Official G: It's All About the Coach

And he doesn't have to be a charasmatic brute to help a team win.

OK, sure, but that's not my point. Winning, in the short term, isn't enough. Arena's a winner, the current tournament notwithstanding. What I'm saying the U.S. needs is a charismatic coach to sell the sport to American kids, to get the elite schoolboy athletes to think of it as a possible career choice. Winning is part of that, but winning alone isn't enough.

Blue in VA: Having missed out on [Guss] Hiddink, perhaps 'Big Phil' Scolari might fit the bill.

Wow, two letter writers in a row suggest Hiddink. Andrew O'Hehir mentioned Scolari too, and the German coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, who lives in California, is a name I've seen tossed around.

Nicepieceofdonkey: You wouldn't know if from this team, but I'm willing to bet you will see more and more hispanic players on the US team. I live in urban California, where the lack of park space in poor nieghborhoods is increasingly offset by the adoption of any space, including basketball courts, for soccer games. Players came from all over--US, Europe, Africa--but particularly Mexico and points south.

I hear this idea a lot, that Americans can't compete in soccer because there's no pick-up soccer, no equivalent to playground basketball. This always strikes me as conventional wisdom that probably seems more true than actually is true.

First of all, like you say, Nicepiece, there is pickup soccer. And that may be increasing, but it isn't new. I grew up in urban California too, in the '70s, and the Mexican (and the odd other-country immigrant) kids played pickup soccer, as did their fathers. I think there's a culture of street hockey in New York too, and I would guess in South Florida. Possibly in certain parts of Texas.

Second, a relatively few top players emerge from the legendary basketball playgrounds of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. They come from all over, including sedate suburban youth leagues.

The U.S. is not an international power in soccer for the same reason it's not in boxing anymore. The best athletes go to other sports.  

And I wasn't suggesting the next generation of soccer players should be 6-8 power forwards. I just meant to illustrate the level of athleticism available here. Tremendous athletes with unbelievable athletic ability are journeymen in the big sports.

And I think I agree with what you say about instant replay for penalty kicks and yellow/red cards. The penalty is way, way too great for what is way too often an either/or call, or worse, a flop or a flat-out blown call. It's one thing to hand over a couple of free throws or a first down. But a goal, which remember is 80 percent of the average team's expected scoring, at least in this tournament, is way too much. And a penalty kick is pretty much a goal.

ANd how can you not know about Univision? FYI- Caliente is a pretty entertaining show as well.

I knew about Univision. I've watched it my whole life. I'd just thought it wasn't part of the satellite package I've had in place since the end of the NFL season, so like five months.

Mister C: Thanks for the Hornets correction. I type "Hornets" every time I type "Charlotte" in an NBA context, and most of the time immediately catch myself.

I also type "Charlotte" every time I type Hornets, and have to change that too.

Dragondawn and lezzbo: Thank you for the kind words.

Baseball instead: Zzzzzz. Analyzing the NBA (and NFL, and MLB, and NHL) draft: The sports fan's equivelant to analyzing who will win "Best Picture" in the Academy Awards.

I disagree. I think analyzing who will be taken by what team before the draft is the equivalent to analyzing who will win the Oscars. The NBA draft itself is kind of fun. It moves along quickly, five minutes per pick, in theory, and if you follow basketball you've at least heard of most of the people involved and seen some or all of them play. Proclaiming this team or that one to have "won" or "lost" the draft, or grading their performance, yeah, I'm with you. Let's wait and see. But the TV show itself is fun, and would be more fun with Sir Charles.

The NFL draft, though, I'm right with you. It's like sitting in a two-day offsite meeting at someone else's company.

Richinohio: I'm convinced that Isiah drafted based on trying to get the number 1 pick next year, Greg Oden.

I'm sure you're kidding, but remember, Isiah's got one year to fix the Knicks, so even if getting the top pick weren't pretty much a crapshoot even for the worst team, this wouldn't make sense. Even for Isiah.

DJ Ninja: Wildcard Confusion. Aren't the Chisox currently the wildcard? In that case, the Twins are 8 1/2 games behind the wildcard leader and, thus, possibly quite screwed.

Yes. What's the confusion? Didn't I write that? I'm not seeing the error if there is one.

crumley: King, have you looked at the inter-league plays stats? ... Is the AL really that much better than the NL, or is it due to matchups? Or is it just a statistical aberration?

There's probably a little statistical aberration there but yeah, the A.L. is better than the N.L., and yeah I've looked, and yeah that's why the Tigers, White Sox and Twins are all so hot right now. But there's always some reason.