The end of the World Cup brings on a gloom and melancholy similar to the one many people (myself included) experience the day after Christmas, only a hundred times worse. Imagine spending two years getting ready for Christmas, and then when it ends knowing that the next one is four years away. Consider this my therapy.

I have nothing to say about the final really. Spain were the superior side, though I found that both teams wasted the chances you normally see sides of their caliber capitalize on. In that sense it wasn’t the greatest final game we’ve ever seen, though it beats every one that’s ended in an atrocity of penalty kicks. The Netherlands were particularly thuggish and so lost whatever sympathy they may have acquired as a dark horse; I’m not sure anyone but the Dutch were in tears after that loss.

I must admit that the World Cup loses some of its sheen for me after the group stages. Nobody thinks any of the small fish are going to win the World Cup (it requires too many victories in a row over superior teams, and eventually the superior team wins the day.) But the group stages are where the most improbable upsets are likely to happen, such as Switzerland defeating Spain (or even the draw that a gutsy South Africa side pulled off against Mexico to kick off their wonderful tournament.) The end result of this tournament teaches you that such upsets usually don’t mean as much as they seem to at the time (fantasies of glory for the winning side, predictions of ultimate defeat and failure for the no-less superior losing side.) But because most teams enter the tournament knowing they will never come close to touching the trophy, they savor their chances for success at the group stage, and hope for an easy route that might take them deep into the elimination rounds. As the rounds progress, these possibilities for glory and success begin to be foreclosed upon, and the remaining teams are whittled down to a core of favorites who dominate nearly every tournament. At that point most of us find ourselves rooting for good soccer, or perhaps a team we moderately favor, but with none of the passion and fervor for which we rooted for our own nations. For these reasons the group stage remains my favorite part of the tournament, even when my home side does well and progresses to the second round or beyond.

Speaking of my home side, I think it’s safe to say that soccer experienced an immeasurable boost as a result of the dramatic performances of team USA. Clearly, more Americans tuned into soccer than ever before. But it wasn’t just the numbers; it was the passion, and the intensity which is difficult to measure but seems to have been so clearly present this time around. Perhaps to some extent this has to do with our greater uses of social networking sites like Twitter (which broke after the US win over Algeria) and Facebook, which made it easier to amplify the passion of those following the game and so draw in other non-fans by making it seem like “something really big” was happening. And whatever else, Americans love drama, and they love a winner. Most people, even non-soccer fans, knew that the match against England was a big deal. And unexpected draw in that game, and a threatening US side that nearly took the lead at one point, made the game more exciting than what we might’ve seen in the past (a lucky goal followed by bunkering and prayers for victory.) The dramatic comeback draw/almost-win against Slovenia pumped us up even more, and the last minute heroics of Landon Donovan against Algeria released a frenzy of joy, even amongst the non-soccer fans who-thanks to the earlier performances-were definitely tuning in to see what this team could do. In that sense the loss to Ghana was a let down. Every game seemed to grab us even more intensely the one before, and I have no doubt that had the US made it past Ghana and (perhaps) past Uruguay to a semi-final, people who hadn’t yet watched a single game of the tournament would be tuning into watch. A team that plays creative, attacking soccer (and more importantly, wins) is going to get people’s attention no matter the sport.

Of course, the World Cup champion women’s team of ’99 captured our attention as well. A women’s league was founded on that success, and failed in only a matter of years. Is that the fate of this team’s success? Probably not, because the circumstances our different. The American team has established a tradition of winning (six World Cup appearances in a row) and has a tendency to surprise people with their talent and fortitude on an occasional (but regular) basis. Professional soccer is well-established in this country via MLS, which has only attracted ever more people and fielded more teams over the last fifteen years.  But there’s something hard to quantify about this team’s potential. I think Bill Simmons gets to the heart of it in this column, the best I’ve read on the World Cup this go around:

The U.S. soccer team could own that “everyone” domain for the simple reason that it’s unattainable for anyone else. We always want our national soccer team to succeed; it would be un-American to feel differently. There’s continuity through the years when certain players (such as Donovan, Howard and 2010 breakout star Michael Bradley, locks to make the 2014 World Cup) stick around for a prolonged time. There’s always a finish line (the Cup every four years), with dozens of exhibitions, smaller tournaments and World Cup qualifying strewn in between. If you want, you can extend your attachment by following American stars on their club squads. Add everything up and it feels like following the Lakers, Red Sox, Niners or whomever.

A cynic might say, “Come on, you could have said the same thing when we beat Colombia in 1994.” No way. You need time with these things. Decades. You need kids like me to grow up with soccer in their lives. You need a few memories to stack up. You need it to happen organically. The theory that soccer would never catch on until we found our own Pelé or launched our own successful pro league was dead wrong. We only needed to be exposed to great soccer for a prolonged period of time. We’re American. We only respond to the best. The cream of the crop. Nothing else is going to fly.

We don’t care that much about Donovan playing for the L.A. Galaxy with guys who couldn’t sniff the Premier League, just like English people wouldn’t care about seeing Dwyane Wade playing with a bunch of D-Leaguers in London. We want to see Donovan tested against the best. In the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup, I watched Donovan play big games for our national team, for the Galaxy (in the playoffs), then overseas for a solid Everton team. I knew he was a world-class player. I knew he was legitimate. I wasn’t stealing that opinion from a magazine or a talking head. The hours I logged with Donovan made me feel invested in him.

[...]

I would never compare Donovan’s goal to Mike Eruzione’s goal, or compare the significance of an early-round World Cup game to the best American sports night ever. But you can’t tell me Donovan’s goal was a fleeting moment or a lark. Each celebration clip that landed on YouTube could have been any American bar, any group of American friends, anywhere. Like John Cougar Mellencamp’s annoying Chevy commercial sprung to life. Only it wasn’t annoying. I thought it was glorious. Those clips choked me up. Those clips gave me goosebumps. Those clips made me think, “I forget this sometimes, but I’m glad I live in the United States of America.”

Rasheed Wallace loved to say “ball don’t lie.” YouTube don’t lie, either. We will always have the Algeria game. Always.

Now, can they keep people around for another four years? Well, they’re doing their best. Big European clubs are now regularly visiting the States in their quiet summers, MLS continues to expand and the fans continue to come out (Seattle’s fans are, in my opinion, a shining example of what’s possible in this country.) The US will play Brazil next month, and so begin the long process of grooming a squad for 2014. Who knows…maybe they’ll shock Brazil, as they nearly did last year? To be successful soccer doesn’t need to be the most popular sport in the country. This is a big country, full of people who love sports and, more importantly, love winners.
Who knows what the next four years will see?

So those are my closing thoughts on the 2010 World Cup. I can’t wait for 2014 to get here.

FIFA drew the groups for next year’s World Cup today, and the United States caught a stroke of luck in avoiding not only a “group of death” but also in getting matches against two of the weaker opponents in the field. The United States will open against England on June 12th, face Slovenia on June 18th, and finish against Algeria on June 23rd. In my humble opinion England is one of the seeded teams most vulnerable to getting picked off by a decent side, Slovenia qualified only thanks to a playoff win against Russia, and Algeria is regarded as the weakest of the five African teams to qualify (other than S. Africa, the host.) So the likely result is a win against Algeria, a win against Slovenia, and a loss against England. But it’s not outside the realm of reason to imagine the U.S. getting a draw or a win against England. Of course, neither is it outside the range of possibility for the U.S. to draw or lose against either Algeria or Slovenia given some of their past World Cup performances. But I remain optimistic that this team, which stunned the world in their Confederations Cup performance this past summer, can do well in this group and make it out of the first round and into the knockout stage (where they might even face a re-match against Germany out of Group D.) The United States must perform of course, and this is a team capable of wild inconsistency. But overall this is an excellent result for the United States, and bodes well for a most pleasurable World Cup appearance next summer.

UPDATE: Grant Wahl, with more on the USA’s good fortune.

UPDATE II: An article from the NY Times, and Nate Silver, whose new rankings system gives the United States a 19% to win the group, but a 48% of advancing.

1. Nicholas Kristof, on how Republican have been scare-mongering Americans into voting against their own interests for eighty years now. History has proven them wrong, every single time.

2. Perhaps you heard about the “Hand of Frog” that secured France a berth in the World Cup over poor Ireland. Ireland’s petition to FIFA for a replay has been denied, proving that FIFA is an organization mired in the past, both rejecting modern instant replay technology and favoring the world’s powerhouses (particularly the Western ones) over the rest of the world.

3. No one sitting on death row in Texas can expect any sort of clemency from Gov. Perry right now…the man has a primary to win!

4. Short-term lenders in Texas are getting what they pay for with their campaign contributions: zero regulation. As I have said before and will say again, our democracy will forever be corrupted by money until the Supreme Court wises up and decides that money is not the exact equivalent of speech, or political campaigns become publicly funded.

…against my better judgment. But still, this NY Times article about Elizabeth Lambert, a soccer player for the University of New Mexico, bothers me for several reasons. I ran across the YouTube video of Lambert’s extremely aggressive (that is, downright dirty) play in a game against Brigham Young via the various soccer blogs I like to follow. The only thought I had watching it was that she seemed like an extraordinarily aggressive player, who probably should have been tossed out of the game at some point. The play of one female college soccer player hardly seems to merit news coverage, so I was a bit surprised to see a major paper address this issue. But it appears the YouTube video garnered Lambert some mostly unwarranted and completely unnecessary coverage and criticism:

Lambert said she was shaken and appalled by some of the responses she received in e-mail messages, telephone messages and on blogs, which included the publishing of her parents’ home phone number in Southern California and one suggestion that “I should be taken to a state prison, raped and left for dead in a ditch.”

What on Earth? I don’t really feel why anybody thinks it’s necessary to dig up the e-mail address of a female college soccer player so they can send her a nasty message about the highlights of her play in one particular game, or why anyone would publish her private information so anonymous idiots can call and leave hateful and threatening messages. Lambert herself thinks she knows why the incident has garnered so much attention:

“I definitely feel because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it,” Lambert said. “It’s more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The female, we’re still looked at as, Oh, we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to. The physical aspect has maybe increased over the years. I’m not saying it’s for the bad or it’s been too overly aggressive. It’s a game. Sports are physical.”

[...]

She said she was taken aback at how the incident had been perceived by some as sexy catfighting between two women. She said she was aghast that some men had sent her messages saying, “Hey, we should meet up some time.”

“That appalled me,” Lambert said. “A lot of people think I have a lot of sexual aggression. I was like, ‘Whoa, no, I don’t feel that way at all.’ That’s bizarre and shocking to me.”

I’d like to think she’s wrong, but I doubt it. As a frequent purveyor of soccer blogs and forums, I’ve come across some pretty appalling sexism that the poster felt no need to make anonymously (so confident was he of the rightness of his sexism and misogyny.) Male soccer fans can be dismissive of the female game, droning on and on about the lack of skill, speed, or athleticism (none of which is entirely true.) I’m sure some men saw that video and considered it proof as to why women’s soccer shouldn’t be accorded any respect. (I’m sure she has also been harassed by women as well, but I’m unqualified to speak as to what would motivate a woman to criticize another woman’s aggressive soccer play other than from a soccer perspective.)

I’m also bothered by the apparent “re-education” Lambert must apparently endure to win her way back on the team:

She is seeing a clinical psychologist on campus to better understand what caused the hair-pulling incident. It is one of several steps she is taking, along with speaking to youth players about acceptable behavior, so she can seek reinstatement to the team in the spring.

A clinical psychologist? Really?? If Lambert is to be believed, she was experiencing a frustrating game, and both teams were allowed to get out of control by an overly lenient ref (she is indeed elbowed in the stomach prior to punching a player in the back.) That sounds like a situation that’s ripe for a player to go off. I understand that we live in an age where people have to make public (if utterly shallow) amends for their bad behavior (especially if it winds up on blogs or YouTube) but I find myself wondering whether a male soccer player would be expected to see a psychologist. I’m sure there are more than a handful of punches thrown in men’s NCAA soccer every year, and I would be surprised to learn that even a single one of those instigators was expected to see a clinical psychologist even if that game were captured on ESPN like the New Mexico-BYU game. I can only speculate but it seems to me that Lambert has to publicly debase herself precisely because she got away with enough bad behavior to fill a YouTube video, and because she’s a woman and women just don’t play that way. Had she been red-carded after her overly aggressive tackle from behind at one point earlier in the game as she should’ve been, none of this would be a story.

Today is the final day of qualification for the 2010 World Cup (but for African qualification and a handful of playoffs that could  take place next month), which makes today something like Christmas Eve to next summer’s World Cup Christmas. The United States already qualified by virtue of it’s huge win in San Pedro Sula on Saturday night, but because there is a very (very) outside chance that the United States could be eligible for a seed in next year’s World Cup (and so better it’s chances to avoid a “group of death”) if it finishes at the top of the Hexagonal, the team is looking to go all-out against Costa Rica tonight at RFK stadium in D.C. Unfortunately, the team will have to take the field without the services of Charlie Davies, who was badly injured in a wreck in D.C. early Tuesday morning. Davies has played astoundingly for the national team as of late, but he’s likely headed for a very long recovery from his injuries and his availability for even next summer is in question.

Anyway, if you like soccer today is the day for you. This is a handy run-down of which of today’s games matter, and where you can catch them on TV if you’re so inclined.

Grant Wahl has a great column about the upcoming World Cup qualifier between Honduras and the United States. The whole thing is worth reading (especially the part about the hostility American players face in Central America) but naturally this passage stuck out for me:

The U.S.-Honduras result could even have an impact on domestic political support for either the de facto government or the deposed Zelaya. “A home team that wins and has the potential to get to the World Cup would provide some really positive feelings for the [Honduran] population generally,” says Eric Farnsworth, the vice president of the Council of the Americas, a U.S.-based business group that promotes free trade in the region. “You could certainly paint the scenario whereby a victory would transfer to increased political support for the government in place.”

On the other hand … “depending on the result of the game, you could have some folks that are trying to celebrate or show their frustration, and they could go out into the streets and break some windows,” Farnsworth adds. “Then the police could overreact, and suddenly you have the potential for a much broader disturbance. If that’s the case, that probably plays into Zelaya’s hands.”

Could a Honduran victory provide a propaganda boost for the coup plotters (who, by the way, are hiring big shots in D.C. to lobby for them)? Perhaps. All the more reason for the U.S. to go into San Pedro Sula and crush Honduras.

I’ll admit it. I was out on FC Dallas at about the mid-point this season when Kenny Coooper was traded. They were disorganized on the field, weak on the back line, and were now losing their most potent offensive threat.

Boy, was my timing ever off.

Thanks to the MLS playoff format where the majority of teams make it to the post-season, FC Dallas is still, amazingly, in a position to make the playoffs. To do so they basically need to win out in their remaining games, and they did so in impressive fashion last night, surrendering only one goal in San Jose and coming away with a 2-1 victory that also eliminated San Jose from the playoff hunt. FC Dallas is in this position in part thanks to the incredible play of Jeff Cunningham, who has logged seventeen goals this season to lead the league in the race for the golden boot (with an incredible sixteen goals in thirteen games), and who scored in his sixth consecutive game last night. But scoring hasn’t been an issue for this team this year; they lead the league in goals scored at forty-seven. The problem has been the goals they’ve surrendered, only three less than goals scored at forty-four. They seem to have righted the ship as of late, surrendering only three goals total in the last four matches. And last night was evidence that the squad as a whole has started to gel. Ball movement was crisp, there were very few easy turnovers, very little booting the ball up the field, and there was a lot of good running off the ball that made lengthy possessions possible. San Jose was under strength last night thanks to injuries and national squad call-ups for World Cup qualifiers, but they were also desperate and at home, and FC Dallas managed to stay with them thanks to some quality defending (with the exception of the lapse that led to San Jose’s one goal) and some incredible saves by keeper Dario Sala.

All in all it was an impressive win, and it leads me to believe that this team is finally coming together at just the right time. A single loss will probably put the playoffs out of reach, but if they can manage to squeak in they may be in a position to do something interesting.

If you’re a close follower of this blog, you know that I occasionally blog about soccer, both domestic and otherwise. That includes blogging about FC Dallas, our local Major League Soccer squad. If you pay very close attention to this blog, you may realize I haven’t had much to say about FC Dallas as of late. That’s because, unless you’re a soccer-specific blogger, there isn’t much to say about near-constant suckitude. That is unless you’re Steve Davis, former soccer reporter for the Dallas Morning News, and you’ve saved up all your grievances for one gigantic broadside against the club (via 3rd Degree.) Steve Davis hated the re-branding, among other things. Some choice excerpts:

Yep. Five years ago in August the Dallas Burn became FC Dallas. A year after that, they moved into a dandy little stadium, where tens of hundreds of people now show up 16-18 times a year to watch a poor product while frequently taking a beating in customer service and then putting the cherry on the bad experience sundae by getting stuck in traffic on the way home. (OK, the club has done something about the wacky traffic congestion. By stinkin’ up the joint pretty much everywhere else they have largely eliminated all traffic entanglements. Well done, kids.)

Oh, he’s just warming up. Why didn’t the re-branding work?

First, Pizza Hut Park is just too far. I have ultimate respect for the late Lamar Hunt – a truly wonderful human being — for all his dogged and impassioned efforts at building this sport. But the fact is that there is a learning curve on this critical MLS stadium initiative. Somebody had the really push the limit and built one WAY out (23 miles from the city center in this case) to start locating the balance between “cheap land” and “too freakin’ far.” Unfortunately, Hunt built a swell little stadium too far away, too far from the 20- and 30-something urbanites who are making such cool waves at Toronto, Seattle, etc.

But the stadium is built, it’s got a 30-year shelf life and there you are. So FC Dallas should have recognized quickly that it would have to be the consummate “try harder” property. That is, they could win loyalty and fans by being the team that tries harder. Better concessions. Better prices. Better customer service. A better product, not just a proxy product for making money off concerts.

They fell short, and how. They fell show the way Plaxico Burress fell short in gun safety, the way Marilyn Manson fell short on normalcy, the way Britney Spears fell short on general life train wreck avoidance.

[...]

Look, I could go on and on about bad print ads, nonsensical media buying strategies, ridiculously failed DP bids, money wasted on ballyhooed partnerships with foreign clubs, about running out of pizza countless times at Pizza Hut Park, about out-dated marketing strategies, about the long-term scourge of artificially inflated attendance numbers, about the mindless pursuit of the suburban family dollar, etc.

Bottom line, people figure it out. You are what you are, and you had better find a way to work with it.

As for the re-branding five years ago from Dallas Burn to FC Dallas, all they did back then was thoughtlessly erase history. Was the “Burn” name kinda goofy? You bet it was. But fans embraced it. They grew fond of it and felt protective of it, the way your little brother or sister bothers the crap out of you – but you’ll beat the holy hell out of someone who “effs” with them cause’ that’s just the way it is.

Man. Ouch. Now, I was against the re-branding too, especially when I figured out that the trend in MLS was to thoughtlessly copy the Euro-style of generic names for clubs (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, etc., etc.) First off, that’s not an American tradition so it defies the idea that MLS is presenting a uniquely “American” brand of soccer. Second, attaching “Real” or “FC” anything to something like a club that plays in fourth-tier soccer league in Salt Lake City or Dallas of all places, is so beyond pretentious that it’s just absurd and completely open to ridicule. It’s doubly absurd if, upon doing so, you go on to become one of the most underachieving teams in the entire league (as both FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake have done.)

I was also completely opposed, and remain opposed, to the idea that a team called FC Dallas should be playing in Frisco, almost 25 miles north of downtown Dallas. I understand that team officials didn’t have a ton of choice in where they were going to have a stadium built, but their fascination with the suburban (and white) soccer fan was betrayed by the moving of the team to Southlake for a season. By moving to Frisco, the team instantly alienated the team’s most passionate fan base, Hispanics, in favor of fans whose loyalty to soccer is questionable at best, and whose motivations for showing up the game frequently involve being given free tickets, or needing an outing for their kid’s u-9 soccer squad.

My thoughts on the USA – El Salvador game are summed up by this Soccer Experts blog post title:

U.S. must kick sand in the face of CONCACAF weaklings

Couldn’t agree more. My thoughts on the FC Dallas – DC United game tonight are summed up by this gentleman’s comments:

Here is my lineup predictions…….

……..aww who really gives a fukc

Ha. Oh well. Maybe next season?

As in, there goes my last reason for watching them:

FC Dallas announced Friday that forward Kenny Cooper has been transferred to German second division side TSV 1860 Munich pending a medical examination. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not announced.

“Kenny has been an outstanding player for us over the last four seasons as well as a tremendous ambassador for FC Dallas in his time with the club, and we wish him the best in Munich,” said general manager Michael Hitchcock in a press release. “Kenny indicated to us that he wanted to return to Europe when his contract expired next year. The timing of this transfer allows Kenny to continue his career overseas while providing our club with valuable resources for new acquisitions.”

Cooper joined FC Dallas on Feb. 6, 2006 from Manchester United and was voted the team’s most valuable player last season. He scored 40 goals in 93 appearances for Dallas. TSV 1860 Munich finished 12th in the Bundesliga 2 2008-09 season.

Kenny Cooper was the bright star on a team of thundering duds. His frequently phenomenal goals had lately because the sole reason for watching this team (unless you enjoy defensive meltdowns by teams that won’t make the MLS playoffs.) I wonder what Arial Graziani is up to…