World Cup Thoughts

In no particular order.

• The only time the incessant drone of the vuvuzela stops is when somebody scores on South Africa. Unfortunately, this means I have to root against South Africa.
• The diving is still out of control, despite FIFA's "attempts" to fix the problem. What we need is a four day yellow card binge that puts lots of players in jeopardy of missing future games. I would rather watch a World Cup with no star players, a lower level of play, and no diving, than one with Ronaldo and Drogba rolling around on the turf every 3 minutes.
  
• Clint Dempsey's gift goal to give the US a 1-1 draw with England was a perfect example of bad luck combined with poor technique from the goalie. Dropping to a single knee to make a low save is dangerous because it severely limits your post save mobility without positively impacting your overall size in net. Either come down with both knees and legs splayed, almost a soccer version of butterfly, or stand up so you can move if you need to. A happy medium is a losing medium in goaltending.
• Diving is particularly deplorable to American fans because we're used to watching hockey. During the Stanley Cup finals, players from Chicago and Philadelphia played with serious injuries, including a pair of broken feet and countless broken hands. The sport encourages physical behavior that lends itself to injury, but when a player loses 7 teeth, he's back on the ice in 11 minutes. When a player falls to the turf clutching his knee after the slightest of taps, nobody is impressed. Fix the diving.
• The low scoring group stage is doing nothing to improve the viability of soccer to the American public. People complain about hockey, where the score is frequently 3 or 4 to 1 or 2. Soccer is way worse. I'm not sure how to fix it without fundamentally changing the game, but I've watched enough 1-0 and 1-1 games already to last me a lifetime. I spent three hours in a bar in Italy watching 3 simultaneous games and saw 0 goals. Maybe make the nets bigger?
• I don't care what anyone says, a plastic horn is not "culture." It's irritating.
  

In flight

Virgin America's in-flight wifi is, by far, the best way to spend $12.99 in the modern world. So, from 35,000 feet (and over Missouri, at the moment), here's a lot of crap for you to read.

Kings

Hockey coverage in June? Yup. The first round of the NHL draft saw the Kings select center Brayden Schenn with the fifth overall pick. Schenn is universally described as "gritty," whatever the hell that means, but has potential as a #2 line center in the NHL. He has an outside shot at making the team this upcoming season, but I'd suspect he's a player we won't see until 2011.

Congratulations to Luuuuc Robitaille, a first-ballot inductee into the hockey hall of fame. Luc is, for those of you who don't know, the highest scoring left winger in NHL history, and the second greatest King of all time, behind Gretzky.

Speaking of Gretzky, I just watched a 1989 Kings/Oilers game where Gretzky broke the scoring record, and the whole game was just fascinating. The Kings goalie was Mario Gosselin, a player who spent 12 years in the NHL without ever really distinguishing himself. Both goalies i nthe game, though, played stand-up, and it's really weird to watch with a modern timeframe. With my interest in goaltending in general, it's pretty funny to watch these goalies turn routine saves from a modern goalie into acrobatic dives across the crease. The sport was fundamentally different, particularly from the goalie position...today, saves are based on positioning. Then, it was all reflex. Gretzky's gamewinning overtime goal was a wraparound, a shot which has decreased in effectiveness to the point you almost never see them anymore. But with a stand up goalie, there's a shockingly large amount of five hole during the wraparound attempt.

Oh, and the game featured Craig Mactavish, the last player in the NHL to skate around without a helmet. It's borderline insane the way he blocks shots without something covering his head.


Angels

I don't mean to toot my own horn, here, but let's have a look at pitch counts. Jered Weaver threw 119 pitches in a complete game shutout against San Diego on June 14th. His next game was the worst of his season thus far, a 6-4 loss to the Dodgers where he gave up 10 hits, 3 walks, and 6 runs. Whoops.

Beyond that, the Angels are currently in progress against Arizona and trailing 1-0. They won 12-3, courtesy of an 8-run second inning. Let's hear it for unsustainable offense!

More Angels coverage once I can actually sit down and watch a whole game.


Soccer

The United States plays Brazil for the Confederations Cup tomorrow at 2:05 Eastern (I think). A win would be the biggest win in US soccer history and an extremely tardy vindication of the sport in this country. Until players like LeBron James start choosing soccer, it will never be like it is elsewhere, but maybe that's not so bad.

Determined to win now or die, so give a Hokie hi...

Angels 11, Colorado 3

Saunders has become a favorite of mine. Despite his general lack of stuff, he's been an excellent pitcher for the Halos for two seasons now, really 2.5 if you're counting 2006 and 2007 in there as well. Hokie Joe went 6 scoreless innings before giving up a long, long homer to Garret Atkins. The next pitch resulted in a single, and Joe got the hook. The Angel bullpen managed to give up a pair to the Rockies before closing out the game.

It's hard to complain too much, particularly as I didn't see much of the game. Vlad hit a homer, hit a double, managed three RBI's, and still bounced into a double play in the only at-bat of his I saw. Typical. Seriously though, his hair looks fantastic now that it's gone.

Also, Torii Hunter's sacrifice fly in the 6th was one of the weirder plays I've seen. The ball really wasn't deep enough for Aybar to score, but he went anyway, and the ball inexplicably shot through the basepath between third and home. But not, like, near home. Kinda right in the middle. Very strange...I didn't get much of a replay, but that throw was either realllly bad or it hit the mound and bounced weirdly.

Dan Haren went 7 innings with 8 strikeouts, giving up two runs, and lost. Arizona's awful. Thanks to that, the Rangers and Angels remain tied atop the AL West.


USA 2, Spain 0

Soccer has always been one of my favorite sports to watch, although my fondness for hockey has subdued my futbol fetish a little bit. Regardless, after defying some rather steep odds to make the semifinals, the USA played well enough to win against the #1 ranked team in the nation, Spain. Spain, of course, had a 35 game lossless streak, and that loss had come in 2006.

The US is, well, the US.

United States coach Bob Bradley made an excellent interim coach, but has been a poor game manager since. His starting lineup construction has been suspect, particularly when starting guys like DaMarcus Beasley, who hasn't been a world-class player for 2 years, if he ever has been. However, Bradley managed a reasonable lineup. Davies, who's the fastest kid I've ever seen, netted the first goal on a nice shot horribly misplayed by the Spanish goalie. Goaltending tip #29: If the ball hits you in the hands, it should be an automatic save. The guy was moving the wrong direction as the ball came in, trying to cheat for far post, and paid for it.

The second goal was from Clint Dempsey, probably my favorite American player at this point. Landon Donovan had a wide open shot and yet, for no apparent reason, decided to force a pass through four Spaniards. Somehow, the ball ended up paused in the box and Dempsey buried it. Again, the goalie seemed to be getting into the proper decision when he just decided to give up on the play. If you're diving across the goal, dive across the goal. Don't stop halfway.

The Americans were bailed out early and often by goalie Tim Howard. Howard had 6 saves on all 6 Spain shots on goal, while also spending a good deal of time yelling. Goalie is the best position in sports.

This is only a watershed moment for US soccer if they win the next one. The final is on Sunday against either Brazil or South Africa.