We should have won but ...

Joe Hart proved that he is the England #1. The Reds dominated the match against City but Hart denied every attack except the one undone by his own teammate. The Reds had the advantage for most of the game with the exception of some insane back passes to Pepe Reina who was the 2nd star of the match for recovering from his defense's blunders. No gain on the table for The Reds sadly when everyone else drew with the exception of Chelsea and Spurs. Stuck in 6th with Arsenal.

US National Team

USMNT has been the moniker for soccer in America but that needs to change. USWNT is the true definition. The Women have won 2 World Cups and are in the Finals this year. The men, not so much. Reaching the quarter-finals in Korea in 2002 is their high water mark. Sadly they've got the choking dogs label for World Cups. The Gold Cup loss to Mexico this year did nothing to erase that. The US Women have shown nothing less than a never say die attitude and an intestinal fortitude the the men have only rarely shown. It's time for America to get fully behind the US women and realize the potential of this team and women's soccer in the US. When the USA won their 2 World Cups women's soccer was an afterthought in most of the world. Now there are a lot of really good women's national teams and if the USA can win this one it will be a truly great achievement. They aren't out there against a couple of good teams and a bunch of minnows. They are facing the best that the world can offer and they are winning.

Go USA!

And The Futbol Gods Said ...

.."Seriously?" That's what you're going to call? Seriously? Are you just making up rules as you go? Okay The US deserved to be a player down because of the handball on Lloyd and yes it was a penalty. Hope Solo stopped the shot so it all evens out. What? She was a millimeter off of her line? Redo? Are you kidding? Well that certainly deserves a makeup call. Overtime, US a player down and Brazil scores but the player who passed the ball to Marta for the score was offsides when the ball was passed to her. Surely you'll get that call right. No? Wow! This might actually be worse then the 3 second handball in the Equatorial Guinea - Australia match. The Gods are very displeased, especially since Brazil has the gall to wear 5 stars on their jersey when they haven't won anything ever! Just because the men's team has won 5 doesn't mean you get to wear the stars. Abby scores with a minute left to tie the game and it goes to PKs. The US wins 5 to 3 and the Brazilian keeper was at least a yard off of her line on every shot. At least the refs called it the first time. The Futbol Gods have spoken and you Brazil get to go home.

And while we're at it

Can we play major futbol events in stadiums that actually have grass fields? I watched the USA v Canada game from Detroit and the pitch was ridiculous! The ball was bouncing all over the place, the turf was coming up in gobs, and some of the grass was brown! Putting sod on top of artificial turf is just wrong. International matches featuring the best players from their countries deserve to be played on a good pitch. I'm sorry if the folks in New England, New York, and Dallas have turf fields, too bad. If you wanted to host big futbol matches you should have put in a grass field. Arizona managed. FIFA (as if it didn't have enough problems) needs to step in and mandate true grass fields for international play. There are plenty of good stadiums with grass fields in the US to cover even the biggest of competitions and we will travel to them. Screw the Dallas Palace, Jerry Jones could have put a grass field in there. If they can do it in Green Bay, WI and Phoenix, AZ they can do it anywhere. Nuff said.

The latest MLS rant

Sporting KC (really!) has a new stadium. They have the worst attendance in the league and have 1 title. DC United has great support (although the Cascadia teams are putting everyone else to shame) and 4 titles (plus 4 Supporter's Shields) and is still playing in decrepit RFK. Seriously? This is the flagship franchise for MLS even though they would like the LA Galaxy or NY Red Bull to be. Lets see between LA and NY they have 2 titles and 3 Supporter's Shields (all LA). The League needs to step in and help get a DC United stadium on track. I feel like DC United is the red headed step child of MLS. United has more trophies than anybody in MLS. It's not all about NYC and LA. Show us some love!

Off topic - the new math

The Big 12 has 10 teams, The Big 10 has 12 teams. WTF? This mathematically challenged arrangement should be an embarrassment to these schools of "higher education."

Mark Hughes leaves Fulham

Really? You want to "further your experiences"? Fulham finished 8th in the Prem, unless Harry bows out at Tottenham where are you going to go? What, did the Michael Jackson statue freak you out? Maybe Motherwell or Hibs are looking for a manager in the SPL, after the Prem that would further your experiences. Good luck with that.

Blah Blah Blah

Barca won the Champions League, ManU won the Prem, Man City won the FA Cup, FIFA is totally corrupt, big money wins all. Rich people are ruining footy. What's a fan to do? I root for Liverpool so I'm hoping we cash in. Go Reds!

Sweet!

Swansea City knocks out Nottingham Forest and Cardiff will play Reading tomorrow with the winner advancing against Swansea. Go Bluebirds! An all Welsh final would be grand, guaranteeing a Welsh team in the Prem. How can you not love a match between the Swans and the Bluebirds. St. David would be so proud.

Welcome to the world of Washington sports

We can rock the regular season but come the playoffs we tank. DC United won the league regular season twice in a row but bowed out of the playoffs in the first round. The powers that be decided to blow up the team and we've stunk ever since. The Capitals have had the best record in the eastern division of hockey but last year bowed out in the first round and this year are down 3-0 in the second round. The Redskins and Wizards just flat out stink and the Nationals are shooting for a 500 season. Not much to hang your hat on around here. Luckily the college hoops teams bring a little hope but that just take us through March. Most big market cities have the feeling that they have a shot with their teams. We just have despair. It's not the despair that kills you, it's the hope. The ship is sinking.

At least we the Georges, GO MASON, GO GW, GO G'TOWN!

Gotta love the new teams

I love DC United but I have to say I'm impressed with the new teams from the northwest. Rock on!

Off Topic but what the heck

A note to my CAA brothers in Richmond from a GMU alum.

GO RAMS!!!

5 down, 2 to go!

PAC 10
Big East
Big 10
ACC
Big 12
Horizon
SEC/Big East

DC UNITED!

The new season is off to a good start and what better way than for DC United's big guns to serve up half smokes at Ben's Chili Bowl. Ben, Dax, and Charlie were there to dish it out. They could not have picked a more DC place than Ben's and Ben Olsen should know because he's the King of U Street in DC where Ben's Chili Bowl resides. If you come to DC it is a must. Kudo's to Ben's Chili Bowl for changing the name for a day. Go United!

Join the General's army!

Olsen's Army

Not your old DC United! This year we have a team! Go Black & Red!

Has the Prem gone alphabetical?

All of the W's are in the relagation zone. The bottom 4 are WBA, Wolves, West Ham, and Wigan. So far Liverpool has 3 pts against WBA (with one more game), 3 pts against Wolves, 3 pts against West Ham, and 2 pts against Wigan. That's 10 points dropped to the bottom four. Those 10 points would put them in 4th. They can beat the big boys but suck against the bottom. Motivation classes begin on Monday.

Is it just me .....

.. or has Fox Soccer Channel become the official Slime Ball Ambulance Chaser Lawyer Channel? Have you ever taken anything and felt bad later? Call Bob Slimeball, you may be entitled to financial compensation (minus my obscenely huge fee). I had never even heard of Tardive Dyskinesia before (it actually seems pretty bad) but the way it's being plugged on FSC you'd think half the population had it. I don't want to make light of the people that have this disease, I remember meeting someone in grad school who had a lot of the symptoms mentioned for TD and I thought at the time that it must be tough going through life like that. I do have to wonder about all of the ads for lawyers searching for class action suits that they can make a ton of money off of though. Just like Fox to make a buck any way they can. You can see 3 of these ads in a row during EPL games. It makes me long for the days of ads for baldness and erectile dysfunction. It also makes me wonder why footy fans are the target audience.

In a Google search I found that there is a band called "Tardive Dyskinesia." That's pretty sick, I would not go see them.

Heh heh heh!

Bloody Brilliant! Reds sweep Chelski, win at the Bridge for the first time in 3 years. Raul Meireles is the hero today. Torres, not so much.

Fernando who?

Luis Suarez comes in in the 78th minute against Stoke and SCORES! He hasn't even got hurt yet, one up on Torres. Plus one for Liverpool. Here's hoping that the notorious hamstring/groin/ankle strikes Torres in his Chelsea debut, not that I'm bitter or anything. I've got this stinking Torres Liverpool jersey which I will never wear again. Hey Fernando, you owe my $100. Everybody is complaining about the Andy Carroll transfer fee but he's scored 11 goals this season compared to Torres' 9 so that looks like a net win for Liverpool. Plus Suarez has been successful at Ajax and for Uruguay in the World Cup. We are better off. Liverpool will be back! I think I'll just get a Dalglish jersey.

Transfer Window Madness?

Steven Pienaar signs with Spurs, is Van Bommel next? Are Spurs trying to become the new Man City? Darren Bent leaves 6th place Sunderland for 17th place Villa, really? Jermaine Jones leaves Schalke for Rovers. Santa Cruz leaves City to go back to Rovers, duh. Where will Adebayor end up? Meanwhile nothing is happening at Liverpool other than they've finally sent Babel packing. Really kind of a quiet transfer period.


Speaking of Spurs, Bale and Lennon are on the wings, Modric is the playmaker, so how does Pienaar fit in? Will he go up front? What about Defoe, Crouch, and Pavlyuchenko? And when will the Robbie Keane saga end. Surely he can help somebody.

Please can a scorer come to Liverpool, I'm dying here!