hallelujah!!!

McBride In, Barrett out!!!

That's all that needs to be said from me. I couldn't think of any news that would make me happier this morning!

the legend

My local paper, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a nice little article talking about Brian McBride making the Olympic team and being at least 12 years older than the rest of the players on the team. McBride isn't such a shocking choice as an overage player, in my opinion. Typically, aren't the overage players actually overage? My boy Guzan, another overage player, just barely missed on being an age qualified player and Michael Parkhurst isn't exactly collecting his AARP membership. But McBride goes on to say he doesn't feel old at all and is ready for this challenge. I'm glad he'll get to spend in August in Bejing since Toronto and Chicago haven't really come to any kind of terms to get him playing in MLS just yet.

Another funny, but kind of sad, note from the article. McBride talks about how joining the Olympics team just kind of came up in conversation with Jonathan Spector and now it's a reality. It's sad because Spector is the one who isn't on the team due to injury.

blog diarrhea

Pleasant thought, I know. But due to my not like ever posting I have a lot of random stuff to discuss.

First, my boy Carlos Bocanegra got a job. Woop woop! Unfortunately, it's in France. I don't know anything about the French league and pretty much any bit of the French language that I know is summed up in this song:



But from the little bit of info I did get I heard that Rennes is a decent team and I can find a jersey somewhere. Since I don't know anything about this team, that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Unless anyone knows of any French league blogs that are in English. That would be amazing.

Next, apparently the breaking news is that Aston Villa are ready to sign Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson. This is notable because last night they were all about signing Robert Green from West Ham. Still don't see the importance? Well, sounds like I'll be seeing Brad Guzan at the Superclasico later this summer as he is apparently no longer in Martin O'Neill's thoughts. Brad hasn't really had a stellar season so I was always going to be surprised if Villa actually picked him up. He is a great keeper and I think he's definitely the keeper of the future for the National team, but he hasn't been bringing it every week for Chivas. Maybe once he doesn't get picked up he'll get all that other crap off his mind and play like everyone knows he can. The January transfer window isn't too far away.

Next topic: Chad Barrett still sucks! Watching that game against San Jose Saturday was only amusing because I don't live and die for the Fire anymore and it cracked me up to see how horrible Chad Barrett really is. Bonus was he did start his ass on the bench in favor of Andy Herron. ha ha. Unfortunately, Herron was injured early and on came Chad to everyone's dismay, I'm sure.

On a positive Fire note, though, I'm pretty sure if I watch another one of these "My Wish" segments I'm going to cry. Last night it was a kid from Vegas who has cancer whose little league team was named the Indians so he became a huge Indians fan. He got to ride a limo to the game and was greeted by the mascot, whose name the kid knew so considering he had never been to a game the kid really was a big fan. He also got his own locker, got a personalized jersey, took batting practice, threw out the first pitch and got to take the lineup cards to the umpires. The Indians went ahead and thanked him for all he did by breaking their 7 game losing streak that day. I want to cry just writing this all out. But a kid who wanted to meet Blanco is on tonight. It will be cool to see how this kid and his parents react to Blanco, because I don't think Americans could ever understand how big Blanco is, and just to see them make some kid's day.



In a completely unrelated note, remember Arrested Development the band? Well, their head guy, Speech, is from Milwaukee. Here's a pretty cool article about how he comes back to Milwaukee every summer for Summerfest to run his father's corn stand. It talks about how last year he literally went from performing on one of the stages to running to check on the stand. Way to remember where you come from and what's important. I still haven't been to Summerfest yet and I don't miss it, although now I kind of want to go to see if Speech is at the corn stand. I think I might wind up there Saturday to see Cheap Trick with The Boyfriend and his friend. The Roots are there Friday night but I don't have anyone to go with me as The Boyfriend and aforementioned friend are going to see Stone Temple Pilots. But I digress...

The NBA Draft has come and gone this year and the entertainment value certainly didn't disappoint. Although, I was pretty upset that Stephen A. Smith's role was relegated to interviewing the guys after they got drafted. I don't think he screamed once during the Draft. It's not really the draft until Stephen A is screaming about something. Also, Spike Lee wasn't there. What on earth could he possibly have been doing that was more important the going to the Draft? This has to be the first draft in a long time that he hasn't been there for. Despite all of that, the draft was still top rate! The Bucks tried as they could to trade away both Mo Williams AND Michael Redd to Miami for their pick so they could grab OJ Mayo but it didn't happen. We did end up making a trade to get rid of Bobby Simmons' contract and Yi Jianlian for Richard Jefferson. Yi hadn't really proved himself last year so I'm not too sad to see him go. The Bucks wound up draft Joe Alexander from West Virginia University. The story behind this kid is that he grew up in China and didn't start playing organized basketball until his Junior year of high school. With that said, considering he came out of college early, I don't see much wrong with the pick. He'll back up Richard Jefferson for a while and when Jefferson gets old and more expensive than he already is, in steps in Joe. It works out for everyone.

I'm counting down the days until July 9th when Andrew Bogut can sign his new contract. The word on the street has always been that he wants to get this done before the Olympics where he'll be representing Australia. Going into the draft everyone always thought Yi and Bogut were untouchable and weren't going to be traded. Obviously, that turned out to not be the case for Yi as he's now vacationing on the Jersey Shore. But I did hear that Bogut's name never came up once as a trade option. That's awesome! He doesn't get the respect he deserves, really. I'm sure his new deal with be pretty respectful, though. While it won't be Deron and Chris Paul money, it should be good.

And finally...this thing is epic...let's all give it up for Cesc Fabregas and Spain for pulling it all off and winning Euro 2008. I don't think I mentioned my allegiance to Spain in this thing but my love for the team was all over the place since the day the tournament started. Hello, Cesc plays for them.







And speaking of pulling it all off, I believe the best part of the tournament was the celebration...



Based on celebration alone, the best team won!!! Holy moses! Even with all the nakedness in the video, my favorite was the fully dressed David Villa. What a stud! Oh, Euro 2008....I'll miss you.

chad barrett sucks!

Recently I feel like I should have like made t-shirt or started a facebook group about the hatred because everyone is jumping on that bandwagon now. I have never liked the guy. I will never like the guy. I always thought he was horrible and now it's gotten to the point where I don't even like the Fire because they employ this douchebag. Everybody wanted to get on Blanco's case when he would yell at Chad while on the field like Blanco was being too mean to him or something. I think it's mean of Chad to be on the same field as Blanco and not finish some of the great chances Blanco creates for him so it's kind of a two way street there.

It's finally out in the open. Chad Barrett is horrible. Everyone agrees on it finally. If he's on the Olympic roster...well I guess it wouldn't surprised me but I would be just as angry with the decision as I was him being chosen to be on the qualifying roster. I guess I can go without the recognition as being one of the first to completely hate this guy as long as everyone is on board with that idea finally.

BTW, http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/ makes the greatest MLS videos ever!

i love Euro 2008!

Because they didn't play this song after Cesc scored the PK to send the Italians home, here it is.



I love this stuff!

friday football five

In lieu of the last post this is an all Brian McBride Friday Football Fire. I did a quick search on youtube to end the last post with and there were plenty of tribute videos already up. Again, he's a legend over there.











Bocanegra assist. McBride goal.

Okay, I think that's about as melodramatic as I can get this morning.

fulhamerica no mas

Above is the soundtrack to this post.



With Carlos getting released and McBride officially leaving to come back to MLS it's a little bit of a sad time for an American Fulham fan. These are the reasons half of us got into Fulham in the first place. I only know of Fulham with Carlos and Brian and 32 other Americans being involved. I'm not saying I'm not going to be a fan anymore, but there's going to be a little hole in my Fulham heart that won't ever be filled.

Brian's departure is a little harder to take than Carlos'. I knew Los wasn't going to be around. I had the entire second half of the season to get used to the fact that Carlos wasn't going to be a Cottager next season. Brian, though, he's Captain America. To me, he made his name as a Cottager. He has Londoners all around calling him a ledge. It's like the Brian that played in MLS and the Brian who played for Fulham are two different guys. I didn't really give him the respect he deserved when he was playing for the Crew, because he was playing for the Crew. Gross. He crossed the pond and even though he still remained plagued my injuries, he became the go to guy for Fulham. At the end of this up and down season the guys who got us through were Brian McBride and Jimmy Bullard. Players who were like the poster guys for Fulham. It's just hard for me to let that idea go, even if McBride does come and play for the Fire. If he's going to come to an MLS team I'm glad he's pretty much only going to play for the Fire, but he's just going to be former Crew player Brian McBride now playing for the Fire to me. It's hard to explain so I'll just stop. I can't wait for the day he comes out in a Fire uniform, though. I'll be one of those tools at the Fire game who are wearing the jersey of a team that's not playing of a guy that's not playing. But I'll totally be showing the FFC love in my red and black Fulham jersey. Maybe I'll put tape over Dempsey's name in the back. heh.

All this makes the Fulham off season pretty interesting. What are they going to make of Eddie? Will Duece step up and be the new Captain America? Will they sign Brad Guzan to be their keeper of the future. Okay, there are no facts backing up the possibility of that last line, but it would totally be cool if it happened.



It's the end of an era. Thanks guys!

i miss jose!

Most reports about him recently have him texting others to let them know of his future plans. Among all the other things I love about Jose, using texting to communicate is just another one. As someone who has used 1,334 texts since the 12th, I totally know how that goes. Is that really a lot, though? Anyways, let's just take a moment to appreciate Jose today.

nsr: public service announcement

As I discussed in my poorly edited post yesterday, I went to the Lupe, n.e.r.d., Rhianna and Kanye Glow in the Dark tour and I have a few points I want to bring to your attention before you get to the show a half an hour late.

1.The Chicago show started at 7 and at 7:01 Lupe was on the stage performing his entire set. I thought he might just be out there to get the crowd warmed up for a few songs, but no, he ran through his entire set. Everyone around us got there late and were pissed when we told them they already missed Lupe. The most common thing heard, "The only reason I'm at this show is to see Lupe." I thought it was a complete disgrace that Lupe had to open up this show to a half full arena in his hometown. Lame!

2.If you're a fan of Lupe or n.e.r.d. don't expect to hear you favorite song. They blow through their sets, which is to be expected with so many acts. n.e.r.d. got the crowd bumping but they only performed like five songs. I'm sure you could guess what five songs they were too. At this point in the show I was upset that I didn't hear "Sunshine" or much off of Lupe's first album or "Maybe" by n.e.r.d.

3.n.e.r.d. will get you all pumped to sit through a 20 minute set change for lame ass Rhianna. No one was amped up to see her and she didn't even bring Chris Brown out there to sing "Umbrella" with her. He was there because he came out and danced to "Spazz" with n.e.r.d. During her set change we had enough time to get a beer, and there were hella lines, and for The Boyfriend to meet up and talk to the blogger who wishes The Boyfriend ate more salad. By the time her show started, I was ready for another beer. She also covers "Paper Planes" by M.I.A and a Lauryn Hill song. Absolute disgrace! As The Boyfriend said, he felt like he was at the Enormobowl during Karaoke Revolution.

4.All this craziness and disappointment will be completely worth while though when Kanye takes the stage. Don't even bother looking for clips on youtube because they most definitely don't do any justice to his show! He performs almost every song you would want him to(including the song I'm petitioning as the new anthem of the United States "Don't Stop Believing") and he does it all on his own. And all the Lupe fans who missed him were at least a little happier when he came out during "Touch The Sky". There's an entire story involved with the show and you have to see it all come together to really get the goosebumps experience.

5.You ain't cool unless you get a pair of Kanye glasses! For real. I held off on the temptation the entire night but there was one last guy selling them on the street we were parked on and I gave in. I'm sure the countless beers I drank all night had something to do with my impulse. But even this morning, it was a great buy. They're only ten dollars!

friday football five

Life's kind of hectic right now between dealing with car dealerships (I hate this whole process) and going to Kanye, Lupe and n.e.r.d. tonight in Chicago(I do not hate this process at all!) so this is going to be a quick five.

1.It's official! My boy Bocanegra is no longer a Cottager. It's kind of an end of an era. Hate to say it, but this will really test my fandom, especially if he happens upon another EPL team. PSV and some Spanish team is interested. That would be amazing if he could get some Champions Leage time with PSV. Crazy! I'm hella anxious to see where he's going to go. He better not wait all summer.



2.Another US Soccer commercial. This one features Duece. My lone Fulham American left (Kasey's basically out the door, McBride might be coming to the Fire in August and well we've already discussed Carlos and I try to forget that Eddie Johnson is a player for the US National team and for Fulham). I just got a black and red Fulham jersey with his name on the back so he better no go anywhere. Love him!

3.When did Shaka Hislop become an authority on soccer? He was on the Champions League broadcast this past Tuesday and he writes each week about MLS for the Guardian's website. I only read one of his articles as it was full of basis MLS errors and I pretty much discredited him at that point. I didn't hear what he had to say during the Champions League broadcast as I was busy trying to gather all the Newcastles I could before they ran out. I'm just not a fan but maybe he was better with European soccer.


4. The Cesc Fabregas Show debuted in jolly ol England this week. I downloaded it on Tuesday but still haven't had the chance to get through the entire episode. Currently, this show is bothering me because I'm trying to send it to a friend, but it's not working for me. Because of the debut and the havoc it's caused on my life these past few days, here's a preview of it.

5. I don't know whose least shameless in their promotion of their team. Chivas USA with their making guys strip on morning TV or US Soccer with their constant barrage of pictures of Carlos in a pool. I don't really care who wins this battle, just that it continues for a long, long time!