September 20, 2007 by wilmington.

The quarterfinals are set for the Women’s World Cup 2007:

> Germany v. N.Korea (4:55am (EST) Saturday ESPN2): This game should be unbelievable. The Germans will be very well-rested - the N. Koreans are machines who never stop running. See previous post re: the skills of the N.Koreans. In terms of total soccer quality and for a stylistic match-up, this could be (if both teams play on form) one of the best women’s soccer games ever played.

> U.S.A. v. England (7:55am (EST) Saturday ESPN2): A real challenge for the U.S. England has one of the best goal-scorers playing right now in Kelly Smith, and the U.S. has not played their game (possess in mid-field, pull outside backs up to serve, and vary long balls and through balls on the flanks and in the center) other than in spurts. Lily is off form due to constant man-marking, and players are getting frustrated without feeling the usual rhythm. See previous post for comments about England and then add the fact that they are definitely playing at peak performance and confidence after a great game against Germany. We will have really earned a semi-final place if we make it.

The other quarterfinals are on Sunday, same times on ESPN2 with Norway playing China first and then Brazil playing Australia second.

Official Ambassador predictions:
N.Korea will upset Germany and U.S.A. will defeat England for a semi-final re-match.
Brazil will beat Australia and Norway(?) will either score first and hold on to win 1-0 or win in P.K.’s.
Teams who could win the whole thing (depending on team chemistry/confidence - enormously important in women’s soccer): Germany, U.S.A., Brazil.

If you miss any of the live games, check www.soccertv.com for re-plays on Galavision and/or Univision/Telemundo etc.

> A movie to watch and listen to carefully without interruptions:
“Blue” (and the other two parts of the “Three Colors” trilogy - “White” and “Red” as well) is beautiful, sad, hopeful, angry, and almost transcendent. A film in which the music is intricately tied to plot as well as tone. Juliette Binoche is perfect. The music in question throughout the film, sung in the original Greek, is from 1 Corinthians 13 - the passage that ends “but the greatest of these is love.”
This is a small film in that it just follows one woman through a few urban and small town settings. It ends up feeling and sounding enormous, though, even before you factor in all of the overlaps (characters or places or even colors) that just pop in from time to time…and then end up being key moments in the other two films!

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September 18, 2007 by wilmington.

> I mentioned the magazine (and its online site) “First Things” last time. In the October issue, the theologian (some say “ethicist”) Stanley Hauerwas writes about the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. I guess all involved knew I was taking a seminar on MacIntyre. Nice of them.

> N.T. Wright will be at Baylor in October. His massive study (the 3rd in his series on Christian origins) “The Resurrection of the Son of God” makes the historical case - using just about every tool available - for the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. I’ve been looking forward to meeting Wright for over 9 years…have read at least 10 of his books, scholarly and “pop,” and I still have no idea what I will say to him.

> Random recommendations from the music archives at the home embassy (now that I’ve recovered from a strange 2 year hiatus in my otherwise uninterrupted 18 years of intense jazz listening): Miles Davis “Nefertiti”; Wynton Marsalis “Live at Blues Alley”; Duke Ellington -anything from the late 1930’s; John Coltrane “Crescent”; Michel Camilo “Live at the Blue Note.”

> Remember that you can leave comments here (a quick registration is necessary) and, hopefully, start a conversation with others.

Soccer
> The Women’s World Cup 2007 is proving more dramatic than most people expected (those few, sadly, who are payng attention). The U.S. will play its final game of the group stage - against Nigeria - in about 8 hours (Tuesday, 9/18, ESPN 7:55am Eastern). If the U.S. wins, we won’t have to play Germany in the first knock-out stage.
Teams to watch (set VCR’s/DVR’s):
> North Korea is a huge surprise. Against the U.S. they were machines - velcro touch, constant movement, inch-perfect passing, tight marking. They are a threat.
> Germany is Germany, dammit, but there are chinks in the armor - possibly internal tension - and not as much swagger.
> England looked better than ever. Like the N. Koreans and many of the European teams, they’ve obviously been training with excellent men’s and boy’s teams (an observation Julie Foudy made, so don’t get P.C. on me). The dark horse.
> The U.S. is not firing on all cylinders. But…we have Lily, Wambach, Pearce, and Boxx. If you are a student of athletics or an observant fan, you cannot look at Wambach and Lily without recognizing that look that tells you: no matter what, her team has a chance to win while she’s in the game.
Positives: unlike the painful and dreadful approach that April Heinrichs used in the semifinal loss to Germany in the last World Cup (”drive up the flank, cross the ballinto the box, no matter how many times Germany just clears it away” and then I’ll wait to put Tiffeny Millbrett in until it’s too late), Greg Ryan has the team prepared to vary it’s attack! It’s beautiful!
Negatives: the technicality of the U.S. players - see above for “velcro touch, constant movement, inch-perfect passing, tight marking” - has not progressed as it obviously has for N.Korea and England. This is distressing, because if we had recruited for this and trained for this, nobody could touch us.

The single thing that will win this World Cup: confidence expressed as bold, almost arrogant swagger. It wins championships.

Next time…Flannery O’Connor.

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August 28, 2007 by wilmington.

In the matter of Mr. Beckham…

PRO: The guy has played well, he’s showed as much heart as at any time in his career, and he’s clearly chosen to lead and has been accepted by his teammates as the leader! Witness the fight he showed when getting right up in the face of players who commit nasty fouls on him…and the way his teammates sprint to his aid and back him up. The L.A. Galaxy have a chance to win a tournament championship the SuperLiga Championship[vs. Pachuca, Wednesday night, 11pm EST, on TeleFutura] because of his play last week.
CON: The L.A. Galaxy are a bad team. Several good players, good guys, but it’s a bad team that plays badly and has bad, if not cursed, luck. See the usual soccer sites for a list of reasons (scheduling, playing Beckham injured, not sticking to a clear plan). Though it is highly, let’s put that in caps and bold it - HIGHLY unlikely that they can beat Pachuca…but if they do, I wonder if a championship in such a disastrous year will pull focus from the fact that just about everything else went wrong.

One hope - they did what every serious team in the world (whether England, Spain, Italy, etc) does when they recognize the chance to win something: they wrote off part of their season and focused on winning something, anything. The Galaxy played a reserve squad against Colorado and rested Donovan, Pavon, Beckham and others. It was a blatant sign that they’ve written off the MLS season and playoffs…and probably the only good decision they’ve made in months.

U.S. Under-17 World Cup team:
The coach made tough changes, the guys battled hard…beat Belgium and made it to the Quarterfinals of the World Cup. They play GERMANY at 6:45am EST on ESPNU.

Stuff to make your brain feel good:
Politics, Religion and Theology, Philosophy, Culture: www.firstthings.com

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August 14, 2007 by wilmington.

OK - some self-study assignments for the interested and marginally motivated…

Major League Soccer (our top American professional league, for those of you who know only of the sports world presented by ESPN) is in the middle of its most interesting,and often exciting, year yet. All the Beckham drama has generated interest, media coverage, larger crowds and viewership, and merchandise sales - -  so people have no excuse NOT to be aware of the truly soccer-specific good things going on in MLS.

The Houston Dynamo, New England Revolution, and D.C. United (and a few others) play consistently exciting and often excellent soccer. With as much objectivity as I can muster as a Dynamo fan, I have to say that Houston has shown genuinely top class soccer for large stretches of its season. The SuperLiga game tonight (semi-finals in this new mini-tournament between top MLS and Mexican clubs) between Houston and Pachuca is the third time these in-form teams will meet within the last 6 months. It’s likely to be the best game played in this hemisphere this week. See it on Telemundo tonight at 9pm (central) and tell me what you think.

Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this past weekend. It completes Rowling’s growth as a writer (or this stage, at least), and, though I won’t say yet that it’s my favorite or that it’s the best of the series - Goblet of Fire still has my vote for now - I will say that it is both satisfying and surprising. I think that’s rare for a series like this. If you haven’t already, see my previous note below for links to reviews and essays about the latest film and last 2 books (particularly the one by Thomas Hibbs).

Still letting the end of the Patrick O’Brian series sink in - but quite sure that I will never allow myself to finish two big series within a few weeks of each other. The surprising losses in the last 3 O’Brian books, reading the final book, plus finishing Harry Potter (and a graduate French class)….I’m pretty drained. Not quite verklempt, mind you, but talk amongst yourselves for a moment on a topic of your choosing.

Though it includes a “spoiler” about an important character (without mentioning the book in which the event happens), I’ll link here to an appreciation of “O’Brian by David Mamet (famous playwright, director, acting theorist, founding person in the Atlantic Theatre Company and its subsequent “movement”). http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/011700mamet-writing.html

Finally - no time for details, but I’m sending you to the Over the Rhine website to acquaint yourself with their music, writing, and attitude. You can listen to a decent bit of their stuff online, but I’m assigning a full album. Take a look and a listen at www.overtherhine.com    I haven’t been able to get the last 2 albums, but the newest seems to be something very special. I’ll suggest “Ohio,” and “Films For Radio” for a quick sense of the scope of their music and excellent writing. Often poetic and theologically interesting, great voice, great musicians, often moving.

To close with a prediction: Dynamo 2 - Pachuca 1.

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