the obligatory soccer post....

Katie and I have adopted the Tottenham Hotspurs as our favorite soccer team. We had fun watching the World Cup this summer, and she enjoys me telling her stories of watching soccer with her mother. Becky played soccer as a youth and early teenager, and she was a very good goalie - to hear her tell it, anyway - but she didn't like playing the position because she didn't get to run around. I think she even eventually quit playing because the coach of her team would not promise not to make her the goalie.

So it is funny to me that she always identified with the goalie. She hated penalty kicks as a concept. Not just to decide World Cup games, but anytime. And she always cheered for the goaltender. US could have been one penalty kick away from a World Cup title (as if), and she would have been cheering for a Russian goaltender.

So I have been watching some soccer; we have two whole channels on direct tv that are soccer channels, which is totally cool. I decided on the English league because it is better than MLS, or at least snootier. And I decided on the English league because I can understand the commentators, who are fabulous. First they break out great words like aplumb in their description of the games. Then they crap all over both teams if they get bored watching the game. I was watching one game where the first half was not terribly exciting, and the pace of the game to start the second half was much better. And I know I won't say this exactly right, but the one guy said, "I wonder what the coaches put in the halftime tea," and the other guy said, "I wish they put it in the pregame tea."

That is the kind of commentary you will never hear here because American broadcasters do not trust the games to sell themselves. There was a play later when a ball was kicked well over the head of a player, who as he turned twisted his legs together and fell in a heap, and the commentator says, "A sniper evidently took out Keane."

But enough about the announcers. We have picked the Spurs because we are already Spurs fans. And I have had my first soccer disappointment of the season already - and the first match isn't for two weeks. My favorite Spurs player from the matches I have seen from last year is an Egyptian by the name of Mido, and it turns out he has joined the Rome team this off-season. One of the sparkling midfielders has gone to Manchester United, the Yankees of the premier league. (Or should I say the Yankees are the ManU of of the major leagues?) But any team with Paul Robinson on it will be a threat to put up a clean sheet any time they hit the pitch.

Oh, yeah. I am even getting hip to the lingo.

And Arsenal sucks.