Why I Love This Game

Every once in a while we are all privileged enough to witness an event that completely validates our passion for something. For me this happened on Wednesday afternoon during the much anticipated “Battle of Britain” match between Celtic FC and Manchester United.

At school I share a house with seven other men, that afternoon three of us were crowded around our television in the living room watching the spectacle play out. One of us, my roommate Taylor, is a die hard Celtic supporter. I am a great supporter of the game, but had no real attachment to this particular match other than hoping to see the Red Devils lose. Our third was a housemate named Phil who came in to do homework, but was soon as enthralled in the action on the pitch as my roommate and I were.

After a first half produced a few fleeting chances but nothing of merit it seemed that we had spent a good chunk of our afternoon as we usually did, wasting time. Things picked up when ESPN played a highlight video of the competition through match day four. Saves, skills, and goals were all on display and pulled us into the second half. And what a half of play it was. Right from the kick off you could feel that something was different, possibly because of the addition Jiri Jarosik to the Celtic front line.

Whatever the cause of the spark all three of us were amplified many times the volume at which we viewed the first half. Every call was vocally disputed. Every errant shot was greeted with a sigh, either of relieve or disappointment. Wayne Rooney’s volley off of a United corner kick had all of our heart’s racing. I had just looked up after hearing my friend’s pained yelps and saw the ball hit the back of the net. For a moment everything halted, and then I realized that it had been off target.

When Jarosik went down in the 80^th minute Taylor and myself hollered for a card, from the angle shown by ESPN the Manchester player had slid in from behind and walloped the Czech in the leg. After the replay we both sat down and shut up because there had been no contact whatsoever. Lining up to take the kick were Kenny Miller, who had just come off the bench, and Shunsuke Nakamura. Taylor asked who I would have take it and I told him Nakamura with his left foot into the net. Of course he couldn’t agree so he picked Miller with a right foot for the goal. Somewhere in the back of my head I must have remembered the free kick from a similar spot that Nakamura had bagged in the game at Old Trafford on match day one, but I didn’t fully recall until I searched for a replay later.

Well sure enough my prediction came true and Celtic was now up by a goal in the dying minutes against a very strong Manchester United team. They took off two defenders and brought on defensive mids which made us all very nervous. For the final ten minutes United threw everything they had forward trying to get the equalizer that would have them through into the knockout stages. Louis Saha had a chance on which everyone but the linesman felt that he was offsides. Saha himself didn’t believe it so he halted for just long enough so that Boruc (the Celtic goalie) could run out and make the save.

In the 88^th minute John O’Shea (I think) toe picked himself into a foul and a chance for United to pull level off of the set piece. Rooney took it and looked to fire it off of the wall, but then the referees whistle blew and the house went deathly quiet. We were all scared to breathe for fear that someone would be sent off, or worse that the Red Devils would be given a penalty.

And we were right to be afraid, yellow card for handling the ball in the box (which I still dispute, but Taylor feels was unfortunately justified) and a penalty for Manchester. And I thought things were quiet in the house before Saha lined up to take the spot kick. Three of us, one of whom didn’t care a lick about the game when he walked in, on the edge of our seats waiting, hoping, praying for Boruc to find a miracle. And he did. And the three of us made more noise than I had ever heard in our house before. Louder than any party ever held there in any of the three years that it has been open to students. We went nuts for a moment and then were near heart attack every time a ball played by United crossed the face of goal.

The final whistle brought relief, but also a realization for me. This is why I love this game. This is why the game is so universal. Three of us with varying investments on the outcome of the match were all taken on an emotional roller coaster that bests even the most touching of Hollywood epics. No film can recreate the drama of real life sporting events. And not all sports either; I only think that soccer and hockey, by virtue of the scoring system and free flowing play, can capture that last gasp atmosphere where every shot is a potential heartbreaker. But hockey doesn’t have the passion that Celtic Park had that day. Not even in the Stanley Cup finals can that feeling be replicated, and I only saw it via television thousands of miles away.

Finally thank you to ESPN for keeping the feed on the crowd until after they were done singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. I love this game!

Binary Opposition

Things in this world exist in binary opposition. For every yin there is a yang, north has south, and up has down. Apparently in this country football and the other football exist in much the same way except for the fact that both desire the destruction of their opposite. Some people blame this on an American desire to be completely cut off from anything else that the world enjoys, or, even simpler, to the fact that the game wasn’t invented inside of our borders. A lot of Americans will even argue with me that the “other football” shouldn’t be called football despite being played near exclusively with the feet and predating American football by roughly 40 odd years. This is not an argument I wish to merit here.

This is something that I remember seeing growing up. It escalated into high school and seemed to peak a bit, but has not gone away in college. This isn’t true for all schools, but my small, Midwestern college does seem to subscribe to this destructive ideology. The football team (American football that is) always has snide remarks when the soccer team loses and it brings a similar reaction when the American football team loses on Saturdays.

Even so called level headed adults become irrational sometimes and point to diving, low scores, and hooliganism as reasons why the game is evil. I even witnessed a few people cheering against the United States in the World Cup simply because of the sport it entailed. Boy were they mad when coverage continued after the US was eliminated.

Why is it that these two sports can’t exist in the same culture? Germany certainly doesn’t seem to have a problem with it after soaking up nearly every franchise in the ill drawing NFL Europe. Is it because, as my roommate and soccer player pointed out, they share the same field. This isn’t a claim that can be easily dismissed, in fact it has a lot of merit. Wars have been fought for decades over a similar sized piece of ground…just ask Israel.

But I don’t think that we can completely contribute the disdain of these two great sports to simply a turf war (no pun intended). Instead I feel that these sentiments are fueled by jealousy. American football and its fans are jealous of the support that soccer gets around the globe. American football is the undisputed number one sport in America, just as soccer is the biggest sport in the rest of the world. No matter how well the Super Bowl draws the NFL knows that they can always be trumped in an argument with the ratings of the World Cup final.

This issue is not going to go away any time soon, in fact I can only see it getting worse as soccer gains more popularity in the United States. It is the fastest growing youth sport in the country and I am of the ilk that feels that this will turn into a large fan base for an expanding league format, or formats if you don’t think that the USL and MLS will EVER combine. As this happens I think there will be a reaction from Major League Baseball (who run at the same time as the MLS) and from the NFL as they panic about possibly losing fans. I don’t think that soccer will overtake any of the five major sports (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and NASCAR) in my lifetime, but if things are done right we can force this jealousy out into the open and show the beautiful game for what it is not what fans of the other sports want us to think it is.

This One's for All the Marbles

With so many sporting events going on this weekend it is entirely possible that the Major League Soccer Championship game may get lost in the shuffle. The MLS Cup is on the line Sunday in Dallas and can be seen on ABC. For those that don’t know the MLS cup is one of three major pieces of silverware in American soccer, but ranks last in my mind.

The second most important award is the MLS Supporter’s Shield, which is given to the MLS regular season points leader. The Supporters Shield, won this season by DC United, also gives the winner a place in the North American Champions Cup.

The holy grail of American soccer is undoubtedly the Lamar Hunt Open Cup, the trophy given out to the winner of a single elimination tournament featuring teams from all levels of US soccer. This breeds the David versus Goliath type match ups that sports fans swoon over during March Madness. The winner of this tournament has truly beaten the best of the best in American soccer.

The MLS Cup is the finale of the past month of playoff matches including last weekend’s classics. Taylor Twellman’s game winner in the fourth minute against DC United, when starting lineups were still being shown on screen, will go down as one of the best playoff goals in the league’s history. Paul Daglish’s two goal performance was enough to push the relocated Houston Dynamo past MLS’ most despised team, the Colorado Rapids.

I know that most people don’t know as much about these teams as I do, so a little background is in order.

The New England Revolution is one of seven franchises that have seen all eleven MLS seasons. Despite that they have never hoisted the MLS Cup. They weren’t even a favorite to make it this far, but after defeating DC United in the Eastern Conference Final they have their third chance at silverware in the last five years…and their nemesis Los Angeles Galaxy didn’t even make the playoffs. This may be The Revs last chance at the title in the foreseeable future with three key players (Taylor Twellman, Clint Dempsey, and Shalrie Joseph) all likely to head overseas next year.

The Houston Dynamo are a different kind of monster. Until this year they were the San Jose Earthquakes, a team which captured two MLS Cups. Bringing that core group of players to a city which has leapt behind them the orange and white are prepared to launch an all out assault on New England this Sunday. Their star player Dwayne DeRosario has won the goal of the year award the past two years and is in the running for the award again this season. More importantly than that he led them through the summer doldrums when his striking partner Brian Ching was away at the World Cup. Ching’s return has brought the Dynamo a pair of game winning bicycle kicks including one that put them past Chivas USA in the first round of the playoffs.

Sunday’s game won’t showcase the teams with the best records in the MLS, but it will bring two teams that have come into the playoffs scorching. An offensive explosion could be seen with Twellman and Pat Noonan up front for the Revolution and Ching and DeRosario leading the attack for the Dynamo.

If there is one soccer game that you watch between now and the next World Cup, please make it this one. As a fanatic supporter of the beautiful game I am biased, but give it a chance and the game will win you over too.

New Video Game Gloriousness

OK, so that's not really a word, but I did get my copy of FIFA '07 yesterday and for once EA is moving in the right direction. Gameplay feels a lot more natural than ever before. The stamina in manager mode makes things very challenging (so far I've just done one for Chivas USA, we'll see what premier teams have).

Highlight so far was getting a brace from Kezman to beat my roommate 2-1 with Fenerbahce over Man Utd. Won the last game we played on 06 as well, 2 (3) - 2 (1) as Bristol Rovers over Boston in PKs. Needed to rub that in when the occasions come along that I happen to win.

Changes with the Seasons

So now that I'm back at school my soccer viewing has gone down significantly, except for our school team (Go Beavers!). Also my job as the Sports Editor for our paper takes up most of my time. So from now until I get inspired by the Champions League or some passing remark I will update this with my biweekly column and weekly match reports. Enjoy the flavor of Northwest Iowa soccer!

Support Your Local Side

Fall has come again and for many that means football season is right around the corner. For many colleges and universities the season kicks off on Thursday, with the rest following on Saturday (our boys start the campaign in St Paul against Bethel). In addition both Men’s and Women’s soccer kick their seasons off today at home against York. This is the most exciting time of the year for a sports fan like myself at BV.

Over the summer I spent time with the fans of the Minnesota Thunder soccer team. Let me tell you, those guys and gals know how to give a team some home field advantage. They’d bring drums, horns, flares, smoke grenades, pretty much all of the excitement you see at a European soccer match, or at some big college football games. The tailgating I did with them the more I started to think about what games would be like here in Storm Lake if that same kind of atmosphere could be recreated.

Over the past three years it seems that the atmosphere at all Beaver athletics have taken a backwards slide. Basketball in particular used to be a feared date on the schedule for conference foes. Now it has become just another game due to student apathy and the university’s aversion to anything that could possibly be construed as provocative.

So how can we restore Rollins Stadium, Siebens Fieldhouse, and so on to their former status? One word: participation. Notice I didn’t say attendance. Simply being there is no longer good enough. I’ve been to soccer games at the Athletic Complex that were exponentially louder than football games even though the crowd was a hundred times smaller because the fans were cheering the entire ninety minutes. There is no reason that this passion cannot be replicated at any other sporting event on campus.

We need to give the teams every advantage we can this year. So get out there and cheer, chant, sing, scream, stand up, holler, do whatever you have to do to make he sidelines loud and rowdy. Make it clear to opposing players that they are in a hostile environment…while the game is going on. As soon as the final whistle blows the “Dark Clouds” cheer for both teams. No off field confrontations, no fights, just unabashed support of your local club during the game. We need more supporters and less passive fans. The perfect way to get a taste for this flavor of favoritism will be today at 3pm and 5pm for the soccer home openers.

Rejected!

MLS Reject $1 Million Offer from Celtic for Shalrie Joseph

Another player from New England is pursued by a big European club and once again the offer is turned down, not by the club or player not wanting to complete the deal (as was the case with the $5 million dollar deal to bring Eddie Johnson to Benfica), instead the deal was squashed by the league itself.

While you could argue ad nauseum to the value of Joseph to his team and league as a whole versus the million dollar offer, as well as the $2 million dollar offer by Charlton for Clint Dempsey, it is hard for me to side with the MLS in their decision. I understand that in order to get the league going and keep it competitive in the early stages it was imperative that the league have a hand in transfers, both within and outside of the league. This worked, note the past tense in that statement. The era of the MLS making decisions regarding players transfers should have left when teams were bought up by individual owners. If I were the owner of an MLS club and an offer was turned down by the league without me having a say in it something would hit the fan.

Certain decisions have to be made by the league as a whole, as they affect all of the member clubs, transfers just shouldn’t be one of those.

How do we ditch the niche?

For the past several weeks since the end of the World Cup soccer coverage has returned to the dark ages once again. Relegated to thirty second mentions on Sportscenter and dedicated blogs (such as this one) because, as so many have felt the need to tell us, soccer is just a niche sport. Well that's well and good but us fans want more. We want our sport to be taken seriously alongside the big four in the United States. But in order to do that we need to break out of the "sports niche" genre of athletics.

How does soccer move from the same breath with lacrosse and curling and become a "major sport"?

1. Television: This is something that the MLS is already working on. Their new contract with ESPN/ABC will kick money back into the league (I believe this is the first contract in which the MLS will be paid). This isn't something that needs to always happen on a national scale either, local or region broadcasts of games will get channel surfers to take notice and get new fans to the teams. Stations such as Fox Sports Net air rerun after rerun some days, why not air games on the region that teams are in. Another move that should be made is to get Fox Soccer Channel into a more basic cable package. Fox already owns a specialty station in most basic packages (Speed Channel) I can see FSC being in the very same line if not even more succesful than Speed.

2. Stop Hyping Individual Players: Soccer is not the NBA. The game is extremely team oriented and can rarely be broken down into 1v1 situations. When it happens it is amazing to see, don't get me wrong, but in basketball it happens nine times out of ten possesions so that kind of advertising works. In soccer there are more than twice as many players on the field and all of them have a role to play. The colors ad that is running now treads a thin line between advertising solitary players and their teams/league as a whole. Advertise the fact that DC United has scored the most goals in the league, not a pubescent teen who has only one of them. Freddy Adu is a subject who deserves a post all on his own (and will get one on here soon), but he is not the only player in the league. Unfortunately some of the best players in the league are not American or have names that make them sound foreign (Jaime Moreno, Dwayne DeRosario, Ante Razov, etc). The bigwigs think that we'll turn on these players or not want them to succeed in the US if they aren't the stereotypical "all American boys". This type of racism disgusts me and embarasses me as a fan.

3. Provide for the media: Working with the Minnesota Thunder this summer I have first hand knowledge of how much better a broadcast can be when the teams willingly provide as much information on their squads as possible. I've also seen that the local papers use press releases from the team nearly verbatim as their match write ups. Therefore I can only imagine that the more a team releases to the media regarding match results, record breaking preformances, transfers, etc, the more information that gets printed and into the hands of the fans. The more info that's out there the quicker we'll move from a niche sport to a full fledged summer season.

When Did We Become the Cubs?

Seriously! I waited two days to calm down before commenting on the debacle that was the ending to the Atlanta match. 4 goals in the final 8 minutes of play saw the Thunder go from a probable 1-0 victory to a 1-1 draw. Then a 2-1 lead that looked like the final to a 2-2 draw, then in the final seconds of stoppage time a 3-2 defeat. It was sickening to watch everything slide out of their fingers so late in the game.
A missed clearance from a normally solid Dustin Brannan gave the Silverbacks their first goal. So eight minutes to go, score tied at a goal apeice, not terrible right? We can still salvage a point at home. Then in comes Ansou Toure. Someone that I've never seen, but heard nothing but praise for. So minutes after Toure checks in a pass from Leo Gibson goes too far for Knox, but Toure out sprints a defender to the ball despite the defender having a solid twenty yard head start. He took the ball down to the end line and pounded it right at the keeper. Not sure how the shot found a way into the net, but it did and in the 89th minute the Thunder go ahead 2-1. I'm going nuts in the booth. Incredible run of play leads to an amazing goal and most of all a lead.
Atlanta takes the kickoff runs down near the endline, sends in a cross that one of the defenders just misses with a boot, and Joe Warren can't grab. It sails back post where Maurice Hughes Leaps in the air and volleys it into the roof of the net with the outside of his foot.

That's jubilation to utter dispair in 60 seconds...BUT WAIT theres more.

The Thunder turn over the kickoff (yeah first clue this was going down hill) and concede a corner which is subsequently punched in for the winning goal. Yes, you read that right, punched. As in with a fist. Goal stood without discussion and the ref blew an end to three minutes of stoppage time after about 1:45.

Adding this latest fiasco to the previous loss against Charlston it leavs me qurious as to how we find a way to lose next. To go from scrapping out unlikely wins against MLS sides last year to this is painful.

Yes, it's really that bad.

Yesterday in the 100 degree heat I played in a game with my CSC rec league team and grabbed myself a hat trick. Went from that right to work and bragged a little about my exploits to a fellow employee who replied with this:

Sean: How good are you at soccer?

Me: I do ok in the rec league stuff.

Sean: You ever thought about maybe playing pro?

Yeah, that's right. He asked me, a kid who only started playing soccer at the level I do two years ago, if I could play at a professional level. No one would ever ask that if I were out in the street playing basketball, or street hockey, or football. But so little is known about profesional soccer here in the US that my co-worker (and I'm sure he's not the only one out there) thought that anyone could get to that level with ease. That's scary. The MLS is growing, but with only two teams in the midwest we seemed to be looked over yet again, especially when you look at the lack of coverage that the Thunder get as the only USL team between the Oregon and New York.

Lightning Lose in PKs to Charlotte

The Minnesota Lightning's incredible first season has come to an end. Last night they lost in penalty kicks to Charlotte. The loss brought the inagural campaign to an end, but the memories will keep us through until the next W-League season kicks off (especially since we'd all like to forget much of the Thunder's season this year). Who can forget goalkeeper Joanna Haig punting the ball nearly the length of the field for Holly Gault to knock home, getting an assist in the very first game for the franchise. That 4-1 win set the tone for a season that was truely special. All Minnesota soccer fans should be looking forward to next season with hopes of a regular season division title and another shot at the playoffs.

Ugly Loss at St James Park

American star DeMarcus Beasley was on the bench as PSV Eindhoven visited the Toon. IT was an ugly debut for new signing Damien Duff as Newcastle went down 2-0 before the break and gave up another quickly afterwards. Down 3-0 I shut down the match tracker. I couldn't bring myself to watch any more. Turns out we came back with shots from Ameobi and Luque to bring it to 3-2. Bad thing is we looked like shit. Good thing is that the two guys who will need to put the ball in the onion bag for the first half of the season (and then again when Owen goes back on the bench from another injury) found the back of the net. Ameobi is looking down right stellar so far this year too. I thought after Alan retired and Chopra moved on we'd be thin up front. Then when Owen went down I figured we were in for a long season, but if Shola can keep this form rolling we may be alright.

More Toon News

Former Arsenal star Sol Campbell wants a move to St James Park. Or at least that is the rumor.

Getting This Off My Chest

The Minnesota Lightning should be Minnesota's biggest succes story this summer. A team that was formed, what? Six months ago? Less than a year to be sure. They make the playoffs by finishing in second place in their confrence...by one point...on the last match off the regular season (Thank you Cincinatti). I can't recall a franchise in any sport that qualified for the playoffs in their first season of play. It just doesn't happen, well unless you're a small market women's soccer program I guess. So in the midst of the Twins amazing midsummer run how much coverage did the Lightning get on this stunning achievment? Here I'll repost the combined coverage of the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and television news outlets here in the Twin Cities:

" "

That's right. Not even the three sentance match writeup that the Trib usually has following a Thunder or Lightning game. I'm not asking for wall to wall coverage of the team, or even anything approaching the great stuff we had for the world cup. But would a picture on the sports page instead of another article about how the Lynx failed to win...AGAIN be too much to ask. Apparantly so.

And another thing...

After last night's dubious PK call that took a well earned point away from the Minnesota Thunder it makes three bad ones on the season. Maybe my rose tinted glasses are blinding me since they all have gone against my team.

First their was Dustin Brannan's red card for taking down a Vancouver player as the last man between the attacker and goal (I was pissed about this for a bit too, but have since changed my mind) the ref made the penatly call from the other side of the halfline and ignored his linesman's position on the field. When we went to the pitch after the match there was still a pretty clear indentation from where the players landed...three yards clear of the top of the box.

Second was in the 4-1 rout of Romario, Zinho, and the rest of Miami FC. The call on the penalty was alright as the player was clearly taken down, but the throw in was taken from the high school lines, THREE YARDS INTO THE FIELD OF PLAY. The linesman (Flat Top) was waving his flag like he was swatting a fly but the center ref waved him off.

And after last night's debacle I'm left wondering if a keeper can try to make a play at the ball in the box or if the USL rules indicate that only defenders may use their hands. I've seen high school referees better and more consistent that what we have working the pitches across the USL. It's disgraceful.

Parting shots:

Just remembered hearing this from a dirty scouse this morning, but apparantly a group of Columbus area Liverpool fans brought a banner reading "Welcome neighbors of the five time European Champions" which, unsurprisingly, started a bit of a scuffle in the stands. Who said American footy fans don't know how to get people riled up.

News links of the day:

Ruud passes his physical, will join Real Madrid on Friday

Newcastle get Ventspils (Latvia) in UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round

Scousers to travel to Israel for Champions League tie. (Full Draw)

Cork City will play AC Milan in the third qualifying round if they can overcome a 1-0 aggregate against Red Star Belgrade. And if Milan is allowed to remain in the competition.

That's all for now.