Author: Mike P. Lewis

Top 10 US soccer players

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Saw a good post over the weekend about the top 10 US players. It was on this blog. I’ve reposted them below

10. Frank Simek, Sheffield Wednesday — Surprise right off the bat, right? Despite a mug that would place him front and center as a villain in an 80s high school movie, the former Arsenal trainee has been a model pro for the Owls. He’s coming off years of 45 and 44 appearances in the rough-and-tumble England League Championship, which says a lot.

9. Carlos Bocanegra, Fulham — A first choice start at Craven Cottage and now wearing the captain’s armband. Can craftily get forward and contribute to the attack on set plays, yet far too often exposed defensively. Still, come a long way since moving to England in 2004 and has now racked up over 100 appearances.

8. Taylor Twellman, NE Revolution — Take away his miserable showing in the US shirt, the “face” from New England is as steady a goalscorer as you’ll find in MLS. Factor in that the Revs are continually among the top teams in the league and his 92 goals in 169 appearances and it’s impossible to deny him. (Perhaps he can even help the Revs win their first trophy — ever — in tonight’s US Open Cup final.)

 7. Michael Bradley, SC Heerenveen — From fringe, glorified practice player with the MetroStars to starter in the Dutch Eredivisie all inside of four seasons. Not bad for a guy that just turned 20.

6. Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy — Obviously a lightning rod for any American soccer fan, yet it’s hard to dispute that he’s been the best player in MLS this century. Probably should dock ‘professionalism points’ for quitting Bayer Leverkausen, but that’s frankly become a moot point in my book. It was around three years ago, everyone should be able to move on by now.

5. Steve Cherundolo, Hannover 96 — In a lot of ways, the anti-Donovan. He went to Germany in 1999 and instead of sulking, pining for the beach and locking himself in his room to play video games. Instead ‘Dolo took it upon himself to integrate into Der Motherland and learn the culture and language. (Granted he was 20 and had spend two years in college, while Donovan was 17.) 225 Bundesliga appearances and counting, plus the vice-captaincy and Cherundolo is in a lot of ways the model American ex-pat soccer pro.

4. Clint Dempsey, Fulham — Small body of work, but the Deuce has already made quite and impact at Craven Cottage. His goal last year v. Liverpool likely kept Fulham in the top division and so far this year he had a streak of three straight games with a goal. The biggest knock on the man from Nogadoches, Texas is he can absolutely drift and disappear from games. If I did this list in Sept. 2008, he’s the odds-on favorite for the No. 1 slot.

3. Brad Friedel, Blackburn Rovers — Without question the best American export of all time. Despite just 25 sporadic games, he’s the only first American to play for one Europe’s ‘glamor’ clubs in Liverpool (1997-2000). Since his move to Blackburn he’s probably been aside from perhaps Steven Gerrard and maybe Paul Scholes, the most important player to his club. Friedel has started nearly every game for the club and his command of the area got them through some dodgy times. It’s just a shame he retired from International play after the 2002 World Cup. It’s also a shame he speaks with a fake English accent. Then again, no one is perfect.

 2. DaMarcus Beasley, Glasgow Rangers — Let’s throw out the lost season at Manchester City. Beasley, first at PSV and now at Rangers, is the best American in the UEFA Champions League — by a mile. He’s already scored six goals in the competition, which just might be six more than the rest of our country combined. He’s also the only American to reach the competition’s semifinals. When his head’s screwed on straight, the Beaz is probably the most technically sound Yank around. Again, the only knock is he moved to Rangers, but they are a moderately large club and are continually in the Champions League. (Commentor Fan’s Attic points out Jovan Kirovski scored for Borussia Dortmund in the mid 90s in the Champions League, though it’s unclear if he played enough games to garner a winner’s medal.)

 1. Tim Howard, Everton — Voted by the PFA into the 2004 Best XI of the Premier League as a keeper, probably the highest non-MLS award ever for an American player. He won an FA Cup that season, too. Of course, this list isn’t about the past. What pushed Howard to the top of the list was how he transformed Everton from a middle of the pack team to a solid Top Four contender when he moved to Merseyside ahead of the 2006/07 season. Yes, he’s prone to the occasional blunder but still has the chance to be the most decorated American player over the next decade, as he’s only 28. Earlier this season Everton locked him up until the 2012/13 season. Can’t see any other American getting that kind of level of commitment.

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Seems like a pretty good list to me. Anyone else disagree?

The Dirt on/by Motley Crue

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I just finished reading the book The Dirt, a semi-autobiography of the 80’s band Motley Crue. It’s a great read that is pretty mesmorizing. All four band members write about their childhood, the crazy period where they become the most famous band in America and then the post-fame period where they turn to drugs and amazingly hot chicks.

The middle section of the book is how the Crue got from a great live act to becoming a hit. They were constantly selling out shows on the LA Strip but none of the record labels wanted to sign them to a record deal. This was the early 80’s and the entire industry thought that New Wave was the thing to be and Rock was dead. A 20-year old intern at Electra convinced the head of A&R to let him sign them. They then rel-released their first album and went on the next year to sell 5 million records. Even with that success, the label wanted to drop them because they didn’t like their image. After the next year when they were the top selling artist of the year did Electra decide to stick with them.

Throughout the book Nikki Sixx emerges as the only one who understood what the band’s direction was. He wrote most of the songs and consciously decided they should be a crossover from hard rock to mainstream. He also seems to be the glue that held the band together. He also was dating Lita Ford for most of their early days but eventually broke up when they went on tour for 18 months. They toured with Ozzy, who was even crazier than they were. He eventually married Baywatch star Donna D’Errico.

You also read how much drugs they took in both their early days. They were constantly doing coke, heroin, and anything else they could get their hands on. As a result they destroyed almost everything in the path and they hooked up with anything that moved. Both Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee overdosed and almost died, Vince Neil got into 3 drunk driving accidents, and Mick is a full-blown alcoholic even today.

You also read about Tommy Lee’s marraige to Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson (who he dated for only 4 days before they were married). Also about Vince’s solo band and all the tragedies they’ve encountered along the way.

The beginning is pure rock and roll and the end is just sad. You would never think that their lives would be so hard but they all really struggle just to make it day to day. I guess a bunch of ego and booze and drugs will do that to you.

Note: i just saw here they’re making a movie from the book with Val Kilmer and Christopher Walker rumored to play Ozzy and David Lee Roth.

Putting myself through pain: part 2

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I ran The Nation’s Triathlon this weekend.  A fun event for those watching and a painful, but rewarding event for those like me who are dumb

We started on the waterfront in Georgetown at 7am on Saturday. The fire boats in the Potomac were spraying water all over at the beginning. I’ve never seem them before – i must say i think they look pretty cool.  The water was really warm (75 degrees) and not that disgusting.  It felt just like a regular lake.

Just so you know how far it is. I entered right by that “Swim Exit” sign and swam to the bridge (in the distance) and back. Yeah, that’s right. To the bridge and back. Also notice how everyone else had a wet suit which makes it easier to swim. That would have been nice, but i like to think of it as cheating (only b/c i don’t have one).

Continue reading “Putting myself through pain: part 2” →

Bear jumps over bridge and lives

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This bridge is on the Old Donner Pass Highway . It has spectacular Sierra views and views of Donner Lake and Donner Pass on Route 80.  A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40 at Donner Summit, Truckee) on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge and was able to pull itself to safety.Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge.  After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net.  It’s pretty amazing.

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Spook Country sucks

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This is not a good book. I would highly recommend you DON’T read it. The book has been written about in all the major outlets (Newsweek, Time, etc.) and i think they all are just smoking crack. Just because it’s about iPods, virtual reality and things in the future does not mean it’s fun to read.

The plot didn’t capture me and the story didn’t develop quick enough and when it did, i just didn’t care.

I read his last book “Pattern Recognition” and it was a little bit better but still not great. All in all, i’d say that William Gibson is extremely overrated.

3:10 to Yuma is a good Western

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I saw 3:10 to Yuma this weekend. It is good. I’m not sure if it’s better than Unforgiven or the classic westerns, but it’s pretty damn solid. On par in its genre to Bourne Ultimatum.

3:10 to Yuma, stars Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in an old-school style Western drama. Both are are great (i mean it is the Alpha Bale), the supporting characters are right on the money, and i can’t think of one scene that doesn’t work.

Some quick thoughts:

  • Gretchen Mol, who plays Bale’s wife, is always a total bitch in her movies. From Rounders to this, she’s always a total wet blanket.
  • Bale and Crowe have some good chemistry. Crowe is one of the smartest cowboys i’ve ever seen and he seems so happy to have finally met someone like Bale, someone who is worthy of his conversation.
  • The guy who plays Crowe’s second in command, Charlie, is terrific (played by Ben Foster). He crushes every scene. He was Angel in X-Men and was just so-so and didn’t really prepare me for this super-duper performance. He was great.
  • The final scene did not play out as i had planned. I was waiting for Bale to get a bunch of guns and tear some shit down. Instead he just moronically made a run for it. While it worked, it caught me by surprise. I think I’ve been conditioned by film like The Matrix, Bourne, and others to anticipate a superhuman performance at the end of a film. I was pleasantly surprised to see something different

This would explain why i sleep so much

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Ever since i started my triathlon training, i’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier. I thought it was because i’m just getting old (turning 30 in 2 weeks), but today the NY Times has informed me that it is because i’m now an “endurance athlete” and these athletes require much more sleep than regular people. There’s a scientific reason for this….

One possibility, Dr. Chediak said, is that cytokines — hormones that signal the immune system — are making these athletes sleep so much.

Exercise, Dr. Chediak said, prompts muscles to release two cytokines, interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha, that make people drowsy and prolong the time they remain sleeping. In fact, those cytokines also are released when people have a cold or infection, which is why people sleep so much when they are ill.

It turns out that the single most important factor for increasing the release of those two cytokines is increasing the duration and intensity of exercise, Dr. Chediak said. And, he noted, that’s what is happening when endurance athletes train. “A sprint will not get you as great an effect,” he said.

Go ahead and read the entire article HERE  if you’re interested.