I meant to write something the past few days, but the truth is that nothing is exciting me right now. Baseball without the Yanks and Phils to hate on is pretty boring. Oh, and the games are still taking 15 hours to complete. The NFL is great on Sundays, but during the week it's information overload. I don't care to listen to all the injury reports or the analysis. The NBA is not coming back. College football is not any better during the week - even with two games on Thursday night. Oh, and WWE, which as recently as two months ago was on the verge of a extra hot storyline, has blown it so badly that I am thinking about not watching for a few weeks. I won't get into specifics, but the writing has been terrible. They totally blew it.
The only thing that comes close to exciting me is the return of the NHL and of course my Sounders. I have really enjoyed watching the nightly highlight show on the NHL Network, but until I actually get to see the Devils in action, it won't be all that exciting. I love watching Hockey Night in Canada - especially my new Western Conference team, the Calgary Flames - but it's not the Devils. It is sad not being able to watch the Devils.
As for the Sounders, I am just coming down off the high of winning the US Open Cup. I am excited for the game on Saturday, when 60,000 fans will show up to honor Kasey Keller, but it is still a few days away. And the final two games of the regular season really mean nothing in the grand scheme of things besides making sure we are in form. We are 6 points ahead of RSL with two games left and a goal difference 9 better than them. That means we have to lose both games AND not only lose big time but have RSL win big time. It's not going to happen. What also won't happen is us catching the Galaxy for first. I wish the regular season was over so we could get ready for the playoffs. Instead, we have two meaningless games. It's great to see the rave green again, but it's not as exciting as it could be.
The only thing I know is that on a night with baseball, college football and hockey, I watched the reboot of Charlie's Angels. It was cheesy as expected, but a fun watch. The most surprising thing was that Minka Kelly's character was not the lead character, or even the best actress. That honor in my mind goes to Rachel Taylor, who I had never heard of. Looking at her IMDB profile, apparently she was in Grey's Anatomy last season and was the cute computer nerd in the original Transformers movie. Hmmm...who knew? Anyways, I would watch again. AND that is a problem.
You could have talked about Juergen's US revolution (or not as the case may be), Euro 2012 qualification (and playoff picture - come on Ireland!!!), and the pending Lancashire derby (Manchester United V Liverpool) which has probably the most frenzied rivalry around (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/887202-manchester-united-10-reasons-why-reds-fans-hate-liverpool).
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could, but United_Liverpool means nothing to me besides the chance to watch a good game. Euro 2012 qualifying is cool, but I'm not spending my entire day thinking about them (ask me again during the week of the final qualifying games and then again next summer). I'm happy for your Irish, but not flying flags over them.
ReplyDeleteAs for Juergen, I would love to talk about what I have seen, but I haven't see anything. Simply put, I haven't watched their games. However, I really am not worried. I believe he is smart enough to know that some of the guys he is trotting out won't be starting for the US in 2014. Now I know that there is a lot of shit out there about him being a terrible tactician, but seriously, he cant honestly think that Orozco Fiscal, Ream, Danny Williams and Beckerman are worthy of starts? I know the results haven't been there, but I am confident that they will start converting their chances.
And I am still confident in Dempsey, Donovan, Bradley, Altidore, Onyewu, Boca and Howard. Bringing in a lot of players has allowed him to see that Chandler and Shea are ready to fill the areas of need. That is a good thing. Now we just need some more camps to determine which of Jermaine Jones, Stu Holden, Maurice Edu or Jose Torres will play alongside Bradley. And more camps are necessary to see if this Corona kid has a future as well as that new German dude who got citizenship.
I am not worried.
Liverpool/United is Barca/Real except with even more rivalry on and off the field. It is possibly the biggest and most intense rivalry in football, and a game you NEVER want to be on the losing side.
ReplyDeleteI can understand about the Euros, but naturally I am very excited at the thought of the boys in green making their first major finals since the 2002 World Cup. I think it is lost on many US Soccer fans how difficult it is to get out of European qualifiers, there are literally tons of good teams and hardly any easy matches (Estonia, ahead of teams like Slovenia and Serbia in their group, lost to the Faroe Islands 2-0 in qualifying!). Also it did have a significant impact on the Sounders as Robbie Keane strained his abductor in the game against Andorra which means he is out for 3/4 weeks - possibly missing a potential conference final against the Sounders if we get through!
Maybe I need to have a montly guest column 'Irish Mike's World of Football with the feet' to educate your masses on what lies beyond the MLS :-)
I am interested in Klinsmann, I think its going to take a long time to get US soccer the way he wants it, he's talking changes on every level - youth, college, professional. Will the federation buy into it if results on the field are not as good? Maybe not worried right now, but a poor WC 2014 might derail the revolution.
Ok, early start in the morning, I'll be a wreck anyway, I'd talk a draw at Anfield if you offered it to me right now!