Category Archives: soccer

Jose Villareal is the real deal

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LA Galaxy and US Under 20 forward Jose Villareal has been making some noise this year (and at the end of last), with this scissor kick at the death against Toronto serving as the latest sign this talented striker is nearing prime time.

With the senior Men’s National Team looking for scoring power in the Hexagonal, and beyond, the left-footed Villareal could become an attractive option for Jurgen Klinsmann. Villareal could sit in a slot behind Jose Altidore, running off target forward for scoring opportunities. A clear talent, Villareal should at the very least get a look in this summer’s Gold Cup.

Best news of all: Villareal is a Homegrown signing for the Galaxy who rose quickly through the club’s youth system. Although still in its infancy, VIllareal, along with the likes of DC United goalkeeper Bill Hamid, demonstrate the talent MLS youth systems will hopefully be producing in the coming years.

USA v Costa Rica Commemorative Poster to Celebrate Snowqualifier

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Limited edition USA v Costa Rica World Cup Qualifyier poster by Denver animator Shaw Nielsen and Denver printer IndyInk.

Only 100 were printed and they’re available (signed and numbered) for a pretty reasonable $100. Let’s hope this is something US Soccer will be doing going forward for home qualifiers. With matches coming up in Seattle, Salt Lake, Columbus and Kansas City, we could see some really nice prints.

twitter handles replace player names on soccer jerseys (and what it says about facebook v. twitter)

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(Via Dirty Tackle:  Mexican club replace players’ names with Twitter handles on shirts .)

Mexican soccer club Jaguares has replaced player names on the backs of their shirts with Twitter handles that promote both the player and shirt sponsor, Sol beer. As Dirty Tackle explains:

In a bid to get its players (and beer sponsor) a few more followers, the club — which was founded in 2002 — replaced the players’ names on the back of its shirts with each players’ individul Twitter handle. The club also colored the lettering on the orange home shirts in a Twitter teal (or blue…whatever) along with the social networking site’s bird logo.

Now, I love soccer and I love Twitter, but this is a bit much for me. The fact is, a lot of Mexican club shirts are so chock full of sponsors that they basically could be mistaken for NASCAR cars. Adding Twitter handles to this trend — well, it’s just jumping the shark.

It is interesting how enamored people, especially those in the sports world, are with promoting their twitter accounts, but aren’t similarly obsessed with promoting their Facebook accounts. This, despite the fact that Facebook has over seven times the monthly active users that Twitter does. This probably has a lot to do with the default public nature of Twitter, versus the default private nature of Facebook.

Despite the fact that Facebook has developed some pretty great settings to allow users to easily maintain robust and separate public and private profiles on Facebook, this use doesn’t seem to have gotten widespread attention yet. For now, and for the foreseeable future, individuals seem to view Twitter as their public mechanism for sharing content and information, while Facebook is a private means of sharing content and information. Of course this only applies to individuals, it’s now SOP to use both channels to market an organization.

dwayne de rosario hat trick and dc united playoff run

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While Washington sports fans marvel at their professional football team’s 2-0 start and wonder if they can beat the hated Cowboys tonight, their professional futbol (aka. soccer) team is making a late playoff run powered by veteran Canadian Dwayne De Rosario. This weekend he scored his second hat trick of the season, which happened to be the fastest hat trick recorded in MLS history.

After several seasons in the wilderness this year, DC United is in hot pursuit of the playoffs. They are one point behind New York  for the final playoff spot with two games in hand and four points behind Houston for the top spot with three games in hand. In the moribund Eastern Conference, a playoff birth is United’s to lose.

friday lost and found: feel the crazy edition

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I find myself writing yet another Friday lost and found on Saturday morning, so let’s get right down to it:

As the Republican nomination race heats up and looks increasingly like a run-off between crazy Michelle Bachman, crazy Rick Perry and not-so crazy-but-still-pretty-scary Mitt Romney, Bachman has pledged to bring back $2.00 per gallon gas. Of course, economists — you know, people who have actually studied how the economy works — note that two dollar gas would only be achievable in a complete economic collapse. At least we’ll be able to fuel up our SUVs as we drive into the zombie apocalypse.
(Via CNNMoney)

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If you live in the DC metro area (or have access to The Washington Post) check out the Viola Drath, Albrecht Gero Murth murder case. Here’s the basic synopsis: Wealthy 91-year-old socialite is found murdered in her tony Georgetown townhouse. Weirdo husband, fond of German military uniforms and eye patches is accused. It’s a tragic and surreal case that could only happen in Washington.
(Via The Washington Post)

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Inter Milan is in final  negotiations with obscure Russian club Anzhi Makhachkal over a transfer deal that would make Samuel Eto’o the highest paid soccer player in the World. Which is crazy, because Eto’o isn’t really all that any more.

Even crazier? Anzhi Makhachkal is located in a politically unstable region of Russia and its players actually live in Moscow and fly to Makhachkal to play their matches (and presumably quickly fly home again). So basically, every match is an away match. Also, as The Wall Street Journal notes, “The only time Anzhi made mainstream headlines last year was when Roberto Carlos was racially abused at an away game in Samara.” I’m sure Eto’o will fit in just fine there…
(Via Sports Illustrated and The Wall Street Journal)

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You know what’s really crazy? Trying to do Google Street View in the Amazon. But Google is doing it. The web giant is working with the Sustainable Amazon Foundation to pull off Street View Amazon and is working with indigenous people in the region to film the area. The Street View team is actually not using many streets to record the project, but is instead traveling by boat and bike.
(Via Treehugger)

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500 Startups held their most recent Demo Day, unveiling 30 unique ideas trying to make it on the big bad Internet frontier. TechCrunch highlights a handful of them in video interviews. My personal favorite here: StoryTree, which looks like a great way to tell a story and record family histories.
(Via TechCrunch)

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Finally, today: There is one Republican candidate out there who is not crazy. His name is Jon Huntsman and, unfortunately, his chances of winning the nomination are basically zero. And/but, his daughters are hot.
(Via Twitter, the world’s finest news source.)

Newsweek crop via Ebony Mom Politics

friday lost and found: digital distractions edition

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Infographic master David McCandless, he of Information is Beautiful fame, presents “The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions,” an infogrpahic that attempts to dissect  which distractions take presedence his wandering mind. The work now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art.

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In the vein of digital distractions, Facebook has released a stand-alone app for it’s Messenger service in the latest bid to crush the living soul out of the scourge known as SMS (or text messages to the uninitiated). The messenger app essentially gives users a shortcut to Facebook’s messenger function and allows them to set up group chats. Carriers better sock away some of that SMS coin they’re making now, because the number of messaging services on the market are going to make that “service” irrelevant pretty quickly.

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Digital distraction of the moment: IEEE Spectrum: Inside Technology is like Wired without all the bullshit. Right now the site features articles on Army robots, medical tattoos and dimwitted nanotech terrorists who don’t know what nanotech is. Be sure to check out th geek Life column to find onto how to make your own Arcade game.

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Good news on the environment front: The Energy Information Administration has found that electricity generated from coal is down 6 percent! Bad news: It’s being replaced by the only slightly less dirty natural gas. Worse news: The EIA predicts electricity from coal will jump 25 percent in the next twenty years.

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Finally today, there’s some really good news for Major League Soccer. The league has signed a three-year deal with NBC Universal to bring its games to the Versus network, which will soon be renamed the NBC Sports Network. Versus will air 38 regular season MLS matches, three playoff matches and two US National Team matches, while the NBC Network mothership will air two regular season matches, two playoff matches and two national team matches. The new contract will essentially replace the matches currently found on Fox Soccer Channel. ESPN will continue to show its “MLS Game of the Week” package of MLS matches. The deal instantly doubles the exposure for MLS on cable, going from 40 million households on FSC to 80 million on the NBC Sports.

Also, the reborn Freddy Adu — Freddy 2.0 let’s call him — is being reunited with his first professional coach Piotr Nowak. Adu will sign for Philadelphia Union today. I’m psyched for Freddy. I’ve always appreciated his play and felt like the expectations put on his shoulder were too great. Seeing Freddy 2.0 emerge in the Gold Cup was one of the few bright spots for the US and I’m rooting for him in Philly — except when he plays DC United.

the hope of jurgen klinsmann

You don’t have to have a British accent to be a good soccer announcer, it’s just that all the best announcers have British accents. They’re the ones who not only have a love of the game, but were  brought up through their careers knowing that being a soccer (or football in their parlance) announcer was the top of the heap. Being a soccer announcer in the US sports landscape is far from the top of the heap. There’s a reason Rob Stone goes from MLS to being the play-by-play guy for pro bowling — and I’m pretty sure it’s not because of his love of bowling.

In the same fashion, you do not need to be a former soccer player from Europe or South America to be a top soccer coach — it just so happens that the best coaches come from places where soccer is the end-all-and-be-all of sporting culture and have played the game at a very high level. (Of course, there are always exceptions to prove the rule, see: Diego Maradona.)

I’m sure somewhere here in America there is someone who will be our first great American-born national team coach. Perhaps it’s Jason Kreis, or Ben Olsen — guys who grew up with soccer and played and now coach at the professional level. But right now, that person doesn’t exist and so US Soccer has gone out and finally landed Jurgen Klinsmann — a coach with a high European pedigree and, as someone who’s lived in America for several years — a deep knowledge and understanding of the arcane (and wholly non-European) workings of American soccer.

Right now, Klinsmann certainly seems like the best option for US Soccer, but there are questions surrounding both Bradley’s dismissal and his hiring that need to be addressed.

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