I don't have the time or content for two full posts, so here are two quick rants in one post that have been driving me crazy.
America Is Not Europe (Thank God)
Gas prices are rising (again), so it's time for the inevitable comparisons between America and Europe. Europe's gas prices are much higher. Europe has great mass transit. Shut Up! Guess what? If our entire country was the size of Oregon - as is the whole of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales) we could probably coordinate this shit a lot better. The entire continent of Europe is only about the size of our midwest. Our country is much, much larger - the third largest in the world, actually. You know what the largest country in Europe is? France, ranked number 41, and 15 times smaller than the US. If trains didn't stick in the early 20th century, they won't now. We're too big, and we're too spread out. The European model will not work here so just give it a rest and let me buy by $4/gallon gasoline in peace.
Soccer Evaluations
When I was at McNick, there was a kid that played for Anderson HS named Craig Yaks. He was some sort of big shot in ODP and always was talked about. Thing is, whenever we played Anderson, there were about four other players (Rosser, Zig, Ash, et al) that I thought were better and I was more worried about facing than Yaks. Yaks never impressed me, but he was supposedly the tits in Cincy soccer. We always talked about how the ODP stuff was all political, just who you knew. That goes all the way to the top in US Soccer. After the last two friendlies people have come away praising Michael Bradley, who did nothing for me aside from a cracker that was saved near the end of the Paraguay game. He doesn't play for his club team, and it shows. His main contribution seems to be turning the ball over then immediately fouling someone. And somehow Bornstein - seriously, could not start for my club team - is still on this team. Conveniently, all US soccer media are former players and they refuse to criticize the system. So either I am much, much worse at understanding soccer that I've presumed all these years or US Soccer is fucked. Judging by our recent results, it looks like the latter.
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2 comments:
Point 1: Thank God for Kasich. Ohio's new governor has mercifully cut funding for a Cincinnati streetcar system. What is it with streetcars trains and such? We need to focus all resources on electric cars like Tesla and Chevy Volt. They are the future. Not hybrids - ELECTRIC!
Point 2: I think people are starting to realize that there are some serious problems with US Soccer. Unfortunately, when a young phenom (Agudelo) comes along, it makes the system look good. I think the solution is to use foreigners in top positions like coaching and talent evaluating. At least they will pick the best players.
By the way, I love Ian's blog rants. They are pretty close to mine.
It's funny how blogs in general can be an outlet for such disgust. Back in the day, you'd talk about this stuff with your friends at school or at a bar after work. Now the internet is our default tool for expressing anger.
I think this is a sign that we have no friends and spend all our time being serious at work or playing with our kids at home. I'll take it though.
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