Adventures, Musings, Commentary, and Associated Fun

Thankfully, the World Cup takes a break

I doubt that you ever thought you would see such a heretical statement. Rest assured, it's only because matches - and we're down to the really important ones, required viewing really - are played at 1 AM and 5 AM here.  Sleep patterns, as well as the liver that I hope will continue to function after World Cup season is over, requires a recharging of the batteries at some point.  The World Cup, really, is two separate, related experiences.  First, the orgy of all-soccer, all-the-time that we just experienced (48 matches, 18 days).  It's far more egalitarian, and even with the stress of having your team play (and let me remind you, not very well if you're an American), it tends to be a more casual affair.  Starting with Friday's matches, though, we start the second phase:  we're down to 8, and what the first part offered in quantity the second (we hope) will offer in quality. At least, that's the theory.  These are the matches you watch, rather than just observe; chatter tends to coincide mostly with a stoppages of play.  The overall stress level tends to be higher, even if your own team has been sent home.  The orgy of matches has been been replaced by the orgy of hyper-analysis and commentary.  I love both periods.

We're down to 8 teams, and with the exception of Uruguay who (blessedly!) lost to the Socceroos in the match to determine the final spot of the 32, every World Cup winner is still alive.  European teams tend to do well when it's played in Europe (and not when it's elsewhere - further evidence that we need to take the 2002 US performance with a rather large grain of salt), and with the exception of Argentina (still very much in form, and my favorite to win it all) and Brazil (no explanation necessary), every team still alive is European.  The good showing of Mexico against Argentina - pushing them to extra time, only to lose on a wonderstrike by Maxi Rodriguez - may have saved the CONCACAF region (North and Central America, plus the Caribbean) a spot at the 2010 World Cup.  Overall, the region's performances were pretty dire: other than Mexico (who still drew with Angola and struggled to beat Iran, 1-0, in the first round), the 9 matches played by the US, Costa Rica, and Trinidad & Tobago resulted in 2 points gained out of a possible 27.  Ouch.

For those that asked, check out the following blogs:  all are good, with worthwhile commentary and some pretty trenchant analysis.

New Republic's World Cup Blog - a blog by Frank Foer and friends.  An extension (of sorts) of his book, How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, with some excellent thoughts, plenty of (differing) opinions, and an obvious knowledge of the game.  Certainly beats the "analysis" that I've heard attributed to the idiots at ESPN.  Ugh.

Blogs of Bobby McMahon and Jaime Trecker.  Both write (and commentate on the "telly", in McMahon's case) for Fox Soccer Channel.  While Fox misses the mark sometimes, and have a few grating personalities (though nothing like ESPN's soccer crew, who in my estimation turn at least as many people off the sport as on), both of these guys know what's going on, and have some good original thoughts they don't mind throwing out there.  Soccernet - despite being owned by ESPN - has some good coverage too...but that's what you would expect from a site oriented towards the international (particularly British) audience.

I'll save my "why ESPN is destroying the game" rant for another time, as well as a few thoughts about the ongoing debate/argument about the role of Major League Soccer in our performance (short version: along the lines of Trecker, I think that the standard has improved by leaps and bounds, but it's an absolute joke to argue that MLS prepares players the same as playing in Europe does.)  To close, though, for those that are uncertain about the intricacies of the offside rule, I offer up an email that I received earlier this week.  The "Offside Rule, explained for women:"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop
assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you
must have.

The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them
with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses.

It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to
pay for the shoes.

The shop assistant remains at the till waiting.

Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and
sees your dilemma.

She prepares to throw her purse to you.

If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper
and buy the shoes!

At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and "whilst
it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse
and buy the shoes!

BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been
thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other
shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

You probably know what follows - "oi, oi, oi" - usually said as obnoxiously and aggressively as possible. I find it to be a ridiculously annoying, juvenile chant that might take the cake for worst football/soccer song (though the equally banal "USA! USA! USA!" that was heard loudly throughout our last 2 games - missing in the Czech game, like most of our team - is just as grating.) By means of contrast, the English, who understand the value of an appropriately biting song (at least when they're not blind drunk fighting off pissed German hooligans), came up with one of the better sports cheers I've heard recently: "Two World Wars and one World Cup, doo dah, doo dah..." (Come to think of it, maybe that has something to do with the aforementioned Germans getting a wee bit cranky.)

But I'll be yelling it, loudly and proudly, all night, draped in the Australian flag, watching the 'Roos play Italy. As I've mentioned before, World Cup Fever seems to have stricken most of the already-sports-mad Aussie population over the past 2 weeks. Their success - defeating Japan, a well-deserved draw against Croatia, and giving Brazil their sternest test so far - has created a full-scale epidemic. What makes the match even more enticing is the opponent: not only does Melbourne sport a large ex-pat Italian community, but the center of the Italian section of town (Lygon St.) is located one block away from my flat. They are closing the streets around Argyle Square (directly in front of my house) and will have two enormous screens screening the matches.

I imagine full-scale chaos regardless of the result, and should Australia manage to get a result, the place is going to go apeshit. I think this is a distinct possiblity, given the challenges Italy had with an athletic, physical, probably less technical (and certainly less-disciplined, even if both red cards were questionable) American team. I wouldn't bet the house on it, but I wouldn't rule it out either.

I'll report, hopefully with some good pictures, at the earliest opportunity - as long as someone doesn't burn down the house with a well-intentioned but misdirected flare.

USA out, Australia still in

I couldn't let today pass without a few (brief) comments about the happenings of the past 24 hours. For those who have been enjoying their cave, the US played Ghana last night and lost 2-1. It's the end of the Cup for the Stars and Stripes. While it may not have gotten quite the same attention on the US side of the Pacific, Australia managed a 2-2 draw with Croatia, which means a 2nd place finish (behind Brazil) and a date with Italy on the 26th.

It's been bittersweet, of course; taking place in the celebrations - utter bedlam is a better description - after the US loss proved to be both difficult and a welcome distraction from the reality at hand. It seems the favored reaction amongst the American soccer cognizati has been a woeful lamenting of the US performance, a (thorough) accounting of how dire we were, (heated) criticism of Arena and/or Landon Donovan, and the (negative) consequences for US soccer moving forward.

I don't completely agree. While we some truly shocking moments - 1st half of the Czech game - we also showed some potential. Unfortunately, though, however much emphasis we as a country like to put on "effort" and "heart", it does come down to results. The US were exposed as tactically naive, and questionable decisions were made with disturbing frequency by both players and coaches (why another forward was not brought on, down a goal and needing a win to survive, I do not understand, any more than Reyna's decision to dribble out of trouble as the last defender).

But just as the extremely fortunate trip to the quarterfinals in 2002 overly flattered us, so to does the "sky is falling" attitude overemphasize our failures. In 2002, it's often forgotten that we snuck through the group stage when Portugal (needing a win) finished their game against South Korea with 9 men (sound familar) and gave up a late goal. Then, we meet Mexico - a team we know better than any other in the world, and who has recently shown a decided inability to compete against the US outside of the Azteca stadium in Mexico City.

I'm not ready to say the cause is hopeless. The Czechs exposed us straight from the start, and we struggled to recover after a goal in the first 5 minutes. Against the Italians, after getting the gift of an own goal and inexplicably brutal (and well-deserved) red card, Mastroeni makes a boneheaded, unnecessary challenge (70 yards from goal!) - and paid the price with a ref looking for an opportunity to even things up. (I say this not conspiratorally, but as someone that has seen and participated in enough sport to know that it happens with disturbing frequency.) Pope, already on a yellow card, makes a risky challenge, but clearly gets the ball - and the ref, who seemed to forget that he had already given him a yellow, has no choice but to send him off after he rushes over with a head of steam to show him one. A very dodgy penalty call for Ghana, and the highs of equalizing before the half and going in even vanish as the realization that the US's anemic offense has to now score two goals running.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist; those spouting crazy theories like "they (referres/FIFA/non-Americans) did this on purpose" tend to extremely overvalue the worth of US soccer as a target. But it's the small things that make or break your Cup. That's why it's beautiful - Donovan's deflected cross in 2002 against Portugal that manages, against all laws of probability, to sneak in the net. That's why it's heartbreaking - forgetting the refereeing, Reyna's (captain of the past 8 years, veteran of top European leagues, 116 national team appearances to his name) ridiculous mistake to try and dribble out of trouble with nobody able to cover behind him. We need to learn how to lose as a nation - without the hysterical self-loathing, just as we don't need the ignorant, provincial, and deeply insecure soccer haters of the world (concentrated in mainstream media, it seems) to jump at every opportunity to say "told you so."

More on Australia's success next time - it should be a much more cheerful post. In the meantime, check out these sites...

The Goal Post - blog by Franklin Foer (How Soccer Explains the World) and friends about all things World Cup related - intelligent, knowledgable, and good fun for obsessives like me.

Brazilian name generator - what your Brazilian name would be if you played joga bonito. When you hear about Freisito da Costa (or alternatively Christophito) being the World Game's newest phenomenon, you can say that you heard it here first.

News and such

World Cup update and related thoughts to follow another time (save for Argentina looking frighteningly good after two games - by far the best performers of any of the "big" teams so far. They play the Netherlands tonight, which has the makings of a great game - or a boring draw if they both use substitutes and play conservatively, knowing they are both through to the 2nd Round.) I figured an update on other, non-soccer events may be in order for those that aren't completely obsessed and ridiculously devoted to the game as I am...

-The first semester of my graduate school life has just finished. Without trying to focus on the Australia side of things - I feel like I do enough of that already - life as a PhD student has been a bit surreal, taken some adjustment, and had a few bumps along the way. (And yes, a few of these bumps have been self-induced in the form of not being disciplined enough. You didn't expect me to slide into the freedom of university life and be an immediate workaholic, did you?) Overall, though, I don't have any regrets about my decision to go back to school - or my decision on where to go (more on that later). In my enthusiasm, I jumped straight into the PhD program (they let you do that here, with appropriate qualifications); looking back, it may have been more sensible to start with the Masters. I can still switch over later, which I may well do.

-I'm hoping to go to Bali next month to catch up with Eileen, a good friend and SCUBA diver extraordinaire. I'm still looking into flight costs and timing, but I'm really hoping that it will all work out. From everything I gather, it's an extraordinary place, and one that I hope to be able to visit a couple of times while I'm in this neighborhood of the world.

-I received my first "thanks but no thanks" to a paper proposal. I had submitted an abstract to a conference in Singapore being held over the last weekend in July. I've been working with Al, another postgrad student (and good friend, pictured on the left here - don't worry, he doesn't always dress like this), on a comparison of terrorism and forced migration within Southeast Asia. Hopefully we can shop it around and find another home for it.

-That's it for now. I'll post a few soccer-related thoughts soon, as I've been woefully overdue in doing so up to this point. Tomorrow night is shaping up to be a potentially crazy evening, with the US/Ghana match taking place at the same time (midnight kickoff) as the Italy/Czech game to decide who gets to go through. It's then followed by the Australia/Croatia match at 5 AM; the Socceroos likely just need a draw and they will be through to face the winner of the US's group. Unfortunately, the best the US can do is 2nd - if Italy wins and we beat Ghana - but I'd take that in a heartbeat, given how poorly we played against the Czechs and that we finished the Italy game (a fantastic, exciting 1-1 draw with 2 Americans and 1 Italian receiving red cards - possibly the best result for the US team, given the circumstances, in recent World Cup history. Incidentally, the American on the receiving end of the brutal and clearly premeditated Italian elbow, Brian McBride, shown here, is from Arlington Heights, Illinois - hometown of one Roger W. Freise, aka Dad.) It should make for an extremely exciting, though very late, night - this place is going to erupt if the 'Roos go through, especially if they end up playing Italy. There's an enormous Italian population in Melbourne (and especially in the area where I live), so it would be a massive matchup if they played each other.

-Oh, and I'm dating a really cool Swedish girl named Maria. More later, and yes - I will put some pictures up sometime soon! Bye for now...

World Cup Update

As you might have heard, the US lost its first match at the World Cup to the Czech Republic, 3-0. The Czechs are a classy side, and they showed it, and even Captain America himself couldn't say that we really deserved to win. I was going to put a bunch of thoughts about the game, what this means for the rest of the competition, who played well - and poorly, etc...but I decided instead to post a few thoughts about the Socceroos, who managed to stage a thrilling comeback against Japan in what I feel was the match of the tournament so far.

Over the past few weeks, Australia has been showing all of the symptoms of hard-core soccer fever. That's the sort of thing that happens when you qualify for your 2nd World Cup of all time and first in 32 years. What's interesting, and what I'm still trying to get my head all the way around, is the conflicting ambivalence about the sport that you see in some quarters - particularly the old-school Aussie Rules crowd. Aussie Rules is enormous here in Melbourne: over half the teams call Melbourne home, and until a few years ago it was known as the Victorian Football League, indicating its provincial heritage.

I've experienced a similar resistance to soccer in certain quarters in the US, ranging from the arrogance of benign neglect (read: most mainstream media in non-World Cup years) to the vehement hatred of certain talking-heads (especially on ESPN) that don't even warrant naming. It really baffles me how the a country that takes it sport seriously - and the US and Australia share this quality - can give rise to such an insecure parochialism that, honestly and truly, feels like the popularity and development of soccer actually "threatens" their sports. Is the foundation of baseball, Aussie Rules, American football, or any other chosen sport in such bad shape that the success of a national team in soccer is looked down upon and called into question? While taking the long term view usually involves having to leak a wry smile at their various machinations and amazingly transparent insecurities, in the short term it's nothing less than maddening.

I'll finish that rant another time. Last night, I - and about 6000 of my closest friends - gathered in Federation Square in downtown Melbourne to watch the 'Roos play Japan. Without sounding too ridiculous, I wish I could express the joy that I experienced - as a new transplant, still trying to find my way and my own identity - is seeing a range of accents, skin colors, ages, and nations represented in the Square...98% of whom where wearing green and gold, and shouting the otherwise-annoying "Aussie Aussie Aussie, oy oy oy!" cheer throughout the match. I have been here for 3 1/2 months, and I found it touching; I can only imagine what those that have fought the long, uphill battle for soccer's popular acceptance were thinking. I felt common cause and a pride that reflected my own efforts to try to grow the game in the US. That the Socceroos were deserving winners, and did so in thrilling fashion (3 goals in the final 8 minutes!) has validated the fever, and seeing 12 year olds going crazy with joy at the final whistle makes me feel that this fever has been validated. The Roos are in great shape with 2 games left to play in the first round, but whatever happens from here, this has been a success.

The World Cup is Here.

In approximately 7 hours, the 2006 World Cup will commense. There are few regularly-occuring things that I look forward to with the same passion and excitement as the World Cup. If history is any lesson - and I spent 4 years at the University of Virginia attempting to show that, generally speaking, it is - it will involve the creation of heroes, the destruction of dreams, unimaginable excitement, despair that strikes at the very core of our being, and in general a global passion that far surpasses anything else imaginable. As an extra bonus, Australia has qualified for their 2nd World Cup and first since 1972. Already sports-mad at the best of times, the country has been showing all of the symptoms of World Cup fever in the past few weeks. Things have been particularly pronounced here in Melbourne, owing to both the large internationally-minded and internationally-born populations here.

Feel free to respond to this with rants, trash-talking, and general banter, and above all, support your team, whoever it might be, for whatever reason - because it's the country of your birth, because you think they have a cute right midfielder, because they're the underdog battling a giant of the game, or maybe just because you are intoxicated by the narrative of the biggest competition the world has seen.

Over the next month, natural ability of unimaginable quality will be on display each and every day - and it's all based upon a round ball rolling across a white line and a man in a funny colored shirt blowing his whistle and calling it a goal. While I know I sound like a broken record, I hope that you can excuse some lax communication over the next month. I'll be dreaming of games gone past, and of legends yet to be written. I can't wait. For what it is worth, I rate the chances of Brazil (of course), though I think Argentina could surprise some people, despite their very tough draw to start the tournament. England has one of the most talented non-Brazilian squads, and if they can manage the media pressure I could see them winning it all. Germany is weak, though the home field advantage does count for something; Spain, perpetual underachievers, have an extremely easy road to the quarters - though something tells me that, like so many tournaments in the past, disappointment will win out. While the US has an extremely difficult group, this has had the effect of removing many of the (absurdly high) expectations that were being talked about before the group draw. I wouldn't be surprised if we can slip through, possibly at the expense of the Italians. Regardless, it will be a month of soccer nirvana for myself and my fellow obsessive maniacs, a chance to lose the shackles that we (some voluntarily, some not) place upon ourselves in order to function in normal, polite, civil society. If ever there was ever any doubt about the process being more important than the outcome, I offer you the World Cup.

I've included two little videos for your enjoyment. In the first one, the guy in the red shirt is Thierry Henry, who happens to be one of the best players in the world. He plays for France.

The second one is a compilation of Brazilian players - but I don't think they need much introduction.