hyksos announcement

the FA Cup final

Trying to pick a favorite between United and Chelsea is like trying to pick death between hanging and lethal injection - one might be more painful, but the other might be a bit entertaining. After Chelsea failed to snipe the title, I almost felt sympathy; the media seemed to momentarily empathize as well. Mourinho's march to the Chelsea supporters at the Emirates, gesturing to keep their chins up and applauding his players, was one of the greatest images of this Premiership season.

Of course this is still Chelsea - I can't actually allow myself to support them, but as I'll be watching the final tomorrow night in Brisbane with a United fan, I will have to pretend to be a Chelsea fan to at least create some fan tension.

While watching ESPN at Singapore Changi Airport (an airport of such greatness it warrants a separate entry here), there was a brilliant commercial with a suspiciously Drogba-esque player walking back down the tunnel after a match, tripping over a janitor's broom, and rolling around like he had been shot appealing for a penalty. I can't imagine seeing such a provocative commercial on Sky.

Anyway, I'll pick United 1-0, on a dubious penalty. Jose to follow with expected tired tirade.

Italy 1 - 0 Australia

I felt a little bit similar to the way I felt after the election debacles of 2000 and 2004 when Italy just beat Australia on a 94th minute penalty: a slightly queasy feeling, knowing that the opponent who played with the most heart lost due to a dubious last-minute technicality. Of course the stakes aren't quite as high and I didn't actually have any emotional investment in this match, but I would have loved to see the plucky Australians make it to the quarterfinals. Now Ghana remains the only plucky team left in this tournament, and unless they miraculously beat Brazil, we'll have a pretty typical final 8 (with Switzerland or Ukraine as the one atypical entry - atypical, yes, but I wouldn't call either "plucky").

Why I am disappointed that the USA is out of the World Cup.

No, I didn't have hopes of them improbably making the semi-finals or even making it to the first knockout stage. And I didn't actually have much affection for anyone on the team, though I enjoyed watching them. And even though Bruce Arena looks slightly Belechickian, he made some bad decisions (like not substituting someone near the end of the Italy match when some fresh speed could have made the difference).

But had the USA made it further in this tournament, then the interest of Americans would have been piqued and more people would begin to watch football/soccer. Even if it was just for a few matches, and then they went back to not caring for 4 years, it would be enough to plant a seed. The more exposure to soccer the better, and that's not because I want to see kids playing and eventually turning the US into a football superpower (though that would be nice). The reason I think this would be good is because more soccer fans in the US means more Americans looking outside of the United States - following the English Premiership, Serie A, La Liga, etc. And the more Americans become aware of the rest of the world, the better off America will be.

Now I can return to supporting England fully without feeling any residual guilt for caring about them more than the US. I suspect England will beat Ecuador and then lose in the next round to Portugal or Holland (I'd guess Portugal). With Michael Owen out for the tournament, only Rooney, Crouch and Walcott remain as strikers. Erickson didn't play Walcott in the Sweden match, which was really the only "safe" time to play him, so as a result they are heading into the knockout stage with a striker who has never played in the World Cup and never played in the Premiership. England will probably have to play in a 4-5-1 now, with Rooney up and possibly Owen Hargreaves as a holding midfielder (a role he fits very, very well despite the media bias against him). Gerrard and/or Cole could possibly be used as forwards, perhaps wasting their talents a bit. Jermaine Jenas will sit on the bench the entire tournament, as will Michael Carrick, while Defoe and Bent sit in England wondering why Ericksoon needed to take so many midfielders and only four strikers. Maybe we'll see some more of Stuart Downing, who seems to be really good at running quickly up the left side of the field and then giving the ball away. Perhaps Aaron Lennon will be the silver lining. Most likely, Scolari's well-disciplined Portugal squad will hand England the ass-whooping of their lives and they will go home dejected, the media deflated, and we can focus our attention on Brasil or Argentina or whomever is going to win. (Brasil seemed to turn it on tonight after going down 1-0 to Japan;; Ronaldo finally exploded with two goals and I think they've become the team everyone expected to see).

Hooray for sports media.

Witnessing the buildup to the World Cup over here has been incredible. Today Sky Sports News spent pretty much the whole afternoon covering England's departure for Germany. We saw the buses driving the players to the plane, then we saw them board the plane, then we saw them come back down from the plane for the traditional photo, then David Beckham hangs the English flag outside of the window... eventually I think they took off. I was expecting Sky to fly a media plane over the England aircraft so they could film it for the entireity of the journey. There were a lot of long shots of the airplane with commentators discussing every imaginable aspect of the trip. Wayne Rooney is flying to Baden-Baden today, then returning to England tomorrow to be scanned to see if he's going to be able to play. Who pays for England to fly around and play in the World Cup? Is it tax money?

I realize there's nothing else to talk about right now; it's amazing that they fill a 24 hour news channel with this. It will be nice when the actual competition starts though. I'm hoping to get on a new schedule where I wake up early and get all my dissertation work done by 2 PM or so, to give me adequate time to watch all 130 matches (or however many there will be).

hey...

Did you hear the Steelers are in the Super Bowl this year?

I was thinking today about how I usually suffer from some form of Seasonal Affective Disorder - but perhaps, it's not due to lack of light, but because there is inevitably a Steelers loss that ends the season. And this year, perhaps I will not suffer from it, despite living in a city that only sees sun like 3 times per year. I feel great right now. Great.

STEELERS!!!!! vs. colts.... HOLY SHIT!!!!

I work with this girl. She went to college just south of Indianapolis and she's a colts fan. We're going to watch the game together on sunday. I just sent her this:

ground rules:
i'm not going to be as nice to you as i normally am. this will be war. i'm not pulling my punches. and if somehow your inferior team cheats their way to a win, and i cry over bettis retiring without a super bowl ring, then you better not make fun of me. it will be tears of fire. if you say anything bad about hines ward, troy polamalu, james farrior, or alan faneca i might throw my glass at you (you can say what you want about roethlisberger, joey porter, or randle el though). i won't make any jokes about dungy's kid but i'm allowed to pick on manning for being redneck trailer trash. and i'm allowed to make fun of indianapolis for being the most boring worthless fucking city in america, but if you say anything about pittsburgh, you get glassed. you can make fun of cowher's chin, and you can pick on our placekicker for being fat, but stay off gardocki cause he's the best fucking punter in the league. if i win, you buy my a six pack of rolling rock. if you win, i buy you a six pack of some sort of indiana beer, whatever the fuck that would be - falls city? or is that just in louisville? (falls city is actually made by the pittsburgh brewing company aka IRON CITY BEER anyway).

The phone company fucking hooked us up to someone else's house. Both my ISP and BT are blaming each other. I doubt it will ever get sorted out. Anyway, I'm back on the tin can for now. Now I'm going to go photoshop some Jerome Bettis fantasy artwork.

p.s. I only said Rolling Rock because you can actually buy it here; you can't get Iron City (or Falls City) sadly.

Heath Miller!!!!

Steelers

In just about five hours I will again have the pleasure of watching the Steelers play silently on a little screen in a horrible Sports Bar where nachos cost $15. Hopefully the kid from Greensburg will show up again so I will have someone to rant and holler with.

I missed last week's game - it wasn't on TV here and I was too busy at Instal to listen to the RealAudio radio feed that I gave the NFL $30 for the pleasure of listening to this season. However there seems to be a lot of criticism of Cowher for leaving Maddox in the game. Not having seen the game, I can't really put forth my two cents, but I do genuinely feel that it is important for a coach to stick with his starting QB through thick and thin, unless things are absolutely disasterous. If it's a big game and he seems rattled, it might be OK to switch - but this sends a message to the other team that you are vulnerable.

If I was Steve Mariucci in Detroit right now, I would stick with Joey Harrington despite his poor play. Their offensive line needs work, and their overpaid highdrafted receivers need to start producing. Harrington isn't the only problem. Switching around like Dennis Green did in Arizona last season is just asking for trouble. Likewise, Mike Nolan's decision to substitute Alex Smith for Tim Rattay hasn't helped matters in San Francisco. Instead, he's stuck a young and inexperienced player on a terrible team and he's gotten a horrible performance from him. Give him a year to grow - it seems to have worked well for Carson Palmer.

These are no great insights here, I realize. (I am not the next Peter King. [Thankfully]). Now in the Maddox situation last week, he was a backup quarterback who was rusty and playing poorly, and maybe they would have benefited from having Charlie Batch in. There's no need to have loyalty to a backup quarterback like you need to show for your starter. Cowher I believe has apologized for the loss, which seems like an unusual gesture from him. I think what will be curious today is who winds up subbing for Roethlisberger if he ends up aggravating his injury somehow.

Cincinnati seem like the real deal, which warms my heart despite a) they are leading the Steelers in the division and b) my dislike for the city of Cincinnati, excepting Amol Indian Buffet, Ashworth Taproom and that crazy bookstore. We always tend to cheer for an underdog, and after a decade of losing seasons this may finally be their year, even possibly going 10-6. As long as Pittsburgh goes 11-5 or higher, I'd be happy.

Koren Robinson to Steelers?

Strohm and I were speculating that Koren Robinson could find a home with Pittsburgh. Seattle's probably gonna kick him off the team for a DUI, and he is the deep threat that the Steelers need. He's really underproduced under Holmgren, but Roethlisberger managed to revive Burress so maybe this could happen again. He also shares Burress's 'tude. It's doubtful though since their receiving corps is cluttered with guys like Lee Mays and that draft pick they took....

Watching the NFL Draft

It's really because I have to be at work all day that I am watching this - it's perhaps the most boring thing you could possibly watch. NASCAR races are exciting by comparison. The draft is such a crazy, insane crapshoot. These kids run a millisecond slower than someone else and suddenly their value drops, and they're considered a questionable pick. Teams are also forced into paying zillions of dollars to these kids just because of the order they are picked too. But as far as a visual spectacle, it's just Tagliabue walking to the podium all day long.

Miami just took Ronnie Brown as the #2 overall pick. I don't understand why anyone would waste a high draft pick like that on a running back. Running backs aren't dime-a-dozen, but you can definitely get great value from lower picks. Denver is clearly an example of this - they can plug in anybody into their scheme and run for 2,000 yards. With that in mind, wouldn't it make more sense to take a more scarce commodity position, like cornerback or offensive tackle, and worry about running back later? Miami's got a ton of problems, and running back is one of the least - why didn't they take Aaron Rodgers? Taking a QB would be admitting that signing AJ Feely last season was a mistake, i guess.

Cleveland just took Braylon Edwards. The Steelers might have the weakest receiving corps in the AFC North now.