Monthly Archives: March 2009

WC Qualifying: USA 2-2 El Salvador

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To put it simply, this was an incredibly disappointing performance and result for the USMNT.  Going into the match the US was #17 in the FIFA rankings and El Salvador was #106, and while road WC qualifiers anywhere in Central America are going to prove a little more difficult due to the hostile environment, the US was heavily favored to come away with a win and three points.  I think they heard that message a few too many times, and then someone forgot to tell them they were actually playing in a game before the second El Salvador goal and 75 minutes into the match.

There was a lot wrong with how the US approached and played this game.  I’m not usually all that critical of the decisions that Bob Bradley makes, but I think much of the blame for the poor showing has to fall on his shoulders.  US soccer has grown to a point where we should recognize when we’re technically superior to teams and take the game to the opposition.  We had no sense of urgency, no sharpness, and we played a generally conservative formation that hasn’t exactly lit up the scoreboard for us in past games.  Its Bradley’s responsibility to get the team ready and set them up in a formation that is going to lead to wins and he simply failed to do that in this outing.

I usually go through the squad and point out some of the bad performances and then some of the better performances.  I think that’s going to be a little more difficult here since so many of the performances were subpar at best.  The most disappointing games from my perspective came from Heath Pearce, Landon Donovan, and Sacha Kjlestan.

Pearce has played some very forgettable games recently and he isn’t looking like he’s the answer at left back, which has been a long standing problem for the USMNT.  Many have called for Beasley to be tried at left back, but seeing how easily he was beaten on El Salvador’s second goal and his generally rusty form, likely a result of his lack of playing time at Rangers, I’m not sure he’s the solution right now either.

Sacha Kjlestan has shown some promise as he’s come up through the national team youth squads, with the Olympic team and a few games with the full men’s team, but his last two showings have been lacking the quality that is needed for him to hold a starting place in the team.

I think Donovan’s game was the most disappointing.  Its no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Donovan’s and games like this are the perfect example of why.  He’s always noted as the US’s best player and the key to our offense, but he once again showed his tendency to disappear during a game.  In a game when he should have been one of the most dominating players on the field, it was hard to remember that he was even playing.  Donovan’s place in the team is far from in danger, but playing like that is completely unacceptable if you’re going to be a leader on the team.

Good performances from the game; this won’t take long.

Altidore obviously had a big impact on the game and that goes beyond the goal he scored.  He brought a litte bit more energy to the attack and he put a game winning opportunity on a silver platter for Brian Ching in the waning moments.  I don’t think he’s ready for a starting role simply because I don’t think he can go 90 minutes yet with the lack of minutes he’s getting for his club side, but I think he should be getting heavy minutes in the second half of any USMNT game.  As his time with his club increases, so should his role with with the national team.

This is the part where I’m cautiously optimistic about Jose Francisco Torres.  His presence in the midfield changed the tempo, tone, and the impact of our attack.  He was confident on the ball and more dynamic than anything else we had during the night.  I’m cautious largely because he hasn’t played much at the national level yet, but he should definitely be given serious consideration to take Sacha’s place in Wednesday night’s game.

So we play Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday in Nashville.  This is another game that we should win, particularly with us playing at home and having Tim Howard back in goal and Onyewu back in the lineup from his slight knee strain.  Conversely, T&T has some proven players that can definitely hurt us if aren’t on top of our game.  We dropped two points against El Salvador that we should have walked away with and we can’t afford to let that happen again Wednesday.

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Tenant Evicted Even After Paying Rent Because Landlord Sucks

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There are some really crappy people in this world.  I truly hope that karma kicks them in the ass.

Tenant pays rent, landlord doesn’t pay mortgage, bank forecloses and tenant gets evicted.  What happens to the landlord?  Not a damn thing.  What should happen to the landlord?  I think they should be forced to house the evicted tenant until the tenant finds a place to live.  The landlord is a piece of trash.

The most infuriating thing about the whole situation is that the place was rented out while the foreclosure procedings were going on.  How can that be legal?  Its stuff like this that makes me have a negative view on society.  I’m glad that legislation is in the works to prevent this, but something should be done really fast to rectify the problem.

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Shuffle Friday

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I’m totally stealing this idea from TJ (I hope he doesn’t mind), but I finally had a good shuffle that wasn’t interrupted by a law lecture or encore break from one of the PJ concerts I have on CD so I wanted to throw it out there.

Basically, on a “Shuffle Friday” he takes his iPod, hits the shuffle songs option and lists the first five that come up, sometimes with a few comments on the song or artist.  Often his regular readers will do likewise and share their shuffles in the comments.  I always thought it was an interesting way to see what other people listen to and chance to discover artists you may have never heard before.

So without further ado, here’s my shuffle.

1. World Wide Suicide – Pearl Jam (Pearl Jam): One of the singles off their most recent album.  Social commentary on the war in Iraq with some great lyrics.

2. Forgive Me – Missy Higgins (On a Clear Night): Great singer/songwriter from Australia.  Puts on a good show too.

3. Comatose – Pearl Jam (Verizon Center Concert):  Another one off of the self-titled album.  This is their performance from their show here in DC in 2005.

4. Goodnight My Friend – Vertical Horizon (Running on Ice): From the earlier mellow days of VH.  This isn’t one of my favorite songs of theirs, but I could have done worse.

5. Soma – Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream):  Some of that 90′s rock that I love so much.  One of the lesser known tracks from Siamese Dream, which I “rediscovered” not too long ago and have been really enjoying again.

So that’s it.  If you have the urge, shuffle your iPod and tell me what you come up with.

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Cheney on CNN

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I’m sitting in the airport waiting to fly back to DC watching Dick Cheney being interviewed about Obama’s policies on CNN and I’m wondering why. Its not like what he is going to say is going to be a shock to anyone. You can sum up what he’ll say as simply as “Whatever that Obama guy wants to do is bad.”

Its as worthwhile as having Nancy Pelosi come on and ask her about Bush policies. Every one of her responses would essentially be, “He’s bad and so are his policies. I’m not really thinking about what the policies are, but if Bush wanted it, it has to be bad.”

Now I might be exaggerating a little, but does anyone really care what these uber-partisan people have to say about policies from the opposition. Maybe you do care and you’re game for that, but it seems like a huge waste of time to me. If you’re going to trot someone out on TV, at least give me three seconds of suspense where I don’t know what they’re going to say in response to a question before the question is finished being asked.

Then again, I’m probably asking too much since there aren’t enough of those people to go around.

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Now the FDIC Needs to Borrow Money

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And this is why our economy is colossally screwed right now.  The FDIC didn’t collect any premiums from banks from 1996-2006 and not they want permission borrow $500 million to fulfill its purpose. The reason they didn’t collect premiums?  Congress wouldn’t give them the authority to b/c…

Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized – and that bank failures were so infrequent – that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.

Now is it me or is the way insurance generally work a pretty simple thing?  You pay a little bit of money each month when you can reasonably afford it, and then when something really bad happens your insurance company steps in and saves your bacon by helping to cover some to all of your expenses.

Because I like analogies, let’s look at the banks like a car.  What Congress basically said is, “hey, we have a Toyota Camry (reliable car that rarely has problems) so let’s stop paying our insurance cause we never use it.”  Too bad our reliable Camry just got totaled by a texting-while-driving teenager on the way home from the football game Friday night.

There’s a reason you’re required to carry auto insurance.  You never know when you’re going to get your car totaled or your going to total another driver’s car.  And its very rare that you’re the only one that’s going to be affected in an accident.  So now we’re stuck in the desert with jalopy quality banks that were Cadillacs several years ago trying to limp to the next gas station and we’re not sure they’re going to have enough gas to save our bacon.

Credit is the devil.

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Total Travel Randomness

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Apparently getting stuck in an airport is what is needed to get my blogging juices flowing again.

I just got down to SC and two amusing, random things happened on the trip down. First, when we boarded the plan, the flight crew asked for three volunteers to move behind row seven to make sure the plane had the proper weight balance. Never heard that one before, though I must admit that a conversation with Cris’ brother who is an aeronautical engineer makes me understand why they did it.

The other funny thing is when we landed and turned on my phone I got the following text message: “you know its not ILLEGAL to call a cellphone stupid.” Not that interesting by itself, but it came from an international phone number that I’m totally unfamiliar with. Very amusing when you’re tired and its the first thing you read when you get off a plane.

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Cuba Policy Argument

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I don’t get the people in Congress and the rest of the country, for that matter, that think its a good idea to continue our current isolationist policies towards Cuba. It actually reminds me of that Far Side cartoon where the kid is trying to get into the school for the gifted by pulling on the door labeled push. Despite all of his efforts, if he keeps doing the same thing he isn’t going to get anywhere.

While I’m not advocating that we throw open the doors to the White House and invite Castro in for tea and cookies, I don’t think trying to use a little more carrot and a little less stick wouldn’t be such a bad idea. To put it simply our current policy is…how do you say…not working. I’d argue that its pretty much as useful as an utter on a bull.

Despite our half-century long program of isolation, the country is still as communist as Castro wants it to be, even though he’s not officially in power anymore. While there have been some small steps towards loosening some economic regulations, the country is still light years away from a representative government allowing for self-determination by the people.

Now, you may ask how I know that a change in policy will work to improve things in Cuba. I don’t. But I do know that our policy over the last 50 years has failed. If we try something different and it doesn’t work, we’re really no worse off than we were with the last set of policies. The basic point is that we’re currently continuing to do the exact same thing expecting a different result, and that, my friends, is one definition of crazy.

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