THE BLOG

The ROAD Route To RSA

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 10:34:40 -0400

Do you have any idea what 31 hours of hell feel like? Well, I am in the process of finding out. I’m coming at you from roughly 27,000 feet above the finest cornfields on God’s green maize earth right now. My journey to RSA is officially underway and in just under 29 short hours I should be touching down in Jo’burg! The last week has been such a blur - totally reminiscent of my personal run-up to the 2006 World Cup. My sister got married in 2006 and the weeks leading up to my departure for Germany via Amsterdam were filled with partying with family. Absolutely insane partying.

Fast forward 4 years and it’s basically the same thing. The Send-Off match in Philly provided the perfect excuse for the Familia 419 to meet up in Washington DC. As always when we reunite, things got a little crazy. Non-footy features of the trip to Philadelphia included an amazing destruction of a Japanese restaurant by a quick battering of a few rounds of Sake bombs. Tom Cruise in Magnolia had nothing on us. We ran into Matt Damon . . . intense. We ran into US Soccer groupie chicks ... intense. We I inspired thousands upon millions of children of Philadelphia by scaling the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum a la my twin brother (according to some Venezuelan chick in Barquisimeto anyway - she seriously thought I was lying when I denied such status and insisted that I just wanted to remain incognito). Oh yeah, that happened at 6 AM.

Anyway, from Phily, we returned to DC where the shenanigans persisted. Some people slept in front of Vespas, some slept in flower beds, but all had a tremendously fun time. And yes, we did scale the steps of the Lincoln Memorial ... at 6 am. We be legends yo. After DC I headed up to NYC for what I thought would be a week of living the life of that guy in New York who just walks around all day kinda aimlessly. That thought was short lived though as I quickly found myself on a flight up to Montreal for an opportune business meeting. Montreal ... what can I say except J’adore!

After returning from Canada on Porter Airlines (cannot stop raving about these guys - I might start going to Toronto just for the pleasure of flying on a class airline and landing to breathtaking views of the Toronto skyline), I jumped back into the NYC fun and continued to enjoy the crazy reunioning. Had my good buddy’s wedding this past Saturday and of course, all conversations with me were dominated by soccer and the World Cup.

So, that pretty much leads me to where I am now: in a zombie like state in a cafe at DTW. I am on the tail end of a 7 hour layover here and I must admit, if there is an airport in the US to do that at, DTW is the one. It has a very European feel and has tons of services, restaurants and shops. It even has a Westin hotel with a gym. Que fantastico!

I am still waiting for to encounter tons of fans wearing their kits like I have in World Cups past. I fly from Detroit to Amsterdam and then on Johannesburg. Despite not feeling the fever here right now, I am getting more and more psyched with each passing minute. I cannot wait to see all my guys in a couple days. This trip has involved more planning than all the other trips combined so I’m anxious to get it underway!

Next post coming from Amsterdam!

Just 10 Short Days Away …

Fri, 28 May 2010 11:00:11 -0400

Welcome! Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Bienvenuti! Bienvenido! Bem-vindo! Howdy!

So, you’ve found the new site. I moved it off blogger because I thought this would be a much richer and more rewarding experience.

It’s amazing to think that in just under a fortnight, I will be sending updates from South Africa. Everywhere I look these days, from Twitter and Facebook, to TV ads, to SportsCenter, to Morning TV shows, to Movie Theater ads to Magazines, everybody wants a piece of the World Cup. This country finally seems ready to throw the marketing machine behind soccer and maybe, just maybe, this will be the World Cup that causes the sport to explode as a commercial success in the United States.

While the South African Organizing Committee’s preparations continue to steam along, my travel plans are pretty much as set as they are going to be. I will be spending the first 20 days in Jo’burg and then let the road take me wherever it wants. I will be joined in Jo’burg by a diverse (in every sense) group of seasoned and loyal US fans from around the country. Many of these people have known each other since at least 2002 so it will be a special treat to share this experience with them.

On the Calendar page, which you can link to above, you will find out which games we’ll be at. If you’re in South Africa, shoot me an email at americanfooligan@gmail.com - hit me on the twitter at AF2010 - or hit us up on the comments. The more the merrier!

Right now, I’m heading to DC to meet up with the crew as we set to take over Philadelphia for the Send-Off of the boys to South Africa.

I’ll have Philly highlights this week. Keep watching this space though as I’ll be posting highlights from the last 4 years here.

On that note - Long Overdue! Here are some favorite moments from Germany 2006!

Headed for Guate!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:49:41 -0400

Ughh, its a Wednesday and the US is playing Guatemala tonight at the famed Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City. Right now, its 9:00 am and I am on a short layover at the ATL airport waiting to connect to Guatemala City.

This day never really began for me as I opted to not sleep in order to ensure that I made my Sixx:AM (shoutout to Nikki) vuelo esta manana. I am not gonna lie: I am F'NG BEAT!

However, earlier this week I had the good fortune to see Devon Harris, a member of Jamaica's acclaimed 1988 bobsled team, speak about overcoming the difficulties he and his teammates encountered in making their Olympic dream a reality.

So, in his Olympic spirit, I vow to keep on pushing and to make today legendary.

I ran into Rob from Detroit and one of his buddies a few minutes ago. They are conveniently on the same flight. The plan is to meet up with Winney, Beth and Brian at the hotel and then to rally with a bunch of other US fans.

As is typical, I still need to pick up the match tickets.

Anyway,

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time! Cool Runnings!

(Or something)

US @ Barbados

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:49:39 -0400

Well, by know you all probably know that we produced a 1-0 result after a complete snoozefest of a match. Some may be disappointed that the majority of the young players in the squad failed to play with the energy and passion that one would want to see in a player looking to make his case for continued selection in the side, but being there in person, I can assure you that these were extremely difficult conditions for anyone to care at all.

First, the match did not matter. Barbados has never scored against the United States and they would have needed to knock in 8 more goals than us on Sunday to even force extra time. It was simply not going to happen. As I previously mentioned, Barbados population is less than 1/10 of a percent of that of the United States. Check out the Barbados FA's website - www.barbadossoccer.com - they are openly looking for players.

Second, the match was played at the Kensington Oval: a first-class cricket grounds. While the groundskeepers did a marvelous job of concealing the cricket pitch (the strip between the wickets), there was nothing they could do to minimize the huge space between the touchline and the stands. To play on a pitch like that must have had the boys reminiscing over their days playing youth soccer in vast parks and soccerplexes.

Third, the ball the Barbados FA used was completely subpar. It resembled something you would find in a drugstore. While the Bajans did a much better job of pressuring our players in the center of the pitch, they left the flanks wide open and Heath Pearce and Drew Moor could handily afford to advance far up the touchlines without fear of risking a serious counterattack. The only problem was that every time we attempted to play a long ball to one of them or to cross the field, the balloon of a ball would get caught in the mild gusts of wind and completely die.

It is difficult to disagree with a lot of the criticism that the team has been receiving over the perceived lack of effort, but seriously, let's be real and recognize that we go through the round without injury and with just one yellow card.

The Kensington Oval itself is a pretty spectacular facility. The building structures are not of the ubiquitous concrete variety found all over the Caribbean, but rather are encased in some sort of fiberglass that causes them to resemble space ships.

After easily collecting my match ticket (something that has not been the case in other developing nations - i.e. Venezuela), I met up with another US fan from the NY area. He had just flown in that morning and turned out to be on my flight back that night. Talk about heart! Inside the stadium, we quickly grabbed a couple Banks beers - a questionable tasting local lager - and I picked up some delicious and super-cheap BBQ chicken. Something you'll note from the pictures is that one of the concession stands sold flasks of Hennessey and Remy Martin. That is awesome - nothing like chicken and Hennessey.

The US fan section consisted of about 8 of us from the NYC area, Chicago, LA and I think a couple Texans. Yeah, not huge. The official attendance is listed at 2,000, but I am guessing it was closer to 1,200 (maybe even 700). During the course of the game, things got so quiet that we could frequently hear J.P. Dellacamera doing the play-by-play behind us. The only atmosphere created by the home fans was the rather futile attempt at starting the wave. A group of Bajan fans to our left kept trying to get it going, but it would generally end with us as the only people sitting to our right were the cameramen. After the warmups, the substitutes headed towards a covered VIP area that was across the pitch from the coaching staff. Apparently they did not want to sit in the uncovered heat on plastic picnic chairs.

After the game, we made our way to the airport (after watching a group of men clear a traffic jam in the parking lot by literally picking up an SUV and moving it a couple inches) where we met up with none other than the president of US Soccer - Sunil Gulati. He was very generous to speak with us for a few minutes about soccer in the US in general and, turns out he is a fellow Liverpool supporter. Solid guy in my book.

Anyway, I'll be offline till August. I am debating going to the US-Guatemala match. It's on a wednesday and ticket prices are pretty cheap right now so I think I'm just going to book it and hope that the workload permits the trip.

Not sure how I'm going to live through July with minimal footy. Guess it's time to catch up on my MLS!

Bataan Death March: Bajan Style!

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:49:38 -0400

It would not be a proper trip without including a Bataan death march. The Bajan version saw me make the trek from Oistins Bay back to the Hilton.

That probably means nothing to you. Oistins Bay is a little fishing village that offers up some fresh grilled and fried fish. There are rows and rows of little fish shacks that all offer essentially the same fare: dolphin, snapper, bbq chicken and lamb, peas and rice and a host of sides. My cabbie reccomended a place called Mo's and it did not dissapoint. In the middle of all fish shacks, there is a bandstand that features live performances on friday nights and a dj on saturdays. The DJ last night served up a mix of fifties-americana love songs and gospelish-reggae that had some thumping beats. In a word: strange.

A plate of grilled dolphin and peas and rice filled me with the gumption to make the trek back to the hotel (about 6 miles) on foot. Or maybe it was the 4 Carib beers I put down. Funny thing about the decision is that I really had no idea how to get back: I just knew that Oistins Bay was on the water and so was the hotel.

Along the way home, I was tempted into a club by some blaring reggae. The doorman told me it was the best club in barbados that night. I should have questioned his credibility when he let me in shirtless (key feature of a Bataan death march is the sweat inducing heat). The only other people at the club were three yaardies.

I made a quick exit back to the hotel and had ran into some of the team staff, including former MNT player Mike Sorber. I made sure to let him know that I was there for USA-Switzerland '94 when George Bregi and Eric Wylnada scored on equally impressive free kicks to produce the 1-1 draw that made me a fan for life.

Kickin it by the pool and the beach right now. Headed to the Oval in about an hour.