It was the blue jerseys, I tell ya.
Friday, June 21, 2002
12:49PM
Sitting on my ass in South City
A big standing ovation to our U.S. men's national squad, won't you all join me. Well the historic run is over and our boys are heading home. 1-0, but it certainly didn't feel like that. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that Landon Donovan will be returning to the Bay Area beyond the end of this MLS season (supposedly he may be heading back to the German club he's still under contract with, but let's just hope that's a nasty rumor). I'm sad they lost, but it was obvious they played with everything they had and gave the Germans a run for their money. Major props to German goalie Kahn for pulling a Friedel and stepping it up big in the net. And Tony Sanneh! Man oh man he was all over the place. Claudio Reyna's defense in the final minutes was inspiring; he came up big in these last two games and showed us why he's captain. The Cup's still far from over. Let's root for our buddies, the Koreans (what a fabulous win they had against Italy) as they try to extend their Cinderella run. Go Red Devils!
Taft's U.S. All-Star Team
1- Landon Donovan, for being the 20-year old phenom with the skills and the perfect poster boy for U.S. soccer. Thank you for taking your shirt off in the Mexico game. :-)
2- Tony Sanneh, for showing the world how to play some bad ass defense and for hustling all 120 yards of the field all Cup long.
3- Claudio Reyna, el capitan, for standing your ground against the big bad Germans
4- Brad Friedel, for being the human wall. And for having such a cool, smooth accent.
5- Bruce Arena, for doing your own thing and constructing the most successful U.S. national team the world's ever seen. I tip my coaching hat off to you.
Other random soccer notes:
-Did you know Coach Arena was a former All-America lacrosse player?? Ha!
-Pablo Mastroeni looks very much like the lead singer of P.O.D.
-Karma's a bitch ain't it? O'Brien's no-call hand ball from the Mexico game came back and just smacked us in the face.
-If you don't get my title above, refer to my previous blog. There's something about those magical white jerseys, I'm telling ya.
-When this Cup's over, what the hell am I gonna watch? Baseball? I think not.
Until next time,
~Taft