The two things I know the most about. Luckily then there were significant events that occurred in both spheres within the past 24 hours. Why not discuss? Late last night, the USA played a world cup qualifying match against Costa Rica, in Costa Rica. And today, President Obama gave a speech in Egypt, offering the proverbial olive branch to the Muslim world and discussing the problems we face & common interests we share.
First, soccer. Apparently the US has fared very poorly when playing in Costa Rica, with their last goal entering last night coming in 2000. And this poor play continued into last night. The two countries were ranked one and two, respectively, in the region's ongoing world cup qualifying competition, and so were essentially a lock to get into South Africa next summer when the big dance will be happening. I can't help but think that this affected US play.
The match was plagued with lackadaisical US defending and an absence of dangerous US offensive sequences. The game was on turf, which I find is a huge advantage to the player on the ball over their defenders because of the speed at which the ball moves across the pitch. The Costa Rican midfielders used this to their advantage and moved the ball around us with sharp passing. The US on the other hand could not get the ball up to their forwards enough to possess and play through balls. Part of the credit ought to go to Costa Rican defending; they never gave our dangerous forwards the freedom to control the ball and play back or turn and take them on dribbling.
Our defense on the other hand was a completely different story. Granted, we were without the shifty Freddy Heidjiuk (sp?) who was out with injury. Still these boys should know what "ball pressure" means and how to step up to meet & slow down attacking midfielders with the ball. Instead, we sat back and let the Costa Ricans own the great bubble above our defense, and gave up three goals as a result. Bradley, the coach, needs to work on defensive tactics. Switching to a 4-4-2 would help by providing a defensive midfield presence, but more importantly is getting our guys to step quicker and understand when to pressure and when to sit, with more focus on the former.
I've come to the conclusion that Bradley's son is the best player we've got. I think he played for UVA but I could be wrong. The kid knows how to get, hold, and distribute the ball better than anyone we've got. He also makes good decisions with his passes, which are usually headed to the place where they will cause the most distress for defenders.
That said, the coach's subbing decisions were questionable. At half he took out one of the quickest midfielders we've got, Torres (who I was watching play for the first time but was immediately impressed with), in favor of the slower Klejidian (sp again, wtf is it with these weird names). This is a serious failure to misunderstand the great benefits of quick midfielders on the quick pitch. He also failed to sub out some of our older players who were constantly losing the ball and getting circles run around them by the Costa Ricans. I hope to see a more dynamic and flexible subbing routine when we play Hondouras on the 8th.
Now, for Obama's speech. Here is a link to the text, given at a university in Egypt. It is classic Obama; identifying problems and interests that the West & Muslim people share, and pledging to work beyond decades of mutual ignorance and hubris to attack these problems together. He discusses inter alia the Isreal & Palestinian problem, nuclear proliferation, and spreading & recognizing democracies.
He dances skillfully between acknowledging the legitimate interests of the Muslim people and praising their rich history, and also pleading with them to recognize their great responsibility (one of the more frequently used words in the speech) to promote peace, tolerance, and human rights, in areas in which they're sovereign.
It's something when the text, let alone video, of a speech can give you goose bumps. But this one does it. Towards the end he outlines some of the actions that the government plans on taking to help promote healthy US- Muslim relations, and a good deal of it has to do with sharing resources in research settings and establishing financing mechanisms to assist small Muslim organizations and people working to promote some of the ideals that he outlines.
Kudos to the speechwriter.
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