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!

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.

RTP, Portugal-Serbia, and Euro 2008

I didn't appreciate Radio Television Portugal (RTP) until the first time I watched Cristiano Ronaldo weave through defenders like Francois Tolour through the security lasers in Ocean's Twelve.

Since then, the channel has become one of my favorite destinations after NESN, ESPN and Comedy Central. Although my understanding of the Portuguese langauage is limited, despite my Portuguese roots, I manage to sit in front of a TV screen for 2 hours, hardly understanding what is being said, due to the fact that the channel feeds live Portuguese Liga (or BWIN Liga if you are the commercially inclined-type) and Portuguese National Team matches.

I was lucky enough to catch the final 20 minutes of the Portugal-Belgium Euro qualifying group game last Saturday. Lucky, because although I didn't catch the entire match, I was able to find out about the next match (vs. Serbia) thereafter and plan accordingly...

So, now that I've wasted three paragraphs of divulging in needless background details, I TiVo'd the Portugal-Serbia match while at work, and took it in upon my release from the shackles of my cube.

First impressions: the Portuguese are a sharp, offensive minded team which is surely aided by the presence of the world's best player in Ronaldo, and a Brazilian manager, Luis Felipe Scolari. That being said, the side was very much on attack mode despite the misleading 1-1 draw. Tiago's long bloop of a goal in the 5th minute gave Portugal and early 1-0 lead. With Bosko Jankovic's 37th minute header from a corner, Portugal looked like it had answers in many golden opportunities. Ronaldo & Co. had their chances, but just could not get the go-ahead goal past the remarkable Vladimir Stojkovic, the Serbian keeper who did well to frustrate the maroon and green.

If there was one positive that could be drawn from this match (no pun intended), it was that Portugal remained tied in the 2nd slot of Group A (along with Finland) for Euro 2008 with 11 points, five behind group leader Poland. The top two countries advance past of group stage.