It appears as if this Klinsmann decision might actually happen pretty soon

July 5th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

As we all know, Bruce Arena decided to employ a ‘play not to lose’ style of soccer during the World Cup leaving many American fans (especially angry, angry, Eric Wynalda) a bit confused and downright pissed off with the Stars and Stripes’ performance in Germany.

It’s true that big Brucey has done a lot to advance the sport of soccer/the U.S. National Team, (blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda) but you would think that maybe, just maybe in a must win game against Ghana he’d take some sort of risk and employ something other than a 4-5-1 formation to try and come from behind and win the game.

Now, I’m of sound mind and am not blaming the entire U.S. debacle on the coach. I feel the players should take equal part blame. But hey, that’s just me. And as I’ve proven many times on this Web site, I don’t really know all that much.

But the futbol loving folk of this country want Brucey gone. And who do they want as his replacement? None other than the current leader of the recently ousted German squad, Mr. Jürgen Klinsmann.

Now, this has already been touched on shortly after the U.S. was bounced from the WC. Klinsmann lives in California, is married to an American and I’m pretty sure he utilized American trainers and sports psychologists for this WC. Apparently he’s got some really creative ideas (a revolutionary some might say) on how to run a soccer squad. Dude seems like he would be a good fit.

Well, you know, to make this post timely and all, an article coming out of Deutsche Welle today says that DFB president Theo Zwanziger is giving Klinsmann till Aug. 16 to make a decision on his future with the German Squad – the date of their first National squad game post World Cup. The article also references an article from yesterday’s Daily Telegraph that claims the U.S. has already offered Klinsmann a preliminary contract that will most likely exceed the 2.8 million a year he’s making with the German squad.

So yeah, looks like we might know within the next couple weeks if ‘Brooklyn Brucey’ will get the boot and ‘California Klinsmann’ will get the nod.

I hope that’s how it all goes down.

Case of the Mondays (Wednesdays): Kobayashi eats a lot of hog dogs, wins again

July 5th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Did we all have a nice long weekend of freedom loving, American flag waving, Roman candle lighting, wholesome Stars and Stripes fun? Good. Let’s get to it.

The jury may still be out on whether or not sporting folk consider competitive eating an actual ‘sport,’ but there ain’t no denying Takeru Kobayashi’s flat out domination of the annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. The Japan native wolfed down 53 ¾ hot dogs for his sixth straight win at the event, breaking his own record of 53 ½ dogs he set two years ago. American Joey Chestnut jumped out to an early lead but eventual lost it to Kobayashi, further proving Americans no longer dominate or win any sort of international competition.

Italy took down Germany 2-0 to reach the finals of the World Cup yesterday, netting two goals in the final couple minutes of the second overtime. Congratulations to Italy, who won a game without flopping or being the benefactor of a controversial call by the ref. I’m rooting for a France-Italy final on Saturday.

The MLB All-Star rosters were announced over the weekend. And of course, like every year, the squads weren’t based on actual statistics or stellar play in the first half, but rather on fan’s ineptitude at chad-punching and mouse clicking. But hey, this time it counts!

OK, good enough for me. I’ll be hitting you up with some more updates throughout the day.