One of my favorite pictures from Oz. 

My discovery...

Great news!! I've finally figured out how to edit the links on the side bar of this silly blog. Now instead of linking you to Google News and Edit Me pages, you can link to the blogs of two of my friends and of course a link to US soccer. Another fun link for you is to the school that I will be teaching at in Egypt. Check them out!!!

By the way, now that the US has crashed out of the World Cup, my support has fallen to the Aussies, who face a tough Italy on Tuesday. If they play well, they have a shot!!

Dempsey celebrates his goal agains Ghana. One of the few bright spots for the US Team. 

My Frustration

I have waited for a while for my latest update in an attempt to calm down from the events of this past week. However, that didn't seem to work.

To be honest, I'm ashamed, angered and embarrassed by the US performance in the latest World Cup. All the chips fell in the right place, the stars seemed to align for the US to make it to the second round. Italy was leading the Czechs 1-0, we were tied with Ghana 1-1. It all looked good, but then the questionable PK and the subsequent goal seemed to take the life out of us. As a former player (a really really long time ago), you know the ref will screw up and you can't use that as an excuse. The fact is that most of the Americans never showed up. Period.

Now most of you that know me know that I love US soccer. However the team that went to Germany showed merely a fraction of the talent that they have. Donovan was nonexistent against the Czechs and Ghana. He only had 1 shot. ONE SHOT for the entire tournament. He had been one of our leading goal scorers going into the WC.
Beasley was basically scared. He is normally a very attacking, no fear type of player. I don't know if his dog just died or what, but he acted like he didn't want to be there.

Two of our best players. Non existent. Imagine how good a basketball team would be if your shooting guard and your small forward decided to pass the entire game and not shoot. They just wanted to hang out on the perimeter and take up space. That makes it a little tough to win.

After all the negatives, there were some positives. Clint Dempsey played well. He was looking to show what he had and he attacked well. His goal (the only of the US) and his celebration afterward showed he at least wanted to be there and compete. Hopefully he'll be picked up by a European Club and he'll be a building block for the future.

Oguchi Onyewu also played pretty well. He's a huge defender (think of a Ray Lewis type of linebacker, only playing soccer). He gets picked on by refs because of his size, but he played well and will continue to for the national team for a while.

That's it. I'm ashamed of our team and our "stars". Hopefully we can find some players that want to represent our country in the next four years and in 2010 in South Africa, we can take the step we should have taken this year.

My Fever....

I have a fever, World Cup fever. I love the weekends because it allows me to watch 3 games each day. 6 hours of soccer a day and 12 hours for the entire weekend. Does it get any better?

To be honest, many Americans don't know the World Cup is going on, let alone what needs to happen for the US to advance. This was the mindset that I had going into the US-Italy game yesterday. I arrived at Quinton's, a local bar at around 9:45 am to finish watching the Portugal-Iran game. I was the only one there.

Then at around 11 the lunch crowd started to show up, so there were some people there to watch Ghana shock the Czech Republic and give the US some hope. It looked as though the stars were beginning to align for a US miracle.

When it was almost game time, the bar started to fill up. I was a little confused at first. Really? All these people are here to watch the game? huh? I thought we didn't like soccer.--these were my thoughts as the game began.

Had I known what was to come, I would have better prepared myself. The following two hours were an emotional rollercoaster and I saw probably the greatest soccer game that I have ever seen. EVER.

The US started well, they were attacking, they were physical and they showed no fear. They actually made it look like the Don't Tread on Me ad campaign seem serious. Then Italy scored. Suddenly my delight turned into frustration. Then the own goal came minutes later. Joy once again returned and the bar erupted in jubilation. Then the red card to Rossi of Italy!! To see McBride coming off the pitch with blood pouring from his face had to be inspirational to his teammates. Then to see him come back on, minutes later with 3 stitches pushed them more. At this point I was feeling pretty good about a win. 1-1 tie, we have 1 more player and we are dominating the game. How can we not get three points?

Then anger. Pablo's red card, probably a little harsh. Now we're even, but I'm still feeling good going into half-time. Then disbelief as Eddie Pope is given the red card (a poor decision by the ref) for a second offence. I was in shock. 3 red cards in one game??? Now I just hoped we would hold on. But that is when the amazing thing happened. The US crowd was making noise and the boys responded. The US still had chances, even though they were down a man. Then around the 75 minute, Beasley scores. The bar goes insane. No team has ever scored with only 9 men in the World Cup. NO ONE. And sadly that fact held true as the goal was disallowed due to McBride being offsides and in the path of the ball. Which, after seeing the replay, he was. No question. I can't argue with that.

The US held on for a draw and restored our reputation. Had they played like that against the Czechs, I think we would be through at this point, or at least only needing a draw. Now we need an Italy win and a US win. That's the easy way.

I have decided that I am rooting for another team in this tournament. Dustin has England (since he lived there for a while, I understand) and I have decided to root for the Aussies. They are playing Brazil right now and while my head (and fantasy league team) say Brazil will win, my heart is rooting for Australia.

My Weekend of Bliss......

....began early Saturday morning. Since the World Cup began, I had watched zero of the matches, but I more than made up for it this weekend. I watched a poor performance by England as they barely beat Paraguay. Then I met up with my Mom and a friend of hers to watch the Trinidad & Tobago vs. Sweden game. It was awesome!!! Best game of the Cup so far, and it ended in a 0-0 tie!! I couldn't believe T&T held on. Finally the soccer day ended with Argentina beating Ivory Coast 2-1.

Today was more of the same. I woke up early to see Netherlands beat Serbia & Montenegro, which is funny because Montenegro declared independence from Serbia, so now what do we call them? Also does this mean the Montenegrin on the team have to leave? (although there are only two of them).
I then watched the other two games of the day (Mexico beat Iran and Portugal edged Angola).

Where is this leading to you may ask??? Well, the tournament for me and my Aussie friends really begins tomorrow. Australia opens the day playing Japan and then, the big one, The US plays Czech Republic. I'm so excited!!!! Sadly, I can't watch it due to Wildlife Camp, so I have a friend that is going to text message me the score. So if there is a scream of joy in Iowa City around noon tomorrow, that's me. (If it's a scream of anger....good chance that's me too).

My favorite time of year....

....Is just beginning. Yes, once every four years an amazing event happens on Earth. No, it's not a comet, the opening of some silly flower or the Cubs having a winning season. It is the greatest sporting event on Earth. Yes, you've guessed it. The World Cup.

It's hard for me to contain my excitement for the World Cup. For those of you that don't know (meaning many Americans that don't know me well), the World Cup begins tomorrow in Germany with Germany playing Costa Rica. I know this isn't a very exciting opening game, but I'm actually thrilled by it because I think Costa Rica may have a chance. The Americans don't actually play until Monday (when I'll be working, Maybe I should quit for a day?).

The best part is that there will be soccer games on every day for almost a month. EVERY DAY!!! Here in the States the games are on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. Yes, ABC is actually showing a soccer game that doesn't include the US National Team. How exciting is that!! I'm pumped to tune in on Saturday morning and watch England get beaten by Paraguay. That would be a great start to my summer (but if England won, that would be okay too).

The difference between here and Australia is amazing. In Australia I saw signs of the World Cup everywhere that I went. Jerseys in stores, ads in papers, commentary on TV, it was amazing. Here however is a little different. Most Owens couldn't care less about the games and I can't find a USA jersey to save my life, though oddly enough I could get one in Brisbane.....weird.

The other fun thing is that I started working today. I had my first day at the UI Wildlife Camps and I went out with 10 kids and another leader on an insect hike. Yes, we went searching for bugs and other animals. The highlight came when we caught a snake in the grass, although it was only a garder snake, probably the least scary snake of all. Good times.

By the way, the US will advance out of their group and I think if they can play their best, they could win it. Of course, it would require a tremendous amount of luck too!!!

My battle.....

It was an interesting flight to Chicago from Brisbane. First I had to fly from Brisbane to LA. This flight is between 13.5 and 14 hours. I had a rather large gentleman sitting next to me who decided that it would be fun if we were touching for most of the flight. I wasn't weirded out by this too much at first, but then I briefly broke my entertainment system and it played Brokeback Mountain. That's when the touching started to bother me.
It wasn't just the awkward arm to arm contact that was bothering me. Eventually he fell asleep and sure enough, began to snore. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe 40 minutes at most. Fortunately, once Brokeback was over, my entertainment system was working again, so I was able to play games and watch most of Syriana before we landed. It was a real battle for most of the flight because we kept fighting for control of the arm rest, which he won because I kept getting up to move around. I think he stole my pillow one of those times too.

When we landed in LA, it was 7 am on Wednesday. The best part about that was when I left Brisbane, it was 11 am on Wednesday. Don't think about that too much because it really starts to hurt the brain.

The flight from LA to Chicago was much better. I purchased some Tylenol PM at LAX and I was asleep before we took off. I slept for most of that flight. Then it was a 5.5 hour drive from Chicago to Altoona before I could go to bed for the night. I finally got to sleep around 11:45 pm.

But the fun continued the next morning. I woke up at 6:30, got ready and drove to Cedar Rapids to see my kids at Prairie View on their last day, which was pretty cool. I also visited my Lemme kids and hung out with Mike and his wife Lianne that night. They asked to see all my pictures, which I think they were regretting two hours later.

That night was awesome because I returned to my old apartment and filled up the air mattress and laid down. I woke up 20 minutes later and found myself sleeping on the floor because the mattress was leaking air. Still, it was a great night's sleep.