Finally, a new post

Yep, believe it or not, I make a new entry. Sorry folks, between my Vegas vacation and trying to catch up on my real job, soccer's had to take a back seat recently.

It's been an interesting few weeks, starting w/ the recent success of MLS against Chelsea in the All-Star game, and then DC United's impressive performance against Real Madrid. You see DC play so well in both games (they had 8 in the All-Star game), but then they kind of ratchet it back a peg or 2 now that they're back in MLS. They looked bad against New York and Bruce Arena, then played a great 2nd half against Colorado at RFK to get the draw. Even with David Stokes playing his first minutes for United, United should have won that game (those of you who have followed my work over the past few years know I don't have much confidence in Stokes).

By the way, nothing on television makes me cringe more than when ESPN has Brandi Chastain do her in-game interview w/ Peter Novak. Brandi was a great player, is a great person, and really knows the game. Sadly, that hasn't translated to tv, where she continues to stammer and stutter when asking the coaches questions. Novak isn't exactly a quote machine, so the minute or so those two share on tv every few weeks is just a complete train wreck. I can appreciate what MLS is looking for in talking to coaches during the game, but have we gotten any truly gems of information from these guys? Even the normally talkative Dave Sarachan and Frank Yallop can't make it interesting. Can't wait for Brandi's first in-game "chat" with Bruce Arena, can you?

Speaking of Bruce, is it just me or is he acting like the most bitter man in sports these days? Check out the interview he did w/ Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl last week http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/grant_wahl/08/15/arena.qa/index.html

His whole tone in the article seems to be that of a guy who feels he was "done wrong" by U.S. Soccer and that they are nothing without him. I guess we'll see. There's no denying the tremendous impact he had on the program during his 8-year tenure, and I'm not one of the ones who will throw it all away because of a bad performance in the World Cup, but geez, Bruce, you couldn't possibly expect them to keep you for another 4 years after everything that's happened, could you? Apparently he did. As one pretty high ranking source in the US Soccer world told me last week, "Bruce's problem is that his ego has eclipsed the size of his brain."

Congrats to the Richmond Kickers and Charlotte Eagles, both of whom won their playoff series this past weekend and will vie for the USL 2 Championship Saturday evening at U of R Stadium in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond goes into this as the favorite; they've got the home-field advantage, and they won 3 and tied 1 against Charlotte this year. However, the Eagles blew out Pittsburgh by a 6-1 aggregate scoreline over the weekend, while Richmond sluggishly made their way through Cincinnati 2-1 aggregate. Should be a great game, and if you're in the area, plop down a few bucks and go see the best 2 teams in USL 2 slug it out. If you can't get there, you can watch it on Fox Soccer Channel.

Speaking of FSC, how awesome was it to have this past week? 2 MLS games, and then just a ton of EPL games as England began their season on Saturday? Some nice surprises, and to see the U.S. duo of Convey and Hahnemann contribute to Reading's 3-2 stunner over Middlesbrough was fantastic! Then, even down several players to injuries, Chelsea hammers Man. City 3-0 to get their campaign rolling. Man. United also started out strong w/ a 5-1 win over Fulham, who appear to be a team headed for relegation at the start.

That's about all for today, kids.

Sorry I haven't kept up on this as I had hoped. Too much going on, but now that the summer travels are over, and I'll be glued to my tv set watching all things soccer as well as football (the American kind), I should be a better contributor.

As always, thanks for reading!