(Beeg trouble for moose and squirrel.)

So…anything happen while I was gone?

No, seriously. They just got word of V-J Day where I was for the past week.

So let’s catch up:

• The US made an amazing run in the Confederations Cup. Yes, I know, they got into the semis on a technicality, but they beat Spain and had Brazil (BRAZIL) on the ropes. Does this mean that all is well with the US Nats? No, of course not. Nobody in their right mind is saying that, just stupid bloggers and Bigsoccer posters who like strawmen. But it does prove that, every once in a while, the US can put together a magical performance. Maybe they wouldn’t be quite as magical if we did them all the time. But just enjoy it, okay? We beat the #1 team in the world and had the new #1 team in the world on the ropes for 45 minutes. We’re getting there.
• Michael Jackson’s death was, like him, odd. The worship we’ve been seeing, which seems to sweep the last dozen years or so under the rug, is probably not so unexpected. I wonder what we’ll do as a society when OJ dies. Will we remember him as the great running back and charismatic actor and pitchman?
• The XSL is going to announce a “hiatus” tomorrow, but it’s really dead. That’s unfortunate, but if it gets us closer to having one unified indoor soccer league, it’s a net positive. As hard as this sport tries to kill itself, it always seems to hang around.
• USL teams went 3-3-2 (advancing in four of eight matchups) against MLS teams in Round 3 of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. While USL teams are closing the gap, MLS teams, by and large, don’t care. Only 25 of the 88 starters the eight MLS teams trotted out for their third-round matches had even played half of their teams’ league minutes this season. Half of the goalkeepers hadn’t even played one league minute. The average was about 32%. And three of the four MLS teams that were eliminated had just come off playing three games in eight days in SuperLiga. Not at all surprising.
• We’re scheduled to have my man Roger Allaway, author of Corner Offices & Corner Kicks, a fascinating new book about the Fall River Marksmen and New York Cosmos, as our guest on Four At The Back this week. Hopefully that’ll be available tomorrow.

I had other things I was going to say, but hell if I can remember them now. I need caffeine.

Tags: celebrity, Cosmos, Four At The Back, indoor soccer, soccer, US Open Cup

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.