Me and Cristiano Ronaldo, Aye...

April 24, 2008

Well it was a tough day for me and the Manchester United winger. I happen to think he is now the best player in the world, but he missed a penalty kick early in the Man United at Barcelona Champions League match. The failed effort at an away goal could very well come back to haunt Sir Alex Ferguson's side, although it should be noted that Barcelona did Jack Squat with all the possession they had, so we'll see who ends up regretting the day the most.

Of course it could have been me atop the regret tables tonight. Every Wednesday I help coach a group of homeschool kids at what amounts to a pickup soccer game at an area indoor facility. We did this in the fall as well and the other coach and I try to teach a few basics to the young men, most of whom have not played competitively before. It's a mixed bag skill-wise, but we end up having a blast and today was no different.

Well Coach Ziegler got his today. Apparently I can be a bit pointed with the criticism, especially when it comes to lack of finishing skills. So when I inserted myself to play against these teenagers (a feat of athletic daring in itself "Where is the defibrillator kept again?") I was setting myself up major verbal retaliation.

I was quite pleased with my play actually, helping the side being defeated to a 3-goal rally, but during a flurry in front of goal the ball rolled to me about 2 feet from the corner of the net, with nobody near me, and I blew it.

I think the problem is I was thinking about my celebration, or grabbing the ball and running back to the center circle the way us big-time goalscorers do. I may have been thinking about how I was going to brag to fellow U.S.F.C. employees Seth Burleigh, Max Boigon, Ron Dvorkin and Jon Spencer about how I can still school 16-year olds. I really don't remember. I just remember hearing my foot hit the ball, the ball hitting the board next to goal and 15 other players starting to howl at the same time. The other coach started yelling "It's not as easy as it looks!" and the next thing you know I was on the turf, apparently having collapsed under the weight of my own profligate finishing (profligate finishing is how we big-time soccer journalists describe missing from 2 feet away).

I should add that red-faced TopDrawerSoccer Managing Editor, only a minute later, lashed home a bullet shot from about 12 yards that shut Catcall Nation up for a minute, but the miss somehow is more memorable than the make.

So Cristiano Ronaldo - I feel your pain man.

Whatever John Arne Riise did to deserve that ...

April 22, 2008

It must have been awfully bad.

If you just watched the UEFA Champions league semifinal you know what I'm talking about. The Liverpool  fullback, a  hero for the Reds 3 years ago when they won this same competition, headed a ball into his own net with the last touch of the ball to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for his club.

OK, the match ended in a draw but considering the scope of the contest, the timing of the gaffe and the fact that away goals are the first tiebreaker in Champions League events, there could hardly be a worse mistake.

If that doesn't make you cringe just a little, unless you are a rabid Chelsea supporter, you really have no ability to show compassion. He had to want to crawl into the nearest hole after something like that. I noticed some of his teammates trying to offer a consoling word or pat on the back, but what could you really say in such a circumstance? As someone who has made the same mistake (albeit in a completely different and lower soccer universe), trust me that the best thing to do is leave the poor guy alone - but keep him away from sharp objects.

If I had his number, I'd offer the player the chance to help me work on our upcoming Players To Watch  list, where we'll be identifying more than 4,000 players nationwide as we continue in our mission to recognize and track the leading talents in the game in our country, with an eye toward the always-hot college recruiting process. Stay tuned!

When I Woke Up This Morning...

April 18, 2008

The home office people in Long Beach will wonder why this is a big deal, but we just had an earthquake here in Indiana. Windows and furniture rattled pretty good. I lived in LA for 3 years and this matched the strongest one I felt there, so it is still a noteworthy event for us midwesterners.

So of course I thought, "What could this mean to the American soccer world?" Is there something significant that this shaking could be indicating, and then I remembered something coming very soon from U.S.F.C. We're almost ready to announce it and it might be a bit of a figurative earthquake indeed. 

Melodramatic? Most likely, but the idea of shaking things up is quite appropriate in this case. I'll just ask you to stay tuned.

In the meantime, I continue to work overtime on adding new features to the site. I hope you are enjoying our college soccer section, with data from 507 D1 programs and a news page for each of them. As we're in the offseason the articles for each program may be at a bit of a trickle now, but this will be bar none the best place to go to find out what's going on in all of college soccer, as well as a guide for all recruiting (both for the coach and the player). It's all together in one section.

Early next month we will launch Players To Watch and TeamRank, our exclusive 5-Star rankings of the top players and teams in the country. Covering 16 geographic sections and 6 age groups for both Boys and Girls, these lists are pretty massive, so I'm employing the help of soccer-savvy people across the country as we double and triple-check our information. We've added a Show and Share feature from the site's home page, where you too can submit information on teams and players, as well as videos, articles and other information. As always, we check everything out, but we want your opinions on possible additions to these lists in order to help make them the best information out there on the elite players and teams of our soccer nation. 

 I hope you are enjoying the rebirth of TopDrawerSoccer as much as I am. With the resources of U.S.F.C. behind us, we're taking this to a much better level than ever before, and that's not even the earth-shaking thing I was talking about earlier, so tell your friends.

 At Any Level

April 9, 2008

Today I had the privilege of watching a special match, the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal between Liverpool and Arsenal.

Those of you who watched it know what I mean. One of my favorite soccer moments is having been able to watch a game from Liverpool’s famous Anfield. Just like on that day 10 years ago, the Kop willed Liverpool forward in search of goals during the 2^nd half. The stress of work and long conference calls faded away as Fernando Torres hit a tremendous strike to make it 2-1. Shortly afterward however, Arsenal’s Theo Wolcott engineered a great counterattack goal to draw things level. Then Liverpool’s Markus Babel earned a penalty (and I do think it was earned) that Steven Gerrard converted, and then Babbel used a burst of speed to kill off the tie once and for all for a 4-2 win.

The atmosphere, effort and skill combined to make it great theatre.

Then I went to coach my son’s U6 practice here in Indiana. The turf was patchy at best with a lot of bare spots still evident from last summer’s drought here, plus overuse during recent rains. There is always a certain bit of disorganization at these things. You share a small field with another squad, you get parents frequently coming up and asking “Do you have a (insert name) on your team?” The apparently-beleaguered Rec director gave us our bag of replacement balls, which apparently had been turned in by some disgruntled coach just before I showed up, leaving me with the reject bag. As I attempted to ask a question about schedules she just started talking to someone else in the room. She does this to me every time – TopDrawerSoccer™ gets no love at the local Rec club!

Practice itself was a joy. These 8 kids who make up the Pirates wre out there smiling, having fun kicking it around, and maybe learning something once in a while. We scrimmaged the team “next door” – the Sharks, and everyone had a great time. I was told my one of my team members that we won. I’m not sure of that but it was close. If we are worried about winning in these things there truly is no hope for our soccer nation. I was just glad to see the players respond to the ball rolling near them with something other than a stare.

One little girl on the other team seemed to revel in crashing into other players. My players thought that was pretty cool too. When I helped her up after one fall, she started falling every time, thinking this whole sportsmanship was quite splendid. She informed after each fall which injury she had just incurred (broken wrist, broken leg, cracked head – she seemed to bear these things quite gracefully). At the end everyone was quite happy and a bit winded. As a new player on my team put it “Soccer is a sweaty game.”

It’s a beautiful game as well. Whether played with 8 munchkins on a dry half-field in Indiana or at a Champions League quarterfinal in Liverpool. For those of us who love it, it is truly glorious.

Tape That Switch

April 3, 2008

Business types say it’s important to manage expectations, but it’s hard for me not to get excited at some of the stuff coming down the pike for TopDrawerSoccer ™.

I’ve been able to get glimpses and sneak previews and it’s all looking so good. I’ve gotten nice comments already on what we’ve put up, but there’s still much more to come so I hope you will follow my earlier admonition and be patient. It will be well worth waiting for.


Tivo Blooper

The work schedule (mostly to set in place the above-mentioned features) didn’t allow me to watch Tuesday’s Champions League game between Man United and Roma, so I set the Tivo to record the match for late Tuesday-night viewing. A funny thing happened on the way to the show however.

In our new basement TV setup, everything in the entertainment center has been plugged into an outlet regulated by an innocuous-looking light switch on the opposite wall. So if any hits that switch, the power to the whole thing goes off. I realized this last weekend and instructed the kids to leave that light switched on at all times.

Well, how can you get mad at your cute-as-a-button 5-year old for something like that (even if it does mean you miss such a big match)? We’ve now equipped the light switch with a heavy dose of electrician’s tape. It doesn’t look so good but it’s too likely that this mistake is repeated, so it’s a necessary precaution.


Liverpool

Accordingly, the recording of Arsenal-Liverpool today went off with a hitch. What is it with Rafa Benitez’s club and this competition? They aren’t through to the semifinal yet of course, but you have to like their chances after securing a goal and a road draw today. Reading comments from Arsene Wenger tonight, suggesting that the Dutch match official showed favoritism toward Liverpool Dutcman Dirk Kuyt reminds me that while Wenger is a brilliant manager, he tends to be a bit of a whiner in the face of bad news. Just take it like a man already.

Looking for a Breakthrough

MLS clubs are still looking for an international breakthrough, with DC United losing 2-0 to Mexican side Pachuca on Tuesday and Houston failing to score a goal at home against Costa Rica’s Saprissa. The 2nd half of the Houston match showed the Dynamo looking quite good in the attack, hitting a lot of good passes, combining well and creating several chances, but they just couldn’t put the ball in the net. It’s hard to see them going down south and coming away with a win, so it may well be one and done for both MLS teams in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.


Things to Look For

I mentioned some of the coming features on the web site. I just wanted to let you know we’ve got some good feature articles in the works as well as some event coverage and guest articles. I’ll keep blogging on what I think about , and we’re also getting a good news update schedule going. I hope you’ll stay on for the ride, and we intend to make it better and better and better. Thanks for reading.
 

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