The End of an Era

In DC United's last game of the season, they tied at home.  Because they lost the aggregate score 4-2, they don't advance to the MLS Cup.  Given that they hadn't been to the playoffs in a few years, I consider it a fine result to get as far into the playoffs as they did.  It was particularly impressive that they made it one game away from the championship game despite losing their best player to injury for the last few weeks of the regular season (and all but 29 minutes of the playoffs). 

Even though the future looks bright for United, I have made the difficult decision not to renew my season tickets for the first time since 1997 (I had a half-season plan that year). In my cost-benefit analysis, I decided that the costs have gone up and the benefits have gone down to the point where it doesn't make sense to renew.  Costwise, ticket prices keep going up, and with Kathy not working and Emelia now attending a private school, the ticket plan is now a significant amount of money for me.

Benefitwise, we traveled a lot this year, which resulted in not being around for a lot of games, and we plan to do more of the same next year -- I just don't see myself going to enough games to justify a full-season, or even a half-season, ticket plan.  But there's also another reason, one that I hardly noticed until recently -- I miss my family when I go to games.  The obvious answer would be to bring them along -- Emelia had a great time at the game she went to this year, enough so that her attention didn't flag and we didn't have to leave early.  The problem, however, is that United rarely plays day games.  This is consistent with what I believe to be United's business model, i.e., their target audience is young singles.  Until yesterday's playoff game, United had not scheduled a home game for before 5pm.  And only two games started between 5 and 6pm.  I feel confident that this approach is one developed by DC United rather than being an MLS policy -- when I looked at this year's schedule, I saw that six regular season road games started before 5pm.  United's policy wasn't much of a problem when I was a childless middle-aged adult going to games, but it is a problem for families with children, a demographic to which I now belong.  So while I'd like to take Emelia regularly, for the most part the games are just too late for her. 

All told, I'll still go to games, but not as many.  Friends will have extra tickets now and again, and I'll keep my fan club membership (Screaming Eagles) active so I can buy tickets through them.  Hopefully, some of the games I go to will be early enough that I can take Emelia, or even Hannah.

What a Great Comeback! x2

They were in a must-win game last night -- lose and they'd be eliminated from the playoffs. They were banged up, with key players unavailable or trying to play through injuries. They fell behind, and stayed that way until late in the game. But then, to the delight of the home crowd, a late rally that resulted in an improbable victory left them to live another day. I was delighted, even though I recognized that the team still needed to win its next game as well, just to stay alive!

And I was at the game, in the third row, a live spectator to a wonderful win.

Wait, you thought I was talking about the Red Sox win? Well, except for that last sentence, I might as well have been. Yes, in addition to the Sox win that no doubt anyone who cares about sports already knows about, D.C. United played last night -- with two games left in the season, they were one of six teams fighting for the last three playoff spots, and of those six teams, we were on the bottom of the heap. So while a tie technically wouldn't eliminate us, it essentially would have done so.

United has had a disastrous end to the season, having not won a regular season game in nearly two months. And it's been a very long season. In addition to now having played 28 of the 30 games in the regular season, it's had four games in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, three games in the SuperLiga, four games in the U.S. Open Cup, and four games (with two more to be played) in the CONCACAF Champions League -- in other words, it's had more than another half a season of games to play in between its league matches. And the MLS roster rules and salary cap affords very little depth to teams. So fatigue would be enough of a problem even if injuries hadn't hit them, leaving them without some of their key players when they were most needed.

Last night, we had a lineup that included two guys who were playing in the third division two months ago (in baseball terms, think AA), and a forward who was waived at the start of the season by another club and who hadn't scored in the regular season. Three of our five first-choice offensive players (not counting one who has missed all but 15 minutes of the season) started on the bench (or weren't even available), and a fourth was returning from injury to play his first game in a few weeks.

Our opponent ironically was New England, a team that had sown up a playoff spot already but who was looking for home field advantage in its first round game. New England had the run of play early, but soon United had turned it around, and began creating numerous chances. However, United wasn't able to get the goal it sorely needed, its best chance of the first half bouncing off the crossbar, and the half ended in a scoreless tie. In the second half, United again controlled the pace of the game, but a disastrous turnover led to an easy goal by New England in the 58th minute, and suddenly we were half an hour from the virtual end to our season.

However, a couple of minutes later, with nothing to lose, the team pulled a defender and brought in Jaime Moreno, the League's all-time leading scorer, whose injured knee had kept him out of the starting line-up. The decision to bring in Moreno paid almost immediate dividends, as he soon assisted on a goal by Francis Doe, that waived forward who hadn't scored all year. Doe scored after a pretty cut back helped him elude his defender and get a good shot. After that goal, Fred, who was thought lost for the season due to a hamstring injury, entered the game as United's last allowed substitute, and United's offense was roaring.

Amazingly enough, the go-ahead goal came again at the foot of Doe, and was scored in impressive fashion. The ball was flicked to him by Tino Quaranta, and Doe was able to out-muscle and out-quick last year's Defender of the Year to square up for a shot that he got over the goalie (you can view this goal and the rest of the match highlights here).

United was able to ride out the last part of the match to finish with a win in its last home match of the season. Its next challenge is to finish the season on the road against the best team in the league, the Columbus Crew. A win may be difficult, but at least there's still something for the team to play for.
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Post Script: Starting at halftime, and throughout the second half, I was tracking the Red Sox-Rays game, seeing the deficit grow from 2-0 to 4-0 to 5-0, just glad that at least United had pulled off a win. I got home when it was still 5-0 to find a message from Dad, who is now a Rays fan, having lived in the Tampa area since before the team came into existence. I called him back, and explained where I had been. He wanted my support for the Rays, asking, couldn't I cheer for the underdog? I firmly responded by saying that I root for my team, no matter who they're playing. All the same, I congratulated him for his team, and shortly after I hung up, the deficit had grown to 7-0. I needed to go to bed -- I was exhausted, so after winding down a little more from the United match, turned in, even though I had seen that the Sox had cut the deficit to 7-4. It was only this morning that I learned that the Sox had scored four more runs in the last two innings to pull off the biggest comeback in post-season baseball in nearly 80 years.

Example #769 on How My Life Has Changed From Last Year, and #34 on How it Hasn't

Last year I took late and long lunches to watch some of the first round NCAA basketball games. This year I didn't watch a minute of them, even in the evening. That's not to say that I didn't even fill out a bracket, but still.

* * * * *

Wednesday evening the weather was sunny and 72 degrees. Thursday evening it was 48 and raining steadily. It therefore goes without saying that the DC United match against Chivas of Mexico was held on Thursday, and that I was pretty wet by the end of it. Chivas is one of the most popular clubs from Mexico, and it rarely makes a trip to the East Coast. So not surprisingly, Chivas had more supporters in attendance than United did.

The match was the first leg of the semifinals in the regional (North and Central America) club tournament that United qualified for by finishing with the best record in MLS last year. United advanced by clobbering Olimpia of Honduras by a 7-3 combined score. Three of the seven goals in the two matches were scored by our new striker, Luciano Emilio, a Brazilian who we signed in the offseason from, ironically, Olimpia. He's showing himself to be a strong finisher, something United has lacked for several years.

As for the game itself, Chivas looked like the team in the middle of its season, while United looked like the team still in preseason. Which in both cases was true. Chivas' speed/fitness/positioning (not sure in which proportion) made it look like we were playing a man (or two) down for most of the match. Chivas did an excellent job of smothering Christian Gomez, United's playmaker (and the league's MVP last year) to the point that he looked nearly invisible for most of the match. One of the reasons Chivas could bottle up our attack is that we had a defensive midfielder, Clyde Simms, playing on the wing, where he posed little threat offensively. It's the position that Freddy Adu occupied last year, and his replacement, a Brazilian ironically named Fred, hasn't been cleared to play yet (technically his former club has his rights until June 30, and the teams are negotiating on getting him released sooner). United did assert itself for some of the match, but for the most part they had to absorb Chivas' attack rather than dictate the pace. Fortunately, although Chivas dominated possession, it didn't do much around the goal. It scored in the second half on a deflected ball, and a 1-0 score would have been a deserved result. To our benefit, it didn't work out that way, as United scored the equalizer in the waning minutes off a free kick by Gomez that was headed in by Emilio.

The second leg will be April 3 in Guadalajara, Mexico, at 5000 feet above sea level, among a crowd that will be 100% for Chivas, so United will have its work cut out for it. I can't say our chances are good, but there's at least some reason for hope -- United will be training at high altitude for a week before the match, Fred hopefully will have joined the team by then, and the team should keep making strides as it approaches the regular season.

DC United Playoffs, Round 1

Have you ever gone to a sporting event thinking that your team deserved to lose, but you'll take the good result? D.C. United is in the playoffs, thanks to its stellar performance in the early part of the season and despite its wretched finish. Our first-round opponent was Red Bull New York, a team we beat three of the five times we faced them, tying them the other two games. An interesting wrinkle is that New York hired a new coach late in the season, former United (and U.S. National Team) head coach, Bruce Arena.

The first-round playoff format is two games, with aggregate goals the determinant of who advances. So if Team A wins the first game 1-0, but Team B wins the second 2-0, Team A is knocked out. If the two teams are tied in aggregate goals after the two games, there's a 30-minute overtime, and if they're still tied, the winner is decided by penalty kicks. The first game was played in New York -- we were at Flugtag, so I didn't get to watch it, but from what I know United won a fairly even match, 1-0, getting a beautiful goal from our team's, and possibly the league's, most valuable player, Christian Gomez (video highlights can be found here). So in last night's second game, all we needed was a tie to advance to the next round.

With no baby in sight, I went to the game, and the atmosphere was great. We were jumping and chanting, loud and enthusiastic.

From the opening kickoff, New York controlled the game. They were attacking, and they were physical. To some degree United looked content to sit back, but in other ways United simply looked out of sorts. Several players were underperforming, while one player in particular, defender Facundo Erpen, was simply bad, despite normally being one of our better players. At halftime we were content to find ourselves in a scoreless draw, as Red Bull had looked far more dangerous. In the second half, we looked somewhat better, but we were giving New York far too many opportunities. Shortly after we nearly scored, Red Bull converted a free kick from just outside the penalty box, and took a 1-0 lead.

With only a few minutes left, however, Gomez got the ball on the left side of the goal, and calmly shot it past the goalie to make it 1-1. The crowd went absolutely nuts, all of the evening's frustration overcome in that one moment. We held on for the remainder and got the needed tie.

Our next opponent will be the New England Revolution, a team that beat us in DC toward the end of the season, and one of the hottest teams in the league. The Conference Final is determined by a single game, this Sunday here. We were fortunate to get past New York, but if we play the Revs like we played yesterday, I can't see the team getting lucky for a second time in a row.

Turn It On, Turn It On Again

After beating the Columbus Crew on July 15, D.C. United's record stood at 13 wins, five ties, and one loss. Since that time, however, United has only won once in nine league games, tying five and losing three. Having jumped out to such a great record in the first half of the season, the team is still all-but-assured of winning the Eastern Conference and having home field advantage in the playoffs, but it's not clear which set of results is the correct reflection of the team.

Early in the season, I recall thinking that we were getting much better than deserved results -- we tied games where we deserved to lose, and won games which easily could have ended in ties. But as the season unfolded, United began earning its wins. Either the team was gelling, or it gained confidence from the early good fortune. Before our record turned south, we had won seven consecutive games. At the same time, however, the team beat the weak foes in its conference -- we played all four of our games against both last place Columbus and fourth place Kansas City in our first 19 games, and had won seven of them, tying the other. Take away the games against those clearly inferior opponents, as well as our three games against the 5th place Red Bull New York (a win and 2 ties), and our record against the rest of the league is 6 wins, 7 ties and 4 losses -- better than average, but nothing special.

Then again, we've had injuries to several of our top offensive players in recent weeks, and knowing that the regular season isn't very important, Coach Nowak has exercised caution with the injuries. Similarly, we've had several stretches where we've had midweek games, and Nowak has rested some of the starters in order to ensure they'll be fresh at the end of the season. In an important game, the best players would be on the field if they're able to be.

And I guess that's really where we sit right now -- the recent slide seems due to not being as good as our record indicates, and a mentality that at this point, each game isn't critical. One of the enduring questions in sports is whether a team, having taken the foot off the pedal, can regain its edge when it wants to. Often this is a matter of a team having clinched a playoff spot with a couple of weeks to go, and so they want to rest their starters -- the last five games of an 82-game NBA season means little to a team that won its division with eight games to go. The difference, however, is that in the case of D.C. United, the resting up involves the most recent 9 games in a 32-game schedule -- over 25 percent of the season -- during a stretch of over two months. I have trouble believing that it's as easy as turning on a light switch after such a long period of suckitude.

United has four games left in the regular season. Hopefully its next game, Saturday against likely first-round playoff opponent Red Bull, shows a return to the early season form as the team gears up for the playoffs. Best regular season record or not, I don't see this team making it to the championship game, much less winning it, if it doesn't get its act together soon.

A More Timely Obituary

In some ways, I was too early in writing off the U.S. team at this year's World Cup. As bad as the team looked in its 3-0 opening loss, so did the Ukraine in the 4-0 drubbing it took from Spain. Yet the Ukraine made it out of its group, thanks in part to a weaker group, but also to the fact that it came to play. After its impressive draw against Italy despite playing a man down for almost the entire second half, the U.S., amazingly enough, could have advanced had it beaten Ghana. Instead, the team fell 2-1, as numerous things went wrong, most notably the phantom penalty call that led to Ghana's winning goal. But that was only the final straw, when in reality the team wasn't up to the considerable challenge it faced in a group that included the best team in Europe, the best team in Africa, and a 3-time World Cup champion. The U.S. looked good in its game against Italy, but there's no reason it should have come out flat in the opener, or passive in its must-win game against Ghana.

I'm a big fan of Coach Bruce Arena, and have been since before he became the National Team coach, when he was leading D.C. United to multiple championships. But this tournament showed that it's time for him to move on. What was he thinking when he started only one striker (again!) in a game that the team needed to win? We needed offense and instead Arena went with a conservative line up. I could see why he might have decided to do this in the first two games, but it still was in stark contrast to the bold style that he used in the 2002 World Cup to stun Portugal. In many ways, his approach in this tournament was eerily similar to that of his predecessor, who for the 1998 World Cup decided that the team wasn't good enough to play attacking soccer, and so switched to a 1-striker line-up.

In 2002, when the team advanced to the quarterfinals, Arena turned to untested players and they shone. Here Arena refused to call on young players unless he felt it was absolutely necessary -- for the most part he stuck with players even when they weren't producing. There were exceptions -- Oguchi Onyewu displayed the composure to anchor the central defense, despite the questionable call against him in the Ghana game. Also, Clint Dempsey, the only U.S. goal scorer, showed that he's up for the challenge of international soccer, and could be a mainstay at right midfield in the coming years.

Despite the way the team flamed out, Arena's lasting legacy should be, even more than the team's run to the quarterfinals in 2002, that he turned the team into a fixture at the World Cup. For the three World Cups before Arena showed up, the U.S. barely qualified for the 1990 World Cup (for the first time in 40 years), was automatically entered in the 1994 World Cup as the host nation, and got hot late in qualifying to make it in 1998. But in 2002 and 2006, the teams qualified with ease, and given how weak the region is and how much the team has developed under Arena, there appears to be no reason why such success can't continue into the future.

(Acknowledgements to my friend Barrett for having a discussion with me on this matter, where certain of my thoughts crystallized and where he imparted other thoughts that influenced my opinions -- I can't pretend to separate them here, so I'll simply say that I didn't think of all the things in this post on my own).

Cup Blues

On June 5, 2002, I awoke before dawn to turn on the TV, and sat alone to watch the event that millions (billions?) were watching all over the world, the World Cup. The opening match for the U.S. was against heavily favored Portugal, and in quick succession the U.S. scored three goals, then held on for a 3-2 victory. When the phone rang at the game's conclusion, I screamed in joy at whomever had called to share the moment with me (my father). My celebration was fairly jarring to Kathy, as she had been awoken by the call and had picked up the phone to see who was calling. This game began a wonderful journey for the U.S. team, one that ended far later than anyone had a right to hope for, in a quarterfinal match against Germany that many feel the U.S. should have won.

Since that time, American soccer fans (don't laugh -- there are many of us) have been looking forward to this year's World Cup, feeling that even if the team couldn't win, they could show that the results in 2002 weren't a fluke. I considered going to Germany for the Cup, but knowing that Kathy might be pregnant now prevented me from pursuing it (good thing too!). So I put that possibility out of my mind. I put it so far out of my mind that when I scheduled a visit to see my college roommate Pete in Montana, I neglected to consider that I'd be flying back during the U.S.'s first match. Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready to head to the airport, I remarked to Pete how envious I was of the people I knew who'd gone to the match. I thought I'd be able to at least watch the first half at the airport, but Bozeman's airport was devoid of televisions past the security gate (and the only one I saw before then was in a bar that wasn't open).

Upon arrival at Minneapolis, I called one friend while we were taxiing (no answer), then looked around for a TV to tell me the result. It took fifteen minutes, but upon learning of the 3-0 shellacking the team suffered at the hands (feet?) of the Czechs, suddenly I didn't feel so unfortunate to miss watching the match, and the envy for the people I knew at the game had shriveled into pity. Many had thought that the U.S. wouldn't advance to the next round of the Cup anyhow, given that they're in the same group as the Czechs (ranked second in the World, behind only Brazil) and the Italians, and that only two of the four teams advance. After yesterday's debacle, however, it will take a miracle (in case of a tie in the standings, goal differential is a factor in determining who advances). And so, after only 90 minutes of the tournament, four years of anticipation have given way to mourning, as now all the U.S. can reasonably do is play for pride (and for a better result than in 1998, when the team was deemed number 32 out of the 32 teams in the tournament).

I guess it's time to restart the four-year-long timer, in anticipation of the 2010 World Cup.

Everything Begins Anew

The wonderful thing about sports is that every season begins with hope. Only one team wears the champion's crown at season's end, so most hopes are dashed, but until then, every fan can dream that her/his team will be the one to win it all.

Yesterday was DC United's season opener, the memory of the 4-0 drubbing that sent us careening out of last year's playoffs diminished by time and an umblemished record in the new season. We hosted Red Bull New York, the rebranded MetroStars, now owned by a company that makes an energy drink (a chant soon followed -- "what a waste of vodka"). This is a team we've dominated for the first ten years of the league, and should have done the same yesterday. But after 18 minutes, we were down 2-0, thanks to a very nice direct free kick from 35 yards out, and a major defensive screw up. While those goals were against the run of play to that time, i.e., United looked to be the better team, for the rest of the half the Red Bulls were playing with confidence and United looked shaken.

United was missing two defenders (one injury, one illness), our starting goalie (injury), and our playmaker (suspension). The absence of the playmaker (Christian Gomez) was felt most acutely, as United struggled to find any offensive rhythm. But with one substitution at halftime, our fortunes changed. Alecko Eskandarian, himself coming off an injury-filled 2005 season, and currently recovering from a sports hernia (and he probably wasn't healthy enough to play the full 90 minutes), scored about 10 minutes after coming on to the field. Ten minutes after that, we tied it up, and that's how the game ended, 2-2.

Ordinarily, a tie on the road is a big lift for the visiting team, and a letdown for the home squad, but given that United came back from a two-goal deficit, the roles were reversed. Hopefully the second half performance signals what will follow during the rest of the season. With Gomez returning from suspension next week, there's no reason to think otherwise.

Vision of Yesteryear

DC United thrashed its opponent, the expansion club Real Salt Lake, in last night's game, 5-1. United was sloppy, and a better opponent likely would have scored a couple more times (and held us to fewer goals). Still, there was plenty of action, which made it fun to see. It was also good to go, as all my recent (and upcoming) travels have conflicted me out of about half my season tickets.

One image that stays with me from last night had little to do with the action on the field. With about a minute to play, RSL had the ball deep in United's defensive end. At midfield, SLC's central defender Eddie Pope, number 23 in the vistors' white, was marking our substitute forward, Jamil Walker, wearing number 23 in home black. Pope was there to prevent Walker from getting an easy goal if United were to regain possession.

Pope was with United for the first seven seasons of the league, starting as a kid taken in the college draft and ending as a perennial all-star and U.S. National Team fixture, a status he still maintains. United's championship in the league's inaugural year was won when the rookie headed the winner in sudden death overtime. The Eddie Pope Foundation, working with underprivileged children, was the charity that our supporters' club gave money to, from our annual charity event -- Pope was genuinely appreciative of the money we raised to support these kids. Even now, nearly three seasons removed from his time with the franchise, I still think of him as one of the mainstays of our team.

No one else was around them, just the ever graceful Pope marking our current number 23, someone we grabbed off the scrap heap at the start of the season. It just seemed wrong, somehow sacrilegious.

Better Lucky than Good

This past Sunday against the MetroStars, DC United took 28 shots, including 14 on goal, dominated throughout the match, and came away with a 0-0 tie. Tonight against the Chicago Fire, United came out lethargic, were outhustled and outmuscled, and found themselves fortunate not to be down more than 2-0 before roaring back (with help from the referees) to win 4-3. United showed a lot of heart in fighting back for the win, one they badly needed after having fallen into a tie in the Eastern Conference cellar.

United's first goal came on a penalty kick after a questionable call. The third one came after a blatant offsides was ignored, inspiring the crowd to chant, "We love the referee," a first in my 10 years of going to games. From then on, however, United had all the momentum, while Chicago showed fatigue and bunkered down in an attempt to salvage a tie on the road. Even though it felt inevitable that United would get the fourth goal and the win, it was anything but, given that the team hadn't scored a single goal in their last their last three games, much less four. When that winning goal came was scored by rookie defender Bobby Boswell, those of us in the Nest and Barra Brava screamed, high fived, and hugged, demonstrating relief together with a hope that this was the game that will send us back into playoff contention.

Still, as I talked with friends while heading out of the stadium, I asked two questions, for which there was universal agreement:
Did we deserve the win? No
Do I care? No

Television News Coverage

The Pope has died. For believers, I'm sure this is sad news, but that's all there is to report.

At halftime, DC United leads Chivas USA 1-0 in a game that was moved from ABC to ESPN to allow for the Pope's death coverage. Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting that the Pope is still dead. ABC News will continue to provide live coverage of this news, just in case anything changes.

Soccer in the Hinterlands

Almost anyone familiar with professional soccer is aware of the Champions League, the European season-long tournament among the best clubs from all over Europe. The Copa Libertadores is the South American equivalent, and is highly regarded, though it pales compared with the Champions League. In this part of the world, we have the CONCACAF (the Confederation Of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Champions Cup, or the CCC, a much smaller (and way less prestigious) tournament that few have heard of even here. DC United won it back in 1998, and we're back in it this year, as a result of winning the MLS Cup this year. There were a couple of rounds played last year, but the top 2 US and top 2 Mexican squads were automatically entered into the quarterfinals. With a second 2-1 victory over Harbor View last night in Jamaica (which I listened to on Internet radio), DC United advanced to the semi-finals, to face UNAM Pumas, with the games April 6 in DC and April 13 in Mexico. It's a good start to the year, as the MLS season hasn't even begun (and doesn't until April 2).

So how does the team look (or more accurately to me, sound)? They seem to be in good shape front and at midfield, especially given they're not exactly in mid-season form. Their clear weakness is the defense, which lost its captain and best defender (possibly in all of MLS) to Blackburn of the English Premiere League (where he's starting and has already been declared the coach's best pickup). Good for Ryan Nelsen, bad for United -- the team is looking for someone to anchor the defense, and without that anchor, it'll be hard pressed to advance in the CCC, or be successful in the MLS regular season.

This year success in the CCC could pay very big dividends. In 1998, United's victory resulted in playing the South American champ (Vasco de Gama from Brazil) in the infrequently-played Inter-American Cup, where United surprised everyone by winning (noteworthy for United, a yawn for the South American squad which was returning from playing the European champion). This year, the winner of the CCC is scheduled to play in an end-of-the-year tournament against the champs from the other continents, with over a million dollar payout to the winners. Big stuff indeed, at least to the small-budgeted CONCACAF-region teams!

I could ramble about the team for much longer, but better to stop here so as not to bore those who are only mildly curious. Go United!

I Hate Preseason!

Still have over 6 weeks until DC United's season opener, even though they've been training for three weeks already! Fortunately they're in the CONCACAF Cup (a tournament for top clubs in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean), so they play a couple of games for that in March. I feel sorry for the fans of clubs that don't have a meaningful game until April 2.

United still intends to add a couple of players to the team over the next few weeks, even though it gets dangerously close to the CONCACAF games (March 9 & 16) -- in the offseason the team lost a couple of top players, in particular their captain, and have made no significant additions. I feel good about the team, but I also feel that we sat still while a lot of teams in the league made significant improvements.

It's weird -- in both soccer and baseball, my team won the championship, and yet, rather than still savoring those championships just a few months after their respective seasons ended, I'm already chomping at the bit ready for the next year to get under way (much more eager for soccer than baseball -- baseball is for boxscores and rotisserie, soccer is for watching).