The Right Decision

US Soccer fired Greg Ryan today. It was the right decision.

Notwithstanding his gaudy 45-1-9 record, the performance of the USWNT in the 2007 World Cup was lackluster during the opening rounds and his decision to bench Hope Solo in favor of a rusty and underplayed Brianna Scurry will go down in soccer history as one of the biggest blunders ever. I don't know that much soccer history, but I can't imagine mistakes of this magnitude occurring that often. (I've already opined on this issue here (go to point 4); so no need to beat a dead horse.)

The article at the US Soccer site says that U.S. Soccer president Suni Gulati, U.S. Soccer Secretary General Dan Flynn and Hall of Fame Women’s National Team forward Mia Hamm will head the search for a new coach.

who knows what?

So as I have said before, the pressure is too much. When a team wins 3 - nil, one would think that there wouldnt be criticism or hating on such a performance. But then again whenever England wins there is some hating. They beat Jamaica on the run up to the WC 2006 and people were still talking about a 6 goal difference not being good enough.

Sure, there is reason to have concerns. McClaren is ok, and they havent had a great full 90 but we will see how it turns out come this week against Russia. 3 nil over Estonia means that with a win in Russia they will clinch a spot in Euro.

ok i realized I am all over the place... writing with ADD in many ways

1 - The goals Estonia gave up are the goals you have to capitalize on. SWP's first goal was soft and thru Poom's leg but then again you take it. Rooney coming back and getting the deflection for his first goal in a long time serves him well before the Russia game. Then the OG was pretty impressive for an 18 yard header.

2 - Everyone talks about playing mistake free. This is something Estonia obviously didnt do. When you make mistakes you hope they dont capitalize. England did that. They should be happy with that too. Something none of the commentators mentioned. It seems like every commentator has something to say and some reason that the game was another piece of evidence that English football is going down the tubes.

3 - England should be happy that the didnt take Big Phil as their coach as we have now seen how much crap he is in terms of sportsmanship but then again McClaren might not be the best choice. He has taken some chances and he has won but then again when has he done something people have said is right.

4 - v Russia, it should be interesting to see how Paul Robinson answers to the different turf. Its the stuff we here in the states are used to with the black rubber pellets. I am not happy that this is being used for an international match but oh well it is. He has said he does not want any excuses yet if he gets pulled from the number 1 spot he might start saying some excuses. His play hasnt been up to par and I think he would agree.

Now on to the States.

1 - Its an interesting roster that will face the Swiss come wednesday and I am looking for the states to get out of this slump with international games. Bradley will of course say that this is a learning experience, which Im sure it is. But its time we go out there, especially in Europe (like we should have done in South America), and get some wins and prove people need to be afraid of us.

2 - Hope is back with the team and of course is sitting on the bench. At this point I think Ryan is just taking her and sitting her because she is a contract player and is getting paid anyways and doesnt want to seem like he is wasting money. Abby added to her goal total which is now 85. A machine. Thats all I can say she is. Here are the match facts.

thats all for now folks

That.FIX

As you all know I have a radio show for georgetown radio. the link to the URL to listen to it can be found here. It is on Tuesdays now from 8 to 10 eastern time..

What you might not know is that I am the official HIP HOP director for WGTB (Georgetown Radio) and as such my first review was for Talib Kweli's Ear Drum which can be found here!

enjoy

catchin up with the ref

First off I have to say there are some huge kudos to go to the AR for his previous post and its unlimited amount of links.

I havent gone on a rant about refereeing and the state of the youth game in a while so I decided now was the best time out of any. Over the past few weeks I have had some ups and downs. Downs include boring games and some not so great partners. This brings me to my "Hope Solo" moment. I know you never criticize a teammate and that is what some might say I am about to do with fellow referees, but some of this stuff is ridiculous.

Example. I am proud that I am a Grade 7 referee. I means I have taken an interest in improving. Going through the extra hours and maintaining a just above satisfactory level in my fitness. All you need is one assessment every year. The AR has seen the assessments I have gotten and everything has come back with very positive remarks. Just two weeks ago I wanted an Upgrade to 6 assessment - means I would be a State Referee, a lot more rides with that on the badge. My game was canceled but the one after it held true to form and that center referee asked for his upgrade to 7 assessment. Lets just say he did a less than stellar job but still passed the assessment. While he didnt do anything to affect the outcome of the game, he didnt exactly handle the game all that well. I felt like it kind of demeaned the meaning of the badge and the steps I took to get there. Maybe thats how Hope felt, all that she did to get there demeaned because Bri had two previous games against Brasil?

I also had a game with 7 yellow cards and one red card. 4 were for dissent. both Gks got yellows because they rushed out at my ARs. Jens Lehmann has had a wonderful affect on our youth. My 5th red of the 2007 year was for Serious Foul Play, the kid kicked another kid in the face trying to go for the ball, which was about 5 feet up in the air. I asked him if he was seriously trying to argue with me over a red card for kicking a kid in the face. But hey, at least that game was interesting.
On to some good news. I have been "nominated to serve in the State Cup Finals delegation." Yes I used quotes because it was just that formal. It will be a three day weekend extravaganza.

October 27th - Dinner, Training, "Social Event"
October 28th - Training Session, Games, Dinner, Review of Assessments
October 29th - Games

As the AR will point out, a lot was riding with being nominated to State Cup, because I was at a point of being fed up with the politics, but we will see how this pans out.

Believe it or not I am the most excited for the assessments. I know I just wrote stuff against the assessment above, but when I can get good quality feedback I am all for it. That is why I am upset with how the USA Cup panned out for me, cause i didnt get the feedback that I really wanted when I was up there.

More to come - this upcoming Sunday I am working some adult men's league games. There will be plenty to talk about I promise

WWC - Thoughts

Some thoughts about the just-completed WWC:

1. The best team won. Germany certainly wasn't the flashiest team or the most interesting to watch. But they sure were the best team, and Birgit Prinz knows what to do the the ball near the net. The goal keeping was more than up to the task: yes, they didn't concede a goal, but I thought this less because of Nadine Angerer's goal keeping than a defense that didn't give up too many scoring opportunities. Angerer's luck held on Marta's PK: one of the weakest attempts seen this side of the men's game, though she earned her money a couple of minutes later, when she knocked aside a strong effort that would have tied the game at 1.

2. Brazil was fun to watch. But I couldn't support them after the display of poor sportsmanship in the US game. Specifically, after Cristiane tripped over Shannon Boxx and fell, and the Swiss referee, Nicole Petignat, ran over to the two players, Cristiane immediately looked over the ref and held up two fingers in the air, telling the referree both to card Boxx and to show the red card, and then applauded when Petignat pulled out the card. There's no way Cristiane couldn't have known that she tripped Boxx. That is, she ran over the back heal of Boxx's foot. Was this the worst call ever in a WC, male or female? I have no idea. Is it up there? Absolutely. Where was the AR or fourth official? Brazil was entertaining, but this game left a bad taste. (By the way, Petignat was the ref in the notorious US-Nigeria WWC game from 1999, when the Nigerians spent the first 60+ minutes hacking away at Mia Hamm without anyone getting tossed. US Soccer used the video from that game in its training program, highlighting what not to do and how not to referee, and when it's important to card players for egregious misconduct.)

3. Even at full strength, the US wouldn't have won this game. I think they lost it before it started with the mind-blowing decision of Coach Ryan to substitute Brianna Scurry for Hope Solo. All Solo had done was shut every one out in all of the games when the US played at full strength. For 10 minutes in the N Korea game, the US played down as Abby Wambach was off getting stitches. NK scored twice in those 10 minutes and no one scored after. Solo seemed a bit nervous to start, then played up to her potential. Why the switch to a keeper with, what, 6 games played all year. Nothing about the decision made sense.

4. Coach Ryan should be fired. As for Solo, she has some apologizing to do -- not to Ryan, but the team. And while maybe truth is a defense to a libel claim and maybe she would have stopped some of the balls that got by Scurry (watching the replay, I think she's right), calling out a teammate is not a particularly gracious way of demonstrating team loyalty. Apparently it was a team decision that kept Solo off the bench for the 3rd place game and Kristine Lilly may have been sending a message when she put the captain's arm band on Scurry when she was subbed out late in that Norway game. So Solo has some work ahead of her.

5. Coach Ryan should be fired. Not just because of the Scurry-Solo debacle, but also because of the US team's poor play during most of the tournament. Aside from one half of the England game and the Norway game (from what I've read: no way was I getting up for a 3d place game at 5 am on a Sunday), the US didn't show very well. The team was badly outplayed in the NK game and was fortunate to escape with a tie. I don't think one can derive much from the Nigeria game, which was played during a typhoon. As for the game against Sweden - I think that the Swedes were a bit over-rated coming in, and they showed less for a high FIFA ranking than the Yanks. We need better mid-field play, so it's time to begin urging the UNWNT to take a better and longer look at available midfielders, beginning with Lori Lindsey.

6. Will anyone be able to stop Marta? She was the best player in the tournament, bar none, and is likely to get better. She's 21 and Cristiane is 22. If Brazil supports this team, they should be the favorites at the Olympics next year and in the 2011 WWC.