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Getting ready for the world cup

10/19/2015

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The Four Year Review: America's Quest for the Cup 

​"Getting Ready for the World Cup"
(Featured also at Cardinal Publishers, online 10-15-15)
 
The US men’s team squandered the 2015 Gold Cup, took an embarrassing 4-1 defeat with Brazil last month, lost the huge match with Mexico this past Saturday (missing the opportunity to play in the 2017 Confederations Cup) and took a defeat on October 13, 2015 against rival Costa Rica. On top of that, Klinsmann sent home the very player he called the “best outside right back” in the last World Cup. Everything is falling apart. Summing up these events, on October 13, 2015, commentators said, "Where's the creativity going to come from?" and "Change has to happen,” according to Taylor Twellman on ESPN. Referring to this moment in defeat, Bob Ley, also of ESPN, said it’s “…As large a crisis as we’ve seen in US [soccer] history.”
   When asked by his commentating partner, "What creativity?" Twellman did not divulge a detailed answer. But he, along with any passing observer, can easily attest that something is off: a US men’s crisis in 2015. Fans have buckled down at the bar, drinking this expensive cocktail, combining trepidation with hope and optimism for over twenty years, leaning on Donovan – who brought a different attitude, exuding the confidence that screamed with a laid back LA accent “we can beat anyone, anytime” – with Dempsey later coming to his side, saddling up, creating a partnership, and, more importantly, acting as the clear replacement to Donovan whenever he would leave the team, which recently has come to fruition. Both players, whether you liked them or not, had a “knack” – that ability to add a dangerous pass which other players cannot deliver just the right way. It can be likened to the insight Herrera is currently providing Mexico in the midfield; a layman might miss the nuanced flair he’s producing, but it’s profound. In the most recent 3-2 Mexico loss, Dempsey was absent much of the game, however, his few deft passes were effective, leading to near scores. He’s the leader, adding that extra element for his teammates. Every team has one. Messi, C. Ronaldo, Herrera and Guardado, Ramos and Preki, as well as Zidane and Platini in past years. If Dempsey, who is already battling injuries, goes down with another more serious injury, it would be very grim for the team’s immediate future. What bothers people is the lack of any obvious protégé waiting in the wings.
   You can’t mention Freddy Adu without someone checking your temperature, and then you’re accused of heresy. Yet, the same formula has been tried over and over, and look where it’s gotten us. The larger point is that it’s not about Adu or Dempsey carrying the team on their back. It’s about fielding a group of players in their likeness. There have always been guys like them, and there always will be. They’re out there. The idea is to corral them at the same time. The beauty of the American fan is they will see this through, much like how Cub fans have stood by their team through two world wars, a moon landing and the introduction of the iPhone.
   At this point, with the same mental approach, with the same lineup malfunctions, the team might be heading down a dark path, very far away from seizing the ultimate destination: A World Cup title. With the right approach and lineup, I believe winning the World Cup could happen in 2018, with US players standing next to the trophy. As crazy as that sounds. But it’s up to the President and coaching staff – who have operated in a vacuum for years – to approach things with a drastically new vision.
Who knows, it at this point it couldn’t get any worse…could it?


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fifa suspensions, blatter and platini

10/9/2015

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PictureBlatter reacts to a protester tossing money in the air. (Photo, Reuters.)

10-8-15

The "Emergency Summit" might be coming soon; an international roundtable of soccer leaders solving their problems like never before.           
​Both Sepp Blatter (the President of FIFA) and Michel Platini (the President of UEFA) were suspended for 90 days, by FIFA. It was a turn of events that took over news broadcasts around the world, yet again. After recovering from the troubles with FIFA five months earlier, things just got worse instead of better for the image of the grand old soccer body. A number of FIFA members requested an emergency Executive Committee meeting to cover their tracks for the time being, to keep the organization of world football in place. At this point, Platini was the President of UEFA, anticipating the move to replace Blatter as FIFA President. Any help from UEFA at this point, to lift the ban of Platini in any regard, would have led to ethical troubles. On top of the ethical troubles that already were there.
           The FIFA website described, in brief, the interim President, Issa Hayatou, leaving out the allegations of corruption that have followed him since 2010. People around the world were saying, “Surprise, surprise.” Hayatou is from Cameroon, born in 1946, a former soccer and basketball player who became a physical education teacher, later stepping into the role of General Secretary of the Cameroonian Football Federation from 1985-88, eventually becoming the President of the CAF (Confederation African de Football), acting as a FIFA Vice President since 1992. His immediate task as interim President was pretty clear:  Desperately try to settle things down, while acting as normal as possible, until a vote can take place for the position of full-time FIFA President.
            The suspension was also placed on FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke. Valcke, Platini and Blatter had the ban placed on them by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee led by Hans Joachim Eckert. For ninety days the ban will block the three men from all national and international football related activities. FIFA rules state that after the ninety days go by, there is the option to continue the ban, but not exceeding forty-five days. (Not one to draw a big crowd, but also thrown into the mix, was the former FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-Joon, accused of corruption, who was charged 100,000 Swiss Francs and banned for six long years.) To many, the suspension of Blatter is a long time in the making. The heat was really thrown onto Blatter back in May of 2015, as intense investigations promised to bring him to justice. As of 10-8-15, he was accused of giving Platini an illegal payment/bribe/helping hand of over a million dollars. UEFA made no urgent attempt to name a replacement President, noting that they would comply with the arrangements made within the FIFA ban of Platini. After all, the replacement that would have stepped into Platini’s shoes, as UEFA interim President, was Angel Villar Llona, who was dealing with an Ethics Committee investigation for not cooperating with an inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. With humility and disgrace, UEFA announced that Platini would step aside, from his official duties, for the time being, as the President of UEFA. As of 10-8-15 he did not attend UEFA meetings and cancelled multiple business-related trips.
            Lost in the wilderness of allegations and corrupt votes and bribes and legal cases, Platini was thought by many to take over the post of FIFA President, held by the battered, tattered Blatter.
With this suspension, that position was yet again up in the air, for the next bidder. The necessary pieces that coincide with this post have been mired in past allegations of corruption and foul play like a list of horses that have failed at the Triple Crown. There were problems in the past and this trend continues, seemingly forever, into the future.

​

​After suspending Blatter and seizing his personal items for further scrutiny, members of the Swiss Secret Service have unearthed personal belongings integral to understanding the thought process of former President, Sepp Blatter. From Blatter's personal journal*, the following is a hand-written diagram for getting back into the President's seat: 

Key
Blatter (me)
BP (Bad People)
President

Diagram 1
Blatter                BP1       BP2           President

Diagram 2

                            BP1      
                            Blatter                    President
                            BP2

Diagram 3
                            BP1
                                                            Blatter :) :) :)
                            BP2

*Eh, not really.

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    Shane Stay, author of This Is Our CITY, THE World Cup 2022 Book, THE World Cup 2018 Book.

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