Footballs Are Round!

I actually got up at 6:30 to watch the live broadcast of the 4th round F.A. Cup tie between Chelsea and Scarborough. Chelsea being the Premier League giants with the New York Yankee-esque payroll, and Scarborough being one level below the Third Division, or in other words, the fifth level of English football.

The reason I love the F.A. Cup is that this kind of match-up can actually take place, and that you can see semi-professionals playing their guts out and holding their own with pampered overpriced millionaires.

Though Chelsea ended up with a 1-0 win, Scarborough did themselves proud, and had one or two excellent chances to tie the game. Not to mention that they suffered an egregious non-call on a clear handball in the box. However the clear difference between the teams was not skill, but speed.

All of Scarborough’s players could at best match the skill of Chelsea’s, or at very least the difference was not huge. But the difference in pure raw speed was so telling. I’ve heard the axiom before that speed is the difference, in upper and lower level football, but I had never seen it displayed so clearly as today.

Still and all, it was well worth getting up early on a Saturday. And there aren’t many things in this life I can say that about.

I hate offseason
Watching French games is ok
But I want my Burn

Here’s how bad my soccer sickness is.

I was reading the Associated Press article about Carlos Bocanegra, ex-Chicago Fire defender, signing with Fulham of the Premier League, and within seconds of reading this paragraph:

He would become the sixth American player to play in England’s top division, joining U.S. captain Claudio Reyna, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller and Jovan Kirovski.

I had mentally corrected them, knowing, as all of us should, that John Harkes and Cobi Jones have also played in either the Premiership or its predecessor, the 1st Division.

Two things struck me about this knowledge.

First, not one in a million, by conservative estimate, know this information here in the U.S. of A.

Second, it does me absolutely no good on any practical level to have this information on immediate recall.

I’m a little conflicted by this knowledge. There’s a mix of perverse pride in knowing this level of esoterica, along with the distinct feeling this puts me way out in front for the geek of the month award. Oh, did I mention my other hobby is chess? Yeah, that plaque will look good on my wall.