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October 14, 2004

Tivo(tm)-Proof TV, Times Three

Was Wednesday, October 13th the best night of live TV in
2004?

Holy Macaroni! For a guy who's usually fired up about an EPL
replay from the previous weekend on FSW or non-rerun Daily
Shows, last night, Wednesday, October 13 2004 might have been
the most overwhelming night of TV I've encountered in a while.
Usually I'm taken aback if there's one show on in a day that I will
plan around (things typically found in this category: Philadelphia
Eagles games and HBO's The Wire), but to have THREE in one day
-- A Wednesday no less -- is pretty noteworthy.

I'm speaking, of course, of the unlikely Must-See trifecta of (1) US
Soccer vs. Panama at 7:30 pm on ESPN2, (2) Yankees-Sox
on FOX at 8 pm, and then (3) the final presidential debate
at 9 pm on all the other channels (most of them, at least).
The killer about these three is that they're all Tivo(tm)-proof; that
is, unless you watch them live, there really isn't much point to
watching them at all. (This is almost true; I recorded the soccer
game just in case the other ThatKidInTheCorner co-founder ended
up on TV. And he was! Copies available upon request!).
Unfortunately, due to overlaps in the various programmes, I
couldn't watch them all in their entirety. Sigh. I still watched a lot:

They Missed The PAT: the United States defeated Panama by a
whopping 6-0 to clinch a spot in the final round of CONCACAF
2006 World Cup qualifying. And hey, they didn't even need an
offsides goal in injury time to get a result this time! The nice thing
about the extended CONCACAF qualification format is that it gives
Bruce Arena plenty of time and space to blood his younger players
in anticipation of bigger roles down the line. Thus we get to see
young Dallas Burn forward Eddie Johnson enter in the second half
and notch three goals (mostly by hanging around the goal, but
hey, goals are goals -- we're looking in your direction, Mr. Josh "I
sure made a nice pass on the first goal but didn't add much value
after that and in fact missed a couple choice chances" Wolff).
Overall, it was very strong win from the US, and a nice mix of old
and young (Brian McBride and Frankie Hedjuk hanging with the
youngsters!). Eddie Lewis had a nice game, and Bocanegra...my
my! Looks like playing in the EPL every week with Fulham is really
paying dividends -- Bocanegra was excellent.

Speaking Of, In Re: US Soccer and Landon Donovan: with
Claudio Reyna on the sidelines with a groin injury, 22-year-old
Landon Donovan captained the US side for the second game in a
row. Donovan is arguably the most gifted US field player of the
past 20 years (if not ever). He was great last night. His pace and
touch were sublime all night, and his finishing on the first two goals
was absolutely world-class. Over the past year (at the very least),
Donovan's best games have come with the national team -- the
only games where his passion matches his considerable talent. In
MLS matches, he just doesn't look as interested, and it shows.
Bruce Arena seems to have noticed as well:

"I think the armband helps Landon realize who he is. So
often we have a lot of players guilty of not giving
themselves enough credit as players and I kind of stress to
our younger players that they need to emerge a little bit.
In particular Landon. Landon needs challenges. He's a
fantastic player. You challenge him and he responds, you
see the kind of player he is. Landon is a great player, I
don't think anyone can doubt that, and if we can find that
consistency in Landon at the club level and the
international level, he's going to be a player to be reckoned
with."

Landon, does he need to spell it out for you? When the transfer
window opens in January, get thee to Leverkusen! Bruce Arena
wants you to play in Europe! US Soccer fans want you to play in
Europe! You've already been bought -- now you just need to
step up and move beyond MLS! Leverkusen is playing Champions
League football and boasts some serious international talent (Juan,
Berbatov)! Playing there will ONLY MAKE YOU AND THE US
NATIONAL TEAM BETTER! It's time to leave the comfort zone
and push yourself; you won't be disappointed. You're going to be
wearing the Number Ten shirt for the US soon enough -- why not
go and show the world that you can hang! (You can. Trust us.)

They Both Wore Red Ties! What Could This Mean?: Unlike
the previous two debates, red was red and blue wasn't red. No
one wore blue. This debate was a ton more polite than the other
two encounters; the candidates mostly spoke in parallel and
argued about very little. They definitely agreed that they both (a)
believe in God and (b) love their families. And I was hoping for a
atheist deadbeat dad candidate!

Speaking Of, In Re: Best Names For Bands to Come Out of
the Debates:

1. The Battling Green Eyeshades
2. The Internets
3. The Pay-Gos

Speaking Of, In Re: Meeting Their Respective Significant
Others: very cute moment when Dubya talked about getting set
up with Laura at a backyard BBQ. I believe that. Very sweet, very
innocent -- probably didn't, you know, hit that on their first date.
Porch swing and hand-holding, most likely. On the other side of
things, Kerry and Teresa got together when they were both a bit
older, right? Those two ABSOLUTELY hit that on their first date.
Not even a question. So, the question becomes, do you want a
president who can close the deal on his first date or not?

Every. Freakin. Time.: Ugh. Boston Red Sox, keep those chins
up. You are still in this thing. You just need to score on the
Yankees starters, because, ahem, Mr. Rivera seems rather focused
of late.

Speaking Of, In Re: Mr. Rivera: although the Panamanian-born Rivera's decision early in life to play baseball seems to be bad for the Red Sox (and the rest of MLB), it proved to be good for US Soccer last night -- don't want dudes with Rivera's athletic talent playing soccer against the US. Also, did you catch the way he absolutely EXPLODED Damon's bat? YIKES. Cool stuff, though. (The bat-exploding part.)

Posted by thatkid at October 14, 2004 7:14 PM under The Papers

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