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Sunday, January 8, 2006
Impressive geezer goalfest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of Atlanta’s entries in the Disney World Soccer Classic XIII is putting on a show in its bid to win three titles in a row.. Hope Gary and the lads still have a bit of their legs about them after throttling the opposition 13-1 in three matches over the last three days.
Their fourth in four was scheduled for Sunday morning late, and word trickled back to Off the Ball World Headquarters that that curfew Saturday was even earlier than Bud Grant used to impose on the Minnesota Vikings the night before all four Super Bowls they lost. Unless they fell asleep before that.
No matter how it finishes out, these fellas are really Rovin’! Consider this your blanket media coverage!
I was going to kvetch here about the ridiculous schedule overload in Britain (or as they say there, fixture congestion), but I’m truly impressed that individuals in something close to my age group are chugging out there like that.
(Off the Ball’s sordid, ill-advised playing experience will not be repeated here, where she learned the hard way playing in Cobb Co-Ed circles what it’s like to have falling arches. Retirement came so easy after that.)
Speaking of the uber-recreational types, former Atlanta Beatnik Leslie Gaston, now a colleague of Off the Ball, says she still gets a kick out of playing, even after the demise of WUSA, and is planning to lace up her cleats for the Silverbacks’ women’s team for the second year running. Given the beaucoup knee surgeries she’s undergone, it’s easy to understand why. Scuttlebutt has some kind of a nominally professional league returning in 2007, but we’ve been hearing that since WUSA went away at the end of ‘03.
Ex-Beat keeper Briana Scurry is back in the U.S. camp as the women start to turn their sights on the ‘07 World Cup, and previous confrontations with the U.S. federation were avoided as the two sides struck up a new collective bargaining deal this week. But here’s one take on the future of the American women’s program that is none too sunny, and the lack of a pro league is the reason why.
Jonesboro native and St. Pius grad Ricardo Clark’s best chance to have Bruce Arena see him in training camp took a blow when he was ruled out due to injury. Timing has been dreadful for the Houston (nickname, please?) midfielder, who missed out on the 2004 Olympics with an injury and hasn’t seen much time with the senior nats since.
