If you’ve come to this blog post expecting for me to pile it on Robert Green, to add yet another witty headline bashing the ridiculed English keeper, to talk about Dempsey’s “Hand of Clod” goal, then you’ve come to the wrong place. That’s the easy path, the proverbial bandwagon choice, the road most travelled, and while I relish the USA draw with [...]
Archive for the ‘soccer’ Category
9 Jun
Pre-Game Warm-Up (1995)
Make no mistake, when we leave for South Africa in 8 days and subsequently attend 3 World Cup matches beginning on June 23, it will be by far the biggest stage in which any of us have ever witnessed a professional soccer match, or any sporting event for that matter. It will not, however, be the first professional soccer match we [...]
1 Jun
Picking Up Where I Left Off
It had been since Thanksgiving that I had made the 11 hour drive from Tampa to my hometown, Princeton WV, so I took advantage of a 3-day weekend, tacked on a vacation day, packed up the car, and hit the road. Like most towns, the more Princeton changes, the more it stays the same. For me, [...]
23 May
Curious Exhibitions And The Return of The Dreaded Short Shorts
In anticipation of the World Cup, there are only so many opportunities for North Americans to see live soccer, to get a small glimpse of the much larger, much more intense stage we will hover above in late June. Shelley and I got our first taste back in March, which I chronicled earlier, when the US Men’s team battled [...]
3 May
The Unintended Consequences of A Florida Soccer Camp
Ironically, my first experience playing soccer in Florida wasn’t when I moved here in my late twenties, wasn’t as a member of Nielsen United. Actually, my first time playing soccer in the Sunshine State was in the Summer of 1994, when, after having seen an ad for the Lanzera National Select Soccer Camp, I ever-so-gently twisted my parents’ [...]
29 Apr
The Ups and Downs of Free Soccer
Cultural experiences such as those I experienced in Frederick solidified my return to the game, and I felt it would be unlikely I would turn my back on the game again. With my “soccer swagger” at full tilt, my move to Tampa Bay in 2005 meant finding a new place to play. However, instead of the compact, [...]
22 Apr
Why Chevrolet Won’t Be A World Cup Sponsor, And Why Soccer Referees Need A Good Bodyguard
Warning: spoiler alert. Spoiler alert for those who do not want to read about the game of soccer, possibly understand it slightly better, at least grasp why it has been coined the beautiful game. Spoiler alert for those interested in hearing about travel adventures or profound moments of my past, because this post is a [...]
17 Apr
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
No matter how hard I tried, no matter the resistance I’ve put up, the defenses employed, I have never been able to make a clean break from the game of soccer. Even after my amicable split from the competitive game in college, I have always been summoned back. It started the year after I called it [...]
5 Apr
A Distorted View of the World Cup, From Director David Anspaugh
In order to create proper mood and attain the level of excitement necessary to prepare for the trip of a lifetime, one should search far and wide for inspiration. One should listen to friends, acquaintances, people he meets on the street, anyone who can provide a possible means of connection between the monotonous present and the [...]
29 Mar
A Cautionary Tale Of A Star Goalkeeper, A Cheap Bike, And A Close Brush
My high school years were lived unconventionally. Instead of skipping class, my friends and I skipped lunch. Instead of heading to the beach for Senior Week, we packed the car and headed north, to Canada, on a weeklong road trip, accompanied by Eddie Vedder and Jim Morrison. While our classmates brought in the New Year [...]
