Taking on the World

The texts and messages rolled in almost as quickly as ithappened. Mostly, with the group of folks I have given my contact information to, the knee-jerk response was laughter. After all, it’s not every day that the general manager of a baseball team that is coming off of two straight trips to the World Series takes a shot at you on live TV.

Call it a badge of honor or something like that. After all, acknowledgment is a good thing (or something).

Anyway, when I learned about the comments they were always followed up by the question, “are you mad?” My theory on why this was the question is because I’m sure the cats who asked were hoping for a little tête à tête between the GM and me. Look, I don’t associate with the most noble of folks. Actually, these are the types of people who take delight in the failure of others and love a good soap opera more so than a digging through the archives.

Yes, my friends are weasels. Then again, that’s why they are my friends.

So once I pieced together the smarty-pants comments from the GM about me on live television, the easy answer to the questions was, “No, why would I be angry?”

That was the truth, too. Angry? Nope, not with the GM. Considering I compared him to Nixon bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War when playing us press types for fools during the Winter Meetings. Remember that? The GM told us the Phillies weren’t in the mix for Roy Halladay, but then a couple days later he made the big trade. Incidentally, Halladay pitches tonight against the team he was traded from.

Synergy, huh?

Nevertheless, for those of us who like to dish it out we sure as shoot better be able to take it, too. There might be a little bit of crying allowed in baseball, but there is no place for whining. Rub some dirt on that bruised ego and get back out there is what I say.

So what does this have to do with the United States national team and the World Cup? Well, not much unless we relate it to me (and this is all about me). See, a couple of weeks ago I sat at the Linc and watched the World Cup squad take on Turkey in their last game in the U.S. before jetting off to South Africa. From that game and the reports on the previous game against the Czech Republic, my thought was Bob Bradley’s team could be setting itself up for a big crash.

I even wrote this:

Bob Bradley is a smart man. As the coach of the U.S. World Cup team headed for South Africa on Monday, Bradley has to be pretty sharp. So when listening to the coach speak after games it’s best to listen to the words he’s not saying as opposed to what is said.

Now this isn’t to say that Bradley is performing avant jazz by bebopping and scatting confusing and cryptic phrases on our ears. No, far from it. However, following the 2-1 victory over the national team from Turkey on Saturday afternoon at the Linc, it was evident that the coach believes his team has some more work to do before its first match against England on June 12.

Again, Bradley wasn’t hiding anything, but then again he really didn’t have to. There was no conspiratorial tone from Bradley whatsoever. Still, it seemed as if Bradley was trying to sell the notion that everything was going to be OK.

Certainly that’s a relative term when it comes to U.S. soccer in international competition. Still, based on the team’s painful 0-3 showing in the last World Cup and the experience of the players on the current roster, Team USA has to be a little better than OK. It’s the round of 16 or bust in South Africa for the U.S.

Yep, Bradley knew what he was saying that afternoon in Philadelphia. He outlined exactly what his team had to do in the final week and a half leading up to the World Cup opener against England and things have actually gone better than planned. Oh yes, there were some tense moments there before Landon Donovan scored in extra time to boost the U.S. to the win of Group C, and it’s not unfair to suggest that Bradley’s boys deserved a lot less stress on their run to the final 16.

But you know what? Bradley gets it. The coach really knows what he’s doing. He knows when to push his guys and when to relax on the whip a bit. Moreover, there is nothing about the undefeated round robin stage that has been a mistake. The U.S. won the group because it was the best team.

As far as dealing with the press in South Africa, it appears as if Bradley has kept it just as avant as he did that day in Philadelphia. If the quarterfinals game against Ghana comes down to strategery and acumen, the U.S. is going to march on.

So here we are with another big plate of crow, a fork and a sharp knife. In fact, if it comes to that I’m going to hold my nose and take a big bite.

No, the U.S. is not going to win the World Cup. At least not until the next Kobe Bryant and LeBron James opt for soccer instead of other sports.In other words, this could be a very good year for U.S. Soccer… that is if it can take care of a few issues before the games start. That means no more repeats of the first half of the game against Turkey in Philadelphia.

Yep, that was me. I typed that just enough arrogance to force others to believe that I knew what I was talking about. So now with it all out on the table like this, let’s entertain the thought for a moment—y’know, tempt fate, the football gods and Posh Spice with some crazy talk…

What if the U.S. wins this thing? Really, what then? Will there be an explosion, a war, a day off from work, a chance for the international community to question the very nature of life?

Yes, what if the U.S. wins the World Cup?

Is this the craziest thing ever?

A foul most foul

As soon as it went down, Jim Joyce’s infamous call at first base to end Armando Galarraga’s chance at a perfect game had already been deconstructed and spit back into heavy rotation. It quickly registered as a trend on Twitter while folks argued if it was the worst call in a regular-season baseball game ever.

But then a funny thing happened—the whole thing was celebrated. Joyce, Galarraga, the Detroit Tigers and the sport of baseball… every last one of them were looked at as heroic and/or people to be emulated. Before anyone could digest what had happened it was the worst call ever, but then just as quickly the fastest 180-degree turn in public opinion took place and knocked it all off kilter.

Wha’ happened?

Easy. Joyce admitted he was human. He stood before everyone and did not make excuses when he said that he messed up. He apologized to Galarraga, accepted criticism stoically and offered to fix things any way that he could.

In other words, Joyce held himself accountable. Though there was no need to change the outcome of the game, machinations were in place for oversight. In the case with the imperfect game nothing was changed, though Major League Baseball says the matter was under review.

As Americans and sports fans, we demand that type of assurance that the game is on the level. After all, who wants to invest time and energy into being a fan only to see it all erased by the whims of one man? That’s why maverick referee Tim Donaghy’s admission that he fixed NBA games so offensive and made the jail sentence he served justifiable… people don’t just put money into sports, but they also give up their time. Nothing is more valuable than time.

And that’s why the finish of the World Cup match between the U.S. and Slovenia made me so angry.

I should point out that outcomes of games rarely upset me. Oh sure, when I was a kid I was disappointed if my team lost and I’ve been known to show emotion in regard to the McCaskey High basketball team. But for the most part the correct tact (I think) is to look at a game as a painting or a work of art that should be allowed to unfold organically. It’s more enjoyable to sit back, relax and let things play out.

So when a guy like referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali thrusts himself into a game and essentially determines the outcome, it’s too much to bear. For those of us who got out of bed especially early in order to watch the game, Coulibaly stole from us, too.

By now most sports fans have seen or heard about the go-ahead go that was scored by the U.S. and inexplicably waived off by because of some unexplained phantom foul. Making matters more twisted is the fact that the goal would have been exactly what the U.S. needed to advance to the knockout round of the World Cup for just the third time ever and first time since 2002. Because the game against Slovenia ended in a tie, the U.S. must win its final game against Algeria to guarantee a berth in the round of 16.

The U.S. team seemingly did its job by beating Slovenia, the referee, however, had a different agenda.

The part that’s most maddening about how the debacle unfolded is that there was no explanation or oversight. Sure, Coulibaly likely won’t referee another game as big as a World Cup match, but why was there no system in place to make sure mistakes like this one cannot occur? Or, why was there no official call made on the spot or comment from FIFA?

Hey, some of us got up early to watch the World Cup. Our day was ruined! 

Anyway, Sports Illustrated soccer writer Grant Wahl has seen this all before and offered this in his latest from South Africa:

As much as I love soccer, I do get extremely frustrated by how often the postgame discussion revolves around the referee's decisions. No sport, not even NBA basketball, approaches soccer when it comes to officiating controversy. And no sport does less to provide teams and fans with explanations for refereeing decisions. The fact is that we may never know why Coulibaly waved off the U.S. goal -- FIFA doesn't allow a pool reporter to interview the referee, as most sports do, and I got no response when I e-mailed FIFA's head press officer in search of an explanation.

In the postgame mixed zone, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said he hadn't seen replays yet, but he had received 43 text messages from people who had watched the replay and not seen a foul. “We don't know what the foul was,” said Gulati. “We'll ask, but they're not required to tell us.”

Like Wahl, I love soccer—especially the World Cup. But I can understand why a lot of Americans haven’t warmed up to the sport because of things that happened in Friday’s match. In the U.S. sports leagues the officials explain the call on the spot… it was holding or clipping. Safe or out, foul or play on. Sure, that doesn’t mean a call isn’t open to second-guessing, but at least we know what is happening and why.

Hey, it’s our time—we’re owed at least that much.

World Cup action scores big in Phillies' clubhouse

NEW YORK — It wasn’t so much the audacity of the shot from the end line that snaked between the North Korean goalie and the right post that stopped people in their tracks, it was the lavishness of the celebration by Brazil’s midfielder, Maicon. Part interpretive dance mixed with equal parts long-distance dedication, Maicon says the goal in Tuesday’s World Cup match was a dedication to his wife.

Which kind of makes the rest of us look like a bunch of slackers...

Nevertheless, it was the celebration that got the most attention in the Phillies’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium nearly three hours before that night’s game against the defending World Champion Yankees. Oh sure, players like Ryan Howard—a standout soccer player when he was kid, he says—love the competition and the athleticism of the game and have a bit more than a passing interest in the World Cup (they are sports fans after all), but more than anything else it’s the theatrics.

Ryan Howard couldn’t get enough of the showmanship.

Oh make no mistake about it; Howard is a savvy fan of soccer. He knows which teams are usually strong in international play which is why Spain’s loss to Switzerland on Wednesday raised a few eyebrows around the team’s clubhouse. But the Phillies’ cleanup hitter also knows that every goal scored in the World Cup is a small miracle. They are like lightning strikes or immovable forces of nature calmly brushed aside. In a more hyperbolic and extreme sense, a goal like Maicon’s proves there are forces larger than us in the universe.

Or something like that…

“A 1-0 game is like 10-0,” Howard said, comparing soccer scores to baseball. “A 2-0 game is a blowout and the 4-0 game like Germany had the other day, that’s ridiculous.”

Surely some saw Maicon’s post-goal celebration as ridiculous. Better yet, it was arguably more compelling than the shot that tucked into the net just inside the left post. In fact, after such a magical goal everyone in the room knew the celebration would be equally as spectacular. When we all realized that the shot had indeed found the net, someone said, “OK, here we go,” in anticipation of what was to come next.

Maicon didn’t disappoint.

Overflowing with emotion, Maicon ran toward the sidelines with his eyes and index finger pointed toward the heavens before he dropped to his knees and put his fingers to his mouth that from the first glance looked as if he were imitating Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies or was sucking his thumb. Only later did we learn that he was giving tribute to his wife in a manner that would make former NBA player Doug Christie jealous.

“And to score in the first game? I cried, but I was happy. I kissed my wedding ring for everything that my wife has done for me,” Maicon explained to reporters after the match. “It is a thank you for everyone who has been by my side.”

Later, Maicon got into wardrobe and performed the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Kidding aside, Maicon’s celebration led to an interesting topic of discussion, one I’m sure others have pondered as well…

How come baseball players don’t celebrate the way they do in other sports? Certainly a home run is a physics experiment that could have saved Sir Isaac Newton some time waiting for that piece of fruit to clunk him on the head. Moreover, a perfect swing of the bat that meets the ball oh so perfectly is just as artful as anything that occurs in the so-called, “Beautiful Game.” Clearly this was a question for Howard, one of history’s most prolific home run hitters.

“The next time you hit a home run you should celebrate like that,” I said to Howard while pointing to Maicon on the TV hanging above the clubhouse.

“What, you mean drop to my knees and suck my thumb?”Howard answered with a big smile and a laugh.

“Well, maybe not like that, but it looks like [Maicon] could get around the bases pretty quickly. Maybe you could just do that slide on the knees or do a little touchdown dance?”

Obviously this was all so ridiculous. Howard hits so many homers that he be worn out simply by getting around the bases. Still, it is worth mentioning that Howard’s current home run trot has its own panache with its relaxed movement around the bases that finishes with a little skip at home plate where he registers the run with his right foot as though he were dipping his big toe into a swimming pool to test the temperature of the water. Howard is cool with his own unique style. Howard’s big, smooth and strong vibe works in baseball so much better than anything that could have been choreographed by Bob Fosse or even Charo.

Either way, it never gets old. We could watch Howard or Maicon do their thing all summer long. At least that’s the sense one would get in a stroll through Manhattan where restaurants and pubs entice potential patrons by advertising the day’s World Cup games with big signs out front, while stores dress up mannequins in the latest team kits. Better yet, there were more folks seen around town in soccer gear than there were people dressed in Mets garb.

Was that dude really wearing a Lionel Messi shirt on the No. 4 train?

God save the Green

Here’s how good (good used facetiously) the U.S. has been at soccer in the WorldCup:

For the team to advance to the knockout round for the first time in 64 years — in only its second appearance after 40 years of not qualifying for the tourney — Team USA needed a fluke goal. Actually, make that (perhaps) the most notorious fluke goal in the history of sports.

At the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. In June of 1994, Colombia’s star defender Andres Escobar intercepted a crossing pass into the penalty box only to deflect it past his own goalie to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead it would never relinquish. Because of that goal, the heavily-favored Colombians were bounced from the tournament that many believed they could win.

Ten days later back home in Medellin, Escobar was murdered when he was shot 12 times allegedly by a gunman hired by disappointed drug lords. Police reports say that after each of the 12 shots hit Escobar, the murderer yelled, “Goal!”

It’s bad enough getting bounced from the World Cup, but to do so with a loss to the United States is like pouring salt into the wound.

Yes, they take football seriously all over the globe and as the marquee sporting event in the world, play in the World cup is scrutinized and deconstructed more fervently than anything. Football is a religion in a lot of countries and followed to a degree that even fans of American football cannot understand.

Now goals in World Cup action are like lightning strikes. Sure, a couple of goals in a game can occur, but they are rare enough that they are celebrated as if they are small miracles. In other words, to give away a goal to the opposition is so devastating to a team’s chances in a match that it can sway the outcome of the tournament. Goals can change lives… or end them.

So when Clint Dempsey’s shot from 18 yards away in the opening match for USA and England in the 2010 World Cup, bounced off the hands of goalie Rob Green and trickled into the net, it didn’t take long to see what was coming. No, Green will live. They take football as seriously as anything in England, but not to the extreme to murder a guy. But unless England regroups and advances far into the tourney, Green’s life will never be the same.

Indeed, goals change lives. They mean that much.

Just a quick peruse through the English newspapers was enough to see what Green is in for. Sure, the Philly and New York sports media is supposed to be tough, often creating heroes and villains with just a few sentences. However, in Philly we have nothing on the London writers who have carved into the English team without mercy. Green, of course, has been the main target with ledes like this one from the Sunday Times, a conservative paper in London owned by the same company as the Wall Street Journal:

To the Boston Tea Party and Belo Horizonte, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium can almost be added. Here was parity that felt a lot like purgatory for Englishmen. England have not begun a World Cup better for 28 years, scoring incisively through their captain, Steven Gerrard, just four minutes in, and yet they have seldom ended a tournament’s opening game feeling worse.

Robert Green, Fabio Capello’s contentious choice of starting goalkeeper, imploded and the myth that England are somehow among the favourites for these finals was exploded. A scrappy, uncomfortable draw against the second-ranked side in Group C may not stop Capello’s men topping it, but it is hard to see them proceeding far in the knockout rounds unless they make giant and sudden improvements.

That story was one of the less incendiary published in the aftermath of the USA-England match. The overwhelming majority of the prose from England’s writers from South Africa cut deeper and sharper, not wasting time in going for the jugular. The tabloid, The Sun, plastered pictures of Green’s “fluff” all over its Sunday editions and buried stories about British Petroleum’s “fluff” into the back pages.

From The Sun:

SKIPPER Steven Gerrard refused to condemn Robert Green after the keeper's gaffe cost England three points in Rustenburg.

Indeed, the writer seemed indignant about the team’s captain refusing to pile on a teammate and later in the story labeled Dempsey’s shot on goal, “tame,” with this bit about another error by the British:

“One disastrous spill the Yanks won’t complain about.”

Yes, because the Yanks are a bunch whiners for complaining about the wanton destruction of the planet.

And from The Guardian:

Just as South Africa opened their World Cup with a goal that will be remembered forever, so England, as is their wont, contrived to open theirs with a goalkeeping blunder that will never be forgotten. No sooner had Fabio Capello placed his confidence in Robert Green than his judgment was mocked by the sort of bungle no professional footballer can comfortably watch, an unforced error that allowed the United States back into a game on which England appeared to have a comfortable grip after Steven Gerrard's early goal.

Nowhere was the fact that England did not lose the game mentioned high up in the reports from London. That all seemed beside the point as the knee-jerk reactions rolled in from a misplay that has not affected England’s chances to win the World Cup for the first time since 1966. In fact, England and the United States are still favored to advance to the knock-out rounds if they score a victory against either Algeria or Slovenia, two teams not rated as high as either club.

But football was invented in England. More than Brazil, Italy, Colombia, Ghana, Spain, Germany or South Africa, football is an English game to a degree even greater than football, baseball and basketball are our games. The first modern rules were put together at Cambridge University in 1848 though the game had been played in England since the medieval times as they were first focused on conquering the world and as a gift they gave it football.

With this gift, though, comes a steep price and Green is paying it for all of England.

 “Bring it on,” Green said bravely after discussing his misplay with the English press in South Africa. “I can take it.”

Indeed Green will continue to take it until England regains a spot on top of the world. Based on the dispatches from London, that won’t be any time soon.

USA for Africa

Bob Bradley is a smart man. As the coach of the U.S.World Cup team headed for South Africa on Monday, Bradley has to be pretty sharp. So when listening to the coach speak after games it’s best to listen to the words he’s not saying as opposed to what is said.

Now this isn’t to say that Bradley is performing avant jazz by bebopping and scatting confusing and cryptic phrases on our ears. No, far from it. However, following the 2-1 victory over the national team from Turkey on Saturday afternoon at the Linc, it was evident that the coach believes his team has some more work to do before its first match against England on June 12.

Again, Bradley wasn’t hiding anything, but then again he really didn’t have to. There was no conspiratorial tone from Bradley whatsoever. Still, it seemed as if Bradley was trying to sell the notion that everything was going to be OK.

Certainly that’s a relative term when it comes to U.S. soccer in international competition. Still, based on the team’s painful 0-3 showing in the last World Cup and the experience of the players on the current roster, Team USA has to be a little better than OK. It’s the round of 16 or bust in South Africa for the U.S.

Still, Bradley touched on a few themes after Saturday’s game against Turkey. Call them buzzwords for a lack of a better term. Based off a first half where Turkey clearly outplayed the U.S. and took a 1-0 lead into the locker room and a second half where Bradley’s team dominated the action, those terms were reaction, transition, response and most importantly, understanding.

In other words, Bradley is still doing a lot of team building and teaching with his team with the World Cup to begin in 11 days.

“The type of game we were in pushed the team very hard and that’s what you want from a game like today,” Bradley said. “The response, especially in the second half, was a strong one. We did a good job pushing through the second goal, we had a couple of chances to get the third goal, but when you consider everything that’s gone on the last few weeks it puts us in a good position and I think now we’re ready to move on to South Africa.”

See, he thinks the team is ready. Bradley knows there are still plenty of question marks with his team, and though the game against Turkey ended well, it should be noted that it is not a team that will be competing in the World Cup and is currently rated 29^th in the latest FIFA world rankings. So when Bradley talks about the team pacing itself during the first half it raises an eyebrow considering goalie Tim Howard exploded out of the penalty area to bark at a teammate for some perceived lackadaisical defense.

If the U.S. team was pacing itself, someone forgot to tell Howard.

“We were a little all over the place,” Howard said. “I’ve been saying that’s been something we have to try to get better at, and we don’t have a lot of time to do it.”

Of course there is the notion that the U.S. team was still trying to figure out some things. During the first half the team looked slow and disorganized—reaction and response as Bradley pointed out—but when the coach subbed in Jose Torres and Robbie Findlay and paired them with star midfielders Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, everything clicked.

In that regard, yes, there was an understanding of what the team can do and who can do it. That will be valuable when the team gets going in South Africa—especially considering the team has a favorable draw in its group. Sure, England is No. 8 in the FIFA rankings (the U.S. is 14^th), but there are two winnable games against Slovenia (23^rd) on June 18 and Algeria (31^st) on June 23. Potential opponents in the round of 16 are Australia (20^th), Ghana (32^nd), Serbia (16^th) and the always tough Germany (6^th).

No, the U.S. is not going to win the World Cup. At least not until the next Kobe Bryant and LeBron James opt for soccer instead of other sports.In other words, this could be a very good year for U.S. Soccer… that is if it can take care of a few issues before the games start. That means no more repeats of the first half of the game against Turkey in Philadelphia.

“It was a slap in the face what happened in the first half and they hit us hard,” Howard said. “They were getting too many chances, too many good opportunities and good looks that we had to tighten up. …”

Like Howard said, there isn’t a lot of time to iron it out, but Bradley remains positive. He has to.

“There’s a lot of things on the field to build on, a real good push when we got behind and in the end a good heartfelt win against a good team so, in that regard, we accomplished a lot,” the coach said.

Now they have to accomplish something in South Africa.