And now for the quadrennial hullaballoo in re: hooliganism and poor behavior that inevitably attends the coverage of the World Cup: “Soccer fans are just a bunch of unemployed thugs who are only interested in the games as an excuse to get drunk and fight.” (That’s at least half wrong.) Isn’t this all just a bit cliched at this point? Sure, there are going to be some jerks who cause some trouble, but don’t they burn down Detroit every time one of their teams wins? Oh wait. They burn down Detroit every October 30th. My mistake.

The angle this year appears to the World Cup debut of, wait for it, Eastern European thugs, many of whom are getting their first big chance to fight with veteran hooligans from England, Holland, and Germany. (According to this dude we talked to at the Japan World Cup, the key to good fighting at the World Cup is being able to fight with up-for-it locals — who were in short supply in Nippon.) What, the nice Polish boys haven’t seen the ESPN commercials with the stopping the wars and the frolicking children and the women in burkas playing keepy-uppy (note: said image not actually true)? Don’t they know this is supposed to be fun?

On a positive note, I did find some pretty cool sites about hooligans. See below.

Eastern European thugs pose World Cup threat [Yahoo! Sports]
This Hooligan Site From The Czech Republic [Hooligans.cz]

Just a friendly reminder that the group stage of the 2006 Shirt Cup Presented By F.C. Camena ™ will be closing this evening at midnight, Eastern time. We have some exciting matchups that are likely to go into injury time — including a battle for second place in Group G between France and Switzerland and a three-way deadlock for the second spot in Group H (Spain, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia) that might need to be settled on goal differential.

Be sure to check it out and vote today; look for a knockout bracket and the Round of 16 tomorrow.

Group E: Italy, Ghana, USA, Czech Republic


Group F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan


Group G: France, Switzerland, Korea Republic, Togo


Group H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

More outstanding news (for the USA) coming out of the Italy camp this week. Coach Marcello Lippi (whom we can only imagine remains permanently dazed at this point by the nonstop scandalmongering in re: the recent unpleasantness with the match-fixing in Serie A) has decided to cut the rest of Group E some slack and consider starting overrated Has-Been/ Never-Was in the offensive midfield for two of Italy’s pre-World Cup friendlies.

It’s not that we think Del Piero is terrible in the grand scheme of things (he’d certainly start for the USA). But when you’re the only decent attacking player of your particular generation in Italy, you tend to get overhyped, despite never really performing/ living up to expectations/ recovering from your knee injury. And now you’re a little cautious, a little slow, and will keep scarier younger players off the field.

Marcello Lippi, on behalf of the rest of Group E, I salute you!

(Also, here’s hoping Totti isn’t quite fit yet. He actually is nearly as good as his hype.)

Totti to make return for Italians [Fox Soccer]

As U.S. Soccer fans prepare for a World Cup with Josh Wolff, Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching fighting for a starting role, one can’t help but wonder whatever happened to that Clint Mathis guy? Y’know, the one-time first great American goal scorer? Could it be one too many beer bongs? MySpace holds the truth…

I’m feeling slightly better about the US MNT after the Friday win against Venezuela. Not that Venezuela is all that or that the team played perfectly, but at least the players on the field looked engaged and motivated. Maybe it was because they all knew this was their big shot to impress Il Bruce before June 12, or maybe they just knew that Venezuela was someone they could jump all over — either way, it was nice to see some pace and passion out there. If nothing else, we learned that Bobby Convey (who was abusing the right side of Venezuela like they were rookie cornerbacks) should probably play a lot of minutes in Germany. At who’s expense, I’m not sure (but it smells like DMB?).

I’m taping the match this afternoon (going to be in the middle of nowhere at a rock concert), will probably check it out tomorrow. I don’t know much about Latvia save for the research I did on it as a possible bachelor party destination, but we can assume they’ll bring an inexperienced squad who will play hard. For the US, I think I’d like to see a little more Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching, Berhalter needs a run, and perhaps a little more JOB (but not too much; he’s fragile).

I do not need to see any additional minutes of Josh Wolff and his exquisitely plucked eyebrows.

Also, the team will be wearing top-secret red merch jerseys. Go Nike! Don’t Tread On Us! Woo-hoo!

The first phase of group play finished early this morning, with Groups A, B, C, and D all sending two shirts through to the Round Of 16. It was an exciting opening round — and not without some surprises. In Group A, European tradition saw Germany and Poland easily through. In Group B, Paraguay was a shock runaway winner, with England sneaking through at the expense of voteless Trinidad and Sweden (not a single ballot for either shirt!). In Group C, largely considered to be among the most competitive groups, traditional power Argentina went through along with upstart Cote D’Ivoire. As usual, the Dutch flatter to deceive and crash out of the tournament. Finally, In Group D, Angola wins the group and a last-minute push for Portugal sends them into the knockout rounds — and leaves Mexico scratching their head.

Be sure to vote on Groups E-H. The draw for the knockout rounds will be released mid-week.

Group E: Italy, Ghana, USA, Czech Republic


Group F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan


Group G: France, Switzerland, Korea Republic, Togo


Group H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

Generally speaking, I’ve been serious fanboy mode in re: the Nike Joga Bonito campaign. I like the stars involved (tough to go wrong with Ronladinho, Wayne Rooney, and Thierry Henry), I like all the fun interactive online stuff (except the joga.com “soccer myspace” thing — that’s actually kind of silly), and most of all I like its values (celebrating the joy of playing fairly and with style).

Which is why I find the most recent flight of creative in support of the US MNT to be so offensive. “Join forces” and “US Soccer Attacks”? Errrr, no. I was okay with the “Don’t Tread On Me” thing — that was more about demanding respect from the rest of the soccer world. But using such blatantly militaristic signifiers when the rest of the world tends to dislike us precisely because we’ve been a bit loose with the “use of preemptive military strikes” seems almost like a bad joke. Shouldn’t the World Cup be about forgetting why we all don’t like each other for just a couple weeks and focusing on the game? Why do we gotta be bringing up the recent unpleasantness? What was wrong with Don’t Tread On Me?

Yuck. I like the Gatorade ad better.

Nike Joga TV site

Welcome to The 2006 Shirt Cup Presented By F.C. Camena, our semi-serious interactive sartorial soccer tournament. Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to give you, our loyal readers (we have loyal readers, right?) the chance to decide which 2006 FIFA World Cup Finalist has the coolest shirt.

The Shirt Cup will run roughly the same way as the actual World Cup. We’ll start with Group Play over the next eight days, with the top two vote-getters from each group advancing to the Round Of 16. The first four days will feature groups A-D, and the next four days will be groups E-H. After that, we’ll go to the knockout rounds, and we’ll use the same format as the actual World Cup in terms of pairings and seedings. Note that we’re using the home shirts, as best as we can tell from the FIFA site (and soccer.com).

And that’s about it. Just vote for the shirts you like best.

Group A: Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador

Group B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden

Group C: Argentina, Cote D’Ivoire, Serbia and Montenegro, The Netherlands

Group D: Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal

Well that wasn’t a terribly impressive evening for the USMNT World Cup squad. Though they largely outplayed an inferior (but spunky) Moroccan side, the U.S. lacked for ideas in the final third of the field and were beaten 1-0 on a counterattack just minutes before the final whistle.

Though it’s pretty weak that the U.S. lost this game, it was good to see this squad out there. I’m pretty excited about what this team can do with its midfield. John O’Brien had some good ideas, Beasley and Landycakes looked like Beasley and Landycakes, and Bobby Convey demostrated that he will get some time in Germany. When Reyna went down, Mastroeni did a perfectly good job in his spot. The defense was mostly composed, though Cherundolo made a bad decision on the goal (dude, you’re the only one back, launch it).

If there’s a position where this team looked deficient, it’s forward. Yikes. These guys just don’t do a great job of threatening the goal (Landycakes doesn’t count). We know what we’re getting with McBride, but past that…I dunno.

Also, this Reyna thing better not be serious. Mastroeni played well, but it’s pretty important that Reyna be fit. Not to get all screechy about it or anything.

U.S. Soccer Official Match Report [ussoccer.com]

Saw this on FSC earlier today during their “Ginga” show about Brazilian footballers. I couldn’t take my eyes off the clip. This guy Falcao is insane. The clip is a little long but it’s worth it to watch him go against Robinho playing a little Futsal.

Due to the whole “having a job” thing, I’m about to go radio silent on any web site that might contain info on the Champions League final.  The DVRs are humming, and I shall look forward to watching it this evening.  But I still have time for a pick, and with apologies to my Gooner officemate, this all smells like Ronaldinho’s year to me.  I think this dude has a chance at immortality (CL + WC) and I think he’s going to make it happen.  Play beautiful, Ronnie.  Let’s call it 2-1 Barca. 

(At the very least we know the good people at Nike are tickled pink by the whole thing.)

Nothing much to report here, save for the details of a little trip I took to the UPS package center (conveniently located in the middle of nowhere on the way to the airport for easy access) to pick up MY TICKETS FOR THE WORLD CUP.

Well, not all of said tickets, but some of said tickets. These are the tickets that I’ll get to use when the U.S. qualifies for the Round of 16. You know, the game where they’ll shock the world by upsetting Brazil? That one?

With every Juve director and Italian calcio official who steps down in shame, the dream gets a little closer.

(And yes, that’s a photo of the tickets. Pitiful, I know.)

And the World Cup-related feature stories from the mainstream press just keep coming! Four weeks out, the Times lobs its opening salvo with a soft-focus profile on Landycakes. It’s most of the usual stuff, more of a leadership role, more mature, needs to make an impact, Bruce expects more, etc etc. Though it does contain this little gem as well:

It was Agoos, Donovan said, who once admonished him that a player’s personal habits translated into performance. “So you can’t just say, ‘I’m going to go out Wednesday, go to the bar and get drunk, Thursday come in and have a bad training and be ready for Saturday,’ ” Donovan said. “Some guys get away with it for a few years, but eventually it’s going to catch up to you. That’s not the road I want to take, nor should I take.”

So no more drinking on Wednesdays? I guess that means Little Friday is out as well?

Link:
US World Cup Hopes Lie At Donovan’s Talented Feet [The New York Times]