Earth Day 2012

Earth Day. They day I post my ramblings about some aspect of our planet…  Thanks for taking the time to read.

A couple of years ago I traveled to New Orleans for a teacher conference.  One evening I attended a banquet where the keynote speaker was Philippe Cousteau Jr., grandson to the famous oceanographer Jacques.  Philippe covered many topics that evening; I found his talk very personal and moving.  I thought a lot that night about how we’ve politicized our approach to the earth.  The environment, conservation, and utilizing natural resources aren’t so much in the realm of science any more as they are political topics used to leverage political interests.  Philippe yearned for the early days of his grandfather, exploring the ocean just because it hadn’t been done and needed to be done.  My thought is that the movies his grandfather made were propaganda to promote science and the wonder of discovery, not propaganda to further a political party or interest group’s agenda.  In our more cynical age, everything comes down to agenda and influencing policy.

Philippe’s talk was full of very philosophical yet personal moments, such as when his grandfather took him diving in the Red Sea to see the Conshelf II installation.  The last place on Earth yet to be explored is our vast ocean.  In the 1940’s when Jacques helped create the modern scuba tank (aqua-lung), the ocean became much more accessible.  Films such as  Cousteau’s Silent World (1956) stirred up imagination about the world below the waters. This interest in what was possible led to experiments in human physiology; could we survive long stretches of time, at pressure, below the ocean.  The Conshelf installations were created by Cousteau to test man’s limit. Philippe spoke very eloquently about his grandfather showing him the abandoned Conshelf where he and his fellow “oceanauts” had lived in briefly in 1963. I’d never heard of the Conshelf project, but listening that night I got the slightest taste of what it might have been like back in those decades for the ocean explorers; with the immense discoveries awaiting them in oceans across the globe.

However, in the 1960’s, something else caught the public’s imagination: space.  Starting with Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and followed by our American efforts with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, most “new frontier” type money started flowing to NASA and not to ocean science and exploration.  Philippe criticized this greatly, and we have reason to say he is a biased critic, but I agree with some of his points.  Each year NASA receives a budget of 17-18 billion dollars; for oceans research, about 500 million.  NASA does some great work and improves scientific knowledge, but one might argue that the immediacy, practicality, and usefulness of ocean research is much much higher than what we have accomplished by conducting experiments in outer space.  The International Space Station, Moon Base, and manned mission to Mars are sexy topics. Why our oceans are changing, migrating zooplankton, and undiscovered deep sea creatures aren’t.  A manned mission to Mars will cost somewhere in the ballpark of 400-600 billion dollars and provide almost zero practical benefit to us back here on Earth.  It is basically one of those things to do just so we can say we did it.  I think most of the money these days that goes to NASA seems to be used in perpetuity… 17 billion used up simply to justify asking for the same 17 billion the next year.

Besides sharing about the scientific need to keep exploring and researching our oceans, Philippe shared something very personal that got me thinking about myself as a father.  Philippe Jr’s father was killed at the age of 38 in a water-plane crash near Lisbon, leaving behind a daughter and a wife pregnant with his son, Philippe Jr. Philippe Jr. was born a few months after his father’s death, and grew up only knowing his father through family stories and clips from his grandfather’s films.  Philippe Jr. read to us a letter read at Philippe Sr.’s funeral, written by grandfather Jacques. The letter was very moving, a grieving father speaking of his son’s desire to leave the ocean and to fly, “chasing rainbows” in his planes.  There was much in the world that Jacques wanted to show his son, to explore the world above and below the water together, but now could not.  This point became very poignant as Philippe Jr. talked about how his grandfather took him places around the world, to visit places he had taken Sr. on their adventures in the 50’s and 60’s.

Philippe was very grateful of his grandfather, and expressed how his name Cousteau had provided him with many opportunities in this life, which he felt he needed to earn instead of simply inherit.  This can be seen in his current work today.

Philippe’s story was very striking for me.  I’m 38 now, the same age as his father.  I think about my own children, and what if they had to grown up without me…Of the things I want to share with them, things I want them to understand, and things I want them to experience.   I think of Philippe Sr., and how he must have dreamt of his son, soon to be born.. of all the wonders of this world he wanted to show him.  And yet, his son had to grow up without him.

It was a powerful reminder for me to not take the time we have for granted.  The slog of life slips by so fast.  So much in life robs us of this reminder: selfishness, depression, low self-esteem, victim mentality, bitterness, harboring grudges, wounds we refuse to let heal.  All are such a waste of time.  We might only have 1 day left with our kids, with our spouse, and I wasted that day feeling wounded or put-out?  Foolishness.  Whether we have been given 5 years with our loved one or 50, it is a gift.  Philippe Jr. didn’t get one day with his father.  I hope to be intentional in providing experiences and memories for my loved ones.

That is what counts.

Bordeaux wine is kinda like….

Today, while driving about town, I was struck by an analogy. My sister and brother in law told me once about their experience with Bordeaux wines. I’ve never had a Bordeaux myself, but I was taken with their description of their interlude with such a wine. They spoke about the quality and complexity of the libation, but what struck me was the experience of drinking a Bordeaux. Over the course of an hour or so, whilst talking with friends, or enjoying a fine meal, you drink the bottle glass by glass, from cork pull to empty. The wine changes throughout this time, and this change is meant to be experienced. Each moment to be discovered and enjoyed. Sounds wonderful to me.
And there I was, driving away from 7-11 having just purchased a new bag of sunflower seeds. These delightful little morsles, known as “spits” to some, are one of my small vices. As I opened the bag and enjoyed the freshness of the first few, a thought crept into my mind. You see, a bag of sunflower seeds is kind of like that Bordeaux… the seeds have a certain taste at first… a crispness and verve, but over time as air gets into the bag (over the course of a few days, or a week), the seeds change in complexity and tone. They don’t loose their flavor, per se, but they mellow, and take on a new quality. Each day brings discovery and enjoyment.
Until I have the chance to enjoy a Bordeaux with Brady and Dave, I shall have to content myself with the sunflower seeds. La vie est jouissait!

The new Renaissance??

One of the amazing things about the internet these days are shared artistic creations (especially with YouTube)… something inspires people and they make something new.  All of the arts are entering a new type of renaissance. They used to be valued most high in society, in eras past: ancient Greece, China, the Renaissance in Europe, etc… poetry, music, works of art, literature were considered some of the most valuable things individuals could produce to benefit society.  Now, especially in America, we value business and sport above the arts, and the arts we do value, filmaking and music, are considered entertainment.  Mainstream society doesn’t view art with the same honor it once did; entertainment arts dominate while painting, poetry, sculpture, literature, traditional performance arts, etc. have all been pushed to the fringe.  Some still seek these things out, but I wonder how many of us see them as relics of the past, and perhaps we too have lost the reasons why these benefit our society.  Sure we valute Monet, Shakespeare, Keats, Verdi, etc. but do we recognize that our society needs new creations of great art?

But now something is happening:  the fringe has access.  Entertainment media for a long time has decided what is popular, and what was worthy to be distributed… no longer.  Through the internet, more people in the world have access to more information than ever before, and access to more people than ever before.  People are collaborrating in new ways.  New art is being created.  People of like-mindedness find each other, comment and contribute.  Something new is created.

Some interesting examples:

Dozens of people, inspired by Radiohead, create their own versions of their song Paranoid Android… then someone decided to collect all these clips and combined them…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-cfWYN0cZI&feature=player_embedded

Another trend on YouTube is finding videos that people have posted, then take that video and create something new with it… one creation chains to many new iterations…  A new type of artistic conversation shared by people all over the world.

The Gregory Brothers took clips of a Charlie Sheen interview and created a song: http://youtu.be/9QS0q3mGPGg

Which was then taken and covered by dozens of others:

Electric guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_379287&v=_pr5pSH7PHE&feature=iv

Drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_991700&v=gbHkQ8DFDTY&feature=iv

YouTube has also created a symphony made up of muscicians chosen from around the world by them submitting YouTube videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/symphony

Perhaps the most fringe of all the arts, poetry, is also finding life on the internet, where poetry that would have never been heard can be accessed by anyone.  Admittedly, some of it should’t reach out to the world, but at times it can be quite good.

Rives:

http://youtu.be/ORYKKNoRcDc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtVepS53t0  (some bad language)

Collaborative story writing websites, such as:

http://www.protagonize.com/

http://storymash.com/

(many others)

Places where story and art combine:

http://storybird.com/

Plus countless ways for artists of similar interests can share their work and communicate with each other.

Awesome times we live in. Power to the people!

Decade Review

Wow… it has been a great decade!!
I thought I might reflect on this past decade a bit… blog about the things I enjoyed over the last 10 years. Organized into categories to keep my head straight.
“Best of the Decade”

Family
The birth of my 4 kids! Crazy. I never imagined when 2000 rolled around that 10 years later I’d have 4 kids. Helping my wife (if you can call it help) with each delivery was awesome, terrifying, exhausting, and wonderful. And now I get to watch them grow and explore the world. I doubt I’ll have another decade quite like this one!
The rest of the family has been quite fertile this decade as well… my sister and brother both got married (not to each other). I have three nieces and one nephew on my side of the family, and on Heather’s two more nieces and two more nephews. Busy decade!
Sports

What a decade for USA soccer. It has been great following the national team this decade and some of the individual players as they play around the world. There has been some bad moments (2006 World Cup) but some breathtaking ones as well. Making the quarterfinals in 2002 and outplaying Germany but losing a thrilling game (still crushes me when I think about it, but was stunning to see how well we played); Winning Gold Cups, often in dramatic fashion; our run in the Confederations cup beating Spain, then going up 2-0 to Brazil in the final before losing; Our run in 2010 World Cup with all those dramatic goals. Our last minute goal vs Algeria to go from being out of the cup to 1st in our group is the most dramatic sporting moment I’ve ever witnessed. Great decade for US soccer, hopefully the next will be even better! Anyone want to go to Brazil 2014??
Comedy
Tim Hawkins- I think someone showed us the video of Tim doing his song “Things You Don’t Say to your Wife”. After that we started watching more of his clips, eventually buying two of his DVDs. He’s hilarious. When I watch his DVDs I’m literally in tears at times he’s so funny.
Flight of the Conchords- Off color and off kilter musical humor. Two goofy dudes from New Zeeland form a band (rap-folk-funk fusion) and think up some crazy songs. I love their music and often clever lyrics. My favorite song is actually a tie between “The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)” and “Brett You Got it Goin On”. We rented their HBO show on DVD. It is hit and miss, but the hit moments are really funny. (the show is occasionally rated R, but not often)
Television
Best show of the Decade: Lost
Yeah, I’m a Lostie. Brilliant show that wove a marvelous story full of surprises and brilliant characters. The show innovated on many levels… the best was how they wove character backstory into flashbacks that reflected on events that were happening on the island. It seemed like week as we learned new backstory I’d say to myself “that’s my favorite character!” only to be saying the same thing again the next week. Entertaining show, but also made you think.
Runner up show: Battlestar Galactica (new version)
Brilliant show, also with great characters. Had some “miss” moments, but the overall story was fascinating, hard-hitting, and not afraid to go to dark places. Another great show for making you think.
Movies
First off will be The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I could write entire blogs about these 3 movies. A couple quick thoughts. I evaluate them as just 1 giant movie that happened to be broken into 3 parts. Are there flaws? Sure. But overall it is the greatest achievement in filmmaking history. The directing, script, acting, cinematography, pacing, detail, sets, etc. Everything was wonderful to behold, both in the theaters and on DVD. One of my favorite memories of this decade is going to Trilogy Tuesday, a day where they put all 3 movies back to back to back in the theaters. I went to Edwards to watch them. Loved it. There are about 5 moments in Return of the King that make me break out with tears. For everyone who thought fantasy was silly or for kids, they saw it treated with seriousness and beauty. Great literature makes us reflect on life and the human condition. Lord of the Rings does as well. Bonus points for the two brilliant “fade to white” moments at the end.
Next are the movies of Christopher Nolan. Starting with the brilliant storytelling concept of Memento (2000), his directing and storytelling have been top notch throughout the decade: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception. The Prestige and Inception are examples of storytelling so good, it makes me want to cry (the stories don’t make me cry, but thinking about how well the stories are told and unfold, makes me want to cry). BTW, a good movie to watch with The Prestige is The Illusionist (with Ed Norton (and Rufus Sewell!)). There are never movies about magicians, and two brilliant ones were made in the same year. Go figure.

Music
-“Best band this decade that I hadn’t heard of until after they had broken up:” Dispatch.
Awesome band. Love their music. Interesting back story. Other favorite bands I discovered this decade: Jack Johnson, Mishka, Joshua Radin, Gov’t Mule, Radiohead, Derek Trucks, Blitzen Trapper, Josh Kelley, G Love.
-“Best vocalist/singer of the decade:”
I’m going with Jason Mraz, with Josh Kelley a close runner up. Really enjoyed stumbling upon these guys (before they became well known).
For songs that showcase Mraz’s vocals check out: I’ll Do Anything, Mr. Curiosity, Forecast, Tonight Not Again, I’m Yours, Live High, and many others!
For Kelley check out: Just To Be Me, Kink in the Chain, Walk Fast, Love is Breaking My Heart, Almost Honest, Lover Come Up, Too Good to You, etc.

-“Best musician of the decade” + “Best music of the decade” + “Best band of the decade” + “Best songwriting of the decade”
John Mayer. Hands down and easily. No other musician/group has put out as many great to brilliant songs as Mayer has in the past 10 years. Yeah, Mayer makes weird guitar faces, sings with his tongue out, and is often in the tabloids, but if you disregard all that and just consider his music… no one comes close.
Some things of note:
5 albums that range from great to brilliant: Room for Squares, Heavier Things, TRY! (Trio), Continuum, Battle Studies. Excellent musicianship and technical skill at the guitar. Awesome live performer: puts on a great show, has a great band, and one of the best live guitar players around. Uncanny ability to write pop songs that are radio hits yet also maintain a blues-rock foundation. Outstanding cover versions of songs from Hendrix, SRV, Robert Johnson, Radiohead, etc. Not only wrote great blues and blues-rock songs, in my opinion he’s added some new songs to the blues cannon.
Do I love all of his songs? No. Some I skip over every time. But there are many great songs and some that are a perfect combination of songwriting, lyrics, musicianship, sensibility, style, and originality. No such Thing, Daughters, Gravity, Stop This Train, I’m Gonna find Another You, Who Did You Think I Was?, Perfectly Lonely… I could go on. All so great in so many different ways.
Technology:
Technology has had a good decade as well. The internet has gone from something mostly nerds and college students used, to being fully dispersed throughout our society and across generations. In the old days the internet meant information was connected… you could quickly find out sports scores, news stories, or research material… now not only information, but people are connected, especially in the last couple of years (hello Facebook). Tech things I’ve enjoyed the most the last decade:
MMO gaming. What can I say? A fun time killer. Too much of a time killer at times. I still enjoy the occasional 1 player game, but most things are more fun when you are gaming with or against other people.
Youtube. Wow. Where to start. We used to gather around the Sunday night “America’s Funniest Home Videos” to laugh at our stupidity. But those tapes were selected for us. Now anyone with a camera and a moment of inspiration can post it out there for all of us. Not only the stupid stuff, but now anyone with a creative idea can now share. Good or bad, this is giving a voice to everyone. Free distribution. In the “old days”, only professionals or those with lots of money could put together videos. Now any amateur artist, musician, director, actor, enthusiast, athlete, adventurer, videographer, critic, etc can share with the rest of us. Lets not call them amateurs, lets call them dreamers. One of the coolest things that is happening on Youtube is the phenomenon’s of shared creations. Someone will post a home video of some sort… someone else will take that video and create something new, like the Gregory Brothers creating a song out of it… then hundreds or thousands of others will repost their own versions of the video. Tributes, parodies, remixes, continuations. Ideas are shared and modified at an amazing pace. Awesome.

Board Games:
This decade I rediscovered board games, and how great they could be. I’ve always like board games, but was bored of the same old games that have been around for 20, 30, 50, 80 years. My eyes were opened big time to the innovation and creativity in the new board games of the last 15 years, most of them coming out of Germany. Them Germans like designing board games, and we’re all better for it. In fact, this decade has been a board game Renaissance. Some games like Apples to Apples and Settlers of Catan are making their way to Target and Toys R Us, but the full force of new games will be felt in the next two decades. These games have some really innovative features. Most minimize the element of chance and increase strategy. Instead of rolling dice, the player makes decisions (no more dice deciding if you win or lose!). Instead of moving around a static board that is the same every time you play, in some of these games the players create the board as you play. Out with the old and in with the new I say. Some excellent and innovative games to check out: Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Alhambra, Niagara, Dominion, Bohnanza, Agricola, and any game designed by Reiner Knizia.
Shakespeare:
Strange entry, I know… but I’m a big Shakespeare geek. I mention it in this decade review for two reasons. One is that part of my teaching job is to teach a Shakespeare play each year. I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of transmitting a bit of my love of the Bard to my students. I just don’t want them to understand the play, I want them to see a bit of the lifelong joy they can provide… Shakespeare plays aren’t broccoli… you don’t read them because they are “good” for you or make you smarter… you experience the plays simply for the pleasure of it… to see them for the jewels that they are (to borrow a phrase). If I can get the students to see a bit of that, to enjoy experiencing the play, then I’m happy. I always try to improve each year but I’ve had a LOT of fun teaching Shakespeare the last 10 years and watching the students respond. Occasionally I’ll get a positive comment at the end of the year, or after they go off to college. Makes all the hard work worth it.
The 2nd reason I mention Shakespeare is that this decade I’ve seen some great performances of Shakespeare, mostly at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I’ll cheat a bit and mention their production of Othello (1999 with Derek Lee Weeden and Anthony Heald)… simply stunning. Seeing a brilliant and intense play performed at the highest level… it was stunning. It was like the play caught my breath before the first act even started, tightening on my chest over the next couple hours as it moved powerfully to the end. To fully explain why it was so much better than any other performance I’ve seen would take a long talk over coffee.
At the OSF I’ve seen other great performances this decade including great versions of As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Othello (again), On the Razzle (Tom Stoppard, not Shakespeare), 12th Night, and Hamlet. Hamlet 2010 was also quite brilliant, almost on par with Othello 1999. Very innovative performance that brought out some nuances I’d never seen before in Hamlet. Wonderful.

Dear Prudence

Dear Prudence

Rock Band is such a great experience. You are playing a game and listening to music, yet part of the greatness is that you are listening to music in a new way. The game makes the music participatory. You are engaged in what you are listening to, enjoying the song, but also focused in making your musical part happen. Great game.

Tonight I was playing Beatles Rock Band and selected Dear Prudence for the first time. It had been a looong time since I’d listened to that song and was really struck by the brilliance of the song. Wow. Beautiful and creative guitar, bass, and vocal parts. The Beatles were so innovative in much of their music, but Dear Prudence is one of their best.. way ahead of its time. Aspects of the song would fit into music that is being made today. They recorded the song in 1968! What a great song.

World Cup Wrap-up

Another World Cup all wrapped up. Lots of suprises and nothing much that we thought was predictable actually happened, well, except that there was bound to be some games with shambolic refereeing… There was about the same amount of bad refereeing that you would see in world cups past. Everyone just hopes it doesn’t happen to them. If you thought the USA got hosed this world cup by ref calls, let me remind you of a certain blatant handball in 2002 during our quarterfinal match vs Germany. Maybe FIFA will actually reform some things some day… perhaps when the old guard die off and some new reformers take charge.
About the only other thing that predictably happened was the 3rd place game featured open attacking with lots of goals (5), and the world cup final being a cautious, tight game (1 goal in OT). Parts of the final were just brutal to watch. Disappointing too because the Dutch and Spanish both have creative, attacking players. Instead of a spirited game with creativity on both sides we got a Spanish side wanting to slow action to a crawl to possess the ball, and an unusually sloppy Dutch team that decided to wait for counterattacks. Both team’s strikers barely touched the ball all night, which made most of the game slow and boring, unfortunately. We hoped for dazzling and got a fizzle. Sure, there were some great moments… 3 break-aways with only the goalie to beat, and all 3 stonewalled by great goalkeeping. A couple other great shots on goal from headers or shots just outside the box… but that was it for excitement until Ineista put the game out of its misery. Thankfully too, since 0-0 game with penalties would have been truly dour. Like a 3-3 Superbowl with one team kicking a meek field goal to win it in overtime. Soccer haters think we soccer-heads like ties/penalty kicks. No, we don’t. We hate them, and hate when finals are decided by penalty kicks… game has to end eventually so it is a necessary evil that we all hope doesn’t happen.
Kudos to both keepers in the final though. Both came up huge and kept their team in it… even on the final goal the Dutch keeper got his hand on the ball. Un-kudos to Arjen Robben… 2 breakaways past the defense with only the keeper to beat, and didn’t score. No magic from Sneijder, Xavi, Villa, Van Persie… heck… the only players to shine besides the goalies were both team’s defensive midfielders. (Nice “bloodsport” karate kick to the ribs, btw.) That’s probably why most epic teams are built around an epic defensive/holding midfielder.
And, why hadn’t Cesc Fabregas played more often during the world cup? Give the kid a chance coach!
I don’t mind defensive/tactical soccer matches, but you should still be creating more scoring chances… going for the win instead of playing it safe. I was missing the action from a lot of the earlier rounds of the cup where teams were throwing players forward and making important tactical substitutions. At least during the last world cup we had someone putting a sucker to the turf for talking too much smack.

Tournament Kudos: (in no order)
1. Diego Forlan. Watched all 7 games Uruguay played. He was great to brilliant in each one. He well deserved his Golden Ball award (for best player of the tournament). It seemed that only 3 guys the entire world cup could control the fancy new Adidas ball on free kicks: Forlan, Sneijder, and Donovan (oh, and the kid from Japan had a brilliant free kick goal). Forlan carried his team. Mad respect.

2. The All-Whites (New Zeeland). Only their 2nd time ever at the world cup. The last time (1982), they lost all 3 games, scored twice but had 12 goals scored on them. Yikes. This time they were the only undefeated team in the world cup (3 draws, 2 goals scored, 2 against). Awesome. FIFA changing the Oceana qualification process is the only reason they made it to the cup. It is a good change in my opinion.

3. Cocky teams who thought they could coast went down hard. Both France and Italy had groups that they should have coasted through… one went home in humiliation (defending champs out!), and one a total disgrace (France must have thought there was a war on).

4. Surprises. We had a few last minute goals that were very exciting, and some of the weaker teams rising up and beating a favorite. Teams that underperformed (England, Brazil, Argentina), and teams that were surprisingly dominant (Germany). We had a game with back to back penalty kicks during regulation time, one by each team, that were both saved by the two goalies. Portugal had a 7 goal win followed by a zero goal tie. USA had two late goals to propel us to the 2nd round, only to lose on a late goal by Ghana. 2nd round featured almost all comfortable wins by the favored teams (including a embarrassing beat down of England by Germany), except for the USA – Ghana game which was a back and forth rollercoaster match. The 2nd round also featured a few of the notorious bad ref calls. The quarterfinals were crazy (in a good way): featuring a surprising beatdown (Germany over Argentina), the 2 penalty miss game (Spain – Paraguay), sublime and surprising Dutch comeback over Brazil (Dutch historically crumble at this stage when down a goal), and the insanity of the Uruguay – Ghana game.

5. Ties for the ages. Often people not into soccer bag on the fact that the sport has tie games… which makes it not a sport etc etc. I won’t go into all their reasoning here, nor will I explain the game mechanics that make ties inevitable. I would like to point out that a tie score doesn’t always mean it was a bad game. Some ties are dreadfully boring (had a couple of those this world cup), but sometimes ties can be epic battles full of exciting moments (South Africa-Mexico and New Zeeland – Slovakia were both very entertaining games). This world cup has added a few epic games that can be re-watched as ties for the ages. USA going down by 2 goals, getting owned by Slovenia for 45 minutes, then staging a fearsome comeback to score 2 superb goals for the tie (while avoiding some good Slovenian counters). The other was Uruguay-Ghana, which was a hard fought battle, back and forth featuring great playing by both teams… 1-1 after 120 minutes, Ghana besieging the Uruguay goal as the last few seconds of overtime ticked away… 2 great shots on goal, Uru goalie flailing to the ground, Uru player saving the day clearing the 2nd hard strike that was going into the goal, 3rd shot rebound headed perfectly into the open goal only for Punk Suarez (I think that is his first name) slapping the ball out. Then Gyan missing the deserved penalty shot. Ghana loses on penalty kicks. Heartbreak. What a game.

6. USA vs Algeria. I wrote about the game in detail earlier, but I will reflect with this… greatest sporting moment I’ve ever witnessed. Yeah, there are a lot of great games, and even great series of plays, I’ve witnessed, but as far as singular moments involving one play if you will. The tension of it being a must win game in a championship tournament… the nerve-wracking 91 minutes leading up to the goal… scoring in the last moments of a game for the win, something we never do (and we’ve tried and failed, a lot)… so many close chances for both teams throughout the game. Nothing was quite like seeing that moment, from the ‘fast break’ created by our goalie, to the sequence of great positioning and passing that lead up to the ball bouncing away from the goalie, waiting for someone to find it, and Donovan, who could have easily slowed down after he passed the ball ahead, streaking in from nowhere to nail the ball home… Most goals are less artful than that goal, and any last minute goal would have been dramatic, but the sequence of events from Algeria’s rare attack leaving them open to a counter, through the sequence, to Donovan sliding headfirst to the corner flag. I don’t care how many people I meet in life who will make fun of soccer. They can’t take that play away from me.

I’m struggling to think of plays from any sport I might consider close to being as dramatic. First of all, this was a dramatic last minute victory for a team representing the entire USA, not just one city (what is more epic, Raider Nation getting excited over a Superbowl win, or an entire nation getting excited?). Even the Miracle on Ice, the winning goal was scored with 10 minutes left in the game, so it isn’t quite as dramatic as if it was scored in the last few seconds of the game. The Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald spectacular catch and run, to take the lead in the Superbowl with just 2 minutes left.. that was an exciting play. A Cardinal fan might rank it at their top sport moment for the emotional impact it had. But that was followed up by the spectacular throw and spectacular catch by Pitsburg… two epic plays at the end of a Superbowl. Lots of last second basketball shots to win big games dramatically (Duke, the Bulls), the problem with that comparison is that during a basketball game, there are lots of baskets that occur… in fact, baskets occur over and over, some are more exciting than others. Depending on the shooter, that ball has a 40%-60% chance of going in. Just looking at the 64 world cup games, there was about a 3% chance of a last minute goal for a win happening. Not only that, but the goal wasn’t ugly, or lucky, or routine, it was beautiful. Maybe Boise St. fans had the same feeling with the 2 spectacular last minute plays in the 2007 fiesta bowl. Last second tackles to save a touchdown to win a bowl game or super bowl are pretty awesome too. Dodger fans would say Kirk Gibson’s walk-off pinch hit homer off Eck in 88, as a surprising, sublime, last second victory type of play. That is maybe the one sports play comparable for a hard core Dodger fan that might relate to me watching Donovan’s goal. I’ll have to ask my friend Jeff… huge Dodger and USA soccer fan.

7. USA. Bill Simmons summed it up best when he wrote about how unique the world cup is because it just doesn’t engage sports fans of one team, but grabs many in our nation (paraphrase), when we root for our favorite team to win the World Series or Superbowl, it is a team that is associated with a city…and often we don’t live in that city. We’re a fan amongst other fans sprinkled about our land. But when the USA is in the world cup, they are playing for us, the nation, for all of us (even the haters). It is our national pride wanting them to represent us well… to not come home in last place (like France 98), or almost last place (Germany 2006)… we know the world looks down upon our soccer team, hates our foreign policy, and things we are loud and arrogant. We want our boys to step up and play their hearts out… to shock those other countries (like we did in South Korea 2002), to shove it in their face that we supposedly suck at their national sport yet we just sent their team home. We love underdogs. It makes the world cup so much more special than USA Basketball beating up on teams to get a gold medal. We are supposed to dominate in basketball, and when we do it is expected. When we do something great in the world cup it is unexpected. We are expected to fail. But no, our boys stepped up for the red, white, and blue. We want that Miracle on Ice to happen once again, one of these days. There’s really no sport left where we are that big of an underdog, like we were in hockey in 1980. Heck, even in Hockey we are expected to get gold or silver every time. Most of us missed the Miracle on Ice, the moment of seeing it live, as it unfolded… which is different than just seeing the score flash by on the news. I hope one day we get a Miracle on Grass, which in actuality will have to represent us creating at least 3-4 big upsets in a tournament to win the darn thing. And if we do, then it will be just a matter of deciding between weeping or rioting. Or both.

USA vs Ghana (crushed hopes and dreams)

Taken a couple of days for me to recover. I could sit here and type what I think went wrong tactically, and analyze the different time periods of the game, but I won’t.
When I watch other world cup games, say, Brazil vs Chile, it is much easier to pay attention to the tactical flow of the game, but when I watch the USA, it is a very emotional experience, a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. Especially this year. Hard to be analytical when you are on the ride.
I will say I am very very disheartened for this missed opportunity. Once you get past the group stage of the world cup, most mid-level teams have to play one of the big boys, like Mexico having to play Argentina, or Chile playing Brazil, or Slovakia playing the Dutch. We had a great oportunity to play another mid-level team… and not only that, if we’d won our quarterfinal match would have been against yet another, Uruguay… yes, Uruguay are playing great, but I’d like our chances vs them over playing Brazil or Spain any day. What a unique chance to make it into a semi-final! Oh to dream.
But the dream was crushed. Crushed by two defensive lapses, followed by two great, athletic and skilled plays by Ghana. World cup matches with two even teams is all about who makes a mistake and who capitalizes on that mistake. I’d hoped that it would be our night, but no, it was Ghana’s.
I felt before that USA and Ghana were pretty evenly matched. We had perhaps more skilled players, but they have awesome team speed, strength, and plenty of skill at certain positions. Yes, on most days we should beat them, but the USA team usually beats teams by giving more effort and more heart. That is how Ghana beat us… much more heart and effort than us in the first half, then just enough in the overtime.
Yeah, I was hoping for yet another last minute victory, but it needed to happen before Ghana’s score. Once they scored in overtime it was basically game over because in soccer it is pretty easy to grind down the clock ( similar to an NFL team or NBA team with a lead grinding down the clock). It was ironically humorous how the commentators kept saying that the USA has a habit of scoring last minute wins… I kept thinking.. well, we did it a couple days ago, but that is about the only time in our history we have! Like it was our superpower or something, except the magic has only happened once.
I think our struggle this world cup was we had a shakey defense that had key lapses at times in games, and our strikers didn’t score a goal. Our strikers did do some great things and helped create a lot of dangerous chances, but they only had a couple of “shoulda been goals” opportunities. Strikers just a bit too young and inexperienced. Good news is that they should be in their prime in 4 years… hopefully they will have improved their lethality by then.
As a team, we were such a rollercoaster. But, in 1998 and 2006, our inconsistency led to defeat after defeat. We were up and down this year, but had the ability to get goals from our midfield and some wins. Definate improvement.
In fact, there were moments where we’ve played the best attacking soccer I’ve EVER seen us play. Yes, stupifyingly we kept giving up early goals, and have the field dominated by the opponent, but somehow we’d throw some mighty switch of greatness and come alive! The 2nd half of the Slovenia game, the whole of the Algeria game, and the 2nd half of the Ghana game is the best I’ve ever seen us play.. controlling midfield and possession, solid defensive midfield, good recovery on counterattacks, excellence going forward and creating chance after chance after chance. Was inspiring and amazing to see. Over the years we’ve had lots of situations were we were desperate for goals and tried to go into attack mode, but usually only partly successfully. But, those 4 halves I mentioned we actually took over. Like we were a poor man’s Spain or something. Crazyness. If we can do that consistently and add in some lethality in finishing goals, then we could actually start being a team that comfortably dominates other teams (like we’ve seen in the last 4 days: Germans, Dutch, Argentines, and Brazil). We need to be able to face lesser teams (Algeria) and near even teams (Ghana) and comfortably dominate. That is our next level.
So, I was crushed we lost, and lost in such a close game where the fluke goals from defensive errors easily could have been in our favor… but now looking back I can say:
I’m proud of our boys! Proud we won our group, proud of our comebacks, proud of our brilliant last minute winning goal. I’m proud that our round of 16 game was a close, hard fought game where we had stretches of playing better than the other team, took it to overtime, and lost a heartbreaker. We didn’t go out in humiliation like the French or Italians… we didn’t go out like punks like the English. In fact, of all the round of 16 loosers, we definately played the best and competed. Just about every other looser was handled pretty easily.
So, rock on USA soccer! At least this time we played 4 greatly entertaining games, played some great soccer, and went down fighting!
Until Brazil 2014… keep on usa, keep on.

(hey, anyone want to go to Brazil??)