The World Cup - USA vs. Slovenia - My impressions

Soccer. The worlds game. Apparently everyones except the United States. Granted, we have other sports to be involved in in the US, i.e. baseball, football (yes the American version), and of course basketball. However, from my point of view growing up in the last 21 years, soccer, or futbol, has been on the rise. The growth of the US league, Major League Soccer, has been consistent over the last couple of years. Players now come from around the world to play in our league, and we have players abroad in some of the best leagues in the world like the Premier League in England, Italian Serie A, as well as the German Bundesliga. But the focus has shifted this summer. It is not on anyone one league, but on the world. If you havent heard of, or have seen any commercials or advertisement for the world cup, then you live under a rock, or are completely retarded. The World comes together every six years for the World Cup finals. 32 teams representing 32 countries around the world have descended on South Africa and are now competing in a do or die battle for supremacy.

The US's most recent battle on the pitch put them against a Slovenian side of equal strength and play style. Both teams play extremely well in a 4-4-2 formation, and are strong on the wings. The first half was disastrous for the US, seeing the Slovenians go up by two goals by halftime. However, the team that came out in the second half was the polar opposite of the first. Suddenly the US decided to challenge on the wings, with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey attacking relentlessly. Landon Donovan scored on a long ball down the right side. A defender dove to clear a ball, missed and Donovan pounced. He ran down to the endline, twisted towards goal, and pounded a shot over the hapless keepers head. DOMINATED. The next goal involved several players, including central midfielder Michael Bradley. Donovan crossed the ball into the middle 18, Altidore put it up with his head, and Michael Bradley pounced, scoring a goal with the sole of his foot. Enter Malian referee Koman Coulibaly. This man singlehandedly screwed the entire game, and he has screwed them before! During the African qualifying stage of the 2006 World Cup, he awarded a bogus penalty to the Ghanan side that would have sent them through to the World Cup. They failed to convert, but went through anyway. Could someone please tell me why a referee, which a record such as his, could be allowed to ref a game at the worlds largest international competition? ... Im still waiting... Honestly, I did not watch the game. However, as soon as i woke up, I started watching highlights. One word - Amazed. I looked at the replays over and over, from every different angle I could find. I watched each US player, and attempted to decide if what they did could be construed as a foul. I came up with nothing. Not only did this referee ruin the US's comeback, but he ruined quite possibly one of the biggest comebacks in World Cup history. I do not know if someone paid this guy off, if he is just a retard, but honestly, he singlehandedly ruined the world cup. What a fuck up.

Well...

My first blog post. I told myself in high school that I would NEVER do something like this, yet due to circumstances to be explained, as well as a yearning for attention *wink wink* I must. I grew up on Maui, as the blog name suggests, and graduated from Seabury Hall in 2007. I grew up with a loving family, of course, and as the years passed by, between going to school, and over the summer working at Ruby's Diner, also spending the majority of my time working at boyscout camp, i never really had or understood the time I had to myself, whether it was time to think, or just staring at the wall with my brain not working. Just when no one was around and i could just sit and contemplate.

Im sure the people who will eventually read this, if any, will understand the feeling I am talking about. Its like being at the office at the end of the day, finishing your last phone call, with everyone in the office either gone or leaving, and you sit back in your chair and think "wow, I can finally think by myself." It really is amazing. Since an early age, i was taught to not only think for myself, but to do so for others. If, for example, I am on a scuba dive with someone, and his regulator (the piece that goes in his mouth) breaks, I am the one who thinks of what to do first. You could say my mind is a balanced blade. Anyway, taking this to college in the fall of 07 really helped me. Although I did come from a college prep background, the one thing that helped overcome the stresses of being away from home for the first extended period of time. I relish, and hate this ability now. The positives of my sharp mind are being able to extenuate circumstances of things before they happen, or even just giving good reasons why I should or should not buy something at the grocery store (which I am at quite often). The negatives, in my opinion, are forcing myself to sometimes take care of people ( which is not necessarily bad, but can happen often) or my brain doing something my body doesnt wanna do, like hitting the gym *lmao*. I leave you with a quote from Albert Einstein - "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"