Jim R

I was very impressed with Croatia's play as well. They could have done better with their finishing (obviously), but they showed excellent touch and skill in possession, and teamwork in transitioning from defending to attacking. They also limited Brazil (generally) to long-range shots. Not good enough to manage the upset, but 1-0 is very respectable. Most impressive performances, imo: Germany, Argentina, Holland, Czech Republic (the weak opposition notwithstanding ). I thought Italy was solid, but they gave an awful lot of the play to Ghana. Brazil... hard to say. Maybe they were a little too content to sit on 1-0, and perhaps left the lethargic Ronaldo on the field too long. I don't doubt that they could have scored more goals, but Croatia put up a good fight in terms of asserting some control of the game. I don't quite understand what's wrong with the French... maybe I should go back and study Brownie's posts more carefully. They looked like they had enough firepower to win, but too disorganized... especially in the attack. Zidane is still fun to watch, even if the build-up was a bit too slow. I wasn't impressed with France's wing play, and Viera didn't look too sharp either. Under the circumstances, either Zidane or Henry needed to produce a winning goal... perhaps too much to ask without more support and organization. Still, pretty tough to score against a team that is very happy with a 0-0 result. Oh, and props to the referees for catching that "hand of God" attempt... I didn't notice it until I saw the slow-mo replay. The Saudis have just equalized vs Tunisia!! (hey, it's almost 2 hours until the next "real" game... I have to try to maintain some enthusiasm here. )

Dmitry, the uproar, the disappointment, the utter disgust that many U.S. fans feel is not due to the fact that we lost. It's all about the way we lost- the way we played. Playing like that, we would have lost to Angola, Trinidad & Tobago, Togo... you name it. THAT is why people are upset. The Czechs are an excellent squad, and they definitely showed it, so it's not about disrespecting who they are and what they did.

First of all, congratulations to Kenny and Australia. Japan's goal should have been disallowed, and it was great to see the socceroos come back and get those goals. The U.S. ... I'm disappointed and also embarassed by our performance. As Scott said, a loss to the Czechs is not a great shock, but the way we played was a shock. No energy, no aggressiveness, no intelligence or ability to read what was going on in midfield, constantly either giving the ball away or simply passing backward (we did that VERY well )... just embarassing. The only thing I'm thankful to them for is allowing me to relax (and forget about any chance of getting a win or a draw) after about 10 minutes of play. Italy have defeated Ghana, and I can just see it now... the U.S. will (I assume) press the attack against the Italians... our slow, predictable attack, and Italy will sit back and counter-attack. And with their finishing ability, they will likely beat us by a similar score to which we lost today. Scott, I was surprised that Beasley (I want to call him "measly" today) was in the starting line-up. It's no secret to anyone who has followed the team over the past few months that his game is off- WAY off, and that showed today. His touch is terrible, he isn't beating anyone off the dribble, and he isn't agressive enough in making runs off the ball (although nobody was today). Dempsey (who I thought we should have given a chance to start on the right side) might have at least earned us a few free kicks. Bobby Convey's crosses were 90% crap today, which was a surprise after the way he'd been playing recently. Cherundolo and Lewis weren't much better. I'm going to have to go back and watch the tape again (as much as I hate the thought of it) and see just why Donovan wasn't more involved. Basically, I think he was simply distributing conservatively and not attacking enough. It was glaring to compare the way the Czech midfielders were reading the game, thinking a step ahead, and attacking as a unit, as compared to our stagnant, "play not to lose" approach. Our defense was subpar, but I think the game was really lost in the midfield. I knew we had a tough task, but I never dreamed we would come out and play this poorly.

Holland certainly looked very good, but like Portugal and England (and Sweden, come to think of it), they really should have scored more goals. Did anybody else hear the reports about other Dutch players complaining about Robben not sharing the ball today? Mexico were not at their best, and overall probably did not deserve a 3-1 result. Iran played a smart, controlled game for about 60 minutes, and then they commit three blunders in defense- one after another, and just fell apart. Angola is not one of the better defensive teams I've ever seen. Portugal will have to be sharper against Iran and Mexico.

It sure would be nice to have options. The ABC/ESPN coverage here in the U.S. leaves a lot to be desired. The main announcer (Dave O'Brien) is nothing but a silky-voiced novice (new to the sport) who constantly is reading from his fact sheets, dwelling on tangential subjects like David Beckham's private life, Crouch's robot dance, and other meaningless news trivia. Teamed with him is former U.S. defender Marcelo Balboa, who was a very good player, but is downright awful as an analyst. He knows the subject of course, but his whiny voice and jittery delivery make it difficult to follow what he's talking about. I got up before 6 a.m. to watch England/Paraguay this morning, and after listening to these two guys for about five minutes, I was really tempted to go back to bed. Not a very convincing performance from England, but Paraguay looked much worse than I expected. Overall, a dull match, and England were fortunate to get the three points.

Mel Cooley Fred Rutherford Wallace V. Whipple

Yeah, well like a host of Australians, I have a long history of misery with the Socceroos and a whole bunch of baggage. So it's only fitting, pre-game, that I work myself into a mood of outright pessimism and gloom. What exquisite masochism!

It's a little of both, I think. Costa Rica did not mark particularly well, but Germany were sharp with their finishing. The opening for Lahm's rocket occurred when a Costa Rican defender slipped while tracking back toward the area. But credit (obviously) goes to Lahm on a spectacular finish. Klose wasn't marked klosely enough, but there was certainly no blaming the defense on the Frings goal.

How depressing. I really enjoyed Poland/Ecuador and thought the standard was pretty high, particularly with the winners. My main thought was: "Australia has no hope in this sort of company. I tend to agree with you, Kenny. Of course, the same match can look different to different people, and maybe Dmitry simply remembered more of the sloppy plays than we did. Not so unusual. I don't think Ecuador looked really powerful, but I thought they definitely displayed some skill (that first goal looked pretty from here, and they executed a lot of nice one-touch combinations in the midfield). Poland did look pretty bad at times, but as I said above, I think they came close to getting on the end of some crosses to open players in the box. Sometimes luck goes against you, and I think this was an example of that... I really thought they were going to equalize for awhile there. Not only that, but hitting the post twice was a touch of bad luck as well. BTW, you're too modest. I'm sure the Socceroos would match up just fine with either of those teams. Scott, I agree, and I was going to mention that as well. The bad news for the U.S. is, we don't have many long-range shooters (as we've discussed before) who can take advantage of the liveliness of the new ball.

Not the greatest defending today by Costa Rica, but still, a couple of fantastic goals by Germany. Hard to believe somebody would top Lahm's opening goal, but that bomb from Frings was pretty incredible. Nice way to start off the tournament for them. The way I saw it, CR was too tentative in counter-attacking. They repeatedly backed off (and let Germany's defense get set) when they could have pushed. At any rate, they weren't going to beat the hosts today. Poland certainly had their share of the play- especially in the first half- against Ecuador, but their crosses just couldn't find their targets (which often appeared to be open). A clever first goal by Ecuador, and with their confidence rising as the game progressed, they moved the ball around very nicely in the second half. All in all, an enjoyable opening to the WC. Plenty of action, no major controversies or injuries, decent refereeing (a couple of offside calls may have been missed, but they were pretty close calls).

The Fighting Sullivans Private Ryan Public, John Q.

Forgot to mention... I learned that lesson as well. The CD's that were stolen from our car that night were not easily replaceable.

1986 Hi I am new to the board, just wanting to see if someone might be able to provide some info...In the liner notes to Live at the Lighthouse, Bob Belden mentions a session with Houston Person that does not appear in any Grant discographies...if this session is all that BB says it is then it must be a very special and important recording.. especially in light of when it was made...does anyone have any knowledge of this By the way thanks for all the wonderful things I've been able to read here on Grant, John Patton and George Braith etc al... On pages 245 and 246 of the 1986 Ruppli BN discography, there's a listing of a few sets (some 33 songs) recorded at the Club Mozambique in Detroit on Jan. 6 & 7, 1971. Clarence Thomas (ts,ss), Houston Person (ts), Ronnie Foster (org), Green, and Idris Muhammad (d). All tracks are listed as "rejected". I don't own the Lighthouse recording and am not that keen on this era of GG's career, so I don't know if any of this material has since been released. I suspect at least some of it has... I'm getting a deja vu as if we've been over this before...

Happened to me in 1970. A nice 10-speed my Dad had given me as a birthday gift... never got over that. At home, we always park our cars in a closed garage or on the driveway up behind the house (with our german shepherd nearby). The one time I remember parking one of our cars on the street overnight, it was broken into... and we live in a relatively good area. That was about 15 years ago. I have to give the scumbag some credit, though. He did it on the night of the 4th of July, and I don't think anybody noticed the sound of the window breaking.

I posted that one a few weeks ago.

I didn't see the Netherlands/Australia match, but I read about it yesterday on the "Big Soccer" boards. I heard that the Aussies injured three Dutch players- one pretty seriously on a nasty challenge (I forget how specific the info was, but I got the impression that this player -a reserve?- was not going to be able to play in the tournament). It's all hearsay, so I'm not challenging you Kenny, but I do wonder why you played the final 30 minutes with 10 men... in a friendly! Also, I'm wondering how many "A" players were involved for each team. Not sure it makes sense to have played that physically when the tournament is so near... not the time for anybody to risk injuries and/or suspensions. Anyway, if Van Basten didn't have a lot of complaints, that tempers the story as I heard it. I'm just a bit curious about this one...

Marvin Stamm Jap Stam Yosemite Sam

Heath Audra Jarrod

I have NO PROBLEM with Kenny Burrell.

W-o-w... I didn't realize just how crappy mine was. Thanks guys.

A.C. Reed A.C. Green Acey Slade

I tried to attach a jpg image, but got this: THE FOLLOWING ERROR(S) WERE FOUND The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments. Not sure if there's anything I can do about this... (not sure how to reduce the size of the file, or whether I need to change any board settings...?) [edit: the jpg I tried to attach is 120 kb]

John D. (and Catherine T.) MacArthur Jack Nimitz Jeff Halsey

Bess Myerson Brad Byerson Ali Ryerson

Pete Barbutti Steve Allen Dudley Moore