I don’t usually go into these places, but since we tend to follow Landon Donovan, and this story about a possible reconciliation with wife Bianca Kajlich is all over the web, well … Landon started this on Wednesday night with some post-match references to Bianca, who filed for divorce last summer. And then he spoke […]

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USA 1, Algeria 0. Big events like this one, ideas pop into your head hours, days later. You look around, you make more connections and wonder “why didn’t I think of this sooner and write about it?” Each of these items is worthy of its own blog entry. Still, I’m going to mention all of […]

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Had it all the way. Sort of a strange way to see the United States national team in its do-or-leave match with Algeria. A day off for us here in Abu Dhabi, so no flat-screen TV in the office, which is just as well. Hard to watch when you’re working. And the Yanks played at […]

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British sports journalists use the word “brave” a lot, cheapening it, in the process. If you are an underdog and don’t get blown out? “Brave.” If you fall behind early but hang around? “Brave.” “Brave,” however, almost always refers to a loser. “Thanks for not going belly up” is the conceptual undertow.  Which isn’t brave […]

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Wow. Was that fun! Show up with a vastly inferior team, smaller, slower, less-creative and less-skilled, withstand all but one of about 50 scoring chances, get a fluke goal that slips through the keeper’s Mickey Mouse mitts and trickles across the line at about 1 mph … and escape with a point in the World […]

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I am writing this from the terraced bar area of the quirky Bristol Hotel in the little Amalfi Coast town of Vietri. We left Sicily two days early and powered halfway up the Italian boot yesterday. Now, we’re back to overlooking the sea … near the end of our Italian vacation. In a few minutes, […]

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I have no major issues with Bob Bradley’s choices for the 23-man final U.S. roster for the 2010 World Cup, announced today. Are there some guys on the squad who don’t exactly shout out “global elite” when you hear their names? Absolutely. All but maybe a half-dozen guys, actually. Are there a batch of players […]

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Landon Donovan is clever enough to have done this on purpose. He might not be devious enough, though. Anyway, whatever went through his head … pretty much count on it getting into England’s. Landon today was quoted by yahoo.com as saying that 1) England superstar forward Wayne Rooney seems tired and that 2) all the […]

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Colorful words. Beefcake and cheesecake. Interesting. Odd. One is guys with most of their clothes off. The other is girls. But what about cheesecake makes you think of women? Maybe guys can be beefy, but can’t they also be porky? Why not porkcake? But I digress. In this case, we are in the beefcake realm. […]

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Interesting concept. Landon Donovan returning to Redlands for an episode of an ESPN series entitled “Homecoming with Rick Reilly.” Turns out you don’t just go home … you go home with Rick Reilly, the former Sports Illustrated columnist who is now the “other guy” columnist at espn.com. The other guy to Bill Simmons, that is. […]

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