MLS Week 2

I think it’s kind of official. I cannot pick teams. Both of the teams I gave the win to yesterday lost. How’s that for accuracy? I’m really disappointed in you, New England. San Jose…you probably don’t need me to reprimand you.

My awful stats so far will not stop me. So, I present the weekend games:

Columbus Crew at New York Red Bulls
This is not only the Red Bulls home opener; it’s their first game of the season. I’m sure that they are eager to come out of the gate running. They now have Juan Carlos Osorio as their coach, and we all saw what he did in Chicago last season. Columbus is coming off a victory, but it’s against Toronto (which isn’t saying much). I say NY wins.

Toronto FC at DC United
DC lost last weekend to Kansas City, but they did the same thing last year. They are still the more impressive team of these two. Toronto is going to have to work really hard to get anyone to take them seriously. DC victory.

Colorado Rapids at Kansas City Wizards
Both teams won at home last weekend. Colorado beat the Galaxy 4-0 and Kansas City beat DC 2-0. I’m having a really tough time picking a winner between these two. So, let’s call a tie and give them each a point.

Real Salt Lake at Chivas USA
Our lovely RSL are playing at Chivas. They have never had a victory against Chivas at the Home Depot Center. That being said, they are playing remarkably well (if one game is a determining factor) and Chivas don’t look quite as impressive as they should. They were only able to come from behind and hold Dallas to a tie last weekend. I’m of course voting for a Real victory, but I think Chivas might take it. I really hope we don’t end in another tie.

FC Dallas at Houston Dynamo
Again the lone Sunday game; this time it’s the Lone Star State Rivalry. Dallas lost their edge to Chivas last weekend. Houston will be angry about their New England loss. I think Houston wins.

I am addicted to sugar...

... and in the grand tradition of children who can’t take responsibility for their own actions; I blame my parents. We grew up in a very sugar-saturated household. Our breakfast cereals were never Raisin Bran or Corn Flakes. No, we had Cocoa Puffs, Trix, Froot Loops, etc.

Mom had a candy drawer and there was always candy in it. Every major holiday we celebrated with candy. My friends used to love to come to my house because we had the best cereal and the candy dish always had something in it. We also had a ready supply of soda.

At the beginning of this week, I decided I was going to go the entire week leading up to Saturday’s race without chocolate. That may not sound like much to you people out there, but it is a lot for me. I have chocolate pretty much every single day. We still have a ready supply at home from Easter. I have a bag of M&M’s in my desk drawer. Chocolate is an essential part of my life. I also tried to extend this to sugar. It’s difficult to do.

Last night I could tell my body is going through severe detox. I got home and I felt extremely tired. The last thing I wanted to do was run. And those chocolate chip cookies my sister made the other night; they were looking so delicious.

I am trying so hard to be strong. And now I wonder, should I try and go longer without chocolate? Should I try and make it to the SLC Marathon on April 19th? Should I eat chocolate after this race and then give it up again the week before the SLCM? Am I strong enough to make it to Saturday?
All questions that will be answered Saturday morning, right now all I can tell you is; I would really love a cookie.

MLS Report

I didn’t report at all on the games on Saturday. Gabby’s blog on the subject is more than sufficient. I will satisfy myself with saying that we have excellent seats. Most of the people around us are very vocal and it seems like we’ll be having a good time.

Well, my first weekend predictions weren’t very good. I got the Colorado win and the Columbus win, but I was off on the rest.

That’s alright. Real came out with a tie instead of a loss, which is good. New England beat Houston, not a bad thing.

Thursday night is a double header on ESPN2. I’m hoping to leave work a little early to try and get home and catch some of these games. I love to run while watching the Thursday night games.

New England Revolution at Chicago Fire
The Revs win at home on Saturday was a pleasant surprise. I think that they are a very solid team who definitely worked hard enough last year to win the Cup. Even though Chicago is at home, I think New England is a better looking team right now—even without Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston. I saw Chicago’s play last weekend up close and personal. They were not looking up to form. Blanco spent most of his time whining and the ref ignored him. He’s going to have to learn that in the MLS, dives are very rarely rewarded. I’m giving the win to the Revolution.

San Jose Earthquakes at Los Angeles Galaxy
San Jose is back, but I’m afraid they may not be quite the team they were before they were transferred to Houston. I’m hoping they can overcome the first year curse of expansion teams and not end up in the bottom of their conference. Something tells me a win over the Galaxy would be an easy one. After watching the Galaxy’s humiliating loss on Saturday, I’m feeling that the Quakes may take this game. LA has no depth. Even with only sixteen men on their roster, I have a feeling the Earthquakes can give them a run for their money. Here’s hoping it won’t be the last win they get this season.

Go. Fight. Kill.

No touch-backs!

Gabby, this will die here. You’re my only real bloggity-blog friend.

You're feeling: Good. I just finished breakfast and I’m taking a break from reading my e-mails to do this.

To your left: My plant.

On your mind: Soccer and work.

Last meal included: Breakfast-oatmeal with cinnamon coffee creamer (it’s so good, Gabby!)

You sometimes find it hard to: Apologize.

The weather: It’s really cold out, but I have put my coats away and refuse to wear them anymore.

Something you have a collection of: Snowglobes. Yeah, I’m a nerd.

A smell that cheers you up: Sagebrush.

A smell that can ruin your mood: Stitch’s ears.

How long since you last shaved: I shaved one leg this morning. He he.

Yesterday, The current state of your hair: Down, it’s straight and the ends are curled.

The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): Papers. I have stacks of documents that need to be submitted.

Your skill with chopsticks: I’m excellent. We learned how to use them in 9th Grade World Geography.

Which section you head for first in a bookstore: Usually fiction. I don’t like to read much else.

Something you’re craving: I’m so excited for the carb loading and for the meat loading that I will be doing for the race. I am making myself a steak tomorrow and we’re having pasta on Friday.

Your general thoughts on the presidential race: Why is this still going on? What does it even matter? Our personal votes don’t count and our system of electing a president is completely flawed. Whether I vote or not, doesn’t matter. I still will, though, because I want to get assigned jury duty.

How many times you've been hospitalized this year: Zero.

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: Usually I go for a walk. I can think and I get a little exercise.

You've always secretly thought you'd be a good: Writer.

Something that freaks you out a little: Open sewer grates.

Something you've eaten too much of lately: Sugar.

You have never: Broken a bone.

You never want to: Go to jail.

I can be an odds-maker

During the soccer season, I will mostly be thinking about soccer. I think my bloggity-blog will largely reflect that. Starting today, I am going to include my predictions for winners of the weekend MLS games. If only I worked in a really cool office where people cared about soccer; I could use my predictions to win a pool.

Toronto FC at Columbus Crew
Word is that even with a new coach, Toronto is playing awful. Gabby says they are the team to beat this year. Columbus also has home field advantage and that one guy who wears his sleeves shorter than everyone else’s. I’m fairly certain we’ll see a Crew victory from this one.

Chicago Fire at Real Salt Lake
As much as I hate to admit it, Chicago is good. Or they were last season. I don’t like Blanco. I think he is a baby. I am also afraid that with another off-season overhaul of RSL, they aren’t playing at their full potential, yet. Of course I am hoping for a RSL win, but I think when we hit 90:00, the Fire will go away with the 3 points.

Houston Dynamo at New England Revolution
Oh boy! Here we have a match-up of the two teams that played in last year’s MLS Cup. If this game goes the way of the cup, Houston will win. I’m thinking it will. The Revs lost Noonan and Dorman. I’m sure their misery over that will slow them down. It certainly did me.

DC United at Kansas City Wizards
Kansas City sans Eddie Johnson? When they were forced to play without him last year, they lost almost every game. I hope they’ve acquired some depth since losing him. I’d say DC takes it, but not by more than a point. The Wizards are at home, and though they don’t start him much, they still have Sasha Victorine!

Los Angeles Galaxy at Colorado Rapids
This game could end in a 0-0 tie, but I think Colorado might pull out a victory. Nothing that happened in the off-season convinced me that LA has made any strides towards becoming a better team. Beckham and Donovan will be jet-lagged and tired from playing earlier in the week. Who else is on the team? I give this match to the Rapids.

Chivas USA at FC Dallas
The only Sunday game this weekend and it’s against the two teams whose shirts involve red and white stripes. I love Kenny Cooper. However, I love Esky a little more. And I think Chivas is probably still the better team. I’m giving the victory to them.

Good luck to all (except Colorado, I hope they lose). One day.

Call me!

I am a cell phone murderer! Since I started working at my current job (a little over 2 years ago) I have owned four different phones. When I got a new phone it was because I was forced to.

First phone I broke by sending it through the washing machine. Yeah, apparently you shouldn’t do that. Who knew?

Next phone was a Sidekick 3. I hated that blasted phone. First problem: whenever I made a call on it, I was told I sounded like I was “underwater”. Second problem: It would not receive some text messages. Ever. I would have them sent to me multiple times and never get them. I called the service provider and they informed me that I would have to wait to get the software update sent to me. Lame. Third problem: When it got cold, it would lose all its battery and die. It would turn off and I could not turn it back on until I charged it. Not good since I owned it mostly in the winter. There were times when it would just freeze up on me and I would have to take out the battery and memory card and then wait for it to turn back on. Sidekicks take a very long time to turn on. I also dropped it one too many times and so it wouldn’t flip correctly. I don’t blame the cell phone maker for that, just me for being clumsy. Finally, I took it on Splash Mountain and go the wettest I have ever gotten on that ride. Unfortunately, my phone also got wet (or kind of fortunately in this case). I dried it out by removing all the parts I could, but then for the last while I owned it, the screen was upside down and backwards. That was interesting when trying to read/write text messages.

Next phone was my favorite phone I have ever owned. It was a Samsung and was a thin little candy bar phone. This one I snapped in half. Yes, I managed to snap a phone in half. When I tried to buy another one of the same model, I was told it was only for new customers. What?!

I am currently on a Motorola SLVR. I like it fine, but it makes me angry a lot of days. I purchased it unlocked from a website and turns out it is a European Phone. It will not learn how to spell “thing” in predictive text. I have taught it that word every day, but it will not learn it. Instead I get vigoi. Also, it likes German words, even though I set it to English. It spells “im” before is spells “in”. It suggests umlauts to me on most words that contain an “o”. When I start to spell early, the first word it comes up with is Darjeeling. It takes me much longer to write a text message than it should.

Sometimes it’s so frustrating I wish it would break. But then, I don’t know what I’d do. T-Mobile has lame phones and I wouldn’t want to purchase another European one.

I am convinced that the cell phone gods are punishing me for mistreating so many of their brethren. But I can’t help being so clumsy!

Soccer is the world's favorite sport

So, last night was the “Kickoff Cup” for Real Salt Lake at Skyline High School. (?) We were a little late due to my idiocy in not thinking of taking the I-215. Sorry about that, Gabby. The weather was alright when we first arrived, but it quickly got chilly and windy. Thankfully, it was not raining. I was not prepared for that. We did have to huddle down through most of the second half. I don’t know how the fans of European soccer deal with the weather through their entire season.

Anyway, the starting lineup was announced and we were still looking for a seat. I did catch that we started Kyle Reynish in goal (though I would have known him anyway). Dema Kovalenko was also on the field as was Alex Nimo. I have not seen either of them play for RSL before. Pretty much the only other person on the field that I recognized was Kenny Cutler. Why is he still around?

We settled on some front row seats near the center of the field only to find Leo standing directly in front of us and obstructing our view. We got up and went to the north end of the bleachers and settled towards the back.

The game was actually kind of boring. Kovalenko scored around the 20th minute. It was a lovely shot. Cheering and then pretty much nothing happened again until he scored again about fifty minutes later. Movsisyan scored the third of the game not too long after. Even more reason to love Movsisyan, not that we need any. The game ended on that score. RSL won 3-0.

I think the low point was when the Lobos Girls (I don’t know if that’s what they are called, but that is what we will call them) got up to dance at half-time. I’m not sure what they were doing, but I, a self-confessed terrible dancer, could have choreographed a better dance than what they subjected us to. Thankfully, their dance was only about one minute long, but then when they decided to throw out T-shirts and do some additional dancing; they played the same Black Eyed Peas song again. I think they only had that one minute clip of the song, so they played it over and over. It was annoying.
So help me if RSL gets “cheerleaders” when we move to the new stadium, I will boycott them. I can figure out when to yell for my team. If I couldn’t I still wouldn’t want some idiots telling me when to do it.