among the best goalkeepers in the world with all of his spectacular game saving saves.The best situation for the US and England is that Slovenia and Algeria end up in a tie. Otherwise one of the favorites will probably be heading home. If the US and England beat the other members of group C and the Slovenia-Algeria game ends in a tie then both teams advance.

World Cup Roundup Day 1

Attention to Mexico, France, and Uruguay. The Bafana Bafana are here to play and the other qualifier for the knockout stage is between the three of you. The opening match of the World Cup was quite a spectacle. South Africa's defense will need to be improved because they gave up too many good chances and a very easy goal. If the opponent is going to score they should have to outplay you in skill rather than take advantage of a defensive mistake. More importantly Mexico needs to realize that its soccer dominance in North America and the world has eroded. They are not as good as they think. The other game was rather boring for the first 75 minutes with Uruguay in a purely defensive formation trying to avoid conceding a goal. The French definitely have the quality of players, but soccer is a team sport and there is a lack of unity of play on Raymond Domenech's squad. I have a feeling that they will come out much more unified as a starting eleven in their next game. Tomorrow has three very good matches South Korea vs. Greece, Nigeria vs. Argentina with Lionel Messi, and the primetime affair between England and the United States. If the US pulls off another upset I think the world will finally wakeup to the quality of American soccer.

World Cup

On the eve of the World Cup we are at the point every four years where anticipation meets reality. The usual suspects Italy, Germany, England, Argentina, and Brazil are around to compete for the exclusive trophy. This is one of the truly global sporting events everyone watches. I have met people whose national team wasn't even in the tournament who cared. Among the teams that can be considered as candidates to win the world cup are Spain, France, Ghana, Cameroon, and the United States. Every analyst who claims that the US and England should qualify from Group C could be in for a suprise. I am calling this group the group of surprise. The US and England with extensive World Cup experience are the favorites, but Slovenia and Algeria are very strong teams and could easily knock one of the favorites out of the tournament at the halfway point. This group in some ways reminds me of the 1998 World Cup for America where it was an absolute nightmare coming off the '94 World Cup. The American squad is a very good team with plenty of good players, but we will be missing the speed of Charlie Davies from last years Confederations Cup runner-up team. Hopefully in four years he will be there to help our title defense. If Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, and Oguchi Oneywu are playing well success should follow. I don't even think we have to worry about Tim Howard in goal as he could easily be the best net minder in the Worlds top domestic league.

RIP John Wooden

coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.
John Wooden

Ability is a poor man's wealth.
John Wooden

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
John Wooden

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
John Wooden

Be prepared and be honest.
John Wooden

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.
John Wooden


Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
John Wooden

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
John Wooden

I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.
John Wooden

The Argument for Instant Replay

Last night was a great night for sports. The Stanley Cup game 3 was being played in Philadelphia while at the same time a perfect game was being thrown by Armando Gallaraga in Detroit. Yet there were stark differences in these two events. Gallaraga was robbed of a perfect game by a badly blown call after 26 consecutive outs as you can see in the video.
Look at the video for yourself and you will see that he clearly made the out before the runner tagged the base.
In contrast the Stanley Cup used instant replay to review two possible goals to make the right call. The first call was proven to be a goal as shown in the video.
This goal was not obvious to the referees or the viewing public, but it is indeed a goal since the puck was on edge. The nice part about instant replay is the multiple camera angles allowed for the referee to see the puck cross the line completely in all three dimensions. The second goal that was reviewed was equally important and ended up being reversed. It was of outmost importance that the winner be the team that legitimately scored the most goals. This policy is in force during the entire season.
The same cannot be said for MLB. Baseball has been particularly slow to adopt instant replay whereas the NHL adopted it in the early 90's. Baseball has suffered recently from some pretty bad calls made by umpires in the right location. Last year in the divisional series the Twins were subjected to a bad call that affected their chance at making the world series. Last night a base runner was called safe when it seems that he was out with the umpire in a position to make the right call. It is time for Bud Selig to institute instant replay on most major calls not just home runs. The only area where instant replay should stay away is on strikes and balls. The system would be instituted very simply by having a war room that would monitor all the games and if a call is blatantly bad the umpires would be called to instant replay. If umpires are not good enough maybe they should be replaced by robots using computer vision to identify the players an the ball. I don't want the game to devolve into a set of reviews for each play because that would destroy the game.
Every time that the expansion of instant replay is brought up there is a discussion of how to institute it. The simplest and fairest method would be to have reviews of calls decided by a war room in the commissioners office. I intend for instant replay to be a method of correcting egregious officiating errors. I don't intend for it verify whether every runner is safe or out. This would make the game too long due to numerous and lengthy reviews. Also the umpires will get the call correct about 90% of the time and a few bad calls are always going to be part of the game. I absolutely abhor a challenge method as that requires strategy on the managers part as to when to use the allotment of reviews. More importantly we, the baseball fans in America, cannot let a squabble over the method of instituting instant replay delay its implementation. If Bud Selig would like I am more than willing to write the press release to announce the implementation of instant replay.