Mid-Season Review

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So we’ve reached the halfway point of the Barclays Premier League season. Let’s review a bit of
what we’ve learned:

- José Mourinho is a top-three manager in the world. His ability to play his players in their best possible positions is uncanny (It helps when you have a holding midfielder like Matić to provide some responsibility to the side, too), and Chelsea are my odds-on favorite to win the title this year. Yes, that does make me sick to my stomach to admit.

- David De Gea is a top-three goalkeeper in the world. Sure, the relative resurgence of Manchester United has been a team effort, but nobody has stood out like the lanky Spaniard. His heroics and overall solid play have propelled United into the Champions League spots of the league table, and as outfield players like Di María begin to regain full fitness, the sky is the limit for van Gaal’s men.

- Every game matters. Southampton is coming off a summer in which essentially half their team was sold, yet here they sit in the top four. Meanwhile, West Ham lurk just underneath them in fifth, coming out of seemingly nowhere. Why are these two succeeding? Because they take care of business against the smaller teams. The Saints may drop points against the Uniteds and the Chelsea of the BPL, but beating the Sunderlands (while Manchester City drop points against the Burnleys) are what is keeping the underdogs of the league in the European spots of the table.

- The parity is magnificent. Speaking of City and Burnley’s thrilling 2-2 draw, we have ourselves a Premier League table just as open as ever, if not more so. Just a handful of points separate everyone from Manchester United all the way down to Leicester, and this in itself is the appeal of English soccer to the casual fan.

- My fantasy team is absolutely dominating the Temple University league. Rooney, Charlie Austin, Sigurdsson, Ryan Bertrand, David Silva, Eden Hazard, and Christian Eriksen, just to name a few. Tremble in fear, adversaries.

The State of Saints FC

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About a month and a half ago, Southampton's roster was in the process of being absolutely ransacked. Following an incredible season that saw them finish in the top half of the Premier League table, half of their regular Starting XI was sold off to the highest bidders - Luke Shaw to Manchester United, Calum Chambers to Arsenal, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert all to Liverpool, and even Mauricio Pochettino, the manager, to Tottenham. Those departures left the club with quite a lot of vacancies, not to mention about 50% less offensive firepower. Basically, the footballing world was in agreement that they were going to be relegated this year. But Ronald Koeman had different ideas.

The new manager brought in by the Italian ownership was tasked with the difficult job of trying to save the sinking Southampton ship, and he has been attempting to do just that. He brought in some Eredivisie players that he knew about from his time coaching in that league - Dusan Tadic (reigning Eredivisie player of the year) and Graziano Pelle, to be exact. Other notable arrivals under the Koeman administration include Toby Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid, Ryan Bertrand from Chelsea, Sadio Mane from Red Bull Salzburg, Fraser Forster from Celtic, and Shane Long from Hull City.

After this summer full of business and change, the club came out 40 million GBP richer, so the owners must be thrilled. But more importantly than the new additions and the budget surplus is Koeman's emphasis on fostering relationships with the old guard. Vital players from last year, like Jose Fonte, Morgan Schneiderlin, Nathaniel Clyne, and Jay Rodriguez, already have great relationships with the new manager. This is obviously important because of the match experience and the footballing skill that these players bring onto the pitch every weekend.

And the experience has paid off so far. Four games into the season, Southampton sits in fourth place in the BPL, with 7 out of a possible 12 points

To make a long story short: Southampton FC is not going anywhere.

Twinsies!

2:54 PM Unknown 0 Comments

You notice things when you watch as much soccer as I do. Just as a History major notices similarities between different types of governments around the world, or a musician notices how two songs are built off of the exact same chord structure, I tend to notice when a player looks like another person I've seen. Here are some examples of my strange mind's ability to see doppelgangers:

*Disclaimer: I thought of all of these myself. Unfortunately, some of them were thought of by someone else first (also #1, #3, and #7 were my original associations that other people reposted).

1. Jack Rodwell (Manchester City) and Taylor Lautner (Actor)

             

Journey to the World Cup: Day 6

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11am-12:30pm - Again, I had the pleasure of waking up to natural light and a gentle breeze. The four of us spent about an hour lounging around the apartment, listening to some nice music.

1-2:30pm - We took a cab to the Ipanema area, and ate lunch at a restaurant called "Garota de Ipanema." This place is famous for being the birthplace of the fantastic song "The Girl From Ipanema," and you could totally tell how entitled they were by their prices. Regardless, the food was quite good. Before we were even done with our meal, I left because I absolutely couldn't wait to go play soccer.

2:30-5:30pm - I played so much soccer that I think my calves are permanently bigger. Beach soccer is a serious workout. But it's amazing, and it was so beautiful to see people from every corner of the world playing peacefully together, an atmosphere only a World Cup could create.

8pm - After dinner and some hanging out (I had the best smoothie ever and we watched some crazily athletic people play soccer volleyball), we went back to the small restaurant one last time to visit our friends and give our final thanks. As I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out, one of the guys there - Nuny - had brought me a brand new, factory-sealed Manchester United shirt! Everyone in the place clapped when he gave it to me, and we had a mini photoshoot. Afterward, we hung out for another 10 or 15 minutes, then began saying our goodbyes. The town drunk was sad to see me go, but I don't think he actually remembered who I was...

Everyone at the restaurant asked me "Vai voltar?" ("Are you going to return?"), and I told them my life wouldn't be complete until I came back to Rio. Now I have another city in which to search for jobs after graduation!

A life-changing trip.

Journey to the World Cup: Day 5

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I guess you could call today relatively normal. Relatively.

11am-2pm - After the best night of sleep of my life (The breeze from the wide open windows was hitting me gently all night. Incredible.), I woke up and watched the Wimbledon championship match with my dad, Eric, and Kai. Although I was disappointed to watch Federer lose, it was actually kind of nice to watch a little bit of television for the first time in a week.

2:30-5pm - We went to Ipanema again today, which was great. As soon as we got there, I gave my stuff to my dad and ran over to play soccer (I love how there are just goals set up on the beach). After about 90 minutes, my dad came to grab me, because we had to go back home. Even though we had dinner plans at 7:30 at almost the exact location at which we currently were, we had to go all the way back and visit our friends at the restaurant again after they had been so kind to us the previous night. They deserved to be properly thanked again.

6-9pm - So we hung out at the restaurant for about 40 minutes. I drank a Coke, my dad had a bit of beer, and then we took a taxi back to the Ipanema area and met my dad's Brazilian friend from work, Paulo. He was a great guy, and we talked about everything from soccer, to Brazilian politics, to fishing. I also had octopus, which was absolutely delicious. After dinner, we walked a couple stores down and all had some lovely gelato.

10pm-12:30am - With me DJing, my dad and I sat on the balcony, jammed out to some good music, and had deep talks about life. He told me that every success I will have in life will stem from my own sense of confidence and self-worth. So before I start to seek approval from others, I should be confident in myself. Not the other way around.

Journey to the World Cup: Day 4

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10-11am - Everyone slept until 11, but I woke up a bit early, so I spent an hour sitting on the porch, watching people walk by, and listening to Two Door Cinema Club.

11am-12:30pm - We all went down to Copacabana for the FIFA Fan Fest again, but I'm the only one who actually went in(the others just picked a spot on the beach). I was completely stunned by everything going on in the mile-long Fan Fest. Not to mention that Argentina was playing, so there were so many fans decked out in the Albiceleste colors.

1-3pm - The game itself wasn't fantastic, but the experience was. I met this great guy named Tim, who started talking to me because he saw me holding my Southampton kit (a pretty obscure English team). As it turns out, he lives in LA and is a scout responsible for telling Southampton about promising players that he sees around southern California. So basically, wearing this obscure jersey may have landed me free tickets for life at St. Mary's Stadium along the south coast of England.

3-5pm - Between the end of Argentina/Belgium and the start of Holland/Costa Rica, I played beach soccer with a mixture of other tourists and native Brazilian kids. I don't really need to say more, just know that it really taught me how beautiful and unique soccer is.

5-7pm - Oh, this was fun. I went back into the Fan Fest and watched the final quarterfinal game surrounded by about 20 Brazilians kids, probably all around 13 years old, and 6 or 7 Dutch kids who came to support their country. One really small Brazilian boy became completely enamored by this pretty, 18 year old Dutch girl (who I don't think is actually from the Netherlands because she was speaking perfect English to her friends). So I called him a few feet over to me and asked him "Você quer saber como falar em inglês com ela?" Once Holland scored a penalty kick, everyone screamed for joy, and the kid gave the girl a big hug, put his arm around her, and said "I think you are very beautiful. Can I have a kiss?" It was adorable, especially because he said it really smoothly and the girl's friends all giggled at this adorable little ladies' man. I felt like cupid. After a few minutes, the Dutch sealed their victory, and the Dutch girl kissed the boy on the cheek and left with her friends. I tell you, I've never seen a person blush as hard as this little guy did. He gave me a big hug to thank me for teaching him some English, and we both went on our ways.

9-10:30pm - One of the best experiences of my life. Kai, my dad and I went out to grab a quick bite once we got home, and some random guy pulled us into this restaurant and pointed out what food we should have. Once in the place, ANOTHER person recognized my Southampton kit and began talking to me about the time he spent living in England. While my head turned left to talk to him, it turned right whenever the stereotypical weird drunk guy wanted to talk to me. But he was a really awesome weird drunk guy, so here's a picture of us together. Needless to say, the food was incredible. For being such a run-down joint, I was surprised to eat such great food. The rice and chicken soup were the best I've ever had in my entire life. And to top it off, everyone was so nice to me about how well I speak Portuguese, and spent the entire time complimenting me. The three of us now know what it's like to be treated like kings.

Journey to the World Cup: Day 3

5:03 PM Unknown 0 Comments

One of the best days of my life.

9am-12:45pm - My dad and I woke up early to go to the Maracanã, the most historic stadium in the world. France and Germany were playing at 1pm, but we didn't have tickets yet, so we spent almost four hours walking around trying to secretly ask for tickets. Meanwhile, people were getting arrested left and right for trying to sell. By 12:45, my dad and I agreed that it was probably best to just go to Copacabana Beach and watch the game there (I know, our lives are so hard). So we hopped in a taxi surrounded by security guards at 12:50. But by some incredible stroke of luck, the two guys getting out of the car answered "Yes" when we asked them if they had two tickets. Not wanting to get arrested, my dad and I got in the taxi with them and we told the driver to drive in a giant circle. During this short drive, we negotiated our way into acquiring the two tickets (for only about 50% above face value), and I was ecstatic. I was going to the Maracanã.

1-3pm - As soon as we exited the taxi, we both ran as quickly as possible into the stadium. Once I found my section, I went into the bathroom to put on my Perry the Platypus costume, then went to find my seat. The game was everything I've ever imagined it would be: Incredible passion, loud chanting, and tons of people taking pictures with me, the weird dinosaur guy. I'm honored to say that I've now been to THE soccer stadium.

3-4pm - Once the game ended, my dad and I did our whole running thing again, which this time helped us get to the taxis before most people did. We took a ride to Copacabana for the FIFA Fan Fest, which is basically a giant block party to view the World Cup games. And today's was enormous, because Brazil played Colombia at 5 o'clock.

5-11pm - The game went from 5-7, and it was an absolute blast. Tens of thousands of people filled the Fan Fest area, and even more filled the streets to watch the game on all the big TVs. Brazil won the game and clinched a spot in the semifinal, which caused absolute pandemonium. For hours after the game ended, what started as a viewing party turned into the world's largest fraternity party, and it was as insane/fun as it sounds. Beautiful women and handsome men all around me were lifting each other up, screaming into each other's faces, and dancing.

11-11:30pm - Spent thirty minutes in a Brazilian restaurant, watching Brazilian Harlem Shake videos. Gotta love those American imports. 

From being one minute away from not being able to get into the Maracanã, to dancing the night away with random people who were just impressed that I could form sentences in Portuguese, to the random Mexican girl at the Fan Fest who said "Happy 4th of July!" to me, today will live on in my memory forever.

Journey to the World Cup: Day 2

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6:30-7:30am - The taxi ride to the apartment was great. The city is so lively, with beautiful graffiti, and soccer fields as far as the eye can see.

7:30am Rio time - My dad and I take our first step into our apartment, where his friend Eric and Eric's son Kai have already been for a day or two. It is a mind-blowingly fantastic apartment in a great location, and there is even a security gate at the beginning of the neighborhood. Most of all, the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue is RIGHT outside of our window. I'm blown away.

7:45-9am - Now the fun part. Kai goes back to bed after letting us in, while Eric, my dad and I take a walk to get breakfast (we're about a 10 minute walk from the main street with tons of markets and other joints). We stop by this little corner store, where I have an açai smoothie and some pão (bread). While my father has his coffee and cheese balls, I go next door to buy groceries. And by groceries, I mean Oreos, bread, and shampoo. Anyway, as we walked back to our apartment, we ran into this lovely older woman who spoke to us for 30 minutes as she manned her tiny little roadside organic food store. After half an hour of practicing my Portuguese (she was impressed!), we bought a famous Brazilian drink called cachaça, which comes in a wine bottle. I'm not gonna drink it, but I'll live vicariously through my dad on this one.

9am-12pm - Just sat around the house, read my book, exercised, sat on the beautiful balcony, and Skyped Kathryn for an hour. Getting ready for a crazy day.

12-5pm - First of all, the four of us went out to lunch at some random place that we just chose, and it obviously turned out to be fantastic. Then we finally made our way to Ipanema Beach. I wish I could describe to you all how many soccer balls were on this beach. Every ten feet or so, there was a circle of men/women playing keepie-uppie with each other. Elsewhere, there were soccer goals and volleyball nets for people to play, too. Oh yeah, and I met three footballing legends: Christian Vieri, Juan Sebastian Verón (got a selfie with him), and Fabio Cannavaro. All three of them were playing volleyball with a soccer ball, without using their hands, and it was just a beautiful sight. 

5:30-7:30pm - I'll make this part short. My dad and I took the longest taxi ride of all time back to the apartment. Rush hour in Rio is beyond anything you could even dream of.

8pm-bedtime - I plan on spending all night looking online for tickets to the France vs. Germany game tomorrow,  since we technically don't have tickets yet... But don't worry, if we can't find then online, we will definitely just get them from the stadium. Look for me in my Perry costume!

Journey to the World Cup: Day 1

12:37 PM Unknown 0 Comments

Hi guys, long time no speak! Sorry I haven't been keeping the blog off, ever since final exams came around at school, I'm finding it hard to stay motivated with little things like this.

Anyway, I'm off to the World Cup now, on Wednesday July 2nd. My father and I lifted off from DC at 9am local time, and we arrived in Mexico City at 12pm local time. We had five hours to kill before our flight to Rio, so we went to the AeroMexico first class lounge (business class perks that my dad got with his frequent flyer miles). The food was delicious, and they had wifi, which made my young heart very happy. Since this morning, I am now reading a book called "Is God A Mathematician?" which I can already highly recommend to any of my intellectual friends. It's basically about how awesome math is, and how much it can explain about the world around us.

I'm about to hop on my flight to Rio (won't get there until 6am local time, after a ten-hour flight), so I'll leave you all here (with a picture of Mexico City from slightly above) and include my actual arrival in my "Day 2" post.

Até logo! (See you later!)

Have We Hit Bottom Yet?

4:12 PM Unknown 0 Comments

1) United has played 25 Premier League games this season, and they have played 25 different line-ups. No consistency. 

BPL Midweek Update & Transfer Craziness

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As the infamous January transfer window draws to a close, we see many Premier League teams that are desperately signing and selling players to fill holes in squads, or even just to provide backup. When a team like Newcastle parts with their best player, Yohan Cabaye, at the hands of the rich oil tycoons of PSG, you are reminded that money is always everything at the end of the day. As much as the Magpies didn't want to lose the heartbeat of their team, the potential monetary gain was just too juicy to decline. Anyway, let me discuss all the Premier League action this week, and how some of this action wrapped directly into the transfer market.

Manchester United 2-0 Cardiff City. This is a game full of bigger implications; United has just signed one of the best players from their archrival Chelsea (Juan Mata). A brilliant move by the mastermind Jose Mourinho, who waited until his side had already played the Mancunians twice before letting them have his main man. Even more incredibly than the Mata saga is the transfer relationship between Cardiff and Manchester United. Not only did the Welsh club just take two United players on loan for the rest of the season (Fabio and Zaha), but they also stole their youth team manager and turned him into their head coach (Solskjaer).

Southampton 2-2 Arsenal. With transfer speculation swirling around Southampton's young talisman Luke Shaw, the south coast team did well to focus on soccer and get a more than deserved point against the Gunners. Speaking of the North London team, they are going wild this January. Having just obtained Mirko Vucinic on loan, they are desperately trying to get Julian Draxler from Schalke and multiple other players. This time around, manager Arsene Wenger does not seem to want to let the title slip out of his team's grasp.

Tottenham 1-5 Manchester City. Tottenham looks more and more like an English version of Anzhi Makhachkala. In other words, many of their big-name signings from this summer are bailing on them, trying to get transferred away from a team where they never play and don't fit in. This locker room conflict is visible in their recent play, regardless of whether the final scoreline has them winning or losing. If I was Tim Sherwood, I would quickly ship out my three or four unhappy stars and get back to focusing on the game.

Chelsea 0-0 West Ham. Last but certainly not least in terms of transfer implications, Chelsea was held scoreless by a West Ham side that beat the Blues at their own game, 'parking the bus' like I have never seen before. Chelsea has already obtained Mohamed Salah from FC Basel, and have agreed to let Thibaut Courtois stay at Atletico Madrid in exchange for Diego Costa this summer, but their improving attack still failed to find the back of the net yesterday. On the flip side, the Hammers are fighting for their Premier League lives, and a signing like Antonio Nocerino from AC Milan will help them do just that: with a strong center of midfield, consistency will soon follow.

Playing Favorites

10:49 AM Unknown 0 Comments

With the January transfer window in full swing, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on my favorite players in the world, and share a bit of that list with you all. I can't explain my reasoning properly too often, but some of these guys are just my favorites because, well, they are. In no particular order:

Bradley Mistaken: Why MB to TFC is the Wrong Move

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A Rant About Legacy

9:29 PM Unknown 1 Comments

David Moyes was always going to have a tough time inheriting the world's most popular club. His predecessor, Sir Alex Ferguson (yes, he was knighted for how good of a coach he was), was in charge for over 25 years, winning seemingly every trophy that came his way. He was a legend before he even retired. However, his managerial career couldn't last forever, and he and his chewing gum retired at the end of this past season.

Enter Moyes in May of 2013. A manager who did miraculous work on a shoestring budget at Everton, as Ferguson did at Aberdeen. A manager who hails from Scotland, as does Ferguson. And a manager who took over Manchester United in his late 40s, as did Ferguson. I think everyone expected the transition to be seamless; United didn't even lose any key players from last season to this season. Unfortunately for Moyes, though, it has been a tough road. Sir Alex Ferguson left behind him arguably the most powerful legacy in the history of sports. Aside from a shaky first three or four years, he spent two decades building Manchester United into a global brand, winning championships along the way.

So far this season, United is having a tougher time maybe than they have this entire millennium. Moyes has folded under pressure many times in my opinion. He consistently starts players that don't help our chances of winning at all (Tom Cleverley), and is blind to what the team needs to succeed (a defensive midfielder, so that there isn't such a huge gap between midfield and defense for opponent attacking midfielders to get into). Now, I'm not naive. The great Sir Alex Ferguson almost got sacked many times during an average first four years to his Manchester United life. However, he inherited a team near rock bottom, while Moyes has inherited a team with the same core of players that has won the Premier League title two out of the past three years. By that logic, I am willing to give Moyes until the end of next season before I start calling for his head. Two years should be enough time for him and his coaching staff to start realizing what they're doing wrong. I mean come on, it's pretty obvious: just hire me as the manager.

Speaking of legacy, I have been thinking about my own recently. I spent hours lying awake in bed on Christmas Eve, thinking to myself: Boy, if I magically disappeared tomorrow, the nicest thing anyone would have to say about me is that I'm 'nice' or 'compassionate' or whatever other positive personality traits. That's all well and good, but I personally want something a little more tangible. I want to do something throughout the course of my life that will live on long after I'm gone, something that will inspire me to jump out of bed every morning with a sense of purpose. My father knew from the time he was in elementary school that he wanted to study economics, because of something he read in a book. I wasn't fortunate enough to have the same a-ha moment, so I sat down this Christmas Eve and decided to make a bullet list. I started listing every way that a person can leave a lasting legacy, from donating money to winning a Nobel Prize (which apparently my father is not far away from doing). This list slowly started becoming more personal and tailored to myself; for those who don't know me too well, I am studying mathematics, economics, and Spanish in college, all of which I am good at, but I can't say that I am super passionate about anything besides soccer. Anyway, I had been typing nonstop for about an hour before I starting veering more towards stuff that I could realistically achieve.

Then it hit me: I'm going to start a soccer company. I have no name for it yet, but I have a bit of a premise to its operations. Basically, I want to open up different locations around the world, preferably in poor areas and small towns. I want to own a big business that has different soccer schools and camps all over the world. I will make it very affordable for low-income families. Maybe it will just start out as a series of two-week summer camps or something. I will probably start off as the coach myself, until I have the funds to hire professional coaches and trainers. It could keep kids out of trouble or whatever, but mostly I just want to inspire them and give them goals. Whether they find soccer as a fun hobby or a serious passion to be pursued, I will have achieved what I want to achieve. I don't know exactly what I would do in any given day of the camp, but I would love if I spent some time talking about the sport, maybe watching a famous game or two, and then obviously play outside for most of the day. Worst-case scenario, I provide everyone with cleats and shin guards so that everyone has those resources, and bring tubs and tubs of water for hydration. Regardless of specifics, I think this is what I eventually want to do with my life. Obviously I will spend many years in the normal work world until I really have the knowledge of how to start my own business, but I am in no hurry.

Countries start and stop wars over soccer. Cities shut down their roads and buildings on game days. A couple billion people treat it almost like a religion. I just wish to spread that power.

Thank you for reading.