For the record, Jozy Altidore, all of 19 years old, is an amazing player to watch in person.  Almost always double and triple teamed, he rarely lost the ball and was fascinating to watch.

Anyone have a couple extra tickets to South Africa next summer?  Just wondering …

In their semi-final match, U.S. beat Spain, the number 1 team in the world.  Spain had a 35 game unbeaten streak heading into the match, but the U.S. won with a stunning 2 – 0 shutout, easily marking it as one of the biggest U.S. victories of all time.  Unfortunately, in its first-ever FIFA tournament final match, the U.S. gave up a 2 – 0 lead, losing to Brazil 3 – 2.

While they came up short, I was proud of the turn-around they made, and it gave me a bit of hope for next year’s World Cup.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching Tim Howard in goal.  He was easily my favorite of the tournament.

While it was heartening to see the U.S. do well on the world stage, I’m anxious for the day when those types of results are expected.  Donovan’s quote after the game summarized my sentiments well: “We are in the position where we don’t want respect, we want to win.”

First, Michigan came from behind to beat Michigan State. After an embarrassing start to the season, the Wolverines have now won 8 in a row (including 6 in the Big Ten), getting them ranked in the top 20 once again. I don’t want to take too much credit, but they haven’t lost a game since my last post on the subject. Coincidence?

Second, the Lions looked like an actual NFL team when they walked all over Denver 44 – 7. I was surprised CBS was showing the game here, but who am I to ask questions? With about 5 minutes to go in the third period, CBS interrupted the announcers mid-sentence and cut over to a tied Minnesota vs. San Diego game … and never switched back. Obviously, the Lions beating up on Denver isn’t quite the same as switching away from a game with actual consequences. Even so, the Lions are more than capable of blowing a comfortable 3rd quarter lead, and the Minnesota/San Diego game ended up not being close at all (35 – 17). Nonetheless, I was happy to see part of a game wherein the Lions looked impressive.

And lest you think I watched football all weekend, we painted our entry way, front hallway, and one kitchen wall this weekend.

Lastly, since we’re talking about “football,” I need to say congrats to the soccer teams at both my high school and college almae matres (is that really the plural of ‘alma mater’?). The East Kentwood High School boys soccer team won the Div. 1 boys state soccer title last week, marking the first time a school from the west side of the state has won. I’d like to think I helped lay the foundation for the soccer program, but who am I kidding. And on the college side, the Calvin College Knights wrapped up the MIAA and are heading to the NCAA tournament once again.

While my favorite teams had good seasons by most measures, they once again disappointed all of us spoiled Detroit fans that have come to expect nothing but winning it all. (Then again, isn’t that the point of professional sports?)

The soccer season is now in full swing. Unfortunately, most televised games are on ESPN2, a station we don’t currently get. As such, the games I usually end up being able to watch are on Univision. (My lack of Spanish knowledge is only one of the things that makes watching that station amusing.) Sunday’s USA vs. Mexico match for the CONCACAF Gold Cup was such a game. At the conclusion of USA’s come-from-behind victory, a Univision reporter did a brief interview with Landon Donovan, the captain of the US team. To my amazement, the entire interview was done in Spanish, and from what I could tell, he didn’t miss a beat, responding in fluent Spanish. Impressive. Then again, he did grow up in MexiCalifornia. I have no doubt knowing Spanish comes in handy in many of their international games …

As for TV, both 24 and Lost wrapped up with barely memorable finales, though the seasons were certainly enjoyable. We were sad to say good-bye to King of Queens. While it lasted longer than most sitcoms, it never tried to take itself too seriously. Thanks for the laughs, Doug and Carrie.

With the summer lull having begun, we’ve once again renewed our Netflix membership. This is the third summer where we’ve used the membership to fill the gap. Hopefully the year-round Netflixers don’t view us seasonal members as lesser folk. I don’t think we’re alone in using the subscription only during the summer. While we enjoy catching up on some movies here and there, we seem to use the membership mostly for watching TV shows. It so nice being able to burn through a season without the time off between episodes or commercials (not that we watch those with current shows anymore, either). Previous summers have been used to start watching Alias and 24. We’ll see what this summer brings.

Back in the day the only option for playing indoor soccer in Grand Rapids was at the Woodland Tennis courts on 28th Street. (I think a Spanish league still plays there. If you watch the local Comcast TV station, you’ll see a game on occasion.) Since the tennis courts were primarily used for tennis, and there were a lot of soccer teams that needed a place to play, they scheduled games back to back until all the games were scheduled. That meant we played some games at midnight on Friday nights (and had to get up early to do the paper route on Saturday morning). Keep in mind this was before I was old enough to drive. Yep, my parents had to take me to the games. Surely Micah won’t ever want to do something crazy like that … Talk about raising the parental bar too high. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad.

We knew it was likely my last game in GR due to our move. For years our team was known as Team X. From what I understand, the core of the gang is still together, but now playing on a house team. It was a bit disheartening today to see our team’s site (formerly teamxsoccer.com) no longer online, though it’s only appropriate. If you never got to see the site, it was a thing of beauty. That’s one of the perks of having Max on your team.

At some point after moving to VA, unbeknownst to me, Rachel began praying that I’d find a team on which I could play. A couple weeks after moving into our house, she called a locksmith out of the phone book to come change the locks (S.O.P. when moving into a new place). Within 5 minutes of him being at our house, he asked if we had found a church to attend yet. One thing led to another in the conversation, and he eventually said he enjoys being a locksmith, but he’s really passionate about bringing an indoor soccer facility to our city. Hmmm. Rachel explained that I played soccer, and that I was looking for a team. Fast forward a few weeks, and I’m now playing on his team. Answered prayers aren’t always that obvious.

Our team is called FC Stafford, and we play at a place called the Fredericksburg Fieldhouse. The first night I was scheduled to play, it was dark and raining. I had my “trusty” Google Maps print-off to show me the way. Well, it showed me all the way to a dead-end street in a trailer park a mile or so away from the Fieldhouse. A panicked phone call to Rachel back home, who quickly checked the correct directions elsewhere online, and I was good to go. (It’s not the first time since we’ve been here that she’s been my personal OnStar while I’ve been out driving around.) It was difficult showing up to play when I had never met a single person on the team. At the same time, once the game started, it was nice to get on the field and be able to instantly have something in common with everyone else (e.g., shortness of breath, sore muscles, memories of younger years … as well as a similar understanding of the game). It felt really good to get out and play some soccer again.