Ok, I’ve said it plenty of times by now: but I really struggled to keep up daily writing routines when I was teaching full time. That’s what happens to me when I spend most of the day supporting 70 other people’s writing, and the rest of it trying to be a parent.
So rather than write one post covering six months of eleven teams in action, I’m going to break it up with posts as best as I can, I’ll fill you in on how the games have gone, who has excelled and any other news and stories worth knowing.
Match Results: 0 W – 0 D – 0 L; 0 GF / 0 GA
Okay, I’m taking a bit of a cheap route to start out, especially as the Griz have yet to play a match. But they will kick off their season this week, and as the reigning Sippy Cup Winners, they have a lot to play for.
Other Stories:
While they weren’t playing any matches, the Griz continued training all spring and summer…oh and they continued going to classes and pursuing their academic goals with aplomb. The team once again bosted a 3.7 graded point average and several student athletes with a 4.0 (or perfect GPA). Sydney Haustein led the charge in the classroom and was named the Montana scholar athlete of the year before graduating alongside Kathleen Aitchinson, Charley Boone, Molly Quarrey, and Maysa Walker.
The coming season is a big one for the Griz as they will be celebrating the program’s 30 year anniversary come October. It’ll be a great opportunity to celebrate the long legacy of Montana’s premier soccer side, and they’ll follow it up by hosting the Big Sky Conference Soccer tournament and hopefully cinching another trip to the NCAA tournament.
The journey there starts with another non-conference gauntlet with the team facing former Pac-10 teams Oregon State and Washington State plus Rocky Mountain rivals Air Force, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Boise State. The Griz do start out as a pre-season favorite (per a poll of college coaches) and bring back All-American Forward (and Flathead high grad) Skyleigh Thompson for her Senior season.
Star Players:
Obviously Thompson stands out as a rising star to watch, but she’ll be following team captains Charley Boone (yeah for Graduate studies!) and Ally Henrikson. Plus, we’re obviously holding out hope for Minnesota’s own Bayliss Flynn.
Jaroslav Siefert spent most of the 20th century being buffeted by some of the greatest forces of social upheaval you could imagine. A Czech student who saw the shell shocked and pained soldiers return from the Great War only to watch in horror as the Nazis siezed his country there after and then hail the Russians as liberators only to sour on them and confront the Soviet explotaition of Czechoslovakia as well. Seifert loved poetry, and while he made his living as a journalist it’s his poetry that won him international recognition and respect, culminating in the 1984 Nobel Prize “for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man”
Works
“Life is a beautiful long dream if you just live what’s in front of you”
–About Childhood (translated by me with help of Google Translate)
“I cannot tear my eyes away from that picture. It is mine, and I also believe it is miraculous.”
“Old Tapestry”
Message
In a lot of what Seifert writes, there’s a sense of difficult and being weighed down (see Background for a sense as to all the stuff that weighed him down). But at the same time there is a joy and inspiration that he culls even from these moments of bleak oppression. I translated the “About Childhood Poem” illustrated above and read it to the boys (as I had intended to from the start of this project). While Owen saw it literally as watching your kids in a river bank, Alex thought it was more about not giving up, and I saw it as appreciating the moment. Honestly, chances are that we’re all right: there’s beauty in every moment, despite the cruel whims of politics.
Position: #7 Left Winger
Seifert’s ability to speak to both trauma and hope, both defensiveness and optimism, makes him an ideal attacker who can still be an asset on both sides of the ball. He doesn’t seem to have the breadth or scope of a central midfielder, but he seems like an ideal attacker who can make the needed moves both with and without the ball. In addition to the Eastern European heritage I can easily imagine him in Vozdovac highlight reels, so his colors reflect that team.
Obviously, reading a dozen or so poems by a man doesn’t make me an expert. Come on Czech literary geniuses bring on the criticism, I’m ready!
Next Time, Contraversial 2004 Honoree: Elifriede Jelinek
Sartre is a byword for an entire philosophical school one of the leading voices in the Existentialist movement wondering what is the purpose of life and can our freedom ever be truly purely experienced. Born and raised in Paris, he used the city of lights as his home base as he dove head long into the serious questions of the day. His award was given “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age,” a big phrase that in this case, might just be an understatement.
Works
“In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.”
Sartre’s best known quote about soccer
“Every movement of a [teammate]…is decoded in the very movement which it occasions in another fellow member….Mediation for a given goalkeeper or center-forward is the pitch itself in so far as their common praxis has made it a common practical reality…As soon as [a player] takes up [one position] the common situation of the whole team is also modified.”
–Critique of Pure Reason, page 473 (This is the real idea, the other one is just a footnote)
Message
I mean, there’s a tonnage of them. Existentialism concerned itself with the nature of life itself, so there was…plenty of ground to cover. In reading his plays again though, the thought that came back to me again and again is how control is power, power is control. Humans simultaneously want it and fear it.No Exit plays with the question of how much anyone can control the (after)lives of others. The Respectful Prostitute considers how the “immoral” individual is at once dependent on the powerful authorities, and yet also able to overwhelm the authorities with their own powers (be they sex or truth). Dirty Hands covers the power of idealism and the power of compromise–both how people wield them, and how they are slaves to them. With all this in mind I’m putting Sartre at the heart of the team.
Position: #10 Attacking Midfielder
Sartre was a football fan (how much of a fan seems to be up unclear), but when you consider the fantasy of him lacing up a pair of boots and heading on to the field himself, you have to reckon with the fact that he clearly had more creativity, ideas and invention than anyone else. He could do more with power and control than anyone else I’ve read for this project, so it makes sense to put him at the center of the offense (and in the role with the greatest history of being a diva) the #10 job.
Think about his soccer quotes (given above). In Sartre’s eyes a team is made up of where all the players are in a moment, but every moment a player moves (which is pretty much all the time) it is changing. There’s no absolute reality or permanence, it’s always something new and different. So you have to focus on existing in the moment rather than worrying about the past or the future.
I genuinely think this would make him a superb attacking midfielder: creative, inventive, able to dismiss past hurts or future worries and just make the play he thinks is right in the moment. But I suppose others might see it as a limitation–he might have a hard time anticipating challenges, or be impossible to coach…(after all, he is the only Literature laureate to refuse to turn up for his award) so while I rate him highly, I don’t know what others would say.
What do you think? Is Sartre the free-wheeling creative force that this team has been waiting for? Or are would he have been so indifferent and apathetic that any moments of brilliance would have been undone by him announcing that he’d rather ponder a dandelion on the field than receive a pass from TS Eliot?.
Jennsen (far Left) in Singapore in 1902 (denstoredanske.lex.dk)
Jensen was a bit of a nomadic spirit in an age of expanding empires. He went from a medical student to a foreign journalist to a historian, poet, and novelist. After a hiatus during the second world war, the Nobel committee made him its first new recipient in five years: “for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style”
The day exposes mercilessly The cold rails and all the black mud, The waiting room with the chocolate vending machine, Orange peel, cigar stubs and burnt-out matches, The day gapes through with spewing gutters And an eternal grid of rain, Rain I say from heaven to earth.
How deaf and irremovable the world is, How devoid of talent its creator!
The day dawned so mournfully, But look – the rainfall gleams now!
Do you grudge the day its right to fight? After all, it is light now. And the smell of soil sets in between the rusty iron struts of the platform Mixed with the rank breath of the rain-dust – A hint of spring. Isn’t that consoling?
They Caught the Ferry
Message
It was a little hard to track down Jensen’s work (even in Danish it wasn’t easy to come by). If I were to judge by my extremely limited sample, I might say that he focuses on the ebb and flow of emotion is a universal experience. At times he’s bubbling over with hope, at times he’s mindful only of loss. The characters in his short film are confident, crazed, and terrified in short order. He seems to know that each emotion will only last until the net one comes.
Position: #3 Left Back
Like a daydreaming kid with equal turns doom and hope, I can see Jensen running down the flank thinking about a possible attack, only to realize he’s out of position and go screaming back the other way, and yet…being totally happy and natural doing it. I may never write like him…but that’s exactly how I played soccer during my youth, so I appreciate it.
As ever we’d love to hear from people with other thoughts. I see you clicking like, why not write the words “I liked it” below. Or give me a link to more of Jensen’s work so I can get a fuller understanding of him.
Next Time, OH BOY, One of the guys I already read: 1964 Honoree–Jean Paul Sartre (But to have some fun, I’ll try reading him in French)
This year, after a long, cold winter, the promise of spring began to bud as the American soccer season opened.
Sorry…I meant to say after an indeterminable and clearly climate changed winter, the weather felt exactly the same as the American soccer season opened.
And this year, I went with Alex.
Dear Boys,
It was not a great game. The Loons, fortunate winners the previous week, faced the reigning champions: The Columbus Crew. Our team was shorthanded, with several players working up to fitness, and we were limited to a temporary set of tactics from their caretaker manager. So it wasn’t surprising that the local eleven seemed stuck in the first half. The biggest cheer for most of the game came when former Loon Christian Ramirez made his first appearance at Allianz Field and was welcomed warmly by the long time fans…making a competitive match feel rather friendly.
It was great to see him return, to celebrate a player who was widely loved in the community. But he also clearly added a bit of danger to the Columbus. And then…the champions took the lead. The Loons quickly look deflated, but the sun was shining and our fries were salty so Alex and I stayed on to watch the end of the match.
That’s when we got our reward:
The stadium erupted, our section erupted, we screamed like we’d won even though it was only a draw. “This,” I shouted over the chaos, “is why you stay until the end.”
It’s a kind of perseverance, enduring the long slog of a game, or a season for the sake of one magical moment. It’s a passive perseverance, not the kind of spiritual struggle of long-standing activists, or the physical slog athletes go through. But fandom might be the best training wheel version of perseverance that we have.
There are always opportunities to walk away. Fans can leave the stadium. We can turn off the games. We can ignore the sports pages. And honestly, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. Stepping away from things can protect you from injury or harm.
But perseverance can be rewarded with moments that offer real catharsis.
The Loons, against the odds continued trying to find the goal, despite the various limitations that could have justified a defeat.
Christian Ramirez had innumerable opportunities to step away from the game. When he didn’t get a professional opportunity on his first attempt. When he was hung out to dry by the Loons prior manager (who never seemed to appreciate the talent on the sideline). When his trip to Europe was undermined by managerial upheaval. When his family grew and his career path was uncertain.
But he has a League Championship medal and he received a rapturous ovation from fans who saw him start and have admired him even after he left us behind.
However the story ends, if you stick around till the end you can appreciate it all the more. Whether it ends with one point in the standings, a hero’s return, or just celebrating with your kid/dad. These are special moments, and they’re made all the more special if you persevere to see them through. If it’s this fun to watch others persevere, just wait till you get to do it yourself.
Wladyslaw Reymont had a rather adventurous life for a failed tailor. He scrupulously studied his family’s struggles with money, but rather than try to provide for them, he ran off to join a travelling theater group (don’t get any ideas Owen). When he failed there he returned to Warsaw, wrote somewhat successfully and then got his big break when he got in a train accident and landed a nice settlement. With that financial independence, he had more time to write, and delivered his award winning works including the specifically namechecked: “great national epic, The Peasants“. (I read the first volume of The Peasants)
Works
‘The wind is always blowing in the face of the poor’
“In front of the crowd, and of the twinkling sinuous lines of tapers moving on, there gleamed a silver crucifix; following this came the holy images, dimly seen through a haze of cambric, and surrounded with flowers and lace and ornaments of tinsel. The procession arrived at the great church door, through which the sun irradiated the clouds of incense that it pierced; and the banners stooped to pass, the breezes made them float and flutter and flap, like the wings of some great green and purple birds”
Wladyslaw Reymont (trans. by Michael Dziewicki) p. 68
“Ah me! for in this world there is naught but trouble, and wailing, and woe! “And evil increases and multiplies, as doth the thistle in the woodlands! “All things are vain and to no purpose…like tinder-wood, and like the bubbles which the wind maketh on the water and driveth away. “And there is no faith, nor hope, save in God alone”
Wladyslaw Reymont (trans. by Michael Dziewicki) p. 179
Message
Is it possible to have the message that everything stinks? It seems overly simple, but that’s the biggest takeaway I had from reading Reymont. I’m not alone, the Nobel website itself notes that his other work presents a similarly “dark vision of man”. The whole book I read seemed to obsess with pointing out how the “simple farmers” were petty, venal, greedy, bitter and cruel to one another. Sadder still, the volume of The Peasants that I read might have been his peppiest, even though the climactic celebration of a wedding allows people to ignore the brutal and lonely death of a farm hand (yeah…it gets worse for characters after that). Just to ice the stink cake, he makes sure to throw in a healthy dollop of anti-Semitic stereotypes that go beyond the general “everyone stinks” to really castigate (and in other works specifically blame) people of a different faith.
Position: #5 Center Back
Reymont’s cynicism brings to mind the brutality of Central defenders whose primary value seems to lie in fouling other people right before they score. Like the legendary Spanish Cynical-Foul Folk hero Sergio Ramos…only, you know…much, much worse…and injured…and even more unlikable. Man, I’m hoping I can find literally anyone who will replace this schmo.
Did I totally misread Reymont? Is his writing more anti-capitalist than anti-Semitic? Did I get a cruel translation? Come on Polish literary scholars…let me hear from you.
The more time I spend with you boys the more I come to recognize that lessons about life, about our world, about important skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic, all stand subordinate to lessons about our emotions.
While there are many times where you need to vent your anger, or express your sadness, or scream out your joy, there’s one emotion that cuts across all of them: passion. It may not be an emotion in and of itself, but rather an intensity of emotion that supercharges each feeling to its extremity.
Sadness isn’t just sadness, it’s a part of “the WORST DAY EVER”. Frustration isn’t just frustration it’s the impetus for each of you to slam doors and scream out “YOU. RUIN. EVERYTHING!!!”
At four and six you are still learning how to express emotions, how to handle the extremity and how to appreciate the nuances.
But you aren’t the only ones.
Dear Boys,
Of all the things that happened in our small corner of the soccer world, I found myself thinking about this moment in Dingwall, Scotland frequently.
That’s fans of Partick Thistle letting their passions run riot before a Cup match at the end of January. Given that Thistle lost a painful playoff battle just last June to County, I can understand why emotions were running hot. Given that their team was in fine form while County was bedraggled, I understand why there was such confidence and energy.
But I keep thinking about that last moment. Watching one young man stop, grab, and rip away another young man’s drum. I understand the emotions. I understand how passions rise up, but I just don’t understand why it has to lead to pushing down someone else in order to lift yourself up.
I certainly have seen you both tussle and bicker over this toy or that one. I’ve watched your feelings turn into passions, and your passions turn into punches (or the four-year-old-equivalent), and I honestly can see a physical resemblance between you both and the young men in this video (the men are likely only 10-15 years older than you).
One of many intense fights
I see all this, all these echoes of you in bigger bodies, thousands of miles away. And I worry.
I like that you have all the emotions. I like that you express them. But I don’t want you to fall into this trap.
Lots of people have lots of emotions. All of them are real, and none of them are bad. But when we let passion push our emotions beyond ourselves to interrupt others, there’s a problem.
First and foremost, if you let your passions run the show, you risk harming others. Add to that, when other people get harmed, their passions intensify and suddenly you’re at risk as well. Consider, as well, that as you grow into bigger bodies, bigger muscles, and develop a bigger arsenal of attacks, you face bigger consequences. You can be seen as a threat, a dangerously violent force, and you can face legal consequences too.
That’s what happened to these young men. I’m sure their petty hooliganism released their passions in the moment, but it also made them targets of police inquiries.
It’s not only the young pseudo toughs who let their passions get the better of them. Sometimes, it’s the older adults who are supposed to be mature enough to lead others.
That’s County manager, Derek Adams, the same man who helped the Stags climb to the Premiership years ago. Frustration for him turns into an impassioned argument, but one against his own players, the men he claims to lead. Saying that they (and their opponents) are “rubbish” that they aren’t worth paying to see, that they are 100 times worse than a lower tier team in England.
Conveniently, Adams opted to quit working with “rubbish” players after they continued to struggle (not long after that cup defeat against Thistle as a matter of fact).
I don’t mind that Adams was frustrated or that he let his frustrations pour out in a passionate outburst after a difficult match. I do mind that he let his passion excuse some cruelty to people who are trying their best. Adams didn’t steal a child’s drum, or commit petty vandalism, but he did bully and ridicule others.
Passion is important. It can give you motivation and energy to do more than you imagine. It can connect you to others and build a community of enthusiastic strivers. But it can also run down others and isolate you from those who could help you.
Passion is powerful. Learn from the poor examples of Derek Adams and County’s highland rivals. Please, use it to empower and unite, not to batter and divide.
Jose Echegaray might have been the smartest person we’ve read about yet. He seems to have been able to do pretty much everything. He read classics by age 12, was an engineer, a diplomat, taught himself German so he could read philosophy treatises and was working on massive Mathematics textbooks when he passed away. Throughout that whole time he was also a writer, specifically of plays which many likened to an Iberian Ibsen*. He shared the 1904 honor with Frederic Mistral, but was honored for his unique works, including “the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama”
*Not to be confused with an Iberian Ibson, which would make them a Spanish substitute for local Minnesota legendary midfielder Ibson.
Works
Echegaray’s works are all high level 19th century melodrama, and were ideal for the early days of cinema (though mostly in Spain only). But he had a keen ear for conversations and confusions between characters, as shown in the piece I read for this project: Son of Don Juan.
Don Juan: What are you thinking of? Ah! Pardon! I must not disturb you. Lazarus: You don’t disturb me father. I was thinking of nothing important. My imagination was wandering, and I was wandering after it. Don Juan: If you wish to work–to write–to read–and I trouble you I shall go. Ha. I shall go….Do you want me to go? for here I am…going.
Son of Don Juan, Act II aka You kids dealing with me in 10 years.
Message
Echegaray’s style is…a bit much for a modern reader. He seems to have a penchant for melodrama in that, he wrote a bunch of melodramas. In the modern age, melodrama is a bit silly, a bit farcical and a bit easy to dismiss, but for a long time that was the style, and Echegaray did it better than almost anyone. For someone as immersed in complicated high brow pursuits as Echegaray clearly was it is apparent that he was, at the root of it all someone who had no shame in his feelings. It’s good to have big feelings.
Position: #11 Winger
Echegaray certainly seems to have been a thoroughly talented master of all trades, it would make him an excellent attacker who can link with other players, but the melodramatic tendencies make him also a prime candidate for Nobel FC’s resident flopper. I just picture someone touching his monocle chain and leaving Echegaray writhing in mid-air like a final tongue of smoke leaving a doused fire. While he was a life long Madrista, I have him in Oaxaca’s colors, as their flair for the dramatic look seems best for our purposes.
Am I too harsh on Echegaray? Do you think he belongs elsewhere, or at least would have been more of an engineer constructing things than a ham emoting all over the place?
The Royals did play a round of 32 match against against Koforidua Suhyen (who play near the home of my adoptive dad Braimah Dediako). Kwabena Boateng led the charge with a couple of goals and Nicholas Mensah led a defense that never looked troubled.
Up Next The Royals will have one more cup game in Februrary and we’ll see them restart the season in Karela on February 23rd
What’s the Word in ol’ Freiburg?
Record: 2 – 1- 1 GF: 6 GA: 5
Men looked good in a friendly against Frankfurt. But friendlies aren’t the same thing as competitive matches. And I’m willing to bet they would have taken 0-0 in a friendly and a win against Union Berlin…but it was not to be. Still the clean sheet should boost Noah Atubolu, and comes with another good showing by the young French wing backs Jordy Makengo and Kilian Sildillia.
Those wing backs were back at it again against Hoffenheim but when Manuel Gulde got a terribly timed red card right after Hoffenheim equalized, fear and panic could be felt widely in the crowd. This of course, is where Vincenzo Grifo saves the day by being himself, and so it was with a beautiful winner (3-2).
Grifo was good again in the next match against Freiburg but Makengo and Sidilla weren’t as effective on the same side and Atobolu had another rough outing to keep Freiburg maddeningly inconsistent losing (1-3)
Meanwhile, the big news for the women was the realization that squad leader Janina Minge is asking to leave the club at the end of the season. (This seems to be a bit of a routine for die Frauen where great players aim to go a little higher than the middle of the table…such is the way of things, I suppose.) But the team looked unphased this last weekend with a strong 2-0 win over RB Leipzig led by strong midfield control from Samantha Steuerwald.
Next: The ladies have a Pokal match against Frankfurt, plus league matches agaisnt Duisburg, Bremen. and (ugh) Bayern Munich. Meanwhile the men will balance four league games (including matches against Dortmund and Frankfurt) with the critical knockout matches for the Europa league against Lens.
Grenoble’s Games
Record: 0 – 3 – 1 GF: 5 GA: 7
Amine Sbai had a tremendous outing against Dunkerque with a pair of goals giving the men from the mountains a big lead with only 25 minutes to play. Uncharacteristically, the defense capitulated at the end of the game and could only hold on for a draw. Then the familiar winter malaise set in, and the squad managed only draws the rest of the month (1-1 against Auxerre, and 1-1 against Quevilly, due in large part to heroic penalty saves from Brice Mableu, and more Amine Sbai goals)
Meanwhile the women’s team got eaten up by AS Cannes concending three goals for a less than stellar return to the field, but Abdoulie Bamba Sanyang got the chance to play at the Africa Cup of Nations with Gambia, and team training seem to include playing on the alps…which looks like a whole heap of fun!
Up Next: January was not the boost we were hoping for in the quest for promotion, but we’ll try again in February! The women will face Lyon’s 2nd Squad, and Le Puy, while the men try to break out of their funk of draws with games against Caen, Bordeaux, Troyes and Pau.
Punjab Zindabad
Record: 0 – 2 – 1 GF: 3 GA: 4
Wilmar Jordan got off the mark a lot faster in 2024 than he did in 2023, scoring just 4 minutes into the road game at Chennaiyin in the Super Cup. But, as has been so often the case, after a red card, they were at a disadvantage even though they had a lead. And just when it looked like they might pull out a short handed victory, another goal got past Kiran Chemjong and it was another draw for the Punjabi Warriors.
The chance of a draw against local league titans Mumbai City, was much more enthralling, and indeed Luka Macjen nearly made it so with a pair of goals including one right before the end of the full 90 minutes that would have been quite an accomplishment. But in a continuing pattern, the Warriors ceded a late goal and left as unlucky losers. Their final Super Cup match was a 0-0 draw that doesn’t bear much more scrutiny.
Up Next: I hoped that Punjab could come away with two more wins in the second half of the season, and their best chances may all come in February as they face Hydrabad (the only team below them) as well as Jamshedpur and Bengaluru (two teams with similar defensive problems).
Gotta see this, Alebrijes!
Record: 0 – 1 – 1 GF: 2 GA: 5
Whatever else happens Alebrijes deserves credit for having Mortal Kombat themed season announcement.
While that post is cool and fresh and there are high hopes for new attacker Orlando Ballesteros and major needs in Pablo martinez and Alfonso Luna, much of Alebrijes’ start to their season looked…familiar. The 3-0 beating from Cancun was painfully familiar, and the 2-2 draw with goals by Julio Cesar Cruz rendered underwhelming by late conceded goals was…sigh…yeah…very familiar.
Next We cross our fingers and hope for some kind of change in the routine as Alebrijes run out five times in February…hey, that’s alliteration…it must be a good sign (he said without much real hope)
County’s Bounty
Record: 0 – 1 – 3 GF: 2 GA: 9
Ross County’s usual course of action at this time of year is to bring in a host of young talents who need some match time and use them to boost the squad’s energy. Midfielders Eli King of Cardiff, Branon Khela of Birmingham, Teddy Jenks of Forest Green, Loick Ayina of Huddersfield Town, and Keeper George Wickens of Fulham are this year’s crop of young talents. But the club’s big acquisition was left back Cameron Borthwick Jackson who, until 3 years ago, seemed to be a up-and-coming player at global powerhouse Manchester United…now he is in Dingwall, so, maybe not so up any more but still a player with oodles of potential.
That potential was sorely lacking in the Stags’ 3-0 loss to Aberdeen with Jack Baldwin getting sent off in the 90th minute. It was arguably in even shorter supply when they got dumped out of the league cup 3-0 by lower level rivals Partick Thistle. By comparison a 1-0 loss at Celtic Park was an accomplishment. (thank you for that big save George Wickens!) and the team’s most recent result of a 2-2 draw against Livingston (with some strong defense and a pair of goals from Simon Murray before another late capitulation) was positively delightful.
Next: It seems as though manager Derek Adams strategy of saying that players are really bad hasn’t inspired good play…interesting. Maybe insulting people will make them feel better as they play six times in four weeks…or…not…
Griz Biz
Record: Not in action
We watched the Griz gridiron squad play well in the first half of their national championship game, and missed the second half (which was for the best). And you got to have some extra potato chips so…really there’s a silver lining. We also got to see Skyleigh Thompson celebrate her All-American status.
Up next: Recruiting, training and warming up the next generations.
What’s in Store at Rosenborg?
Record: Not in Action
There was a lot of player movement in and out of Trondheim, but the big news is probably Steinar Lein stepping away from his role as head coach of the women’s team. He’s run the squad for five years and seen them become an absolute force, but when people need a break, they should get it. So thanks Steinar and stay well!
Rosenborg named Anna Josensdal it’s female player of the year, and also said goodbye to her in the same breath, as she makes a move to Hammarby in Sweden (where she’ll meet up with old friend Sara Kanutte Fornes). Rasmus Wiedesheim Paul also joined a Swedish H-team (Halmstad) in Sweden. Ina Birkelund joins up for the midfield from Tromso.
Next: The men have a host of friendlies against fellow Norwegian clubs, but won’t start the season until April
Minnesota a la Mode…ah
Record: Not in Action
Aurora had try outs which means, even five months from the start of the next season, there’s plenty to be excited about. Just as esciting, former Auroroa player Kelsey Kaufusi was drafted to the NWSL (the top Women’s league in America).
Meanwhile, the Loons lost another manager. After not committing to Sean McAuley, Sean McAuley wouldn’t commit to the team, leaving for a confirmed contract in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, Cameron Knowles will take over…for now…When it came to players the Loons focused on adding to the squad with defenders Derek Dodson, and Victor Eriksson, forward Jordan Adebayo-Smith, and midfielders Alejandro Bran and Moses Nyeman.
Up Next: After some regular tune up matches, the Loons hit the field against Austin FC at the end of February
Take a Sec with Emelec
Record: Not in Action
The mens team did do quite a lot of shopping for their roster. They started by resigning Pedro Ortiz to mind the net and Fernando Leon. Then there were they incomers:
Forward: Facundo Castelli,
Wingers: Maicon Solis, Juan Pablo Ruiz Gomez, Washington Corozco and Rodrigo Rivero
Midfielder: Marcelo Meli, Andres Ricahrte, Christian Erbes, and club legend Christhian Noboa…(get ready, I’m probably going to mention him as often as Miller Bolanos!)
Defenders Alexander Gonzalez, Joao Quinonez, and Gustavo Cortez,
Up Next: The Men’s team’s first season starts soon with matches against Deportivo Cuenca and Mushuc Runa.
What’s the haps at Vozdovac?
Record: Not in action
Vozdovac opened the year knowing that Borisav Burmaz was leaving the club…now headed off for the top flight of soccer in Romania with Rapid Bucharest. Meanwhile, they brought in seven new players, none of whom is older than 22.
Next: The Dragons take flight again with Red Star Belgrade and two more league matches (Napredak, and Mladost Lucani)
Players of the Month
Instead of honoring one player each week, we’ll take some time to shout out a player from each team that was in action each month. January’s honorees are
Nicholas Mensah (D) Legon Cities, Vincenzo Grifo (M) Freiburg, Samantha Steuerwald (DM) Freiburg, Amine Sbai (F) Grenoble, Claudia Fabre (F) Grenoble, Luka Macjen (F) Punjab, Julio Cesar Cruz (F) Alebrijes, George Wickens (K) Ross County
Standings
It’s early days and one match shouldn’t be taken as predictive of anything other than one match, but we’d deeply love for someone, literally anyone to play as well as Legon Cities did…or at least get fewer draws.
I was in a teacher activity thinking about words that are immutable parts of ourselves. Obviously thinking about you boys, and what I have, and all those good things, I thought of love.
Dear, Boys
But love can go many directions and many ways. You can adore things and hold them up beyond their reach. You can yearn for things and have a lot, a lot of wanting. But I ended up pairing it with another word I use a lot “give”, so the words the related words to love that stood out most were “care”, “cherish” and “benevolence”
Benevolence doesn’t actually have that great of a sound to it. Many people look at “benevolence” a little like a smug and distant force. Your mom works in the arts where “benefactors” are people who give large sums of money and end up with their name on walls or programs. Your grandpa Bruce (the original MacKenzie Boy) is fond of the image of a “Benevolent Dictator” someone who will use total power to do kind and just things. (Your grandpa likes it because it’s about as realistic as having a seven-headed kitten.)
But, I still like “benevolence”. And because I am who I am, I dug into the word. Looking not at what it means to people now, but how the word grew and developed.
Benevolent, like most latin-derived words, starts with the ending: “ent”–doing…I like that because I like active rather than passive love; next “volo”–wishes…I like that because so much is out of our control, you can control your hopes and aspirations and wishes for the world; finally “bene”–good. So put it all together and Benevolent means “doing good wishes”, if you are benevolent you aren’t giving money or ruling the world, you are just wishing well for other people, sending goodness and compassion outward.
I like that root of “benevolence”. But it isn’t easy.
Forgive the facist meme, this is the negative…
It’s hard for you kids. You can do it when we’re cuddled up at the end of the day and I ask you who you want to send gratitude or love to. But in the middle of the day, chores become “why do you make me do everything!”, “I never get to play!” and “I can’t do it, I’m just stupid!”. Play time becomes “gimme that”, ”no, that’s mine,” and “you’re a stupid head, I’m leaving!!”. Honestly, I feel it come up in my own words, “why aren’t you listening to me?”, “boys, I said, No,” and “just do what I asked you, please?”.
It’s hard to offer benevolence up when things feel so antagonistic.
The same thing is true in sports. It’s not an extremely benevolent field. Instead people obsess over results and outcomes. Soccer is often a zero sum affair: a game where there is a winner and a loser and a sense that in order to get something good for yourself, someone else has to suffer.
But it’s also in soccer where you can see great examples of benevolence.
Two of my favorite coaches preach this perspective. Looking for the good in the community and the positives for everyone.
Chris Citowicki’s first standard in recruiting for the University of Montana was to make a pledge to recruits. “I promise that when it’s all over, You will have had the best four years of your life.” He’s not pledging to make them “winners” or to become professionals or win national (or even conference championships), he is focused on the best four years: socially, academically, everything. He wants what’s best for his team…not what results in the most wins on the field.
Christian Streich’s politics are a welcome breath of fresh air, all the more so when he looks for ways to wish well for everyone involved in a hot button issue. At a time when politics is very much a blood sport, he speaks in ways to understand others. In the heat of an immigration crisis, he spoke about the needs of refugees and to the emotions of the heated few: “Right now is the time to open up to people, to receive [refugees], to reduce fears. It is often about the fear of others and the fear of strangers. It’s about getting to know other ways of thinking.”
The goal isn’t to be right while your opponents admit defeat. It’s to welcome people in need, and help those who are afraid to find hope and confidence in knowledge rather than fear.
In thinking about soccer, I certainly grind my teeth over unlucky results or unfair whistles, I definitely glower at lucky punks and grumble about unfair systems, but that good wishing, that kindness mentality, that’s what I aspire to.
More than proving I’m right and you’re wrong. More than making you play nice. I genuinely wish you can find the good: the good in yourselves, the kindness and compassion and love for each other, the strength to do it on your own.
I want to bring back benevolence: for the players I cheer for, for the neighbors I disagree with, for you boys even in the peaks of your anguish.
Start by wishing well for others, and let your actions follow.
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