Last week, I got a message from Elise Krieghoff. It was simply a video that showed Krieghoff scoring on a bicycle kick in the professional league, where she plays in Norway. Krieghoff, Cal Poly’s all-time leading scorer, had a stint as a pro with the Boston Breakers of the US-based NWSL before moving to Norway this season.

The goal by itself is just rad, but the other shoe dropped when Krieghoff told me who the keeper was — former teammate Alyssa Giannetti. Giannetti also plays in the Norwegian league, and her former teammate’s goalazo came directly at her expense. 

I still think this goal Krieghoff scored in college was even better. 

Together, Giannetti and Krieghoff led Cal Poly women’s soccer to a pretty great three-year run. During their first three seasons, the Mustangs were 18-4-2 in Big West play, won a Big West regular season title, and earned the right to host the Big West Tournament. 

When I tweeted the video, Giannetti’s response was great:

It was only a matter of time before this surfaced haha

— Alyssa Giannetti (@AlyssaRozae) September 9, 2017

Props to Alyssa being a wonderful sport about the whole thing. Props to Elise for an amazing goal. 

It’s always fun when I can get footage of a Cal Poly athlete playing professionally. Ride High, ladies. 

I met John Pranjić watching a US soccer game in San Luis Obispo with the local American Outlaws chapter. A few months later I started to explore his podcast. 

I’m a neurotic soccer fan, but hopefully my conversation with John was a little fun and a little informative.

If you want more information about John or his podcast, you can find it at 343coaching.com. 

On this sometimes rambling episode of the Podcast, David Kline joins Owen in the studio. David, a recent Cal Poly graduate, has done some work for that school’s broadcasts online and on ESPN Radio 1280 and has some pretty solid world soccer knowledge at the ready.

Kline is a big soccer fan, and we go on about soccer in this country, the future of it, and Jurgen Klinsmann’s job thus far.

First though, my thoughts in the sports world are really focused on former Cal Poly pitcher Matt Imhof. Last week, Imhof, who was pitching for the Phillies organization in Florida, suffered an injury to his eye when a piece of exercise equipment at a ballpark broke off a wall. After a few surgeries, Imhof had a prosthetic eye implanted and his career seems to be in serious jeopardy.

Of all the guys on the team at Cal Poly that hosted a regional three years ago, Imhof was one of the easier guys to root for. I interviewed him a few times and he always came off as a really good, thoughtful kid who had worked very hard to get where he did (a second-round pick). Every time I think about what happened last week I just get sick to my stomach for the kid.

As one might expect from a guy like Matt, he’s putting his best foot forward.

As many of you know on Friday June 25th I had an accident. A large price of metal hit me in the head/eye resulting in a fractured nose, 2 fractured orbital bones, and most significantly, the loss of vision in my right eye. I was immediately taken to the ER and then transferred to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the #1 eye hospital in the world. That night, the doctors informed me that the damage to my eye was extreme and essentially that my eye had been crushed like a grape. The doctors told me they were going to do everything possible to reconstruct it but in all likelihood I would never regain sight in my right eye. The first surgery was somewhat a success but overall nothing had changed, so after discussions with my family and my doctors, it was decided that the best chance I had to live a normal life was to have my right eye removed and have a prosthetic one put in. This decision was not an easy one to make but to me it seemed like the right one so on Tuesday afternoon I went forward with the surgery. I’m currently still in Miami recovering from surgery but I’m doing well. This has been the hardest week of my life but I’ve had amazing support from my family and friends to help me get through it. For those who have been wishing me well, your support has not gone unnoticed and I appreciate everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I had the best doctors in the world doing their best work on me and for that I am grateful as well. Although this injury has been tough it could have been much worse…I’m lucky to still have vision in my left eye…I’m lucky that i didn’t have brain damage…and I’m lucky to be surrounded my the most loving and understanding people in the world. I just wanted to write this message to let everyone know that even though I suffered some bad luck, I’m not dead. I’m gonna be alright, I’m gonna persevere, and I’m gonna succeed. It takes more than this to bring me down. Again thanks to everyone for the support .

A photo posted by Matt Imhof (@matt_imhof48) on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:44am PDT

That’s some perspective.

Matt now has almost 3,000 likes. On the Instagram post, I mean. One of them is definitely me — and that’s not limited to just social media. Sending good thoughts your way Mr. Imhof.

Enjoy the Podcast.

Unless you’re a coach, games are always better when they’re close. On Friday night, San Luis Obispo and Mission Prep matched-up in at least four varsity sports.

Boys’ Soccer

San Luis Obispo (11-3-2, 5-1-1) scored early and often in a win at San Luis Obispo High School. By the time I got to the game, about six or eight minutes in, the score was already 2-0 and the Tigers were lining up for a penalty kick. SLO continued to score in the second half — Grayson Stewart earned and finished a penalty — and the Tigers rolled over the Royals (3-12, 0-6) by a final score of 5-0.

Photos by Owen Main

To View All Photos, Click here

Girls’ Soccer

The girls’ soccer match promised to be closer than the boys’ game. Mission Prep (9-4-2, 3-1-2) has had a great season so far. Unfortunately for the Royals, SLO was undefeated coming in and continued the trend.

Through light rain at SLO High, the Tigers got a goal apiece in the first and second halves, controlling play for a 2-0 league win.

The Tigers are now 15-0-1 overall and 7-0 in Pac 8 play.

Photos by Owen Main

To view all photos, click here

Girls’ Basketball

While San Luis Obispo dominated the soccer matchups, Mission Prep got a pair of basketball wins. On the girls’ side, Andrew Richardson’s Royals (11-7, 5-2) used tough defense to beat the Tigers (9-9, 2-5) 44-25.

Boys’ Basketball

When I arrived, the game was just beginning, the atmosphere was already electric. With both the Mission and San Luis Obispo student sections jam-packed into Mission Prep’s gym, ear plugs would have been in order if I’d had them.

San Luis Obispo kept the game close for most of the first two quarters before Mission used runs in the second and third quarters to extend the lead that they’d hold onto throughout the fourth quarter.

For their part, San Luis Obispo (12-9, 3-4) looked like the improved squad they are. It would be great for high school sports in SLO if this rivalry continues to heat up the next time they face one another and in coming years.

Mission’s junior forward Kyle Stewart had a great game to the tune of 20 points — his patented “eyes-closed” shot release seemingly dialed-in.

Mission (11-8, 6-1) maintained their one-game deficit behind St. Joseph with the second half of Pac 8 play starting this week.

Photos by Owen Main

To view all photos, click here.

All-SLO, all the time

I saw at least half of three games on Friday night and even managed to sneak in a burger at Franks between the two soccer games at SLO High. On February 12, all four teams will once again face-off in the final game of the regular season for all of them. I love rivalries.

The United States did all right in the World Cup, but has the team went out in the round of 16 again. Have they made any major strides over the past four years? By Steindy (talk) 21:31, 22 November 2013 (UTC) (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

To be a United States soccer fan is to have a thing for disappointment.

It’s not the anti-American kind of disappointment that comes from never having a thought or a dream of something better. That kind of ongoing, numbing disappointment is deadened over time, like a cook’s hands or the skin on a basketball player’s feet.

To be a United States soccer fan is a sharp disappointment — the pain much more like a coffee table to the shin or a stubbed toe. We can try to convince ourselves that this is the kind of agony that eventually builds character or teaches a lesson. Maybe it will. Maybe it will just hurt.

This disappointment is the kind of angry feeling. It takes a twinkle cackles of the heart of what makes you a fan. It takes desire, expectation, and faith in the first place, because you can’t be let down so hard when you don’t expect anything in the first place. It’s a tantalizing kind of feeling that comes from a team that, like the country it represents, just wouldn’t give up hope.

It would have been easier that way. If the team had not scored a late game-winner against Ghana, we’d all have an easy narrative, able to write the team and its German coach out of our consciousness for at least a while.

It would have been easier that way. If the team had not come back from a one-goal deficit to take a one-goal lead against Portugal, giving themselves a solid chance at getting out of the group of death.

It would have been easier that way. If a 19 year-old had just let me wallow in my losing misery and process and grieve for just a few minutes.

Instead, Julian Green came off the bench and scored a goal on his first touch of the World Cup, sending American fans roaring back into “we can do this” mode. The Bradleagles even had some real opportunities to tie it in the final five minutes sending American fans into a from a natural resignation that our team was out of it into a traumatic roller coaster of emotion that ended in the same place it started — with the Americans eliminated.

Eating waffles for breakfast? Keep an eye out for Michael Bradleagle, he's on the hunt (created by @MLSist) pic.twitter.com/CYis6s8quC

— The Best Soccer Show (@BestSoccerShow) July 1, 2014

“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ― Gloria Steinem

If you’re looking for other reasons to be pissed, try this one — Belgium was beatable. Actually, this is a year a fringe team without World Champion pedigree like the United States could have actually done something fun. The play has been wide-open, the goals have been plentiful, and very few defenses look anything close to impenetrable. Costa Rica is in the quarterfinals. So are German and Belgian teams the United States had a run at.

What about Landon Donovan? I respected Klinsmann’s decision to keep him off the team. Rumors of Donovan not being as fit and committed have surfaced since he was left off the team. I always assume that, as the coach, Jurgen must know something that I don’t. What I do know, though, is that Donovan has proven to be able to keep his composure through physically demanding settings and that his creativity would have been an improvement on Graham Zusi, Brad Davis, or Alejandro Bedoya.

For a United States team that needed a spark, Donovan could have helped keep other guys closer to their actual positions and possibly done better. I’m not second-guessing Klinsmann’s decision, but I think fans will always be left to wonder whether anything would be different had Landon been on the roster.

One thing I think Klinsmann has done is to speak whatever truth is the current truth. Fans and players live in the past. Jurgen seems to always be trying to get better for the future. Laurels are not rested on. There is no sense of entitlement any longer. Jurgen is speaking a truth, even if it’s pissing people off.

“I think they all went to their limits. They gave everything they had,” said Klinsmann after the game.

Maybe so. Maybe we did all right this time around. The United States advanced farther than England, Spain, and Portugal in this World Cup, which is saying something. Uncle Sam made it almost as far as he ever has in the modern era of soccer. So, why do I still feel like we missed such an opportunity? Why do I have this shitty knot in my stomach about it still, three days later?

Maybe this is what the progress of soccer in this country feels like.   

Stop using takes from the Dark Ages to tell me about why you don’t like soccer. By Darjac (Scanned by Darjac) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

For the love of Ralph’s sandwiches, stop it.

Get out of here with your tired anti-soccer takes.

In 1994, the World Cup was held in the United States. At that time, I’m sure it was popular to bash soccer in this country. The narrative in these United States was the opposition of the uppity, elite fan who “got” soccer against the down to earth, more traditional sports fan who didn’t get it at all. That is still the narrative. It’s not altogether wrong. Things haven’t shifted 180 degrees. Our country isn’t soccer-crazy. I don’t regularly drive to LA to watch the Galaxy or to the Bay Area to watch the Earthquakes like I do the Dodgers or some of my “friends” do to watch the Giants. But to think that the narrative shouldn’t be different than it was 20 years ago is lazy and ignorant.

At least a few generations of American sports fans are now adults who played soccer growing up. Yes, even young Americans still like basketball, baseball and football better, but this more International generation also likes soccer. A lot.

The old soccer regime would feel the need to testify to the greatness of the sport. Other people’s inability to “get it” would feed their already-hefty superiority complex. For the same reason there is now an “uppity” stigma around someone driving a Prius or someone who is vegetarian there has been a stigma around soccer fans. The reason — soccer fans have been known to constantly try to foist their silly game onto everyone else.

The thing is, it’s not that way anymore.

In 2014, lots of media-types are trying to stay relevant by saying they still don’t like soccer. The difference is that I, as a soccer fan in this country, just don’t care. I don’t care whether you get it or not. I don’t care whether you think it’s cool. By bashing it, you just make yourself less relevant to people who like it, which is a growing subgroup of sports fans in the United States that doesn’t care about your tired takes.

Flopping

To paraphrase John Denver, flopping is as old as Vlade Divac, but younger than Michael Cooper. Most sports have some form of flopping and more officials to spot the difference. Has anyone watched successful basketball teams over the past two or three decades? Duke. LeBron. Shane Battier. Derek Fisher. LeBron. Manu. Vlade. LeBron.

Every sport has flopping on some level, including a lot of sports we like. Americans hate flopping, but manipulating the one official who is in charge of the largest surface area in sports is something that soccer fans can easily spot. To be fair, it really does hurt to get kicked in the shins, especially when you and your opponent are running as fast as these guys do. Lots of “falling” is flopping, but falling, sliding, etc… are often part of the deal when playing at the speeds these guys play at.

We all hate flopping. I’d even argue that it’s unAmerican. For an American sports fan to say that it’s a reason not to like the entire sport, though, is garbage.

Fans burning cities down

Aren’t there riots every time a city’s team wins a championship? Detroit burns itself to the ground (it seems) every time the Red Wings or Pistons win a title. Fans riot everywhere.

American soccer fans don’t really riot. They get excited, call themselves something tough like “American Outlaws,” and drink a lot. But they don’t really riot.

An MLS game, actually, has the perfect combination of excitement, fan exuberance, and safety. I’m saying this as someone who has been to multiple club games in the world’s most dangerous city. American fans should not judge the sport on how fans act in other countries. Instead, they should look at how it’s enjoyed here.

____________________________________

There are a few good reasons not to like soccer. These are all valid points and if they turn you off about the sport, then that’s fine.

Pace of the game

As Matt Damon’s Loki put it in the movie Dogma, “Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, next to soccer.” For some fans, watching soccer is just slightly better than watching a cross country meet.

An entire soccer match can go without so much as a scoring opportunity for entire halves. A game can end in a 0-0 tie.

Let me give you a positive, though. Like an NCAA basketball game, a game RARELY lasts longer than a few hours, halftime included. The running clock so many people complain about is actually a really great thing in this regard. You can’t say that about baseball, football, or professional basketball.

Scoring

Soccer doesn’t have goals all the time. A 2-1 match would include more goals than a Barclays Premier League game has averaged in a long time. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see slightly more than a goal every 45 minutes or so. If you’re an ADD American twenty-something with a need for not just constant stimulation but constant scoring, this just won’t cut it.

For me, there is as much going on in soccer as there is in lots of other sports we love here, even if it isn’t goals every minute or two.

Ties

Ties are a subset of the scoring argument. You’re right, ties are for communists. They are un-American and should be outlawed. I just can’t find a way to do it. Maybe it should be like hockey. Settle for a tie in the middle of a season, but in a knock-out round, maybe we should add more subs and keep on playing until someone scores.

Seeing guys play a soccer game with rolling subs in the 200th minute would be so freaking dramatic. Think of the Stanley Cup Finals in overtime. Then make the whole world care. Chew on that for a minute. I think it sounds pretty awesome.

___________________________________

So, do what you want. Watch the World Cup or not. Feel however you want about soccer. Just please spare me the old, stale anti-soccer takes I’ve been hearing for the past 20-plus years. Soccer is, SLOWLY, getting more popular. It’s fun for me and millions of others to watch, and I don’t care whether you like it or not.

Landon Donovan took a hiatus from the National Team, but has been great since his return. So have his teammates. By Noelle Noble, via Wikimedia Commons

United States Men’s soccer. It’s not a punchline anymore.

Recently, the US national team has been on a small tear, winning a record 10 straight games. On Wednesday, they defeated Honduras 3-1 to move into the Cup Final where they will meet up with Panama, who defeated Mexico in the semi-finals. During their run, the USA team has not just been defeating opponents but putting beat-downs on them.

The only competitive game they have played was a 1-0 win over Costa Rica in the group-stage finale. Aside from that game, the USA has outscored opponents 19-4 in Gold Cup games. In addition to star players Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore, the team has recently added other creative players such as Joe Corona, Jose Torres, and Omar Gonzalez who have certainly helped in this recent turnaround.

But the new success the team has had is a direct result of the pace of play this team is playing with. It was clearly evident in the El Salvador game when the US team forced an easily noticeable change in pace of play in the second half, created more chances, and cruised to a 5-1 victory. Aside from slowing things down to an unwatchably-slow, defensive 90-minute struggle, having as much conscious control of the pace of a game is not something the US team could ever be counted on to do in the past. Under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, they have really found their groove.

While the Gold Cup is filled with “B” level teams, this is a huge improvement from what they have been. While the red, white and blue has their immediate focus on the Gold cup, Klinsmann is also eying next summer’s FIFA World Cup, a tournament they have all but punched their ticket into.

The team still has much to do. If the US is to be a contender in the World Cup, there are new levels that must be reached. Settling for a few match victories will become less and less acceptable as Klinsmann and the current roster continue to raise expectations from United States soccer fans. Maybe soon soccer in the US will become even half as popular as it is in other countries, and it’s about time. As Terrell Owens once said, “Get your popcorn ready.” For once USA soccer means it.

Dave Grant primarily calls men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, and softball for Cal Poly on gopoly.com

Most Cal Poly fans can recognize the voice of Tom Barket, who is the play-by-play announcer for football, men’s basketball, and baseball. He is, fairly clearly, the voice of the Mustangs. But, in the words of Yoda, there is another.

Less than one year ago, Dave Grant was brought on to announce play-by-play for Cal Poly Athletics. The first game he called was a men’s soccer game vs. UCSB. After Cal Poly won the match on a late dramatic goal, he was reminded that “not every game is going to be this exciting.”

While that is true, you might not know it talking to Grant. He is all-energy and you can tell he really has a passion for calling live sports.

I first heard Dave’s voice when Joe Callero’s men’s basketball squad won a low-scoring victory over USC in the Galen Center last season. To keep anyone listening during such an offensively bereft game was certainly a challenge, but Grant painted a solid picture of the game.

We’ll try to catch up with him more as the Fall season progresses. Hope you enjoy.

The Streets of Old San Juan really are something to behold. Photo by Owen Main

In San Juan over the weekend for work, I stepped into a hotel elevator with 8 soccer players who all looked under 20 years old. And they were all at least six inches shorter than me. I was Gheorghe Muresan to their collective Calbert Cheaney.

Their blue soccer gear had no discernible emblem or logo, so I asked if they were a traveling youth squad. Their trainer, the one who spoke English, informed me that they were the men’s national team from Nicaragua. Say what you will about the quality of the MNT from a random Central American country, but sports junkie that I apparently am, Ihad to go snooping around and trying to find where they were playing. It was the beginning of a weird evening.

Puerto Rico is different from other Latin American places. Like Cuba or the Domincan Republic, soccer is not even in the top three or four sports here. Boxing, baseball, basketball, and probably volleyball are all more popular than soccer on the island.

Now, if I could only find the game.

The Nicaraguan defender I asked claimed to speak no English. He wouldn’t have known where the stadium was anyway. Then I asked one guy I met who did speak English, and he had no clue. And the next guy gave me a shrug and said, “Soccer isn’t really that popular here.”

“Does Puerto Rico play their National Team games in different places?” I wondered? Puerto Rico didn’t really seem that big to have multiple appropriate venues suited for an International match. But this is my first time here, so what do I know?

Finally, I talked to the staff at the hotel. And only one guy knew. His name, of course, was Moises.

The majority of the stands at the Bayamon Soccer Complex. Photo by Owen Main

“They play at the estadio in Bayamon,” Moises said. And then he started to give me directions. And I felt lucky to have a GPS. I found the name of the stadium in the GPS and Moises assured me that was the one. And there was a stadium where Moises directed me. Only the stadium had about 1/10th of its lights on and there was nobody in the parking lot 45 minutes before game time.

I’ll save the gory details, but after conversations with a police officer (mostly in Spanish), a CVS stock boy (English) and following the traffic toward the lights, I came upon a soccer field. I say field, because I couldn’t say stadium. I couldn’t even really say “complex.” Really, this was a field. RIMAC field at UC San Diego was better to view soccer than this place. My high school with less than 400 students had a better venue to watch soccer. And this was a real International friendly.

Perhaps I’d have to drive back to the hotel and spend a boring night watching boring LeBron James square off against Kevin Garnett — the two most unlikable players since God-knows-when.

Bill Gaudette, a backup keeper for the LA Galaxy, hollers out instructions to his teammates. Photo by Owen Main

So I paid my $5.35 and walked into the complex. A barbeque the size of the one in my back yard grilled burgers and chicken, smoke wafting into the humid, but pleasant, night air. People in three temporary tents sold refreshments. The line was never more longer than three people. As my sports fan experiences go, this one was surreal.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSK04Rm99s

One goal line had “permanent” concrete stands where most of the fans gathered directly behind the goal Puerto Rico was gunning for in the first half. I decided to go to the sideline seats and, as I approached them, the players approached the pitch, lined up next to one another per FIFA protocol. They waited off the pitch until the television station was ready. They tried to pump themselves up. “Vamos,” they yelled. But there was barely a crowd to cheer back. I guess the 800 or so people who were actually there were making as much noise as they could. There were probably under 1,000 people there, so you can’t really blame the fans.

The first half included a quality strike from a Puerto Rico midfielder for a goal and, when Puerto Rico scored a second off of a corner kick in the 2nd half, it was time for me to leave.

I learned during the game that I had actually gone to the right place. The old baseball stadium in Bayamon was being refurbished as a soccer facility. It will open when Puerto Rico hosts Spain later this year. Tickets for that game are going for $50 to $200. “Way too much,” according to the guy watching the game next to me, leaning on the fence as my old man used to do watching high school football and baseball.

The Nicaraguan players told me in the lobby the next day that the final score was 3-1. I don’t know what I expected, exactly, but the experience was one of the most odd ones I have had in a long time. I’m not sure if having the game at a real stadium would have been more or less fun. Who can beat a cold Coke, peanut M&M’s, and the ability to lean on the fence close to the action during an International soccer game.  I suppose it was worth at least the $5.35 I paid to get in.

The photo of me with a few Nicaraguan MNT players is a little hazy. Maybe that's the most appropriate way for it to be. Photo by another Nicaragua MNT member

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzKAd7BR8oo

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Kw0c2hH0Y

That being said, I found a few non-sports-related items I thought were interesting early this morning.

One is that a Dutch soccer team signed a toddler to a 10-year deal. I love soccer. Lane Kiffin, where you at?

The other fun thing to read this morning (and hopefully for a while) is the public battle over the Dodgers. While the franchise shouldn’t be fought for like this, in public, what we’re getting now is more transparency than ever before. Us Dodgers fans just want to know what’s going on, even if it’s really bad. Here’s to a fresh start sometime between now and what could be 5 years from now.

I wonder what the Vegas over/under is on the timing of this whole mess being over with. If McCourt wanted to win the hearts of Dodgers fans, he’d take the $30 Million and bet it on the Dodgers winning the World Series. With the 35/1 odds, he could really get the team out of the financial hole they’re in and prove his metal…

NOTE – I know that scenario is impossible, but it would make for a sweet storyline for a movie…

And, finally, an excerpt from Bill Simmons’ article on ESPN.com today. This is why he’s the Sports Guy:

In baseball, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt ran out of money to pay for stuff. There were two big reasons for this: He was going through a nasty divorce, and he never had any money in the first place. How can you buy one of the most famous baseball franchises without any money? It’s a great question. But when McCourt went behind Bud Selig’s back and tried to secure a $30 million personal loan from Fox (his television partner), an enraged Selig seized the team from him last week under the rarely seen edict, “You Can’t Pay For Stuff Anymore.”

Only Southern Californians fully understand what happened to the Dodgers during the McCourt Error. Six decades, Dodger Stadium, Vin Scully, Koufax and Drysdale, Garvey-Cey-Lopes-Russell, Fernandomania, Orel’s streak, Gibson’s homer, Gagne coming out of the bullpen breathing fire, Dodger Blue … the McCourts were crapping on all of it. Desecrating the brand. Maybe it took a sneaky loan and a poor Giants fan getting senselessly beaten into a coma for Selig to finally intervene, but he did. To his credit. When a commissioner keeps siding with owners over fans, he becomes nothing but a puppet with strings trickling out of his back. Selig stuck up for Dodgers fans. He did the right thing.