Four years and already counting..

I can’t believe it’s already over. Spain became the 2010 World Cup champions yesterday by beating the Netherlands 1-0 on a goal in the 116th minute by world-class midfielder Andres Iniesta. As it was ending and I watched the closing celebrations, I couldn’t help but be a little sad. Not because I wanted the Netherlands to win, but because I know one of the best months in all of sports had come to and end.

In my opinion, this tournament brought us more than we could have bargained for. We saw the United States unite a country by the winning their group in thrilling fashion and attracting more attention to soccer in the states than ever before. We saw the defending champion Italians fail to advance from the group stages and the sheer embarrassment the French squad brought to their country. We had extremely controversial refereeing and spectacular last-minute finishes. Blood, sweat, tears, passion, and sheer desire all left on the pitch. Vuvuzelas that sounded like a pack of 6 trillion bee’s buzzing around your TV. Instant replay became the center of debate and surely some sort of review process is going to be implemented for the 2014 tournament in Brazil. Yes the 2010 South Africa World Cup definitely had its own flavor, whether you liked it or not.

Some critics will say the level of play in this tournament might have been sub par. A lot of teams didn’t live up to expectations and the hype was overshadowed by bad refereeing and controversial calls. Some critics don’t care enough to even comment on the tournament, and couldn’t care less about it all together. However, the beauty of this tournament is whether you are a soccer fanatic/hooligan or someone who doesn’t know an ounce about the sport, for one month you are drawn to it one way or another. Even if to say how boring you think soccer is and complain about the pathetic diving and fake injuries you see, you can’t help but watch. For one month, all politics are pushed aside and you root for your home country with passion and excitement. For the majority of Americans who don’t know a single thing about soccer or even care for that matter, you found yourself sitting around your TV’s, or in a local pub screaming for the United States to win. Lots of fans were running to the closest store to buy some sort of USA apparel to represent our country and root them on. You had hopes they would keep the dream alive and took this opportunity to be patriotic and support your country, the land you love. The United States vs Ghana match was the single most watched soccer game ever in the United States. The country cared, and everyone was involved. It was a time to rally behind something special in a country that’s seen its better days. It was a time when race, ethnicity and politics were thrown out the window. You found yourself high fiving and hugging complete strangers wherever you were when Landon Donovan scored that miraculous goal verse Algeria. That’s the beautiful thing about the game of soccer or as the Europeans call it, Futbol. There is more passion behind this sport than any other. It unites people, it’s inspiring, it brings people together. Sure there might be some aspects to the sport you don’t like, but every sport has that. Soccer is truly the only global sport, and for one month every four years it takes center stage. In my book, it doesn’t get any better. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m already counting down the days till 2014 in Brazil.

Joke, debacle, ridiculous, embarrassment, all those words came to mind as I watched "the decision" air on ESPN thursday night. In all my 20+ years of watching sports I have never seen something so blown out of proportion and egotistical in my entire life. Not only did Lebron James drag us along with his free agency circus act for the past two years, this past month has been an absolute nightmare for sports fans everywhere and tonight was just the cherry on top. I truly felt embarrassed for Lebron James. Kids sitting around awaiting his decision, commercial interruptions of him promoting vitamin water, it looked like a bad version of who wants to be a millionaire, although this show should of been called, who wants to be an selfless ego-maniac. Get over yourself Lebron, you are the biggest attention whore drama queen I have seen in sports in a long time. You make Terrell Owens look shy. All the proceeds go to the boys and girls club, please. If that's not the biggest cover up to try and take attention off sheer ego and self promotion, I don't know what is. Sorry Lebron, you may have some people fooled, but I'm not one of them.

I used to have respect for you, I didn't like you after what you did to the pistons in 2007, but I respected your abilities and what you meant to the future of the NBA. Whenever you came up in conversations I would always correct anyone who was speaking like an irrational Detroit Pistons fan and tell them how great you are for the NBA and the excitement you bring to the game. But now you are just fake to me, a sell-out, a self-riotous egomaniac. So everyone please, drink that hatorade like your shotgunning a beer and speak up as loud as you can, because its all completely justified.

In one fail swoop Thursday night Lebron James went from the so called "King" to Dwayne Wade's royal servant. You want to be known as a great in this league, you work for it. When the Lakers were in the dumps after Shaq left, did Kobe leave? When the Celtics didn't make the playoffs, did Paul Pierce bolt town? When MJ couldn't get past the Pistons all those years, did he leave Chicago? No, they all stayed and built lasting legacy's and gave the fans what they deserved. What they wanted, what they cheered for and spent their hard earned money on, seeing their star host a championship. Instead Lebron you sold-out, you gave up, you took the easy road. You abandoned a town that gave you everything to join someone elses team. You left join two other gold medal wining superstars because you didn't want to work hard enough and long enough to win it for the city of Cleveland . You left a town that held its breath on your every word and have fans that would give up their first born to keep you in a Cleveland Cavalier jersey. Your parting gifts, a huge kick straight to the cajones. You pretty much should of just sat in that chair and said, hello Cleveland, not only am I leaving the Cavalier organization, but I'm going to have my very own self promoting hour long show telling the whole world I'm leaving you behind and never looking back. All while providing the city with another agonizing reminder of how long its been since you have won a championship and how far you are from realizing that dream.

So congratulations Lebron. Not only have you become the biggest attention starved drama queen athlete in all of sports, you are now the most hated person in the history of Cleveland sports. Because of you, Art Modell has officially been forgiven, and that's saying something.

The Human Victory Cigar

I mean, REALLY?! Rumor has it that the Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed in principle with Darko "the human victory cigar" Milicic on a 4 year/$20mill contract!This deal for Milicic is quite odd considering that in February he wasn't even playing in the league and said he was giving up on the NBA and returning to Europe. Career averages for Darko, 5 pts and 4 rbs per game. SOLID!!

Furthermore, this isn't the only splash the Wolves have made in the past 24 hours. Earlier today they agreed to another 4 year, $13 million deal with their 2008 second round-pick, Nikola Pekovic. With these two moves, the T-Wolves just spend $33 million to shore up their middle, yeah and BP shored up the oil spill on the golf coast

If these two clowns, especially Darko are worth $20 million and $13 million respectively, then I'm worth at least $500k/year to carry towels and clean lockers. Not to mention these deals cut severely into the Wolves cap room this summer. Previously they were $13 million under the cap but now have a little under $5million left to use on remaining FA's. All the while they are trying to move Al Jefferson, a 25 year old potential all star with career averages of 20pts and 10rbs. So, replace a career 20/10 guy with a career 5/4 guy and severly eat into your cap space during arguably the biggest free agent summer of all time, yeah that makes a ton of sense. I tell you what, those must be some seriously physcadelic drugs they have in Minnesota.

Wake up Selig..

Enough already! As I hop on the Detroit Sports Nation website for my daily 25 all-star votes for Miguel “Miggy” Cabrera, I can’t help but be reminded of how stupid this process is. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind taking 10 minutes out of my day to vote the maximum number of times to support my favorite Detroit sports figures, but this process must be changed, and soon. What I mean is, enough with the fans voting for the All-Stars in sports Let the coaches and experts do it! Better yet, let the statistics speak for themselves.

Cabrera is a legitimate threat to win both the triple crown and AL MVP. Yet, he is third in all-star voting amongst 1st basemen in the American League, behind Justin Morneau and Mark Teixeira. Both popular names among the average fan, but not having nearly the season statistically Miggy is having. Morneau is obviously a major piece to the puzzle in Minnesota, and having a very strong season BA wise. He is currently batting .350, which is second in all of the majors. But he isn’t even in the top ten in the AL in RBI’s, and is tied for 8th with 4 other players in HR’s. Meanwhile, Teixeira isn’t even in the top ten in HR’s or RBI’s, and currently sits 77th in batting average with an electrifying .229 average. Thats not in both leagues, that’s just in the American League. Something tells me if he went down due to injury in New York, they would be just fine.

Now, on to my boy Cabrera. The guy is an absolute beast. He is undoubtably the most important player on the Tigers roster, and is having an absolutely sizzing first half of the season. He currently sits tied for 1st in HR’s (20), alone in first for RBI’s (66) and fifth in BA (.335). This is in all of baseball folks, not just the AL. So why is he is trailing to guys in All-Star voting who are having far less superior seasons than he is? Because the system is flawed, plain and simple. All-Star voting has essentially come down to a popularity contest, which is cool, if we’re in 7th grade.

I understand the thought of letting the fans have their say and vote for who they want to watch in the All-Star game, but when the best players aren’t selected, is it truly an All-Star game? Not to mention, the winning league of the game gets home field advantage in the World Series! So let me get this straight, you have fans deciding who plays for home field in the World Series? Does that not sound completely ridiculous to anybody else but me? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Not only do the best players not get awarded for having an amazing first half of the season, one league gets the short end of the stick on something that is absolutely crucial in all playoff sports, home field advantage.

Oddly enough, given Bud Selig’s atrocious handling of steroids and PED’s over the past decade in MLB, this really doesn’t surprise me one bit. The truly unfortuante thing is, we probably won’t see it change anytime soon.

Chills Compounding Chills

If this doesn't get you hyped, you're not American. Here is a little prep for tomorrows game..

The Cardiac Kids

Someone please get me a respirator! Its been hours since Landon Donovan rescued the United States world cup hopes and dreams in the most dramatic of fashions and I still can't calm down. Maybe its because of my previously mentioned soccer background or the amount of adversity that has been thrown at these young men who have overcome everything without missing a beat and handled it all with class and respect.

For a while there it just seemed like nothing could go right for the boys in South Africa and aside from a gift wrapped equalizer vs England, nothing was. A referee robbed them of a win vs Slovenia and then disallowed another goal today. They created endless opportunities to put the ball in the back of the old onion bank, only to seem them denied by goal posts and miscues. It just didn't seem like it was in the cards for the yanks who were a mere 3 1/2 minutes from reestablishing all the doubts surrounding American soccer. But then, in one of the most magnificently orchestrated counter attacks you will see, it all changed.

Landon Donovan provided a dramatic stoppage time winner that sent the United States into the knockout stages of the world cup and set off delirious celebrations at the end of a pulsating 1-0 win over Algeria. Donovan's reputation as the pin-up boy of US soccer was reinforced as he calmly slotted home the goal in the 91st minute after setting up the attacking movement that culminated in the winner. In one split second the Americans went from the brink of elimination to winning group C and a date with Ghana this Saturday, a very winnable match.

The ball fell perfectly to Donovan at the top of the 6 yard line, who said "the ball fell to me, time kind of stopped...You can't miss from there." I tell you what Landon, time kind of stopped for everyone watching as well. I kept thinking to myself as time was winding down, this is just so unfair after all the missed opportunities and goals taken from them, that they deserved better than this and the soccer gods delivered.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't help get a little emotional as I watched the young men celebrate in Jubilation, especially for Landon Donovan who was teary eyed after the game. Nobody has worked harder than Landon over the past 4 year since the pitiful showing in 2006 and nobody carries more pressure on his shoulders for US soccer than him. It was all too perfect that he was the one who got the equalizer and a storybook way to advance to the next round. Make no mistake, this team has heard all the critics doubt them, battled injuries to key role players (Davies and Onyewu) and wanted to advance BADLY. Unlike the Algeria team who seemed content with a draw, when a win might of got them through to the next round. The Americans got what they deserved and in a dramatic fashion, only fitting for this team. Now what lies ahead for them come Saturday I'm not too sure, but at this point I will take Landon's word for it, "we're not done yet, we believe, man. We're alive, baby." You sure are Landon and so is everyone else who is just along for the ride.

Coach's Son

Would you believe when I was two years old my father had me kicking a tennis ball, left foot, right off the brick step on our fire place? Well its true, I was brought into soccer at an extremely young age and took a liking to it immediately. My dad was the coach of my older brother's team and eventually coached the team I played on. Both teams saw a great deal of success at the highest levels of youth soccer and I do mean the highest levels. For example, when I was 14 my club team won the state championship 9-0, we finished third in the region and second at the Indoor Nationals. We only lost 3 games in a 4 year span playing against the best competition in the country. We trained hard, were focused, disciplined, full of skill and most important we had a blast doing it. Now not only was I playing or practicing 4-5 times a week, I was also traveling to watch all my brothers games as well, sometimes even his practices. Soccer was my life, I absorbed every last ounce of the sport and loved every minute of it. It was undoubtedly the best time of my life and memories I will carry on forever and hope to someday experience with my children.

Being a coaches son is always a tough position for both the Coach and the player. I can't really speak from the coaches point of view but I do know when playing at the levels we did, even though it was still a very young age you have to keep the best interests of the team in mind. Parents were shelling out big money for uniforms, shoes, travel, etc. and they wanna win. They aren't putting all this effort in to see their kids get waxed every game. At that level a coach has a has a lot of responsible many different cards to shuffle, including being a father to his son. From a players perspective, I truly enjoyed playing for my father and think it helped develop a very unique and strong father/son relationship. For several years I played center-mid and was the captain of the team and I think my play was on par with that honor. I remember the sheer joy of success and utter devastation of defeat. Not only did I want to win everything at all costs for myself and my teammates, who at the time were my best friends, but also for my father who I never wanted to let down or disappoint in any aspect of life, especially on the soccer field.

While I was at work today and listening to a extremely critical match between the United States and Slovenia on the radio, all these fond memories and feelings surfaced for one reason, Michael Bradley. Michael is 22 yrs old and currently is the starting defensive/holding midfielder for the USMNT. He plays his club ball in the German Bundesliga for Borussia Monchengladbach and is definitely a player on the rise on the international stage. Michael too knows what its like to be a Coach's son, as his father Bob is the head coach of the USMNT. Out of no coincidence, I have always thought very highly of Michael's game and those of you who know me or watch the games with me, always hear me say how underrated he is and important to our squad. He plays extremely hard, is deliberate with the ball, understands the game and shows the type of passion on the pitch that I love to see in a futbol player. He has become my favorite player and many analysts will tell when he is not on the pitch, they are a different team both offensively and defensively.

Lost in all the talk about the absolutely atrocious refereeing and the go ahead goal that was stolen from them like Armando Galarraga's perfect game, is the biggest goal of the tournament for the United States, Michael Bradley's equalizer. This goal kept the Americans hopes and dreams alive of advancing out of the group stages. The US came into this world cup with higher expectations than ever before and had they lost to Slovenia, those expectations would of been completely shattered. Nothing against Landon Donovan's first goal which was a rocket of a strike, this goal meant everything to a Nation that felt their soccer dreams slowly slipping away in the last ten minutes of this contest. Michael Bradley made a deep run from his holding position, pushing forward at just right time running onto a bouncing ball and finishing with a clinical strike over the goalies head. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I can't stop watching the video replay of his goal. It gives me chill's every time I watch it. Maybe its because when I was a youngster that's the type of goal I dreamed of scoring or because a team I have been following since the beginning of WC qualifying just saved their entire tournament. The sheer jubilation written all across Michael's face and celebration with his teammates says it all. As for me, I was definitely cheering and extremely pumped up, but I couldn't help to think as they showed the coach of how proud he had to be of his son at that very moment. Or the feelings that must be running through son Michael's mind not only for himself, his teammates, but also for his father, the coach of this team. Boy would I like to be a fly on the wall for the conversation they are going to have after the game. Good for you kid, your just saved a nations soccer hopes and gave your dad the best fathers day gift imaginable, you earned it.