chrisisoutrunning

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp208/ccgates/Spring%202010/IMG_0607.jpg Brogan, our 2 1/2 year old Border Collie/Corgie (we think).

I don't know if anyone else has picked some up, but I just thought I'd pass along the good (understatement) news, DANCING MAN IS BACK! (and to me at least, that deserves the all caps.)

From that video, I can't tell how much or where exactly he was touched, if I had to guess, the defender probably catches the left leg of the Spaniard, not on purpose, but he does catch him. It probably shouldn't have been a card, but to me, it's a foul, even when accidental. I think we all need to remember that when running full speed, if someone clips one of our feet or legs, we are going to the ground 99% of the time as well. I think we're being overly critical in saying that someone is diving when they get their legs tangled even a little bit when sprinting. This isn't falling down and grabbing their knee when they go shoulder to shoulder with a defender. The Dutch came out and played physical, but in doing so they also committed some incredibly bad fouls that led to yellow cards. I forget which Dutch player it was, but to not get a red for kicking the Spaniard in the chest was the worst call of the match. It almost seemed like the Dutch were trying to injure someone,.. As a side note, I'm not a fan of Spain, I watched the game with my best friend who's 100% Dutch and almost cried when the goal was scored. In the end, Spain outplayed The Netherlands and deserved the win, though if Robben had finished either of his chances, The Netherlands could have easily won.

I think ugly might be a slight overstatement, but not that far from the truth. It wasn't a pretty game by any means. I'd also say there wasn't an unusually high amount of diving, most of what I noticed was from Robben and Van Persie. Also I'd say at least 9 of those 11 were deserved/normal calls. In the end it was a defensive game with numerous missed opportunities. Not every game is up and down like the US/Algeria game. Football (American) has high scoring games and defensive battles, the same with every sport. Players in every sport try to influence the call of the umpire/referee/official/linesman.

I just got my iPhone this past Saturday and I love it. Unless you hate AT&T, I don't think there's anything bad you can say about it (as long as you have a bumper or case for it if you want to bring up the antenna "issues").

The entire band around the phone serves as the antenna. From what I've read, the software for some reason is not changing which part of the band the phone is using to try to get signal from. While I consider myself fairly tech savvy, I'm don't understand what exactly is going on any better than that. I know it sounds wrong to say, "Hey, you just bought a $200 or $300 phone, just go buy the $30 bumper!", but that's all it really takes to solve the problem. As a side note, 1.7 million iPhone 4's were sold in the first weekend, a number only limited by the supply chain.

I know I'm looking a long ways down the road, but the US could field a very experienced team in 2014. I realize a lot can and will happen as far as development and injuries, but all of the following players were born in 1982 or after, making them 32 or younger in 2014. (With the exception of Howard, who will be 35, but age is a little different with a goalkeeper) I hope some of these guys are passed up (cough... Clark... cough... Findley...), but it gives a good idea of who we will be able to build around for Brazil. Howard Guzan Spector Onyewu Bornstein Goodson Beasley Bradley Dempsey Donovan Holden Clark Torres Edu Feilhaber Altidore Findley Gomez

I think the 4-4-2 would have worked had Charlie Davies been available. Unfortunately Robbie Findley proved that at this level he is fast, but can't do anything with the ball... Also I'd have to look back to see if it was more of a 4-5-1 or if they basically slid Dempsey up top to take the place of the 2nd forward. Either way, bringing Feilhaber on and playing that formation in the 2nd half was our best formation. Ah the what ifs... What if Charlie Davies hadn't been in the tragic car accident... What if Gooch hadn't blown out his knee last fall... What if Bob Bradley had just started Maurice Edu instead of Ricardo Clark...

No it's not, it's like letting Jeff Suppan pitch the first inning of every game. Sometimes it turns out fine, sometimes you pay the price.

Not going to be a recall, there will be a software update in the very near future to correct problems.

Yeah, that's a great video, I found it on CNNSI.com's Hot Clicks last night. It made me laugh at my reaction to the goal. I was sitting at my desk at work watching on ESPN3.com stuck on solving a problem. Two seconds after a coworker walked in to help me out Donovan put in the rebound, I literally jumped up, put my hands on my head and waited a second for it to be called back for something, then threw my hands up. My coworker was speechless. He had no clue what was going on. My friend in another building was running around the halls high fiving anyone he came across.

From what I've read about the coaching of soccer in the US vs the rest of the world, we actually play way too many games and spend too little time practicing. I don't remember the numbers but the ratio of practice to games was flipped from where the rest of the world is. For better or worse I don't know, I'm just stating what I've read.

Look at Freddy Adu's development though. He was identified very early on and coached the hell out of. That didn't work out at all. On the flip side, I believe Dempsey was playing as a kid against mostly Mexican grown men in pickup games. He also has arguably the best one on one skills on the whole team.Actually I don't really really think the Adu part is quite true. He was identified as a very skilled player early on, but didn't really learn the tactical side of the game. Once he jumped into MLS it was realized he didn't have the knowledge to play the team game. Which is why he didn't really play that much to start off with. I don't even know what to say about Freddy... other than he's just been disappointing... sad thing is he's only 21 I think... As far as Dempsey, I don't know his exact route into the game other than what I've seen in stories about his sister and random websites. I haven't found anything about playing against Mexican men, just against Mexican children. I guess I agree with you though, I don't think the one-on-one creativity is something that can be taught, in my opinion it's something learned from pick-up backyard/street games.

70-68 Isner... just wow...

As nice as it would have been to coast to a win (had Gomez put that away before the offside call, Dempsey not hitting the post, Jozy missing the wide open net are the obvious missed opportunities I can come up with right away), though not the most technically and tactically sound game of soccer ever, was probably one of the most exciting games I've ever seen. Soccer in the US (mainly talking about at the Men's National Team level) hasn't even come close to reaching it's potential. With the amount of resources that we can throw behind something should we decide we want to, we could be a power in every World Cup. When you think about it, this group of players would have been between 4-15 when the US hosted the World Cup in 1994. They are part of the generation that started playing or were given more opportunities/better funding because of the event. 1998 was a forgettable cup, but I think the 2002 team did roughly the same thing in exposing even more kids to the game (they made it to the quarterfinals and outplayed Germany in the game they lost for those who don't know). I find it hard to believe that you could show this game to a kid and have them consider it boring. It was basically a Phoenix Suns basketball game on grass. I think the main thing holding back the development of youth in soccer right now is coaching. There just aren't enough coaches who know the sport and understand how to teach it to children. Towards the end of this year FIFA will pick the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup's. The US is biding to host one of those. Right now the thinking is the 2018 Cup will go to a European country (most likely England), but I would think the US would have a very good chance at holding the 2022 Cup. Either way, I truly believe that these come around, the US will have a consistently top ten ranked men's team and a good opportunity to win.

I'll admit I thought he was offside in real time, but I'm going to disagree with you on the second part. ESPN showed the replay numerous times, freezing it when the ball is kicked with a line drawn on the field with the farthest back point of the next to last defender. In my opinion no part of Dempsey was beyond that line. Was it a bang bang play? Yes. Was it offside? No. When Gomez crossed the ball the defender was spinning, I believe the linesman misjudged when the ball was kicked, therefore seeing Dempsey offside. Understandable? Yes. It's like a bang bang play at first. Excusable? That's debatable, especially when we have the technology to confirm or overturn a call within seconds. Literally all that would have to be done is have the 4th official take a few steps to a TV with that frame from the ESPN broadcast, look at it for 2 seconds, come back and say goal. Game is delayed 30 seconds tops, which is about as long as a team is going to argue over sometime like that. The NFL has replay, MLB has replay, tennis has replay, the NHL has replay. I think we're too the point that especially on this level, to have blatent bad calls ruin sporting events is inexcusable. Link to replay with offside line

After watching the disallowed goal about a dozen times, the ONLY thing that could have been called against the US was a little bit of a shove that Dempsey did. As everyone was moving forward to the ball he gave the defender marking him a little shove in the back. Unfortunately, this was right in front of the referee. Should it have been a foul? I don't think so. At the very least it was nothing compared to the "hugs" gave to Bradley and Altidore, and the headlock that was given to Cherundolo...

Well that's definitely not what I expected. England 0 - Algeria 0. Now it's simple, win and move on. If we draw, we'd need a draw from England and Slovenia, and England to score max 1 more goal than we do against Algeria. If they score 2 more, I believe it's a draw from a hat. If they score 3 more, they move on.

If there wasn't my only guess would be that he did what NBA refs do on drives to the basket half the time. Just blow the whistle, figure it out later. As bad as that call was, I think the hand ball call against Robbie Findley was a far worse call, maybe not in relationship to the outcome of the game, but come on, the guy gets hit in the face with the ball and he got called for a hand ball?

Assuming England beats Algeria by two goals or more (I would think that's a safe bet), to advance the US would first need to beat Algeria, and then in the England/Slovenia match, either one of those two teams would need to win, or the US would need to score at least 1 more goal against Algeria than Slovenia does against England. If they score the same, as far as I can tell... they draw a name from a hat... If they score less, they're out...

I can understand the statement about barely touching him, but he did stick his leg out and trip him, therefore nullifying a goal scoring opportunity. It's a straight red card. It's not all based on the severity of the foul.

Compared to other US Open venues, it's also relatively cheap, but it's hard to compare because just about all are private country clubs... Current/Future Pebble Beach starts at $495 Pinehurst No. 2 (2014) (resort course) hard to judge, I can't find exact pricing, but it appears to be an extra $175 on top of any package you're buying Chambers Bay (2015) starts at $175 on the weekend unless you're a Pierce Co (Washington) resident (plus caddie) Past Bethpage Black starts at $150 on the weekend (non-New York resident) Torrey Pines starts at $235 I'm not in the position to pay the green's fees at any of these courses right now. I have a hard time spending over $50 on 18 holes... (I can't wait for fall so the rates start going back down)

I would have preferred a Slovenia/Algeria draw, but the outcome of that game really didn't matter for the US. In my book, a win over Slovenia and a draw against Algeria would get us through (most likely a draw against Slovenia and a win against Algeria would as well, but I really don't want to go into that last match against Algeria on the outside looking in). Take care of business on Friday and the US should be fine.

The US's possession was even uglier last year during the Confederations Cup. I actually think Bradley didn't play that poorly, Clark on the other hand looked poor to me. I'm debating in my head whether or not Bradley will change the lineup for Slovenia. If anything I think Buddle might start for Findley and Torres for Clark. The entire first half I was ripping on the back line, the more I thought about it, other than the goal, they didn't play that bad. Rooney was non-existant for the first 60-70 minutes of the game.

As long as he doesn't end up like Escobar going back to Colombia in 1994...