Big shout to Lupe for calling in on last week’s episode of SNSS. We chopped it up about his role as Musical Director on the US Men’s National Soccer team, working on music with Clint Dempsey, and his new “Next To It” single. FNF UP!
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.
Posted in Sports, Videos on January 10th, 2012 by Hyphen
Since the living legend himself came back yesterday to score a winner for Arsenal in the FA Cup versus Leeds, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and post this clip of some of Henry’s best. Number 7 is one of my all time favorites, but I love them all. No matter what team you root for, you have to give credit to this man. One of the greatest strikers we’ve ever seen, with a sliding stare down goal celebration so epic, they made it into a statue:
Posted in Sports, Videos on December 22nd, 2011 by Hyphen
I meant to post this soon after it happened, but better late than never…especially for those of you who don’t follow soccer and may have missed Robin van Persie’s game winning volley for Arsenal vs. Everton. You’ll notice that US National Team goalkeeper, Tim Howard, doesn’t even move, knowing that if RvP connected as he planned, he didn’t stand a chance. What a beautiful pass from Song too. Fabregas-esque.
Posted in Sports, Videos on October 5th, 2011 by Hyphen
(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.
Landon Donovan takes on (Bellevue’s own) Tim Lincecum above and (Richland’s own) Hope Solo takes on (British Columbia’s own) Steve Nash in these hilarious ads for the new FIFA Soccer game from EA Sports. Kind of a NW feel to these ads, eh? I guess that’s to be expected with EA’s FIFA headquarters in Burnaby and soccer being more popular in the Pacific Northwest than pretty much every other area of North America.
Nash’s dry sense of humo(u)r is awesome. “That’s a low blow…I worked hard for that degree.” That dude is the man.
In fact, when FIFA drops on Tuesday, I’m kind of tempted to cop a system just to play it whenever I can’t get on the pitch in real life. Looks crazy!
Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever watched one of these ESPN “My Wish” segments without tearing up. This particular piece highlighting a young cancer patient named Brendan Galanaugh and his idol, Landon Donovan, was no different. It would have been great without Donovan’s storybook ending to the day, but once he scored those goals, it was a wrap. Good stuff.
I swear it feels like just yesterday when we all watched Zinedine Zidane gracefully end his legendary soccer career by high-fiving Marco Materazzi’s chest with his forehead (confused?), but 4 quick years later and it’s already time for another World Cup. While I’ve had a few debates with my non-soccer loving friends, overall, it seems like everyone is pretty excited about the tournament. On the pitch, every country other than Germany is off to a slow start, but that’s fairly typical for the Cup. As the teams get into their second games, things will loosen up a bit and the questionable goalkeeping combined with Adidas’ controversial Jabulani ball should provide some memorable moments.
Unfortunately, due to the time difference from South Africa to the Pacific Northwest, half of these memorable moments will occur when we’re asleep or just waking up. Consequently, I’ll wrap this up in hope that I can change my schedule for the next few weeks. Early to bed (for once) means that I can actually catch the 7am (or perhaps the 5am…well, naaaah) game before hitting the office.
Peep this week’s episode of SNSS for less soccer talk and more musical dopeness, including tracks by Rah Digga, Drake, Kanye, Reflection Eternal, Shad, Outkast, and more. Plus, we played part of our recent interview with one of the illest new MC’s in the game, Laws. Be sure to check out the full interview right here.
Show #263 (6-13-10)
Rah Digga – “This Ain’t No Lil’ Kid Rapâ€
Homeboy Sandman – “The Carpenterâ€
Asher Roth – “G.R.I.N.D.â€
Cook Classics ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Midwest Malcolmâ€
Dom Kennedy – “1997â€
Big K.R.I.T. ft. Devin The Dude – “Moon & Starsâ€
Sol – “Dear Friends†(Local Music)
Theophilus London – “Flying Overseas (Version 1)â€
Shad – “Telephoneâ€
Big Boi ft. Andre3000 & Sleepy Brown – “Lookin’ 4 Yaâ€
Janelle Monae ft. Saul Williams – “Dance Or Dieâ€
**INTERVIEW WITH LAWS (SNIPPET)**
Laws – “Hold You Downâ€
Drake – “Show Me A Good Timeâ€
Kanye West ft. Dwele – “Powerâ€
TiRon – “Boys & Girlsâ€
JFK – “On The Regular†(Local Music)
The Roots ft. John Legend – “The Fireâ€
Little Brother – “Whatever You Say†(Throwback of the Week)
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.