Games You Should Watch While Not Watching Usain Bolt

(IAAF World Championships start tomorrow. Check that out. I'll probably write something after Bolt runs an 8.4 in the 100 Sunday, or whatever).

Saturday, August 15

An 8:30 (my time) Bundesliga match
Seriously, why did they put three awesome matches at the same time? Bayern-Werder, Hamburg-Dortmund, and Leverkusen-Hoffenheim all ought to be pretty good. So, do a complicated series of coinflips to decide on what match to watch, and then switch while one of the others is 4-4 after 30 minutes. Assuming that doesn't just happen to me.

Everton-Arsenal
Pretty nice, for an opening match. Arsenal may or not get relegated, apparently, and Everton are pretty good when not telling Man City to fuck off. Anyway, it should be interesting.

LA-Seattle
...because you've always wanted to see how someone with swine flu would play?

Sunday, August 16

PSV-Ajax
Does anyone have any idea if either of these teams are any good? Me neither. This will be interesting, in a weird sort of way. Both of these teams are expected to challenge for the title, but last season sort of changed shit in the Eredivisie. I now have no clue what's going to happen.

Tottenham-Liverpool
(may or not actually be a good match. I..don't know)

Football! This weekend! No, really.

The Bundesliga and Ligue 1 open play this weekend, and so this will be the first weekend of the season with a meaningful number of games in leagues that don't suck. So, you know what that means! Oh, wait, you don't know that means. Well, anyway, here are some games from the next three days that ought to be pretty interesting. Possibly.

Friday, August 7

Wolfsburg v Stuttgart Two of the teams involved in last season's quite epic race for the title, which Wolfsburg ultimately won. Both teams have undergone considerable changes over the break, with Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath leaving for Schalke. His replacement? Armin Veh, whose last manager job was at...wait for it...Stuttgart. Ooh.

Both teams have made significant additions on the field, with Karim Ziani and Obafemi Martins (among others) joining Wolfsburg, while the arrivals of Pavel Pogrebnyak and Alexander Hleb have given Stuttgart a very happy ending (in the least sexual of ways. probably.) to their mercato. Basically, these are two sides that have added to what were already very good sides, and they should make the first match of this Bundesliga season a good one.

Saturday, August 8


Inter v Lazio Alright, this doesn't really count, but...it will be interesting to see how all those new signings work for Inter, right? I mean, it would be, if it weren't at 7AM here. It may be interesting for anyone in a different time zone, or incredible powers of...waking up. I guess.

Hoffenheim v Bayern Come on. Hoffenheim, who did so well in the first half of their first Bundesliga season against...motherfucking Bayern. Hoffenheim have made some nice additions, such as Franco Zucalini, and they'll have star player Vedad Ibisevic as he returns from the injury that really killed them during the second half of the season. Bayern? Well, they've had a few changes. This match really ought to be pretty fucking good. No, seriously.

WBA v Newcastle Alright, so it's a second division match. But, fucking hell, it's a really intriguing one. Who knows what's going to happen? Newcastle have been awful during preseason, but their squad is still relatively impressive, even after some recent sales. If nothing else, this is watchable for the train wreck possibilities.


Grenoble v Marseille An admission: I'm a Marseille fan. But that's not why I'm bringing this match up. Well, it probably at least sort of is, but it's not the only reason. We...er, they've made some big additions (and sales) this summer, as the philosophy of Didier Deschamps has proven completely different than that of ex-manager Eric Gerets. Stephane Mbia, Lucho Gonzales, Fernando Morientes...wait, none of those people are likely to play in this match. Oh. Well, Fabrice Abriel and Souley Diawara, then. Fuck it, I'm leaving this here. It will still be interesting how this one turns out, for the side many are tipping as Ligue 1 favorites (in a sure bid to jinx the whole goddamn thing). Lyon play, too. But fuck them. Alright, I shouldn't say that. Their match could be interesting too. If you worship Satan. But moving on.


New England v Los Angeles Alright, I'll probably regret suggesting that people watch an MLS match, but this one has potential. Landon Donovan, in his last match before the biggest match in the history of the universe (which we'll touch on closer to Wednesday), David Beckham...David Beckhaming. And those pesky Revolution, who are somehow in the playoff hunt. A-fucking-gain. Christ. Anyway, both these teams will be fighting for their playoff spot in the packed-as-always MLS. And neither team is the New York Red Bulls. And, after watching their CCL debacle last night, that's all I'm really asking of from this match. That it not involve the New York Red Bulls.

Sunday, August 9

Twente v PSV Two of the top Eredivisie sides in a pretty tasty early season match. PSV's season got off to an awful start when they drew lowly VVVVVVVVVVVVVV (er, VVV Venlo) 3-3 at home, and Twente recently lost their hopes of advancing in the Champions League on a last-gasp own goal. So, both sides will be looking to get back on their feet.

Bordeaux v Lens Lens' first match on their return to the top flight. The first match for Bordeaux since...something. I think they won some sort of competition, but the details are hazy.


Flamengo v Corinthians Ronaldo visits the Maracana to find the fans of the club he spurned....oh. Ronaldo's hurt, andnot playing. Well, then we'll just have to settle for the clash of Brazil's two most popular teams. Fair enough. They'll both be looking to bounce back from midweek losses as they try and fight back to the top of the table.

The Mourning After

Alright, the obligatory preface: I went into the tournament expecting losses to both Italy and Brazil, a close match with Egypt,and an early trip home. After the first two matches I thought Egypt would win the final group match easily, and the US would go home as the only team in the tournament without a point. So, to beat Egypt and miraculously get into the semifinal was great. To beat Spain was astounding. But this still sucked. Losing sucks. Always.

Coming into the final, I really had no idea what to expect. Brazil's an especially awful matchup for the US. In addition to being really, really good, os verde e amarelo have always produced a style of play which has confounded the Americans, and the US had only managed one win against the Brazilians in 13 tries, coming into this tournament. The 3-0 loss a little over a week ago didn't do anything to change the perception that the US could very well get slaughtered in the final. But after the win against Spain, things just seemed different. It was impossible to tell whether the US would come out confident and committed, as they did against Spain, or timid and unsure, as they had in the second group match.

So, yea, I guess the start was kind of good. Brazil had most of the possession, and did well to work the ball around, but the US mostly avoided giving up any brilliant chances. They even attacked, occasionally. The first goal was just...I don't know, weird. A great cross from Spector, and a perfect touch from Dempsey to send it creeping between Julio Cesar and the far post. It was pretty cool, but my immediate reaction was "alright, hold on". And, you know, 80+ minutes is a long time to hold on. And Brazil continued to have chances after the goal, but the US held their ground, and avoided completely retreating into the defensive shell we've seen before. Tim Howard made good saves, but wasn't forced into any Kasey Keller in the Gold Cup type stuff.

The second goal was pretty fucking brilliant. Rico Clark gets the ball off a misplaced pass, places a perfect ball to Donovan with his first touch, and Donovan and Davies work it back and forth to create the chance. Donovan collects Davies' pass, avoids Ramires with a perfect first touch, and slides the ball far post past Julio Cesar. An absolutely perfect counter attack. One of the best US goals in recent memory, and at the time one of the most significant. It was up there with Feilhaber against Mexico, anyway.

So, after that, things looked pretty nice. For a while. Halftime just seemed...bad? I don't know. But I knew coming out of halftime that things would be different, and I'm not sure why. Luis Fabiano's early goal proved me right, unfortunately, and from there defeat sort of seemed inevitable. It wasn't, of course, and I thought the US actually responded fairly well. They occasionally attacked, but their defending continued to be pretty strong, and despite giving up some pretty good chances they avoided conceding the equalizer. For a while, at least. Brazil "scored" what seemed to be their second goal, as Tim Howard hit the ball out from behind the line on a shot from Kaka. But the referee allowed play to go on, even as Brazil's stars contested the decision, and at that point I thought maybe the football gods were acknowledging that they owed us one for Germany in 2002.

But, it wasn't to be. Luis Fabiano scored his second goal, on a rebound off the crossbar in the 74th minute. Lucio's headed goal on a corner was more or less the end, even though Oguchi Onyewu had a half chance on a late corner that went just over the bar. The heavily favored Brazilians came out ahead, again, and denied the US victory in their first FIFA tournament final. Or FIFA final tournament. I'm not sure which way it goes, after listening to John Harkes and JP Dellacamera yesterday.

Anyway. This could end up any number of ways for the Americans. It could have helped the team in a variety of ways, many of which are obvious. Hopefully they now realise that FIFA refs are very much willing to show them red cards, and that makes things just a bit harder. Obviously, playing four very good teams (three in the top 5) before the World Cup is immeasurably more telling than games against Haiti and Granada (huzzah for the Gold Cup), and hopefully Bradley will have somewhat figured out what works and what doesn't (doesn't=Sacha Kljestan, by the way. just so you know). The loss could keep the team "hungry", as the disappointment at full time was evident. Clint Dempsey's tears as he accepted the Bronze Ball showed just how much this tournament meant to the players, despite the naysayers' insistence that it was merely a warm up exercise for the World Cup. Which it is, to some extent, but so is everything else in international football. The World Cup is IT, and national teams mostly exist in order to get there and show the world what they can do.

So, although a second place finish is obviously a very nice achievement for the Americans, we won't really be able to judge the extent to which this tournament was a success until next summer. Having showed an ability to hang with the "big dogs", the pressure will be on to recreate these performances against the powerhouses they will inevitably face next summer. Perhaps even more important, the US will have to recreate the attacking display against Egypt in games where they aren't prohibitive underdogs. And while qualification (including a certain match at Azteca) and December's draw still lie ahead, the focus now turns towards recreating the magic of 2002 and this summer in about 346 days. Oh, and Grenada. Always Grenada.