The Audacity of Dope

Being a huge English Premier League fan, I have mixed feelings about NBC Sports acquiring the US TV rights starting this upcoming season. On one hand, at least it’s not at Fox, whose production value for FSC has always been abysmal, and being part of the NBC family should help increase the exposure to the US.  However, obviously I’d prefer the rights to be owned by my company, ESPN, plus I’m a little concerned this piece above will be representative of how they cover a foreign sports league.

Concerns aside, I LOL’d.

Song’s chip over the top to RvP for the game-winning volley was reminiscent of their connection earlier to defeat Everton. Simply class.

Cheeky.

(don’t watch this yet!  read first, then watch…)

If you know me in real life, you know that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been far more important to me.  With my dad’s British upbringing, soccer logically became my first sport and growing up, I must say, I was pretty talented (and equally modest…or not).  As I got older and more immersed in our country’s sports culture, I was drawn to the major US sports and eventually basketball edged out soccer as my top choice. I put the cleats away, laced up the high tops, and ended up playing small college basketball down in Los Angeles.  Nothing glamorous, but it kept me busy and shoot, there aren’t THAT many people who can say they’ve made the NCAA tournament!  *cough* Division III though *cough*

After graduating, I returned to Seattle and while I’ve enjoyed playing in the Puget Sound Basketball League, I’ve had a lot more fun playing for a few soccer clubs up here.  Perhaps it’s a little sad, but the two games I play each week are often highlights that I look forward to when I’m bored with the monotony of my day job and music work.  It’s even at the point now where my basketball games are cool…but I’d rather be on the pitch.

Alongside my own playing, I’ve started following professional leagues around the globe, really buying in completely around the 2006 World Cup.  Not only does it provide the obvious entertainment, but I find something really important in maintaining a regular connection, albeit fairly superficial, to the rest of the world.  It’s sickeningly easy for Americans to forget that societies exist outside our borders (and are comfortably passing us by), so by following leagues in Europe, South America, and Asia, plus the international clubs from the rest of the world, I’m actually exposed to a good bit of culture and news I’d otherwise miss out on.  Plus, it provides a nice escape when the sports media (hi friendly employer!) and all my friends talk about the same stories.  Trust me, I’m up on all the happenings in basketball, football, and baseball, but watching/playing soccer allows me to follow stories that most people I interact with simply haven’t heard.

Naturally, this leads to the awkward existence of the US soccer fan.  There are more of us than ever before.  The MLS and US Men’s & Women’s teams are more popular than at any point in history.  We are a legitimate player in the soccer world, but admittedly, we are nowhere near the top.  Thanks to our size and economy (assuming we still have one in a few years), we have potential to join the top tier, but we have a long fight ahead.  Americans are generally either apathetic to the sport or they foster a strangely antagonistic, and not so subtle jingoistic, disdain for it.  There’s nothing that angers a non-soccer fan more than hearing how it’s the most popular sport in the world.

What does all this rambling have to do with the video posted above?  Well, Francis Coquelin’s excellent performance as a defensive midfielder for Arsenal in their recent loss to Tottenham epitomizes why the average US sports fan doesn’t really like soccer.

Watch the video above.  I’ll wait.

Done?

Ok, so what did you see?

6 minutes of “nothing special,” right?  No thumping headers, athletic bicycle kicks, or Bend It Like Beckham-esque free kicks.  Hell, you didn’t even get a goal!  Instead, just a great deal of industry, grit, ingenuity, vision, agility, strength, speed, finesse, and calmness that displayed almost everything you want from a player in that position on the pitch.  Granted, the youngster made a few poor touches and distributed some loose passes, but overall, it was the lone bright spot in what has become a shockingly poor season for Arsenal.  In all fairness, it was far from what a top defensive midfielder is capable of, but it still underscores my point.

If you can’t appreciate a performance like that, you’ll never truly love the sport.  If your eye can’t spot the subtle adjustments necessary for a positive first touch or the instinctive movement to create the right passing angle, you’re going to be awfully bored while you wait for the goals to come.  If you’ve been brainwashed by our highlight driven society, you’re missing out on the building blocks for those incredible moments in the Top 10 countdown.

I’ll even go one step further, and likely anger some of my soccer loving friends at the same time.  If you haven’t played the sport and tried to do what these guys make look effortless, you don’t fully understand the beauty of soccer.  Yeah, I know…that’s pretty self-righteous, but I feel it’s true.  Fans are quick to jeer when a free kick is ballooned in to the stands, but how many hours have you spent trying to hit the upper 90?  If that number is high, you have a better understanding of what the player has attempted.  Fact.  Trying to curl in kicks from FIFA doesn’t cut it.

I don’t expect this rant to convince any non-soccer fans to give the sport another try and in fact, it may have the opposite result.  That’s fine though.  I view soccer similarly to how I view hip-hop.  Either you’re in it and you live/love/breathe it, or you’re not.

You don’t have to be, but for those of us who are, seeing a young kid like Coquelin deliver such an impressive performance in his 2nd EPL start reminds us of an amateur MC stringing together a few bars brilliantly in the middle of a solid verse.  Not enough to blow you away but just enough where everyone in the room felt it at that moment…like “yeah…that part right there?…that was it.”

It can be whatever you want it to be.  Just don’t try to tell me what it is to me.

I can’t believe he even attempted this, let alone that it went in.  You’ll want to watch until the final replay for a close look at how he pulled it off.

My Swedish brethren Seb Larsson marked his Sunderland debut with a brilliant equalizer in today’s match versus Liverpool.  Not a bad way to kick off the new EPL season! Lucky number 7…

Another insanely busy weekend around the Northwest, and pretty much all over, with the first official week of the NFL season taking the country by storm.  Between the NFL, NCAA football, the FIBA championship, the US Open, EPL, the WNBA Finals (hey, gotta rep the home team…plus I’ve had a crush on Sue Bird since about 2002), and the MTV VMA’s, not only do we have a lot of acronyms, but Saturday & Sunday were jam packed with entertainment.  Rather than rehash it here, you really should be following my Twitter…and of course, J. Moore’s as well.

On the heels of our web chat footage of J. Cole from last week, if you missed his live performance at Bumbershoot, I shot some footage you can check out right here.  When “Grown Simba” drops at 8:47, it’s really too ill, and this performance shows why Cole is gonna be a star in the near future.  It’s well deserved too.

Show #276 (9-12-10)

1. Joell Ortiz – “Battle Cry”
2. J. Cole – “Villematic”
3. John Legend & The Roots – “Hard Times”
4. Big Boi ft. Andre 3000 & Sleepy Brown – “Lookin’ 4 Ya (Full Mix)”
5. Black Milk ft. Mr. Porter – “Closed Chapter”
6. **INTERVIEW WITH LANGUAGE ARTS, PT. 1**
7. Language Arts – “Fast Life” (Local Music)
8. **INTERVIEW WITH LANGUAGE ARTS, PT. 2**
9. Wiz Khalifa ft. Fashawn – “In The Cut (Remix)”
10. Andy Allo ft. Blu – “Dreamland”
11. Pollyn ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Falling Out of Place (Remix)”
12. Aleon Craft – “Early Moan”
13. Kno ft. Thee Tom Hardy & Tunji – “Rhythm Of The Rain”
14. Kanye West ft. Common, Pusha T, Big Sean, Kid Cudi, & Charlie Wilson – “G.O.O.D. Friday”
15. Grynch – “My Volvo (Sabzi’s Bolbo Riddim Remix)” (Local Music)
16. Dres of Black Sheep – “For The Record”
17. Maxwell – “This Woman’s Work” (Throwback of the Week)
18. Lace Cadence – “Moonlight” (Local Music)
19. Bilal – “Think It Over”
20. Aloe Blacc – “Mama Hold My Hand”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?frnjg15cxyj539a
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/80382355fdc0bc38/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/zri3p6vkyaht)

If there are any problems with the links or if you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

Fast forward to 3:13 to see the build up for a truly incredible goal from the big homey Didier Drogba.  Everything about it – Ashley Cole’s long ball, Didier’s first touch, his strength and balance, and perhaps a lucky bounce after Corluka’s tackle – combined to make this a flawless moment from yesterday’s 3-0 win by Chelsea over Tottenham.  The Blues are not only looking like the team to beat in the EPL, but they could quite easily be the best in the world.

The scary thing is that Spurs actually played pretty well…and still got hammered.  Despite the lopsided scoreline, it was a great match to watch.  Top notch football at its best.

Sidenote, your boy has been playing well recently too.  Dropped in 2 goals and 2 assists in a game yesterday FTW…

That was to tie it, and this was the winner in injury time:

I see you Didier.

Ok…Steve is having entirely too much fun.  And it’s for a good cause.