4th of July Weekend in Montana

This holiday weekend, Cathy and I are headed to Montana. We'll be staying with our friends Kimberly and John, the latter of whom has a cabin outside of Livingston. Livingston is a small town on the edge of the Absaroka range, on the northern border of Yellowstone NP.

We're excited for many reasons.

Obviously, it's beautiful there. They're situated right on the Yellowstone River, and both are avid fly fishermen. Fisherpersons. So this weekend I get to learn to flyfish in one of the most beautiful flyfishing settings this country affords.

Lucky as hell.

We'll also do some floating and paddling of the river in raft and ducky. The dogs get to come along, so we'll see if they're river worthy or not. (Likely not.)

La Copa

Also, as the quarterfinals and semifinals of the World Cup take place while we're en route, we've planned well. We'll get to follow the Germany/Argentina in the morning, and we're not sure if we'll stay here in town long enough to catch Italy/Ukraine. Probably. We've got a 9+ hour drive ahead of us, but we've decided to stop for Friday night in Bozeman. That way, we can catch England/Portugal in the morning on hotel ESPN before we take off for the final leg into Livingston. There's a small chance we can coerce our hosts into town for that afternoon's Brazil/France matchup, but that remains to be seen. So, we'll get there a little late, but it'll be worth it.

Done and Gone

We out.

There's lots of chatter and criticism about the US performance in the World Cup, some of it justified, some of it not. Everyone's an expert, as a quick perusal of the 'Fan Chat' function of the FIFA website will tell you. But, as ever, the chatter don't mean squat.

At times, the US side played well. At times, dismally. At the bottom of it all, we had a solid team, a mostly solid coach, and a pretty questionable strategy. In the end, it was this overall solidity, or adequateness, if you like, that did it. Solid is good, but without something extra tacked on (see MJ and any Bulls team he played on, or the Ghana side in their match against the Czechs in this tournament), solid doesn't get you far against the best in the world.

The team that wins La Copa will not only have this solidity, they will have greatness as well. The US lacks greatness, so it makes sense that we are going home when we are.

Really, the unfortunate thing for my own experience of this World Cup is the change in the way Ghana played. They seem to have adapted to the Euro tactics all too well, as evidenced by the number of casualties littering the pitch at any point in the second half yesterday. Dudes were flopping so often and for so long that I'd bet even the Italian squad would have been a bit perturbed at it. You'd have thought the US were playing with brass knuckles and spikey shoes. It was ridiculous, and an aspect of this team that hadn't yet reared its ugly head.

At the start of the match, I had it in my head that if we lost, Ghana would be my team, the one I'd hope to cheer through the championship. So much for that.

Though the US-Ghana match leaves many question marks, as the penalty Ghana scored the go-ahead on was most definitely not a penalty, none of them would have likely changed anything going forward for the US. We needed more than just a single goal, as a win was all to keep us alive. And frankly, penalty or not, I don't think we had them in us.

What this match does change is the perception of the Ghana side. They are not beyond the European ritual of histrionic displays of false agony. They do it, and they do it well, and that's most unfortunate. Welcome to the world stage.

So, what? C'mon Brazil? Let's go Argentina? Where's the fun in that?

Perhaps Portugal, though the whispers of primadonnatude are worrisome.

I guess I'll have to hold my allegiance until further notice and until then just hope for quality matches. And whoever foregoes the flops will get my vote.

Still Alive

Bloodied and exhausted, the US team put on a stellar performance to tie Italy and keep hope of advancing alive. The odds are against us, but then, in soccer, aren't they always?

As if playing the Azzuri weren't enough to handle, the US men had to fend off a card-happy fleet of officials in Saturday's match. Shortly after half, the US found themselves playing Italy 9 against 10, a sure mismatch.

But they rose to the occasion. McBride returned from a disgustingly flagrant elbow to the face by Italian shithead DeRossi to play a strong second half. Grit, plain and simple, kept us in this game.

This was a US team that did not show up to play the Czechs last week. They passed beautifully, they were aggressive, and they took no shit. The Italians didn't know what to do, as evinced by their inability to put the game away.

Keeper Keller had a big day too, stopping a couple very tough shots as time wound down. He showed us why he's one of the best in the world.

Thursday we've got Ghana, which to my mind could be tougher than either match we've yet played. If we win and Italy loses, we're in. A couple other scenarios can keep us alive as well.

GO USA.

In the Spirit, but Stomped

It's a coincidence that the World Cup has come at the exact same time as my foray back into the world of soccer, but it sure does make it more enjoyable.

Last night I played in my first matches since a short-lived intramural stint at EIU back in 1990. Needless to say, the body feels it. My knees, my ankles, my right hip, and every single tiny bone in both my feet ache. And it's wonderful.

I grew up playing this game, from when I was about 5 until I graduated from high school. I loved it, and then I just stopped playing and paying attention. Now, of course, I wish I'd have stuck with it.

But better late than never. So, I'm back to it. I'm playing with a team made up largely of co-workers, but we've recruited some friends to play with us as well. We're not so good, but just by the end of the second match yesterday (yes, I returned from about 15 years off to start with a double header!) we were definitely doing better. If only we could practice.

So, yesterday we lost both matches. But really, we did fairly well. We were starting to pass more, to maintain possession, and to put shots on goal. Our lack of subs hurts us, but hopefully the ranks will swell.

More to come on this for sure.

US Side Gets Gut-Czech

Czech Republic: 3
USA: 0

Well, we knew this would be a tough match, but who knew we just wouldn't show up? There were no bright spots that I could see, nothing to take to the Italy matchup this weekend. Except for this: We've burned our loss, now we need a tie and a win to stay alive. Play well or go home from here on out.

Levi Takes Dauphine!

Our man Levi Leipheimer has taken the Dauphine-Libere race! This is a week-long stage race in France that is a traditional lead-up to the Tour de France. It's a proving ground, a testing race that tells riders how their form is going into the Tour. Levi's form seems to indicate he's right on.

He performed well in the time trials and tore everyone's legs off in the mountains--everyone except for Iban Mayo, that is, who got a win of his own to signal a possible return to form for the Basque.

Leipheimer, who hails from Montana, has been working his ass off for this year's tour and I'm hopeful that he's got himself into position for good things there.

WORLD CUP

The US team has its first match today, against 2nd seeded Czech Republic. Should be a great start.

We'll be watching at Parill Grill, 10am to noon on Monday.

Trail Work

Saturday was the first day of trail work for the year. National Trails Day. The good news is I put the IF on the Stack Rock trail system for the first time. Man it felt good to get up there--pine tree canopy, skinny trail littered with the refuse of the winter, flowers pushing through the floor to grab at the sun. It was beautiful as I'd expected it to be, and it felt great to be up there.

The bad news is that the actual trail work felt like a total waste. Not total--me and Will and Leo Hennessey did some good work on water diversion on a nice fast downhill that was seeing some serious erosion. And we cleared some brush that needed clearing.

But then we started in on Chris Cook's projects. We rerouted a trail that did not need rerouting. And we built a new trail that, while fun for about a dozen people who will ride it, is nothing but a circus attraction when it comes down to it. A big long stunt trail with nasty rock drops and a long long log ride. Cool stuff, nice freeride options, and a total waste of the time and energy of the people who showed up for legitimate trail work. I feel we were taken advantage of.

When I left this work site, at long last, and went for a ride on trail we hadn't visited, I found loads of logs down and blocking the trial, rerouting traffic around them and damaging the trail. I found lots of brush that was getting so overgrown it was rerouting traffic and damaging the trail. Banks along Sinker Creek were caving in under the weight of down trees, trail junctions and turnoffs were nearly invisible due to overgrowth and down trees, and there was just a lot of cleaning up to do.

With the manpower we had up there, we could have done all the little stuff and a good deal of the big stuff. But, instead, we cleared the first mile or so and spent the rest of the day dicking around on freeride bullshit. This is a good example of why Cook's tenure as SWIMBA president has to end. He works hard and means well, but his efforts are almost totally misguided and, in the end, counterproductive. Hopefully this month's elections will get this organization back on track.

Meantime, at least Stack Rock season has begun again.