Somehow the NY Red Bulls are playing for MLS Cup today.

Here are the highlights of the past Red Bull/MetroStar history, courtesy of the Metrofanatic youtube page:

The Curse of Caricola:


Giovanni Savarese scored a bunch of goals, including this one:


2001
Mathis goal against Dallas


Mathis loved NY


2003
John Wolyneic goal against Columbus


2003
Eddie Gaven comes on as goalkeeper, scores game winner against DC


2005
Youri Djorkaeff goal against New England


R.I.P. MetroStars


2007
Juan Pablo Angel scores a lot of goals


2008
Goalkeeper Danny Cepero scores

Danny Cepero was thrust into the starting role as goalkeeper when the veteran Jon Conway, and defender Jeff Parke, were suspended Thursday by the league for 10 games and fined 10 percent of their annual salaries after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.*

In the 83rd minute, with the Red Bulls already leading by 2-1 on a pair of goals by the incomparable Juan Pablo Ángel, Cepero shooed his teammates up the field as he prepared to take a direct free kick from his own end (he placed the ball on the 25-yard line, which was simple for all to see since the gridiron markings have been down since the start of the N.F.L. season).

Cepero’s long kick bounced high about 20 yards from the Columbus goal, near the top of the penalty area, and sailed over the head of Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.

It was the first time an M.L.S. goalkeeper had scored a goal from any play — a penalty kick, free kick, header or anywhere else on the field. (via NY Times Goal blog)

*Apparently "over the counter" supplements sold at a "national health chain store". (Maybe MLS should rethink Herbalife's sponsorship of Beckham's galaxy?)

Time for the MLS Expansion Team Name generator!

Here's a Times New Viking interview

Here's a Haruki Murakami interview, in which he talks about writing and running

SPIEGEL: Are you a better writer because you run?

Murakami: Definitely. The stronger my muscles got, the clearer my mind became. I am convinced that artists who lead an unhealthy life burn out more quickly. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin were the heroes of my youth -- all of them died young, even though they didn't deserve to. Only geniuses like Mozart or Pushkin deserve an early death. Jimi Hendrix was good, but not so smart because he took drugs. Working artistically is unhealthy; an artist should lead a healthy life to make up for it. Finding a story is a dangerous thing for an author; running helps me to avert that danger.

SPIEGEL: Could you explain that?

Murakami: When a writer develops a story, he is confronted with a poison that is inside him. If you don't have that poison, your story will be boring and uninspired. It's like fugu: The flesh of the pufferfish is extremely tasty, but the roe, the liver, the heart can be lethally toxic. My stories are located in a dark, dangerous part of my consciousness, I feel the poison in my mind, but I can fend off a high dose of it because I have a strong body. When you are young, you are strong; so you can usually conquer the poison even without being in training. But beyond the age of 40 your strength wanes, you can no longer cope with the poison if you lead an unhealthy life.

The Onion AV Club has a primer on the Kinks

The Guardian writes about Philadelphia soccer fans who hate DC and New York, even though they don't yet have a team

Timber Jim has retired, and so has some soccer-in-America history....

Merritt Paulson, the Timbers' owner and president, described Serrill as "an impossible guy to replace." The organization is searching for a new mascot and will solicit fan input to help determine which Timber Jim traditions to retain. Paulson's favorite: sawing off a wood slab from a log after every Timbers goal, then presenting it to the player who scored.

"It will be an odd feeling going out on the field and not having a chance to see him cutting logs for us," Timbers captain Andrew Gregor said. "It was an awesome experience to have Jim hand you a log after the game."

Italian soccer team Inter Milan are "astounded" that Muslims are offended by their "special" new uniforms featuring a giant red cross. Well, it probably would have been better to have debuted these uniforms against someone other than a Turkish team...

The English soccer team's performance against Croatia turned out to be fairly dismal, but apparently Croatians have a good sense of humor, as evidenced by reaction to a pregame mess-up of their national anthem.

Tony Henry, the opera singer tasked with singing the national anthems before England’s game with Croatia earlier this week, has become an unlikely hero of the Croatian game after appearing to make a somewhat risque slip of the tongue while belting out the nation’s tune.

The singer, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, should have sung “Mila kuda si planina”, which translates roughly as “You know my dear how we love your mountains”. Instead, he appears to have sung “Mila kura si planina”, which, although moderately nonsensical, can be interpreted as “My dear, my penis is a mountain”.

Here's an article.

Drew Carey's going to bring innovation to American soccer?! He's the part owner of a forthcoming Seattle MLS team:

Carey wanted to allow fans to buy memberships that would allow them to, among other things, vote on the fate of the team's general manager.

"If you don't like the job he's doing, if he doesn't have a winning team, if you don't like the product, if you don't think the hot dogs taste good when you go to the stadium, you can just vote him out," Carey said, with co-owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer grinning in the background.

"We're not afraid to let the fans have the power," Carey added.

This is actually how some big European clubs run things. Apparently the Seattle team will also have a marching band.


The Hives have a free mp3 at Amazon. A few clicks to get to, but dumb commercial fun.

New Radar Brothers album in January.

Marvel Comics is doing a digital subscription thing.

a special soccer goal from the past, via my dad

Fifa started cracking down on players taking off their shirts as a goal scoring celebration, but now a confusing-to-me but funny trend...taking off the shoe...

Just saw this in the USL Division 1 Final by a Seattle Sounders player. Commentators blamed influence of English women's team player Kelly Smith (youtube link above)

Here's a bunch-of-tabs-closing information heavy post.

So apparently there will be a Justice League movie. Not in the Christian Bale/Chris Nolan Batman world, though. And apparently Jessica Biel will not be Wonder Woman. So many people can now spend time speculating who will be in the movie.

It seems like a bad idea to rush the script for a movie like that, but of course that appears to be what the movie people are doing.

I really liked the animated cartoon version; hopefully if this happens it will be good.

There's a bit more information coming about Jonathan Lethem's rebooting of Omega the Unknown.

“Omega sort of represents an X-ray of the existential condition of so many other costumed heroes, their dilemma at being the screen for the projection of fantasies of rescue, transcendence, and idealism,” said Lethem. “In his hesitation he's a sort of Hamlet figure. And the radically contradictory and unfinished nature of his original story left him as a kind of icon of confusion, a cloud of dangling signifiers. This was something I thought I could take advantage of.”

Bottle Rocket is going to be rereleased in a Criterion Collection version.

U.S. women's soccer controversy continues. Inept coaching continues to define the mostly inept U.S. Soccer Foundation.

The new wordpress version of Elephant 6 site Optical Atlas has a revamped gallery coming.

Here's an excerpt from Carl Wilson's book about Celine Dion.

Apparently there is a new Stephen Malkmus album coming next year. A look at the latest Matador News also has a little information on the second Cat Power covers album, Mission of Burma reissues and a new Shearwater album next year, among other stuff.

Here's an article about the new Junot Diaz book, where Diaz is gouped in with Lethem, Eggers and Chabon. I guess I'll put in my library requests. Side note: Brooklyn Public Library fills holds a lot quicker than NYPL does. I got a copy of Then We Came to the End in less than a week from BPL and was still behind a hundred people in NYPL's queue after two months.

Shep Messing 30 years ago.

Get Him Eat Him did a Daytrotter session with an Elvis Costello cover

The Belle and Sebastian guy is doing some kind of movie musical and is soliciting vocals from internetters. There are a couple instrumental tracks for download, which are kind of pleasant anyway.

Craig Thompson has a blog:
Doot Doot Garden Blog
where I found out that people have tattoos of Blankets scenes etc. Which is sort of "of course" in 2007, but still a bit odd to me.

Paul Auster talks a bit about his new film here.

Watch an edited NASL (that's North American Soccer League) game here, complete with commercial interruptions...Shep Messing likes smokeless tobacco while he's keeping goal. Anything with Shep Messing is funny...

That field is pretty disgusting, with the colored penalty areas and soccer ball center circle...

Yesterday's soccer...David Beckham got injured and Chris Klein scored on a bicycle kick.
Glad we saw that great game against Beckham a few weeks ago. Sounds like he's done for this season.

The NY Times visits the new Music Hall of Williamsburg...indie rock isn't pretending to not be upper middle class anymore, I guess.

So Saturday night we ended up in New Jersey's swamp, seeing the exMetroStars now Red Bulls play against Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

I got everything I hoped for (almost)...no joke, I mentioned in the car on the way there that I'd like 2 goals from Angel, 2 from Jozy and 1 from Mathis. And it happened...

(I didn't get Landon Donovan laid out by Dema Kovelenko, but I wasn't really expecting any of it...I thought the Curse would strike for sure)

Anyway, 5 to 4.
Photo from Paul Murphy Flickr

Metrofanatic with a good match report.
Ives Galarcep has a writeup in which he insists that the big crowd was mostly soccer fans (as opposed to Beckham watchers) who are not necessarily Red Bull fans. Fair enough.



Photo from Makflickr Flickr
Photo from Paul Murphy Flickr

Highlights:

a surprising amount of soccer here on the past couple days. perhaps because Beckham actually played (and scored, and assisted) last night. we're going Saturday.
came across this link...
MLS teams embrace the indie rock....
via
stereogum: Free Futbol Jamz for a tracklist

I think this is actually the second time that MLS got anthems made for teams. I seem to remember something about DC United and Spank Rock, but maybe this is the first time every team gets an "anthem."

Things will really get interesting when there are some new expansion teams.

Paul Gardner hates goalkeepers

Once upon a time, back in the 1860s, there were no goalkeepers in soccer. This special position crept quietly into the rules in the 1870s and has been flourishing ever since.

There is a saying in soccer that "goalkeepers are crazy" Â-- which sounds about right, for the goalkeeper has turned into the sport's cuckoo, taking over the nest and assuming an importance that goes far beyond anything that the early rule-makers could possibly have imagined.

The cuckoo image seems to me exactly appropriate, for I have no doubt that as the importance of goalkeepers has grown, the entertainment value of soccer has been pushed aside.

The goalkeeper stands today as the supreme symbol of anti-soccer, the goal-killer, the shutout specialist with little involvement in what happens at the other end of the field, where his teammates are trying to score against his like-thinking opposite number.

Got back yesterday after about a week away. A brief recap:

Drove down to Washington DC last Thursday. Saw DC United defeat Colorado Rapids 4 to 1 at RFK. It was 2 to 1 and then there was a lightning delay, after which DC scored their other 2 goals.

On Friday went on a long tour of the Library of Congress. Advertised as a 1 hour tour, it lasted about 2 hours. It wasn't longer because we saw more--it was longer because the guide had more to say. I enjoyed it, but I think that even the "general public" tours given by LOC staff could be a bit more specialized. Perhaps an architecture tour, perhaps a "quick tour for families/kids" could be offered rather than the one-size-fits all generic tour.

Friday night, Saturday and Sunday were taken up by wedding weekend festivities. It seems not so unusual for wedding events to now takeover three days. Just noting the trend.

After the Sunday post-wedding brunch in Maryland, we drove to the Jersey Shore beach. I had never been before. Interesting enough experience. Monday I read most of Petropolis (quite good) on the sand, burning the tops of my feet unintentionally (not good). This despite a lot of sun preparedness on my part, but I always seem to forget something. Played a round of mini-golf (always enjoyable).

Tuesday we drove higher up in New Jersey. Saw Sicko Tuesday night. Pretty good; I think M. Moore actually dialed it back a bit this time. He is still as appealingly cheap as ever with his gimmickry, but maybe it will make some people think, if they go see it.

[Sicko official site]
[Metacritic Sicko]

a bunch of stuff

soccer news:

Rapidman might live on after all.

These articles mention Colorado Rapids' "partnership" with Arsenal. The name Rapids hasn't disappeared yet. Considering the team announced new colors and has put pictures of new uniforms on their website, it would seem pretty silly to rename the team now. Of course, the URL arsenalcolorado.com points to what is now the Rapids site...so who knows.

books:

Here's the New York Review of Books on the last H. Murakami story collection. (via BCR) Amazon is taking preorders for his new novel (via largehearted)

J. Patrick Lewis reviews Jack Prelutsky in the NY Times

The SU paper covers George Saunders, making note of his genius status.

Michael Chabon answers readers' questions in the NY Times magazine

crimeshow:

How Law and Order rips off the headlines

music:

Here's an article on Yo La Tengo; I wish they would come play a local show. There was just a Jersey City show last fall...

R.I.P. Rapidman

Apparently the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer will be rebranded. Some kind of combination of West Ham colors and Arsenal related name is rumored.



The bad news is that Rapidman will probably no longer exist.

So much for Major League Soccer tradition.

Tampa Bay Mutiny out of existence
Miami Fusion out of existence
San Jose Clash became San Jose Earthquakes became Houston 1836 became Houston Dynamo
Kansas City Wiz became Kansas City Wizards
MetroStars became Red Bull New York
Dallas Burn became FC Dallas

and everyone's changed their colors a ton of times.

Anyway, it's all kind of pitiful comedy; still, I'll keep my eye on it this spring and summer.

Sunday discussion topics

the Boston globe goes through 8 songwriters, including Bill Callahan, Joanna Newsom, John Darnielle, Mark Mulcahy, David Berman and others.

here is an interview with Robyn Hitchcock

In the news, a collaboration cd including Lambchop is out in October

The Observer has an article about M.I.A.

Article about Tenement Halls/Rock*A*Teens guy

10 Unlikely love songs according to Joe Pernice

A pretty big article about Antony in the New York Times magazine

NY Times also talks to Philip Roth

village voice reviews Spinto Band's Nice And Nicely Done which I quite like right now.

The U.S. soccer team beat Mexico yesterday to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Kasey Keller played well in goal. A now defunct band, Barcelona, wrote a neat song about KK 's 1998 heroics vs. Brazil. Here's the mp3: Barcelona-Kasey_Keller.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)