The Day After Christmas rant

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - if you're like me, it was filled with good times with friends, family, and Cristiano Ronaldo jerseys under the tree.

*Speaking of Ronaldo, I received an extra present in the form of Comcast SportsNet broadcasting the December 23rd Manchester United-Everton match. Let me assure you that the stupid smile on face remained plastered to my face from 1:30-2:00pm as caught the final 20 or so minutes of the match. Much to my delight, it was Ronaldo himself that scored both ManU goals (one from the run of play, the other a penalty), which afforded me even greater Christmas joy.

*I feel like I should preface every sorry story of how I miss my football with "by the way, I don't have digital cable, and thus, I must brave the winter without regular EPL, La Liga, and Bundesliga matches on Fox Soccer and GolTV." But adding to the offseason blues is the fact that Cox Communications no longer broadcasts "The World Game" on channel 3 on Friday nights. Sure, the content was dated by three weeks, but the hour-long program allowed me to take a giant slurp of the global landscape, including lesser known Asian, African and Australian leagues. My Friday nights this winter are definitely duller without my weekly world football fix.

*I would have loved to have caught El Super Clasico on Sunday afternoon, but without GolTV, I consider myself lucky to have caught some highlights on ESPN while I jogged away on the treadmill at the gym. How about that goal-scoring sequence involving Ruud van Nistelrooy and Julio Baptista? The duo played the give-and-go, as Baptista fed it forward to van Nistelrooy, who played it right back to a gatecrashing Baptista inside the box, and volleyed the bouncing ball right into the back of the net. Sheer brilliance.

*Also wanted to give kudos to the guys at BlueBloodedJourno.com, a fantastic Revolution-related blog that has wonderfully morphed into a nice little newsite. I've updated the URL on "My Links" tab, so by all means, feel free to check it out. Tell them the Sunday Morning Striker sent you!

Deck the Halls with MLS teamgeist match balls

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the hall, not a creature was stirring, not even a mini MLS Teamgeist replica ball.

It’s now Christmas Eve. But, unlike many merry holiday seasons past, I must shamefully admit that the holiday cheer has largely escaped me this year.

Why? In an elongated thirty-two word answer: it is because of my insatiable desire to keep the oxygen I breathe sufficiently saturated with soccer, which is no easy task without the live-action variety to speak of ‘til spring.

To compensate for said soccer deficiency, I’ve gone to the ends of the earth (figuratively, of course) via the internet and television to devour any form of soccer I can transfix my eyes and ears upon. A recorded Champions League match here, an indecipherable Portuguese Liga radio telecast there, it makes little difference to me, as long as it’s still soccer. Calling me "preoccupied" would be kind - the most accurate assessment could be "obsessed." Thus, with the holidays firmly upon us, I must confess that much of the holiday merriment in recent weeks has been lost due to this unquenchable devotion.

Now, I know how the Christmas carols go, and for the bulk of the globe’s football-loving continents, it is indeed The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. After all, Spain has its La Liga, England its Premier League, and Germany its Bundesliga, and lucky for their fans, all are in the midst of their seasons. But here in the States, the last signs of soccer flickered away last Sunday with the NCAA Men’s College Cup Final. After Wake Forest triumphed over Ohio State with obvious glee, the door on the country’s soccer season was effectively slammed shut for many American soccer fans.

Thus, the blustery winter gusts doth wrap its chilly grasp around thee,

Alas there’s no more soccer to be seen, save for that on the telly.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a small sample of what I have been tragically reduced to: a horrible infusion of Christmas carols and my woeful tale of how I miss football. Egads…

I beg your pardon if I sound like a Scrooge, cursing the decorated pine trees and the mischievous mistletoe in an overt attempt to keep the coals stoked throughout an unforgiving offseason. But while Scrooge was consumed with the supernatural, he never had, to the best of my knowledge, a local side to cope without in the months following the winter solstice.

It may not seem like it based on the above, but I really do love Christmas and New Year’s. It really is a wonderful excuse to mingle with the non-annoying family members and friends. I truly enjoy all of the festivities and family traditions that the season brings about - decorating house, drinking hot cocoa…and dreaming of carefully-wrapped Dempsey, Dorman and Figo jerseys under the tree.

Contrary to society’s definition of the holiday, Christmas (aside from the obvious and equally important religious connotations) is much more than just a twenty-four hour block devoted to gift giving, eggnog drinking, and shoulder slapping.

To me, Christmas is a full slate of matches that bookend my spring and summer weekends. It’s full-throttle action from the moonrise on Friday night through sunset on Sunday evening. It’s a mild and sunny Saturday afternoon on Fox Point that promises a virtual soccer marathon comprising of back to back to back…to back matches that all feature amateur clubs duking it out on balding neighborhood pitches. Christmas isn’t waking up in the morning to approach the pine tree in the living room corner; it’s finding myself on the other side of the Seekonk River to watch the Mexican Soccer League sides monopolize an entire Sunday afternoon at India Point Park. Christmas is taking a thirty-minute drive to watch an all-important televised match at a dear friend’s house. It’s playing a little game of kickabout with my young cousins, and teaching them about the game I love so dearly. In fact, with the region’s recent snowfall depriving me of ample footing to at very least kick the ball around, it definitely does not feel like Christmas to me.

In essence, soccer is Christmas - at least within the parameters of my own little universe. Lucky for me, Christmas comes more than once a year.

My soccer-soaked Christmas List

For my kind, well-compensated readers and rich potential stalkers, here are the soccer-related items on my Christmas list this year:

1. 2007-08 Fulham FC Clint Dempsey jersey. For obvious reasons.

2. 2007-08 Newcastle Michael Owen jersey. I put this on my list because I've been watching "Goal! The Dream Begins" like an incessant fiend. The flick features the main character playing for Newcastle. After the twelfth viewing, I became a sucker for the black and white strip.

3. 2007-08 AC Milan Kaka' jersey. First, because he's like the best player in the world, and the black and red kit is actually one of my favorite kits to begin with. Second, because I don't have any Serie A kits as of yet. Last, because I think it would be pretty cool to walk around the mall with a jersey that has "Kaka'" on the back. I think it would be conversation starter, for real.

4. 2007-08 Internazionale Luis Figo jersey. Hey, I wanna be prepared when he comes to play for the Revs.

5. 1979 New England Tea Men throwback jersey. I could actually write a 50-page dissertation on why I would love to find this jersey under the tree, but for the sake of everyone's sanity, I'll keep it to a couple of sentences. I love this jersey because I love throwback jerseys in the first place (I've got at least 20 NFL throwbacks already), and it's a soccer throwback (don't see too many of those on the streets). Plus, it's a garish ketchup & mustard red and yellow, which is also sure ot be a conversation starter at the next Revs/MLS game.

6. UEFA Champions League DVD. Per my previous entry, Champions League and Christmas go together like Becks and Loos...er, Posh.

7. The World Cup: The Ultimate Guide to the Greatest Sports Spectacle in the World (by Fernando Fiore). I already have a vast collection of books on the World Cup, but I always seem to learn something new about the Cup with every book I read on it. One of the few World Cup-oriented books that I don't yet have.

8. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Soccer: The Definite Illustrated Guide to World Soccer (edited by Keir Radnedge). I don't have a coffee table just yet, but when I do, I'll place this fantastic book upon it to for all of my house guests know that I care that they should care about the world's game. That, in addition to the fact that it would actually be an interesting coffee table book, rather than one of those cliche'd art books or a pictorial of the world's seven natural wonders.

Thursday morning...rant?

A couple of dangling thoughts this morning...

-After the MLS Cup back on the 18th, I thought I had seen my last live match until 2008. I was wrong.

Last night, I took a quick drive over the Washington Bridge and took in the Brown-Old Dominion second round NCAA Tournament match over on the East Side. I had never been to Brown to see soccer, but my first time there was a pretty memorable, despite the freezing temperatures (and the lack of hot beverages as regulation waned).

My first impression of top-tier NCAA soccer: astounding. Whether I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or if this was typical of all tournament caliber sides (I'm leaning toward this theory), but every player was so technically sound that I almost thought I was watching an MLS match. If there was a weak link or player on the pitch, he disguised himself well. I mean really, I would have bet dollars to doughnuts that either OD or Brown could have easily bothered more than a handful of MLS sides that I won't mention right now. The action was extremely brisk and high-paced, surely benefitting the players who ran around the pitch surrounded by the chilly Providence air.

I missed the initial goal, which was scored by OD within the first fifteen, according to a fellow spectator to my right, as I stood atop a metal bleacher for the entire match. Brown equalized in the second half after a flurry of corners that finally struck gold when Kevin Davies converted a David Walls outswinger into paydirt. After regulation and a first overtime failed to separate the clubs, the match went into its second OT. Ambane Emmanuel broke through the backline and floated an impeccably weighted shot over the Brown keeper for the golden goal in the 107th.

Overall, it was a great to experience what it now likely to be the last live action I'll see until February, when Revolution try outs take place. The college crowd at major soccer colleges like Brown is lively and spirited, especially among the student section, which chanted "Let's go Bruno" and jeered the opponent throughout. In a remarkable contrast of crowd emotion, the place went almost dead silent after OD's golden goal. No boos, no howls...just stunned silence. It was as if someone had literally clicked the "mute" button on the remote.

Too bad it took me until the dead of autumn to discover Brown soccer. A wonderful squad (although no match in my heart for my beloved RIC sides) that I'll most certainly have to watch again next season.

-After watching consecutive Champions League matches (Manchester United-Sporting & Chelsea-Rosenborg), I almost forgot how much I associate CL matches with Christmas. I don't know what it is- perhaps it's a combination of that neon-lit multi-paneled shell of a ball that menaces the Bravia commercials (which amazingly fails in any attempt to be cheesy) and the time of the year invokes wonderful memories of Yuletide cheer and European football.

Speaking of Champions League, did you see that incredible Cristiano Ronaldo goal in extra time? From a free kick about 25 yards out, the Portuguese unleashed a fantastic curling ball that arched into the top far post for Manchester's game-winning goal. His reaction was hilarious...he shrugged his shoulders and sported a pseudo-frown like "that was nothing." Priceless.