Artifacts from South Africa

Dinner with the Davis' Brothers.

Great posts Andrew...after a lovely dinner with Steve Davis in Montvale during our visit, I felt compelled to post this article. Pretty good on Bradley's situation...would we still be in South Africa if the U.S. was playing tonight in Cape Town? I like to think so...

The stream of World Cup matches, once coming at such a beautiful breakneck pace, has slowed to a crawl. So the soccer lovers' quadrennial Shangri-La is nearly done.

But there will still be plenty to talk about, especially around U.S. Soccer, where a reckoning is near.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati has a few more days in South Africa to soak up the atmosphere -- and possibly to seethe and stew about a tournament that could have gone further for the United States. Indeed, a bright opportunity was squandered with a Round of 16 loss to Ghana, a fact U.S. Soccer's top decider surely considered during two days of weekend quarterfinals.

He's not alone. Back here in the States, where Gulati will soon return and begin sorting out the U.S. program's future, there is a lingering melancholy over what might have been.

While the pain will ease over the next four years, the task ahead will not. There are big-picture issues to consider; identifying and cultivating the collective talent pool foremost among them. It's a complex, multilayered matter that deserves careful examination and then decisive action.

Of more immediate concern is the question of whether U.S. coach Bob Bradley is the right man to oversee those efforts. And though the wounds of World Cup 2010 are still fresh, it's becoming difficult to see any outcome that doesn't involve a change being made.

Start with the fact that precious few World Cup managers survive to complete the next cycle. Change is almost always deemed the way forward. Only two managers from Germany 2006 made it to South Africa, and those were the two who made it all the way into the final in Berlin four years ago.

ESPN analyst Alexi Lalas said he believes there will be a change -- even though he doesn't believe Bradley has performed poorly. He added there is no question that the U.S. coach moved the program forward in his four years. But Lalas likened it to a relay race, where different sets of strengths are required for the various legs of the race.

"Every part of a relay race is important, and they probably all have different strengths that are important in that specific time period," Lalas said. "But you might have to use different people at different times to get you there."

There are clearly pluses and minuses with Bradley. But the temptation to reach for more, to stretch the program further than it went in South Africa, is likely to be overwhelming, especially with such an easy out; Bradley's contract expires in December, which means that a change will cost U.S. Soccer very little in economic terms.

Gulati certainly seems to be leaning toward a change, judging from his comments last week. He described "mixed results and mixed emotions" when asked about the Americans' South African campaign -- but there was nothing mixed when he said flatly that the team did not meet his full expectations.

"I think the team is capable of more," he said. "I think the players know it. I think Bob knows it. At that level, we are disappointed we didn't get to play another 90 minutes, at least."

Particularly distasteful is the missed opportunity to extend the public awareness bonanza. Nothing inflates domestic soccer's profile like a deep World Cup run. In the U.S. case, the warm PR afterglow of second-round passage was unfortunately brief, with just three full days between a Wednesday win over Algeria and a Saturday-afternoon elimination against Ghana. A win over the Africans would have kept the U.S. team front and center in the news cycle all week. In terms of opportunity cost, that was priceless.

"It is a missed opportunity to stay in the American public's eyes for another four, five six days, maybe 10 days, when interest is at an all-time high," Gulati said. "I have no doubt there will be people still watching at bars at strange times, the TV ratings will still be good, but what the ratings might have been for a quarterfinal game or dreaming beyond that?"

Does that mean Gulati is blaming Bradley? No, but the coach bears some responsibility.

Bradley got a lot from a side with limited depth in some spots and big, gaping holes in a couple of others. Still, Bradley's fingerprints are on the loss for some starting selections that went wrong, notably the Ricardo Clark pick against Ghana. Neither will the choice to start Robbie Findley be recalled as a master stroke.

And the propensity for slow starts must be considered. Bradley's strength is in dutiful organization and creating structure. But questions will linger about whether he can summon the passion from the opening whistle.

So, with that structure in place, does the United States need a coach who can draw emotion from the first minute, not just when pressed into a corner? Additionally, does the United States need someone better at identifying what each individual match requires from a personnel standpoint? Bradley made halftime changes in three of four South African matches; it's a red flag when the prearranged game tactics need tweaking that regularly.

Thus, there is every chance that Gulati could decide Bradley was the best person for the job four years ago but not necessarily going forward, just as Lalas said. That's hardly an unreasonable position to take.

Those shortcomings shouldn't completely overshadow the job Bradley did accomplish. He had two interconnected missions all along: to qualify for the World Cup and then get into the second round. Everything else was always a bonus -- or it was, at least, until the bracket broke open so invitingly.

Shaping much of the decision regarding Bradley's fate will be about other choices available. If Gulati surveys the landscape and doesn't see anyone within reach, someone who could complement and improve on the progress made since '06, then he might opt for caution. That scenario seems unlikely, however.

Which brings us to Jürgen Klinsmann, a name that will certainly come up. And it should.

Gulati wanted Klinsmann in '06 but finally walked away from the bargaining table when the German legend asked for too much control over player availability. His desire to have more time with the players (in summer months, when they would be taken away from MLS sides) now seems to be justified. Or, at the very least, it seems like a reasonable request. Gulati is a thoughtful man, and he will surely wonder in his quiet moments if Klinsmann was right, if perhaps he should have remained at the table a little longer. Would the American team still be in South Africa if Gulati had?

Klinsmann wasn't necessarily talking about Bradley when he discussed the U.S. loss two days later on ESPN. But Klinsmann certainly wasn't being complimentary to the team's overall mental approach. He said it took just 10 minutes of watching the timid U.S. side against Ghana to conclude that the Americans were in big trouble. He suggested that the United States failed to properly manage the understandable intoxication of such a dramatic win over Algeria.

"What I mean is that they didn't recover mentally and physically from that win," he said, mentioning how the U.S. players were obviously still stuck in the moment, snared in the euphoria and the excitement they had stirred back in America. "Suddenly Bill Clinton is coming by, Mick Jagger is in the stands, and all that takes you away in a World Cup. You can't allow that. It's about now and tomorrow; it's not about what happened an hour ago. So once you win this tremendous game against Algeria, an hour after the game, after you do your interviews and then get all that stuff done, then you start to actually prepare for the next game."

Klinsmann mentioned he had been at the same place with Germany four years earlier, navigating highly emotional moments and dodging the big potholes along the road of success.

"You have to bring down the players right way, back to the ground," he said. "You have tell them, 'Forget about Algeria. It's done. It's all about Ghana.' I had a feeling they were not really prepared for Ghana for this battle."

No one could hear that and feel great about Bradley's chances. Not when the words are being spoken by Gulati's first choice all along.

Bradley might have been a good choice four years ago, but may not be the man to carry the baton from here. It's getting harder to see this thing going any other way at this point.

Why have so many things changed since I left?

1) The entire Sox lineup is on the DL.

2) The V train became the M train?

I Traveled Far

So I decided to calculate how far I traveled during my entire around the world sprint.

Here it goes:

JFK to SFO: 2,580 miles
SFO to ICN: 5,620 miles
ICN to SIN: 2,890 miles
SIN to JNB: 5,380 miles
JNB to CPT: 790 miles
CPT to JNB: 790 miles
JNB to DKR: 4,170 miles
DKR to IAD: 3,970
IAD to EWR: 211 miles
EWR to PHL: 79 miles

Total miles traveled between 6/17 and 7/2: 26,480 miles.

Also, the length of the equator is 24,860 miles. So basically I went around the world and then flew from New York to Denver for good measure.

Recap Days 11-22

The last time I did this was June 20, before I embarked on my jaunt to South Africa. I will now, game-by-game, provide you all with some insight.

Day 11
POR-PRK. Complete demolition of the North Koreans. Apparently their hired-Chinese fans weren't enough. Still hate C. Ronaldo though.

CHL-SUI. This game was dirty. I think a Swiss guy got red carded in a questionable game. Right about this time I was driving in a car to Fedex to drop off clothes that I couldn't fit in my carry on bag.

ESP-HON. My passport arrived during this game. That's all that's important. Honduras did not rep CONCACAF well.

Day12
MEX-URU. Completely missed this game. I was somewhere between San Francisco and Seoul.

FRA-RSA. See above. Geoff, Nate and Noah were in a super market when bafana bafana scored. It was awesome. (Hey, remember in the URU-GHA QF when John Harkes said "baghana baghana"? He sucks.)

NIG-KOR. Saw a couple minutes of this game while running to my gate in Singapore. Along the way - in the airport - I saw a Red Sox bar. That's all I know.

GRE-ARG. I know nothing.

Day 13
SLO-ENG. All I know is that when this game was going on I was orbiting another planet. The closest I came to experiencing this game was when I was trying to get my fucking smartphone to tell me if Slovenia scored. At that moment, Donovan scored. Thank you smarthphone?

USA-ALG. Emotional high of a lifetime. See many other posts on this subject.

GHA-GER. Something happened in this game, I'm sure. But I was smoking a Cuban.

AUS-SRB. See above.

Day 14
DEN-JPN. I was rooting for the Danish because I like small central European countries. But the Japanese were actually exciting and I later joined their bandwagon.

CMR-NED. Love the Oranje. They won.

SVK-ITA. Hate the Italians. They lost.

PAR-NZL. My favorite team in the tournament may have been the Kiwis. I had to continuously fight myself to avoid buying a New Zealand jersey in the airport (which is, amusingly, basically just a white t-shirt with "New Zealand" in the corner; I really wanted it.) In any case, the Kiwis - completely written off - drew three games.

Day 15
POR-BRA. Brazil tied nil-nil. Really Brazil? I bet you are going to lose in the QF. Great work Dunga.

KOR-CIV. Really wanted something miraculous to happen with the Ivorians so they could advance. Not much more that you can ask than 3-nil. Pretty sure the 2010 World Cup was wiped off the North Korean history books. (I wonder what those looked like to begin with.)

CHL-ESP. Noah went to this game. Nate, Geoff and I got emotional over beer, scotch and a lot red meat.

SUI-HON. Remember the Swiss border patrol in 2006? That was funny.

Day 16
URU-KOR. Really joined the Uruguaian bandwagon here. Diego Forlan is pretty awesome, as is Suarez. This period of my life was spent preparing for the following four hours. Or, as Nate put it, preparing to yak later.

USA-GHA. Another incredibly emotional moment of my life. Please see elsewhere in this blog. Remember Ghana. Fuck Ghana.

Day 17
GER-ENG. Read the first chapter of Soccernomics. It explains everything that took place in this game with remarkable accuracy. I love Ze Germans.

ARG-MEX. Pretty exciting game here. No CONCACAF teams advance to the QF.

Day 18
NED-SVK. Dutch defend their unofficial world title again. Around this time Geoff was extremely close to killing: the GPS, the entire population of Sun City, an elephant (that was already dead) and several South African drivers.

BRA-CHL. Listed to this game on the radio after dropping Geoff and Nate off at the airport. It was a sad moment. I also liked Chile much more than Brazil.

Day 19
PAR-JPN. Boring 120 minutes. Exciting shootout. Rough way to get eliminated. No Asian teams get to the QF.

ESP-POR. Spanish win in a game that they dominate possession. I dislike C. Ronaldo. Every first place team won their R16 game... except us. No stars from the Write the Future ad reach the QF.

Day 20
There were no games this day. It was weird.

Day 21
See above. Noah left. I went to Cape Town.

Day 22
BRA-NED. HELL YES ORANJE. Caught the two Dutch goals while running through the Newark airport in the midst of my IAD-EWR-PHL connection (don't ask). Really excited for this team.

URU-GHA. Karma's a bitch ain't it? I hate Gyan. Can't believe that he missed that penalty at the end of time. Incredible. Fuck Ghana. Love that Uruguay gets through. Would be pulling for the Dutch anyways, but I don't think the Uruguaians can't get through without Suarez.

Pool leader: Guess who's back on top? ANDREW! (And Josh too). But seriously, I picked the Dutch upset of the Brazilians with the correct score. One of the top moments of my life.

chatting with katie....

Katie: i gotta root for africa now
me: i would like to be able to do that
cannot
which is why i think im not watching
Katie: plus, don't you want whoever beat us to beat everyone? so we can think we were almost good enough
3:35 PM me: yeah, ive heard that line of reasoning
Katie: they are the only hope of an entire, impoverished, corruption ruled continent
me: i mean, it makes sense
im just still upset
all of these things make sense
im just still upset
3:36 PM Katie: i'm upset, but i'm also proud of that us and i don't particularly feel like they deserved to go much further
3:39 PM me: i mean, i agree
but the disappointment is still too raw
im not actively rooting against ghana
i just..... i just cant handle it right now
Katie: haha okay fair enough
but they are a fun team
me: i mean, i liked them a lot in the group stages
3:40 PM Katie: and besides, we still have america as our country
me: ha, valid
but, i still feel like i was dumped by my girlfriend
Katie: haha
me: and its just going to take some time
3:41 PM Katie: i feel more like i was dating someone who looked good on paper, but the spark wasn't there, and we've broken up. i miss the idea of him, but not actually
that was this u.s. team for me- heart for sure, but passion and skill and grace, not so much
me: ha
see, i started dating them 2-3 years ago
ive stayed up late at night with them working on their problems
and while understood the limitations, didn't think they'd go crazy on me like this so quickly
i mean, we were never getting married/they were never winning the world cup
3:43 PM Katie: haha
me: but, i just thought it would end better
Katie: haha fair enough
3:44 PM fuck uruguay scored
3:45 PM me: ha
im not even happy about that!
Katie: good
3:46 PM me: bah
wish the germans and argentina were not playing each other so soon
i can root for both of those teams
the germans play like i wish we played
sum better than the parts
Katie: i cant root for the germans
i like the way they play, but don't root for them
and argentina has my future husband on the team
me: yeah, it is difficult to root for them, i agree
Katie: so it's no contest
me: ha
i just wish we were the germans
knew how to win
organized
thoughtful, purposeful passing
ability to finish
scrappy, everyone likes each other
Katie: yeah they play like such a team
3:48 PM me: they are the girl at the coffee shop i wish i was dating, but is out of my league
Katie: oh goodness
3:49 PM me: she's got some banker boyfriend, who does something fantastically interesting at night, like write short stories, or on the side graphic design
or, maybe build furniture
he's in shape, is funny
i've got nothing
except this damn girl who has a ton of problems, but i loved anyways
bah

Mara's just delivering the goods

Dutch upset of Brazil + beignets + cafe au lait + bloody mary's = happiness.

Who needs new orleans?

Favorite Quotes from South Africa

"There is nothing to do now but yak later."
-Nate, before the USA-Ghana game

Geoff: "I couldn't have done this trip then."
Andrew: "I couldn't do that trip now."
(general agreement)
Comparing the 2006 and 2010 World Cup trips

P.s. I got the Nederland-Brasil game correct, with the correct score. Fuck yeah.

More verbal goal scoring

Have come to really like the michael davies and roger bennet blog/podcast on espn through this cup, and found another good one today. this summed up a few things:

"When did I last feel this bad about a loss? England's 1990 semifinal defeat to Germany, perhaps?

But I am not talking about England's 4-1 battering. It was the U.S.'s ouster that left me devastated this weekend. England's failure was, regrettably, all too predictable. We are a nation that has long mistaken fame for skill. But the U.S. team created a sense of endeavor, nobility and optimism -- all too rare a commodity in sports and rarer still in American soccer. We will always have Landon's goal, a totemic symbol that will be played and replayed, even as we debate how or whether America's fascination for the big-event nature of the World Cup will translate into a more lasting passion for the sport of football itself."

all from some englishmen too... god, miss this team still.

Simmons just putting the ball in the back of the net

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100701

Favorite part:

"I hate how teams milk leads in the last 15-20 minutes by faking injuries and taking forever to sub players. When that Ghana player had to be carried off on a stretcher at the tail end of the America game, then hopped off like nothing ever happened as soon as the stretcher was out of bounds, I thought that was appalling. Actually, it made me want to go to war with Ghana. I wanted to invade them. I'm not even kidding. That's another great thing about the World Cup: Name another sport in which you genuinely want to invade other countries when you lose."

and of course:

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