The headlines never seem to let up about the crappy American economy, and how tough it is to find a job.
But Forbes is out with a new list today that says Minneapolis and St. Paul have …
The Blotter
Right now I’m playing with ESPN3.com’s multi-screen view, where you can have as many as four games viewable in the same browser window at a time in what they call a mosaic. I’m watching replays of Barcelona against Villarreal, Scotland against New Zealand in rugby and Juventus versus Roma. It’s a dream come true for a sports buff and is a far cry from the old days where you were lucky to tune into a dodgy shortwave radio reception or being able to watch highlights of a game for the first time four to five days after the game occurred.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve never had it so good. With a combination of Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN2, Fox Soccer Plus (and/or FoxSoccer.tv), the FoxSoccer iPhone app and countless streams of Premier League-related news and podcasts courtesy of the Internet, we’re now living in a time where we’re getting close to nirvana for soccer fans. Sure, there are some things that need to be improved and available, but you can now legally get almost everything you could possibly need or want as a supporter of an English club in the Premier League.
Even on the streets in America, Premier League jerseys are far more common than shirts for the teams in the domestic league. In the old days, you’d practically have to send money to your grandmother in England for her to buy a jersey from the club shop and then send it in the post, keeping your fingers it would get to you and wouldn’t be absconded by your local postal service.
Just today, for example, I had the pleasure of watching a scintillating match between Aston Villa and Manchester United. Just when you thought ESPN’s production couldn’t get better, they spring another surprise. Today it was the pre-match interviews with Gerard Houllier and Alex Ferguson, both exclusive interviews for the U.S. viewing audience as the game itself was being televised on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. While ESPN’s pitchside interviewer thankfully refrained from asking Houllier whether he knew if Brad Friedel’s mother was watching the game from her home in the United States, I was awestruck by how incredible the build-up to the kickoff at Villa Park was. I mean seriously, can their production can any better than this?
For the next game at the traditional 3pm kickoff in the United Kingdom, I had a choice between watching Manchester City against Birmingham on Fox Soccer Channel and an incredible five other matches live on FoxSoccer.tv. So I decided to watch as much as I could of all of them. I had the game from Eastlands on my television set, and then flipped through “the channels” on FoxSoccer.tv to watch bits and pieces of the other matches. Manchester City is doing its best job at trying to be more boring than watching paint dry, so while that was on in the background I ended up focusing more of my attention on the games beamed to my computer via FoxSoccer.tv such as West Ham United against Blackpool, Tottenham versus Blackburn, Wolves against Bolton, Wigan versus West Brom and Newcastle against Fulham. The beauty of being able to flip between the different game was wonderful especially seeing the very entertaining draw between West Ham and Blackpool as well as Wolverhampton’s late comeback against Bolton. When you think about it, the games involving Bolton, Wolves and Blackpool of late have been more entertaining than many of the Big Four games. And more power to them.
The mosaic screengrab from ESPN3.com above was from Wednesday’s rare Premier League treat where the broadband channel had Manchester CIty against Manchester United (the less said about that game the better) as well as Aston Villa versus Blackpool, Everton against Bolton and Wolves versus Arsenal. It was a dream come true to be able to watch four games at once and to easily switch between the commentary of any of the four.
Does it get any better than this? Yes, definitely but the room for improvement is becoming less and less. We have almost everything we can possibly need. Yes, Fox Soccer Channel could improve their production but we shouldn’t take their product for granted. They are the ones who are paying millions for the rights to show the Premier League in the United States, which most definitely limits the amount of money they can spend on talent and sets to make their Premier League “product” profitable for them. Without Fox, who sub-licenses some of their games to ESPN, we’d be screwed. Fox Soccer Channel provides us the Premier League drug that we crave. And the more we watch it, the more addicted we become.
Living in America and experiencing the Premier League on our TV sets and Internet, it’s never been any better than it is now. So thank you Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN. We can be a bit harsh on you at times, but at the end of the day we love what you do and appreciate you bringing the beautiful game to us. We’ll let you know when you can improve, but keep up the good work. We’re loving every minute of it.
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In what will go down as one of the biggest upsets at this year’s U.S. Open, Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, the 25th seed in the men’s draw, beat fourth-seeded Andy Murray today in third-round action, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3.
Neither player’s first serve was working all that well (54% for Wawrinka, 50% for Murray), but Wawrinka hit more winners (58 to Murray’s 43) – though he also made more unforced errors (48 to Murray’s 43).
Wawrinka will face American Sam Querrey in the fourth round. Querrey easily defeated Spain’s Nicolas Almagro today, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. It’ll be interesting to see whether Wawrinka can continue his surprising run, or whether Querrey gives the tournament’s quarterfinals an American presence (also possible via John Isner, currently playing a fourth-round match).
Video of the hotly-contested final game between Murray and Wawrinka below. The quality is pretty low and the image is reversed, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Note especially the rally beginning at :28, a point Wawrinka eventually takes with a spectacular winner.
If your commute to work or your car-pool to the soccer field feels more and more like a forced march over battle-scarred terrain, you’re not imagining things.
A new study says our highway…
The Blotter
After a successful 2010 World Cup that saw the United States win its group for the first time since 1930, U.S. head coach Bob Bradley has been retained through 2014. While the primary objective of the team – advancing out of a group that looked fairly easy at the time of the draw – was accomplished, there was a widely held belief that the United States had a chance to make a deeper run in the tournament. Grant Wahl lamented:
All the U.S. had to do was beat Ghana and Uruguay—two fellow soccer mid-majors—and the Yanks would have reached the semifinals, won global hosannas and turned their own fickle nation into full-fledged fútbol lunatics.
That feeling is a bit misguided. The U.S. had a chance to advance deeper in the knockout rounds, but they did not for the simple fact that they were not good enough. The 2010 squad was not a threat to win the World Cup because their players were not as talented as the ones for Spain, Brazil or Germany.
With Bradley returning as head coach, there is the very real possibility that a team made up primarily of 2010 holdovers (Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Oguchi Onyewu) will be showing up at the World Cup in Brazil 2014. That is not necessarily a bad thing – Bradley has made significant improvements in his tactical abilities and pushed all the right buttons substitution-wise at the World Cup.
There is little doubt that Bradley can get the 2010 U.S. holdovers to the knockout rounds of Brazil 2014, and perhaps to the quarterfinals. But the most important question to ask is whether retaining Bradley raises the ceiling for U.S. soccer – can they go toe-to-toe with the powers of world soccer in the knockout stages and prevail? Right now, the answer is no.
Outside of Bradley, the most attractive candidate for the job was former Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann. He lives in the United States, is married to an American woman, and has expressed an interest in the job since Bruce Arena left the post in 2006. Germany drew raves for its wide-open style in the 2006 World Cup before bowing out in the semifinals to eventual champion Italy. But apparently that is not enough to convince Leander Schaerlaeckens of ESPN that he would have been a good choice:
Klinsmann is all about molding a soccer culture into his liking. As Germany’s national coach, he turned Der Mannschaft from a hard-nosed bunch of scrappers to the flamboyant fancy-pants team we see today.
Schaerlaeckens inadvertently makes a good argument against Bradley here. If the goal is to challenge for a World Cup, the United State is best served to change their style of play. This means a focus on their advantages in speed, athleticism and finishing set pieces.
The team simply cannot beat the powers in Europe and South America by playing their game. The key is to create a style all their own, something Klinsmann could have tried to do. As it stands, the U.S. has exactly four players with the capability of scoring on any team in the world – Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore and Charlie Davies, something that has to change.
The team has a potential world-class central midfielder – young Jose Francisco Torres – but will Bradley recognize his unique talents? Can the back line be revamped in four short years to avoid the early, nearly fatal breakdowns that happened at the World Cup, or will the same cast of characters return in a play-it-safe move? It looks like all of U.S. soccer is playing it safe.
Photo via
While you were sleeping, SportsGrid was up all night watching TV and searching the internet for links to help get your day started. Today, U.S. basketball has a tough time at the worlds, Marcus Jordan’s big spending faces more scrutiny, and U.S. soccer coach Bob Bradley will be back for more.
The U.S.A. basketball team overcame an early deficit to (barely) beat Brazil 70-68 and remain unbeaten at the world championships. Kevin Durant dropped 27 on the Brazilians, while Leandro Barbosa just missed tying the game for Brazil at the buzzer. Maybe the u.S. will have less trouble if Danny Granger stops worrying so much about Europeans’ personal hygiene.
Marcus Jordan’s (son of Michael) already-infamous free-spending Vegas trip is now officially under investigation. Lesson here: going into a 21+ club when you’re 20 is probably not a good idea, and if you must do this, it’s best to 1) not tweet about it; and 2) not be related to a famous person.
U.S. soccer coach Bob Bradley signed a four-year extension to keep his current position. If he fulfills the contract, SI’s Grant Wahl points out, Bradley will be the second consecutive coach to lead the U.S. in back-to-back World Cups…something that’s only happened five times previously. Every other time it happened, the nation in question won at least one World Cup during the run, so we’re basically a shoo-in in 2014.
We already wrote about this, but if you haven’t watched Roger Federer’s spectacular shot at the U.S. Open last night, you’re doing yourself a disservice, so watch it now.
Finally, Mike Florio counts down the smartest and dumbest NFL franchises for GQ. Sample: “Now that Kurt Warner has retired, luck left with him and stupidity reigns.”
Check back in with SportsGrid all day to satisfy your sports media-meets-pop-culture sensibilities.
While you were sleeping, SportsGrid was up all night watching TV and searching the internet for links to help get your day started. Today, Tiger falls back to earth, people still hate Jay Mariotti, Lil Wayne gets an outlet for his love of tennis, and more.
Remember that awesome first round Tiger had at the Barclays? He couldn’t follow it up, shooting a two-over 73 in the second round yesterday. He’s four shots back of the lead, so it’s not out of the question that he makes a late run.
Count Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf among the legions of Jay Mariotti-haters, although we believe he’s the first to use the term “pissant” in describing the columnist. SportsByBrooks also points us to an instance of what at first appeared to be a Fanhouse colleague leaping to Mariotti’s defense, but alas, was not.
Lil Wayne is a huge tennis fan, and while he serves out his prison term, Sports Illustrated thought they’d give him a respected mainstream media voice through which to share his opinions on the upcoming U.S. Open. Weezy, genuinely thankful to SI for giving him the chance, picked Rafael Nadal and defending women’s champ Kim Clijsters to win at Flushing Meadows. (H/T Deadspin)
You might be devastated over Stephen Strasburg’s impending Tommy John surgery/yearlong absence, but here’s another young pitching prospect to follow: the Reds minor leaguer Aroldis Chapman, whose fastball was recently clocked at 105 MPH. Sure, he’s a reliever, but 105?! Even if the gun was generous, that’s just crazy.
And here’s some “thankful it wasn’t worse” pitching news: the Brewers’ Yovani Gallardo and clubhouse attendant Alex Sanchez were robbed at gunpoint early Friday. According to Gallardo, neither was seriously hurt.
Check back in with SportsGrid all day to satisfy your sports-meets-pop-culture sensibilities.