Then, Leigh Ann moved to Champaign.

June 2002, while a great month for me, was a dark day for Illini football. After Leigh Ann came, the Illini went 13-45 over the next 5 years and were only remotely in the running for a bowl game once (2002). Their average record during Leigh Ann’s stint there was 2.6 wins and 9 losses.

Of course, this past winter we moved away in what proved to be a joyous occasion for Illini football fans. With their 27-20 win over #21 Penn State today, they are now 4-1 and most likely going to enter the Top 25 this week! Now, if they can only beat Michigan (their one regular season loss in the 2001 season).

And interesting side note is that the Triangle teams down here in North Carolina (UNC, NC State, and Duke) are a cumulative 3-11 this year. Not that any of them were BCS teams last year, but I think it’s worth hypothesizing that the Leigh Ann curse may now be in effect here.

In other news, the bar for “Ugliest Uniform” has just dropped a couple of notches last weekend with the Philly Eagles’ throwback uniforms. They look like a Tar Heel jersey mated with the Tour de France leader jersey.

One more rant, what’s up with the stores like Lowe’s that make you tell them the last 4 digits on your credit card after you swipe it? As far as I can tell, the only purpose in this is to (1) make me dig back in my wallet after I just put it away and (2) let everyone standing in line hear the 4 digits of your credit card. I don’t see how this gives you any extra security and is rather annoying.

Humor me for a second while I go on my usual rant about why can’t we just have a single tax rate with an exemption on, say, the first $30,000 of income per person and no other exemptions or credits. I mean none…none for retirement, dependents, mortgage interest, income earned from commercial fishing operations, etc…none. So if an individual made $50K per year and the tax rate was 20%, you’d pay $4000 (0.2 * (50K – 30K)). If you make less than $30K or a married couple makes less than $60K, then they’d pay nothing. Not rocket science.

• In other news, congrats to the Illini for their win over Indiana! Take that Eric Gordon and thug-a-rific Kelvin Sampson. Doubt they can beat Wisconsin today, but hopefully this is enough to get them off the bubble and into the tournament. I got my Dee Brown headband on today.
• I stumbled across this awesome site while trying to find an Internet stream for Illini basketball (if you’re into Bit Torrent). They have the Chief’s Last Dance and a DVD-playable copy of the Illini’s miracle comeback against Arizona (the latter takes about a day to download since there’s not many seeds for the 4GB file). I think one of the commenters on the Arizona torrent put it best:
  

  i cried when i saw the dvd menu. this is outstanding!

  By the way, if anyone knows of any radio stations with audio streams that let you listen to Illini basketball live, please do share.

• On a less positive note, Clemson did completed yet another end of the season implosion by losing in the first round of the ACC tournament. After starting out 18-0, they finished like 3-10 and blew any chance of going to the NCAAs. Just like the football team falls about every year (sometimes in the beginning, usually in the end) or the baseball team ends up in the top 5 every year only to go two and out in the College World Series. Sigh.
• Some great Mac parodies: The One thing PC users can do that Mac users can’t and The Onion reports on Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product.
• Is it just me or does anyone else who comes across Headline News wonder if someone would actually name their kid “Rally”?
• The US Postal Service is actually doing something so unbelievably cool that I pledge not to complain about their next postage increase. If it’s going towards this kind of innovation, it’s worth it. I gotta find one of these R2D2 mailboxes and get a picture next to it!
• We watched The Prestige last night. Great movie! Just the right amount of twists and turns without getting too convoluted. You do have to be willing to suspend reality for a little bit though .
• Leigh Ann was filling out a background check to volunteer with the Red Cross online this week and it was one of those deals where you have to use Internet Explorer. Presumably, they do this for security which is kind of ironic since IE and it’s Active-X self isn’t exactly known as the pinnacle of secure computing. Pretty much any time a site only works in IE, that should be considered a design flaw. Either the site designer was incompetent, lazy, or has a system to complex for a web app. From now on, anytime I see these sites, I’m going to submit bug reports to the webmaster.
• Let’s say someone just started shooting bullets up in the air in a crowded area. While not intentionally aiming at anyone, there’s a pretty good chance a bullet could fall and kill an innocent bystander. The cops see this, ask the person so stop shooting repeatedly, and then fire a beanbag gun to subdue him when he doesn’t stop. Unfortunately, the beanbag hits the shooter just right and turns him into a quadriplegic. Should he be allowed to sue the police for the resulting injury? I say no. Duh. The Supreme Court is currently deciding just such a case but in the context of a high-speed car chase.
• I’m probably just getting old, but is anyone else a little weirded out by all these kids that’ll be walking around and then all of a sudden wheels just sprout out of their shoes and they roll past you? Oh those whippersnappers.
• I always suspected iTunes didn’t adhere to a uniform distribution when it came to its “random” selections. Looks like someone else agrees. They’re even more conspiracy minded…are some labels paying for better placement in the algorithm?

I give the game ball to the Buckeyes’ halftime show coordinator: if your team is advertised as the unsinkable juggernaut, is it really the best idea to play the theme song from Titanic? Come to think of it, I don’t think My Heart Will Go On ever has a place in a football game.

The first half was about what you’d expect with the Buckeyes winning 17-0 and gaining about 200 yards; the second half, not so much. Jim Tressel must have given quite possibly the worst halftime speech ever because, in the second half, the Buckeyes only gained about 25 total yards on offense.

Looking back at the box score and having watched the game, they basically just stopped passing the ball in the second half. Troy Smith only had 23 attempts in the game and probably a third of those were screens. They probably only had 2-3 (unsuccessful) attempts for long passes. Their longest play from scrimmage for the game was only 17 yards.

This wouldn’t be so bad if their running game was working, but Antonio Pittman only averaged 1.8 yards per carry on 32 carries and Chris Wells got taken out of the game in the first half because of a terrible fumble where no one even touched him. That the Buckeyes’s running game couldn’t handle the Illini defense is not a good sign considering Michigan has the top run defense in the country.

Despite all this, the game really wasn’t as close as the score showed. It was still 17-0 for most of the second half until about halfway through the fourth quarter. Pretty much the only tense moment in the game was when the Illini kicked an onside kick with a couple minutes left after scoring their tenth point. It was a great kick by the Illini, but the Buckeyes got it and ran out the clock.

Luckily, they picked a pretty good week to have their worst game of the season since Michigan barely escaped Ball State, Florida had trouble with Vanderbilt, and West Virginia lost to Louisville.

It was nice to have my mom come over from Columbus to watch the game as well as one of our friends from Chicago. Our picture album for the event it now up in our gallery.

• The Most Unlikely Contenders: Given they haven’t had that great of a schedule, but could it be possible for Rutgers to throw themselves into the national title picture? They’re sitting at 8-0 right now and even though it’s expected that they’ll get whooped by Louisville and WVU, you have to wonder what if. Louisville will be coming down off their biggest game of the season next Thursday when they play Rutgers. And, it’s in New Jersey on a Thursday night (road teams have a horrendous record on Thursday night). If they were to somehow pull off that upset, beat Syracuse and Cincinnati, that would set up a winner takes all match with WVU for the Big East title. Again, the Mountaineers would be heavy favorites at home, but when it comes down to one game, there’s always a chance that the Scarlet Knights could pull off the upset. I’m just saying…
• Reality Check: I’m a USC hater, but you’ve gotta admit it’s amazing that their 2-point loss to Oregon State was their first regular season loss since since September 27, 2003 (thereby avoiding a repeat of the real headline Trojans Come From Behind Against Beavers). Over three years since they lost that game to Cal. Perhaps even more amazing, they still haven’t lost any game by more than a touchdown since a 27-16 loss to Notre Dame on October 20, 2001. That’s nearly five years and counting! That’s the most dominant dynasty since I’ve been following college football.
• A Tough Nut to Crack: Everyone seems to think Michigan’s defense is the best in all the land, but Ohio State’s is pretty darned good. They’ve only had one game (Iowa) where the opposing team scored more than one TD (they scored two). Their closest game has been 17 point win against then number two Texas on the road.
• At Least the 60-0 Losses Are Gone: I still don’t think hiring Ron Zook was the right decision for the Illini, but I have to admit they’ve gotten better this season even if their record doesn’t show it. At least they’re losing games by a touchdown or two in the second half rather than being down by 40 at half time like last year.
• Clemson Brought Their D Game to Virginia Tech: Man, we were so stoked for this Thursday night game. We even went with some friends to BW3 to watch the game since we’re cable-less. All the excitement was squashed by the Tigers’s 24-7 loss where they looked totally lethargic. Other than their one TD drive, it seemed like Clemson barely even got a first down. At least our table did pretty well in trivia .
• Hoosier Daddy: There’s a chance that Indiana, the perennial doormats of the Big Ten could make their first bowl since 1993. They have five wins with three games left, so the only need to win one to become bowl eligible. Unfortunately for them, though, their game against Minnesota this weekend is pretty much their only good shot. After that, they play an undefeated Michigan and a Purdue team also fighting for bowl eligibility. So, as close as they’ve come, if they can’t close the deal against the Gophers this weekend, then the bowl-less streak will probably be extended. I’ll be they wish they had back those early season losses to UConn and I-AA Southern Illinois.

• Illinois at Penn St.: (Line is Penn St. by 18.5) The Illini seem to have done better on the road. But, the Illini are just in shambles. Do I give them the line or not? Naw. Penn St. 28, Illini 7
• Indiana at Ohio St.: (Line is Ohio St. by 31) This is a Hoosier team with the most momentum that the program’s had in over a decade after wins at Illinois and against a ranked Iowa team. Unfortunately for them, this is the best Buckeyes team since about 1998. You have to go back to 1988 for the last time the Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes and they’d have to pull the biggest upset in their programs history (by about 2 orders of magnitude) to break that streak this year. Ohio St. 38, Indiana 14
• Texas at Nebraska: (Line is Texas by 6) All of a sudden, the sports writers seem to be lauding what a great rookie QB Colt McCoy is…which is something I pointed out weeks ago. Even though Nebraska is better, I still don’t think they have the horses to compete with the Longhorns right now. Texas 31, Nebraska 10
• UCLA at Notre Dame: (Line is ND by 13.5) Notre Dame will use this as a statement game since the Bruins are an extremely weak 4-2 right now (as Pac-10 teams usually are). ND 34, UCLA 7
• Iowa at Michigan: (Line is Michigan by 13.5) The biggest loser in last week’s Indiana upset of Iowa was Michigan. Now, instead having the chance to beat a top 15 team to move up in the eyes of the pollsters, they’re playing the laughingstock of the Big Ten in a game that a blowout is expected. The Buckeyes were much luckier that they got to beat this weak Hawkeye team when everyone still thought they were pretty good. Michigan 38 Iowa 14
• Alabama at Tennessee: (Line is Tennessee by 11) I’ve got a feeling that this has the makings of an upset. The SEC teams seem to just continue cannibalizing each other and Tennessee hasn’t had a beatdown laid on them in several weeks since the Florida game. So, for no logical reason whatsoever, I’ll say: Alabama 21, Tennessee 20
• Boston College at Florida St.: (Line is Florida St. by 7) I was really surprised that the Seminoles were favored in this game even though it’s at home. Last I checked, Florida St. was still plagued by injuries and an incompetent offensive coordinator. BC 28, Florida St. 24
• Rutgers at Pittsburgh: (Line is Pittsburgh by 6.5) Who had this game circled at the beginning of the season, where we now have an undefeated Rutgers team playing a one-loss Pittsburgh team? Too bad we couldn’t see what these teams’ records would be if they were in the SEC instead of Big East. Pitt has the top rated QB in the nation, so you’ve gotta go with them at home. Pitt 21, Rutgers 17
• Georgia Tech at Clemson: (Line is Clemson at 7) If there’s one game Clemson has to prove that they’re not going to fall in their typical pattern of underachieving about this time of year, this is it. Can they shut down WR Calvin Johnson of the Jackets? Let’s hope or else this could be ugly. Don’t make me look stupid, Tigers. Clemson 38 Georgia Tech 28

Here’s the link to the album for the event.

I have received the impression that you feel that I am lacking in the agility category. I should consider a walk through my living room where I don’t crash trough a wall or kick over furniture a resounding success. My agility rating on your game is 33. It makes it sound like I just topple over if I start walking too fast. Ted Washington is rated a 40 in agility. He is listed at 365 pounds. If Ted Washington tied a white lady up and made her wear a metal bikini, he’d look just like Jabba the Hut.

…

I was rated with a throwing power of 17 and accuracy of 16. Orlando Pace is has a 22 power and 17 accuracy rating. Did someone at EA really put time into figuring out that Orlando Pace edges out Ethan Albright in both throwing power and accuracy? I will challenge him any day. My horrible passer ratings are of greatest misfortune to my son, Red Beard Jr. The poor boy is not only hideously ugly and covered by freakishly large freckles. He also has to suffer through playing catch with me and my senile-elderly-woman-type passer ratings. A session of tossing the pigskin usually consists of me missing my son by thirty yards in sporadic directions.

Well, Midnight Madness was bittersweet tonight (photos to come shortly). There was definitely a lot more spirit than the football homecoming pep rally last week and we got to see Jeremy Piven (a.k.a. Ari Gold from Entourage) judge the Illini’s slam dunk contest. But the biggest news of the day is undoubtedly that the Hoosier’s new coach, Kelvin Sampson, screwed the Illini every which way to Sunday by getting prized recruit Eric Gordon to break his verbal commitment to Illinois and join Indiana. Yep, Samson, who bolted Oklahoma after leaving it in a recruiting mess, is already bringing his lack of recruiting integrity to the Big Ten by actively pursuing a recruit who already verballed to another school.

That led us to this gem on YouTube. Wow. All the cheesiness of the 80s encapsulated in one video. White guys that have no business rapping (probably paving the way for Vanilla Ice). Amazingly bad choreography. A referee whistle to beep out profanity. Admittedly, I hadn’t thought about this video in well over a decade, but this is five minutes of pure gold.

Not to be outdone, the 86 Raiders made their own contribution to the rap world which features performances from Fox Pregame’s Howie Long and Detriot Lions’ GM Matt Millen. Now, if only I could find a video of the Ickey Shuffle, my 80s NFL stroll down memory lane would be complete .

And, completely unrelated to college football:

• Finding Egg Roll and Wonton Wrappers: If you’re ever planning on cooking homemade egg rolls and/or wontons (as I plan to do), you may think one would look in the international food aisle at one’s local grocery establishment. You would be wrong (at least in Champaign). You need to go to the chilled food section around the cream cheese to find them. Evidently you’ve got to keep them cool.

• Syracuse at Illinois: (Line is Illinois by 3) The most shocking part to me is that the Illini are actually favored in this game. Given that Syracuse lost last week when they couldn’t score on seven straight plays inside the two yard line. That’s pretty freakin’ lame. But Illinois couldn’t even cross midfield last week. This has to be one of the worst inter-conference games ever played by schools from BCS conferences. Syracuse 20, Illinois 13
• Cincinnati at Ohio State: (Line is Ohio State by 29) I love the Buckeyes, but I’d take Cincy with that spread. Even as an offensive power house, I just don’t see a Tressel team winning by more than 30. Ohio State 31, Cincy 10
• Michigan at Notre Dame: (Line is ND by 5.5) Weis is a prick, Brady Quinn is overrated, but Henne’s a tool and Michael Hart only has big games whenever I’m not watching. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, I’ll probably tune in for this one. Notre Dame 28, Michigan 17
• Oklahoma at Oregon: (Line is Oregon by 5) Oklahoma’s looked pathetic this year, but Oregon is a Pac-10 team not named USC…that’s just too big of a hurdle to overcome. Oklahoma 24, Oregon 21
• Miami at Louisville: (Line is Louisville by 4) If Miami loses, Larry Coker is pretty much fired, me’s thinks. Louisville’s got a great coach and they’ve got the horses to beat the Hurricanes this year (even without Michael Bush). Louisville 17, Miami 13
• LSU at Auburn: (Line is Auburn by 3.5) LSU is one of those teams that is good every year but I couldn’t name you a single player on the team or tell you anything about them. All I know about Auburn is they have Kenny Irons and he’s awesome. LSU usually seems to rise to the occasion in big SEC games and then lose to about a 15-20 ranked team. So, I’ll go with my gut. LSU 28, Auburn 27
• Texas Tech at TCU: (Line is Texas Tech by 2.5) When did Texas A&M become the fourth best team in the state of Texas? UTEP’s gunning to knock them off that pedestal now. I think the Red Raiders can end the Horned Frogs longest winning steak in the nation. Texas Tech 35, TCU 17
• Clemson at Florida State: (Line is Florida State by 5) I think Clemson’s better than Troy and the Seminoles have totally lost their offensive mojo. Jad Dean redeems himself for last week’s missed extra point with five field goals. Clemson 15, Florida St. 10
• Florida at Tennessee: (Line is Florida by 4) I still think the Cal game was a fluke for Eric Ainge and Tennessee. Chris Leak has to be the most over-hyped solid, but not spectacular QB since Chris Simms. Florida 28, Tennessee 20
• Nebraska at USC: (Lines is USC by 17.5) Of all the games between ranked teams, ESPN Gameday picked this one to broadcast from? Pretty blatant that they’re always going to choice the ABC-televised game over the real games of the week. I’ve hoped USC would get upset so many times in the past and it never happens, so I’m just going to resign myself to reality and keep picking them until they lose or meet Ohio State. USC 38, Nebraska 14

It’s time to come to grips with the fact that they’re going to lose to my mother and brother’s alma mater, Ohio University (note the conspicuous lack of the word “State” in between “Ohio” and “University”).

And, one bonus thought…

• How does Aunt Jemima still exist?: Totally unrelated to college football, but it struck me as odd that the Aunt Jemima brand of breakfast foods is still used. It must have just flown under the radar in a politically correct world given the stereotype it represents.

Well, a new scientific study claims to show that participation in Ultimate Frisbee (our weekly past time) is a better predictor of academic success than either SAT scores or grades. I guess the fact that most of our fellow players are engineering grad students is good empirical evidence of this.

And, Ohio State QB, Troy Smith:

1. Ken Griffey, Jr.: Not really a fall so much as a gradual decline ever since leaving Seattle. When he was traded in 2000, Griffey was pretty much on track to be the best player ever. Don’t get me wrong…he’s still a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, but how many people outside have Cincinnati have paid much attention to The Kid in the past six years other than to shake their head whenever they hear about his almost annual season-ending injury.
2. Bode Miller: After two silvers in the 2002 Winter Olympics, he had a legitimate shot at five skiing golds in the 2006 Olympics. Unfortunately, Miller acted more like a frat boy than an Olympic athlete and ended up with zero metals — finishing fifth, sixth, and not even placing in the other three events. However, any personal disappointment was quickly drowned away as Miller was reported to have spent ample time at the bars of Turin.
3. Maurice Clarett: If ever anyone needed to follow the advice of George Costanza, it’s Clarett: “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right”. Some of Clarett’s instincts include taking massive handouts from car dealers while in college, deciding to leave school after his freshman year to challenge the NFL’s age limit with little precedent, armed robbery, firing his defense lawyers two weeks before trial, and now fleeing from cops with a car full of guns and vodka. If only he had paid attention to Seinfeld he might have been getting ready to follow-up his Rookie of the Year season in the NFL.
4. Athletes on Motorcycles: Take your pick: Jay Williams ending his NBA career, Kellen “I’m a Soldier” Winslow ending his season in a parking lot, Ben Roethlisberger ending up minutes from death, or a number of other incidents. There’s no doubt that the battle between man and motorcycle has seen a significant upswing in momentum for the bike in the past decade.
5. Michael Jordan: Of course, this is a relative rather than absolute decline…but there’s not doubt that any Jordan highlight reel isn’t going to include too many clips of him wearing Wizard blue. It’s kind of like if the Superman II movie ended with Superman just remaining human…not necessarily bad, it just kind of taints the memories what once was. Not that he was the only athlete to play well beyond his prime (thankfully the competitive allure of Dancing with the Stars finally pulled Jerry Rice away from the NFL), but the probably best to do so.
6. Diego Maradona: Some ex-soccer stars, like Pele, become ambassadors for the sport and for the United Nations. Maradona became an ambassador of drug abuse and gluttony.
7. Ryan Leaf: You have to put this one in perspective. In 1998, pretty much ever sports commentator was debating whether the Colts should take Leaf or Peyton Manning. That’s how high his stock was at one time. A few craptacular seasons and embarrassing outbursts later, and Leaf is coaching quarterbacks for West Texas A&M University while Manning is poised to be the best quarterback of his generation.
8. Mike Tyson: Yea, this is just too obvious, but the dude isn’t just a loose cannon…he’s a loose nuclear bomb. He’s actually had a massive fall from grace twice. Of course, there was jail term for rape in the early 90s. But the past decade saw some odd decline with his infatuation with cannibalism…be it Evander Hoyfield’s ear or Lennox Lewis’ children. He gets bonus points for pretty much taking the entire sport of boxing down with him. Back in the 80s, watching Tyson box was exciting. In the past decade, the only things I know about heavyweight boxing is: (1) Lennox Lewis was the heavyweight champion most of the time and (2) his major competition was two Russian brothers with PhDs. Not exactly the Ali-Frazier-Forman era now is it?
9. Latino Sluggers: While quite a few are tainted with steroids in baseball, it seems to have taken an especially strong toll on sluggers from south of the border. The top three Latino home run hitters of all time are currently: Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Jose Canseco. Canseco admitted to steroid use in his book Juiced and wouldn’t mind taking a few other down with him. Now he’s spent the past several years jumping from team to team in the minor leagues. Rafael Palmeiro told a Congressional committee that he never used steroids just months before testing positive. He went to the Orioles and had a precipitous drop off in performance around the time that the steroid stink was emerging. Then, there’s Sosa who seemed to go from hitting 60 homers a season to not even being picked up by a MLB team virtually overnight after his corked bat incident and steroid suspicions. Ironically, he too went to the Orioles just before having a major decrease in performance.
10. Floyd Landis: The thing about Landis is the speed with which he fell from grace. Basically, no one in America had heard of him before the last Friday of the Tour de France. On Sunday, he was an inspirational story for the entire country. Then, on Thursday, he went from hero to zero when he tested positive for illegal drugs. Someone like Barry Bonds, sports fans have basically been preparing themselves for years…conclusive evidence would merely be a formality at this point. With Landis, there was just no time to brace yourself for what was coming. Then he just exacerbated the situation by offering so many excuses you need a dedicated 24-hour news channel just to keep track. I just have too much natural testosterone…no, it was the cortizone shots…wait, I mean it was the dehydration…I was abducted by aliens?

If you’re going to get ejected from the game, that’s the way to do it. Evidently Zidane didn’t get the memo about the French not liking fights.

Well, US soccer’s World Cup is over with a 2-1 loss to Ghana. Congrats to the Black Stars. I’d rather see them go (along with Italy) rather than have two European teams advance out of the group. Time for the US to start focusing on South Africa in 2010.

The US did get screwed again by the refs giving Ghana a questionable penalty kick in the box near the end of the first half. In reality, the game probably should have been a tie…which means the US still wouldn’t have advanced. However, it’s undeniable that the US didn’t deserve to advance with their overall level of performance in group play.

Other than the Italy game, watching the US play was rather disappointing (which was disappointing for another reason). They had pretty much zero ability to strike and finish for some reason. Definitely a setback after their quarterfinal run in 2002. This pretty much shatters any street cred we had in the international community. The whole team just seemed out of sync and, for the most part, lethargic.

Landon Donovan didn’t do much of anything and just seemed to cement the stereotype that he stays in the MLS because he can’t hack it in Europe. Beasley, while having flashes of brilliance (e.g., the assist on the goal to Dempsey), seemed unable to dribble with much control or take advantage of his speed. McBride just couldn’t finish anything near the goal. Reyna seemed to be just kind of going through the motions. The overall performance reminded me of Daniel Powter’s Bad Day: “So where is the passion when you need it the most”? Didn’t seem to be in Germany for the US team.

Some of the bright spots included Dempsey (who scored the only US goal), Eddie Johnson, and Onyewu (who gets bonus props for having playing for Clemson). Onyewu looks to be an excellent defender for the US in the next two World Cups once he figures out how to work the refs a little better.

I think Bruce Arena’s done as the US coach, this being his second World Cup. If you’re having trouble scoring, the coach is going to get a lot of flak for sticking with a 4-5-1 set (i.e., only one striker). He didn’t seem to be able to tap the talent of the individuals the way a coach should. If the US overachieved in 2002, they definitely underachieved in 2006. Plus, he’s got to coach the players how to handle the refs better. If taking falls and theatrics is part of the game, then the US just needs to suck it up and learn how to keep up with the Europeans in this regard. There were definitely bad calls against the US, but the opposition was much better than the US at working the refs to get those calls. The US needs to learn this, I guess, if they want to compete.

I’d like to see them experiment with a European coach to see how that goes for the next World Cup. I think it could greatly help the US tap their potential better. Jürgen Klinsmann, who is the German coach this year and lives permanently in California, has to be a top candidate in this regard. Guus Hiddink, of Dutch descent, is kind of the international coaching star at the moment. He got the Australian team to the Round of 16 this year and South Korea and the Netherlands to fourth place finishes in 2002 and 1998, respectively. For the next World Cup, however, he’s already signed with Russia.

Here’s a CNNSI article that details what’s next for the US team after their World Cup exit.

The US still left something to be desired as they did get extremely lucky since their only goal was a self-goal by Italy. And, a bad one at that. The Italy defender just whiffed at a ball flying through the air and it hit his calf and rolled in. But, the US strike was much better in this game than it was against the Czechs.

The referee was not good. He just breathed through his whistle for the first 2/3 of the game and then finally let them play for the last 1/3. However, his real effect was felt in the three red cards he handed out which meant that the US was playing 9 on 10 for pretty much the entire second half. Pulling off a draw against one of Europe’s powerhouses in this circumstance is definitely a positive. In fact, they almost won when a Beasley shot went in the goal only to be waived off by a call that McBride obstructed the goal tender.

The first red card, against Italy, was pretty obvious. If you do this to someone with an elbow jab, you’re going to get a red card. The two against the US were much more questionable. First, there was a late slide tackle towards the end of the first half that should have only been a red card. I highly doubt that would have been a red card in your average European match. Then, early in the second half, the ref gave a second red card to Eddie Pope on a slide tackle that was again a bit suspect at that point in the game. This basically killed any chance the US had of a win and the rest of the game was just a battle to hold on to the tie. There was another late yellow card on an Italy player that was barely even a foul.

Now, the US has to hope for a win in its game against Ghana on Thursday (10 am ET on ESPN) and that Italy beats the Czechs in their game on Thursday (10 am ET on ESPN2) in order to advance. Exciting times!

After having missed qualifying for the past two World Cups, the Czechs came out and played like a team that was, well, bitter about having not qualified for the past two World Cups. The US, on the other hand, looks intent on continuing the pattern that they started in 1990 where they’ll go 0-3 in group play one Cup and then go 1-1-1 the next Cup and advance out of group play where they play their opponents well. In 1994, we lost to the eventual champions, Brazil, in the Round of 16 by a score of 1-0. In 2002, we beat Mexico 2-0 in the Round of 16 and then lost 1-0 to eventual runner-ups, Germany. In 1990 and 1998, we were three and out in group play.

The US just looked bad compared to the Czechs out there. A win would have been tough, but had hoped for a draw. Eddie Johnson looked good, Donovan was decent (but definitely had room for improvement), Reyna was OK, McBride seemed ineffective, and Beasley was just non-existent. Beasley looked like a player just running around and trying to stay covered the whole time so no one will pass him the ball. Keller, the goalkeeper, did fine but just didn’t get the defensive support he needed.

The only silver linings I see in this result are:

1. They improved their goal differential versus the Czechs by one since their last World Cup match-up in 1990 when they lost 5-1. Of course, this year’s team is really supposed to be good whereas the 90 team was just lucky to make it.
2. The Czechs did play a really good game. At least they didn’t get beat 3-0 by a team playing like England, Sweden, or Germany’s defense did in their first round match.

But still, there’s no denying that the US suffered the worst opening game defeat of any team so far with only four more games remaining. I guess our best hope at this point is to tie Italy (who is more favored than the Czechs) on Saturday and beat Ghana next Thursday. Even then, it’s no sure thing. We may just have to wait until 2010. I really hope that the US plays well enough in their next two games to prove 2002 wasn’t a fluke. If all else fails, they could just put their assistant coach, Glenn Myernick, out there. He’s quite possibly the scariest looking person I’ve ever seen on a soccer field. I think he’d even frighten the European hooligans.

Quite the shoot-out. Here’s the schedule for the US team in group play (all times are Eastern Time):

• Against Czech Republic at noon on Monday, June 12 (ESPN2)
• Against Italy at 3pm on Saturday, June 17 (ABC)
• Against Ghana at 10am on Thursday, June 22 (ESPN)

They got a pretty tough draw. They’ll be lucky to make it into the round of sixteen.

When we were in Spain, we got to see Ronaldinho practicing with FC Barcelona. We didn’t know it at the time, but evidently he’s like the top player in the world. Here’s a link to a pic we got of him in the background.