Flickr Football: Monrovia

Never complain about a poor playing field or your cleats. There's something that borders on mystical when soccer is found in the corners you least expect. The game should inspire greatness in the most awkward of settings.

District Weekend Update 2

Our second game was not as exciting as the first - I lost count after we were up 6-0. Historically, we play poorly against weaker opponents. I take it as a good sign that we showed no sign of letting up during our second game.

We are through to the State Quarterfinals. The next game is on Saturday. Roll Thunder.

District Weekend Update 1

My U-16 team played their first game in the district tournament today. It was one of the most physical teams we have played all year. 1 red card and about 4 yellows. The red card was issued to the other team (thankfully). We ended up winning 1-0 which is all we need to do. The state championship is all about advancing. It doesn't matter how ugly it gets - you always have games where you play really well and then you have games where you just have to slog through battle. This was the latter. Our next game is tomorrow.

Willy Mason: Save Myself

Here is another song from A Playground A Petri Dish. I heard Willy Mason on NPR the other day. Turns out he is from Martha's Vineyard.

John Butler Trio: Good Excuse

Here is a song off the last monthly mix, A Playground A Petri Dish (which I owe to a bunch of people...sorry I am behind). I dig this tune a lot. Good chorus to sing to.

Maison Bourbon Jazz Club, New Orleans, LA

Spent an hour or so at the Maison Bourbon Jazz Club tonight in New Orleans. I didn't bring my camera on this trip so I am posting these photo's from flickr. The band that was playing tonight was the house band...and just happens to be the same band you see below. This is the first time I have been to New Orleans since Katrina and the quarter seems to be doing well - which is great to see. Browse more Maison Bourbon Jazz Club photos, including these, here.

Long Day

I drove 440 miles today, played one soccer game, attended a soccer practice and listened to 3 hours of presentations at a conference. Long day and not a lot to say tonight. Headed to bed.

Flickr Football: Saved!!

Cool shot of a save. I really like how vertical this picture is.


Link to photo.
[Topguy]'s photostream.

MFLS Week 3 Results

To give you a sense of how bad I am at fantasy soccer, my roster for week 3 had a lot of blue in it. Here is the best 11 from week 3. Looks like I should have banked on red. I am ranked 1512 out of 2311 teams.

As far as game predictions go though, I am 162 out of 2311 teams. It must be dumb luck. Perhaps I should learn more about the scoring system or do some better research on player/team stats. Carlee is beating me down. She had 32 points this past week. After 3 weeks in the league, I have less than 30. She beat 3 weeks of my team in one week.

(another) Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix Trailer

Here is another Harry Potter trailer for Order of the Phoenix. I like the international one better but this one is still cool.

Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix Trailer

The title of the post says it all. The trailer is wicked cool. Apparently it is the international trailer. There is rumored to be another trailer coming out with the showing of the new Spider Man 3 film (May 4th).

Always Put Your Ducky in First

Wise words from Calvin. Always test the waters if you can.

Copyright ©1985-1996 Universal Press Syndicate.

Google's Earth Day Logo

In case you missed it, Google had a really cool logo for Earth Day. When I was out buying paint supplies, Home Depot was giving out free energy efficient light bulbs. Nice.

Paint Fumes Improve Your Soccer Game

Today was an awesome day. Two reasons:

1. My U-16 team volunteered to do some community service at a local shelter for abused and neglected children. The shelter is run by Acadiana Youth. We set out to paint the pantry and do some basic landscaping. We accomplished both tasks as well as accomplished some miscellaneous chores as well. It was about 3 hours or so of good hard work and my guys did a great job. One of the kids at the shelter was bonding with the guys and it was cool to see him interact with my team. They are a good group of guys and it was awesome to see such a big (optional) turnout for an event that benefited kids who are less fortunate than them.
2. My same U-16 team has been trying to set up a scrimmage against the premier team in town for a few weeks and the only day that worked out was today. I was really hesitant to schedule a day of manual labor on the same day that we were going to play a scrimmage against one of the top premier teams in the state. Premier is the league above us, so we are underdogs in any game against a premier team. My guys all showed up late because they were exhausted from work. You could tell they were tired. We went down 1-0. Tied it up. Went down 2-1. Tied it up. And then took the lead. We came back from a 1 goal deficit twice. Adrenaline must have kicked in because we ended up winning 3-2. More important than that is how we played overall. We moved the ball with one and two touch passes and were incredibly aggressive. I'm not sure where they got the energy but they did it. All told, in the last 2 weeks we have beaten the U15 Premier State Champs and the U16 Premier State Championship Finalists. Not bad for a D1 squad. That said, we head into Districts to defend our own title this upcoming weekend. People will be gunning for us so I expect every game to be really difficult.
   

So yeah. Awesome Sunday. I'm proud of my guys. Check out this picture. I get a kick out of the faces these guys make. One of the best is the philosopher pose on the guy next to me. Painting masks are the new fashion statement. Check out the full Flickr set.

Flickr Football: Dirty Game

There's no real description providing context for this Flickr find today. It's a cool picture though.

Dirty Game
Originally uploaded by Se Fotoman.

Car Sandals

Random link and post about a pair of sandals....? Anyway. These look interesting even without considering the ingredients. They are made from car tires, scrap car seat leather and seat belts.

I have a bookmark category called Ideas where I place random links to things that I feel like I might want to come back to some day. There are sub-categories under Ideas that include articles to read, things for the house, music to research, clothes/fashion, books, open source, etc. I don't actively maintain the links in Ideas but I find it good when I am looking to kill time or find something interesting for a gift (or a self-gift).


I added these.

Colbert: rBGH is Jesus

This is really funny. Warning, if cartoon images of Jesus being compared to Bovine Growth Hormone will offend you, you can skip this post. Otherwise, enjoy this Colbert moment.

Lionel Messi's Goal Against Getafe

Ok. So this is awesome. It is the clip of Messi's goal against Getafe (which I posted yesterday) compared next to Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. There is a reason people are comparing these. The resemblance between the two plays is uncanny.

It's also awesome because the announcer is just great to listen to.

Comparativa gol de Messi y Maradona
Uploaded by cariacolov

(via Who Ate All the Pies)

MFLS: Roster Week 3

I decided to be active and make some trades for this week's roster. I picked up Ralston, Altidore, and Pierce. I am making a play on New England this week and thinking that they will beat Columbus on the road. Columbus has yet to score but also has not given up any goals either. Banking on New England contradicts my defensive trade to pick up Pierce (who plays on Columbus). I think he is a long term addition to my roster though. Altidore is my new forward - I am hoping the Red Bulls turn it on. Keeper change in net since DC United has a bye. Chicago needs to be stingy this week.

My Door Swings Both Ways

Well my brother and his wife had their moment of fame and appeared on HGTV this past week. If it hasn't happened to you before, it is kind of weird to see your sibling on TV. Pretty neat actually. He and his wife did a good job and despite what I pictured, the bike riding and fruit salad making scenes actually weren't all that bad. The weirdest part was when they demonstrated their door for the viewing audience. You kind of have to see it to understand.

I've had one loyal reader of Blades of Blue send me a note saying, "Now I feel like I’m old buddies with James. I’ve toured his house and seen his awesome orange refrigerator."

So congrats to my brother and his wife! Nice job on the house.

Messi and the Impossible

On the heels of Messi's "Impossible is Nothing" ad, here is evidence of his brilliance on the field. He beats 6 defenders on this run from midfield. This is an amazing individual performance.

But-barcelone-getafe-copa-messi

(found as a result of du Nord's narrative description and comments)

Luxary is Part of Performance

This is a longer video than I would normally post but if you have 18 minutes to spare today, this is really an enjoyable presentation by Bryant Simon, Professor of History and Director of the American Studies Program at Temple University. The subject of the presentation is how the desires of daily life are revealed from the couches of Starbucks. It is driven by the speaker's premise of "what we drink has meaning." The presentation has a lot of insights into the culture as well as a lot of humorous slides about the pervasiveness of the brand.

And no, it is not a Starbucks commercial. In fact, it will probably give you some fodder to make fun of people like me who end up there about 5 times a week.

Some interesting points to tease you into making the time to watch this:

• There is a Starbucks in the Forbidden City
• 44 Million people a week go to Starbucks. Bryant discusses what these 44 million people actually do there.
  
• He also tackles why people pay the premium for coffee and proposes three core themes: Functional, Emotional and Expressive. Not to give it all away but did you know that Starbuck's coffee is the most caffeinated coffee on the market? It has 2 times the caffeine of Folgers. So the first idea proposed is addiction.

Watch more. It's worth it.

The presentation is from a conference called the Taste3 conference, founded by Robert Mondavi and explores the relationship of wine, food and art.

Ronaldo: Player and Young Player of the Year?

Ronaldo has made the short list of the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Yeah. He's that good. Granted, he is somewhat of a pretty boy who tends to dive and hold his ankle in pain after getting hit in the shoulder, but I have a hard time holding that against a guy who can make the ball dance like he does (see below). Fabregas made both lists as well...I have a tough time thinking he'll win over the others in the list.

This is Ronaldo warming up. I had to watch it 5 times before I even started to understand some of what he was doing in the first 15 seconds of this clip. Unreal. It's worth embedding the big player so that you can see it better.

The Stage is Set: Chelsea vs. Manchester United

The FA Cup final (a tournament that started out with 687 teams from all levels of English soccer) is set for closure with a classic match-up between Chelsea and Manchester United. I cannot wait to see this game, which will be played at the new Wembley stadium on May 19th. Chelsea and Man U are locked in a heated battle for first place in the premiership and the fact that this competition has boiled down to these two teams simply sets the stage for some great drama.

The Chelsea vs. Blackburn semifinal was on yesterday and this game was a thriller to the end. Chelsea always scores in the dying minutes of a game and their second goal in overtime was no exception - this team just never quits. You can check out the highlights below. What I really like about Chelsea's first goal is watching Drogba hold off the defender, settle the ball, and lay it off. He is a beast. The overtime goal has a remarkable play by Shaun Wright-Phillips saving a ball off the end line and creating an opportunity in the box that Ballack (who Carlee believes is a twin of Matt Damon) converts. Ballack proceeds shed a layer after the goal and gets a yellow for removing his kit, but I think that if I sent my team to the FA Cup final in an overtime victory that I would do the same thing.

Chelsea vs Blackburn Goals

MFLS Week 2 Results

Week 2 of the MFLS competition is over and my game predictions continue to outshine my player roster. Obviously I should try synching up the roster with the predictions. Right now I am ranked:

• 162 out of 2241 in the prediction league
• 1817 out of 2241 in the fantasy pool

Here's how my roster did in week 2. Almost any New England player was a sure thing this past weekend (see Cristman) as they slaughtered Toronto. Ralston and Twellman were the NER players that would have brought home the big bucks - Ralston had two assists to Twellman. Its starting to look like banking on big Toronto losses may be a decent strategy. Not sure what is going on with DC United but I think the might be offloading some of the DC players from my roster if the team can't pick up the pieces soon. Eddie Johnson had a great weekend, in contrast to his US MNT performances. I won't hop on the bandwagon yet though - one game does not indicate that he is out of his slump just yet.

Heading into Playoffs

The co-ed and U-16 soccer seasons are headed into the playoff stretch. We have one regular season co-ed game left and I believe we have already qualified for the final 4 so the game is only relevant for placement in the finals (and pride). I have uploaded photos of this past weekend's games to my Flickr account and created a co-ed collection. You can access the photo's by clicking this link. I had 2 assists and 2 goals this past weekend - which just might be a personal best for me.

The U-16's had two scrimmages this past weekend and we are headed into the last 2 weeks of practice as we prepare for the big district tournament in New Orleans. We have a tough road ahead of us if we want to repeat our championship run of last year. However, we have an excellent group so I am confident that if we play to our potential we will get it done.

Feist: 1234 Video

So this is not only a really catchy song, but I find the video visually intriguing as well. Enjoy.

(via Shameless Complacency)

Flickr Football: Go Team

I used to coach little kids with my father back when I lived in NJ. My father was a huge coach for youth age groups in Branchburg. In fact he created soccer for some the youngest age groups in my hometown. He was elected to the NJ Soccer Hall of Fame in 1997. This Flickr find is for the man who used to wake me up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday and warm up U-8's with Paul Simon blasting on a boom box in a school gym. I use his soccer philosophy every time I step on the field as either a player or a coach.


Link to Flickr photo.
Link to Carri Powers' photostream.

In šaʾ Allāh

I work with a very diverse group of individuals. During the daily grind and in a push to get projects done it sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. However, there is the occasional event that happens that makes me appreciate that diversity. This time, it was just a parenthetical remark in an email from someone on my team. We were having a quick chat about trying to get something finished before their upcoming wedding. In response to my encouragement to make sure we had some knowledge transfer occur before their departure, the individual said:

"I will make sure to finish if not all, at least 90% of it (Inshallah)"

I had to look up what Inshallah means and found this on Wikipedia:

"In šaʾ Allāh (إن شاء الله) is an Arabic term evoked by Arabic speakers to indicate hope for an aforementioned event to occur in the future. The phrase translates into English as "God willing" or "If it is God's will"."

Pretty neat to find that buried in a standard email exchange.

Coach

Coach: So do you guys have any insight into the game last week? Any thoughts as to why you lost?
Player: You cheated.
Coach: How's that?
Player: You have two Mexicans on your team. And one has gold hoop earrings and a mullay.
Coach: A mullay?
Player: Yeah, a mullay (punctuated by him patting the back of his neck).
Coach: That's called a mullet.
Player: It's still cheating.

Flickr Football: The Crest

In honor of AC Milan's advancement to the Champions League semi's (they defeated Bayern Munich today), today's Flickr find is the AC Milan crest. I used to watch AC Milan with my father on Sunday and was a huge fan of theirs back when Ruud Gullit was on the team (along with Van Basten and Rijkard). For baseball fans that is the equivalent of remembering the days when Mattingly, Winfield and Righetti were playing for the Yanks.


Goto the photo on Flickr.
Goto iamhannah's photostream.

Pie Charts & Visualization

I occasionally prowl around some random blogs related to design and data visualization and one of them had a post a few months ago that has a direct link to a conversation I had with my wife today. In the course of some of her school work she came across a poorly constructed pie chart, which led to a basic discussion regarding when pie charts are useful. In case you ever feel like reading a pretty decent article on when pie charts are effective, go to this article on Neoformix. Most of the statements are fairly obvious but they are stated effectively. Example:

"The circle is the natural design element that best represents the whole so it shouldn't be surprising that a pie chart is a good way to illustrate the proportion of a part in relation to that whole."

The cooler stuff at Neoformix is more recent. The recent post in March deals with an interactive visualization tool that allows you to explore the structure of a text document. There are a few example documents available on the website to try out, including Tom Sawyer and the 2007 State of the Union Address. It's worth playing with the application to see how it allows you to explore relationships between key terms in a document. In general, data visualization is something I am more interested in learning about if I could make the time - especially since I work in a field that has to do with the collection and management of data.

Manchester United vs. Roma: The Clinic

This looks like a season highlight reel but it is actually just one game with 8 goals. Manchester United beat Roma today 7-1. Roma never had a chance.

This is a really fun video to watch because it really gives you a sense of the goal fest that this game was. I have to say that Ronaldo was on fire and had an amazing game. You will see him in most of the moments caught in this video. The one Roma goal is outstanding as well. De Rossi is literally running away from the goal when he volleys the ball in full stride at a 180 degree angle behind him into the near post. Unreal.

MFLS Week 2 Predictions

Here are my picks for week 2 in the MLS. Last week I ended up with 2 out of 6 picks right with 1 exact scoreline. This translates to 10 points and has me ranked at 342 out of 2160. Not bad! It's a pretty good ranking compared to my player/roster score, which is currently 1364 out of 2160...ugly.

Flickr Football - Cameroon

I've killed some time on Flickr recently and am pretty interested in it as a resource for images. I normally just get images by searching Google and will probably continue to do so. However, I think that Flickr is a pretty interesting way to explore a theme (rather than find a target).

In keeping with one of the heavy themes of this blog, I am currently exploring what sort of soccer images I can find. Here was the first one that caught my eye - evidently from the Southwest Province of Cameroon.

Click here to access the above photo directly on Flickr.
Click here to see the photographer's (Phil H) full photostream.

Source: Petri Dish Art

Because it is that cool (and possibly because it is the right thing to do), I thought I would post the source for my latest CD mix cover. The site, Pruned, is where I found the Gardens in a Petri image that is found on this month's mix. Cool stuff.

A Playground A Petri Dish

I really like this month's cover (if I am allowed to toot my own horn). The mix is somewhat tilted towards a folk/americana audience. However, there are some standout indie favorites on here as well.

A Playground A Petri Dish

1. Keep the Car Running ð Arcade Fire
2. Imitosis ð Andrew Bird
3. We Can Be Strong ð Willy Mason
4. Black Haired Girl ð Jesse Malin
5. Good Excuse ð John Butler Trio
6. Think I'm in Love ð Beck
7. Green & Dumb ð Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers
8. Little Sadie ð Crooked Still
9. The Picture ð Son Volt
10. Soft Asylum (No Way Out) ð Grant-Lee Phillips
11. Scythian Empires ð Andrew Bird
12. Something Pretty ð Patrick Park
13. Save Myself ð Willy Mason
14. Fans ð Kings of Leon
15. Gone to Carolina ð Shooter Jennings
16. This Wheel’s On Fire ð Guster
17. Underground Dream ð Son Volt
18. It Ain't Right ð The Redstick Ramblers
19. I Hear Them All ð Old Crow Medicine Show
20 . One Voice ð The Wailin' Jennys

Lionel Messi - Impossible is Nothing

I really like Adidas' Impossible is Nothing campaign. This past weekend I saw Josmer Altidore's spot during my MLS marathon. I can't find that on YouTube yet, but I found Lionel Messi's spot. He is the wonder-kid from Argentina, a truly amazing and fun player to watch.

Click here to go to the official Adidas Impossible is Nothing Site. The site is really cool and has more videos related to many different sports (rugby, running, pole vault, basketball, etc). It is a good place to kill some time and potentially even find a small dose of inspiration.

Domestic Proof

Easter weekend was a domestic weekend for me, filled with yard and house chores (with frequent breaks watching soccer on TV). I think I am only posting these facts so that the family members and friends who hit this site don't think I am a lazy slob. So there.

• Mowed lawn. Twice. It was so long from about a week and a half of rain and watering (3* a week) that I needed to mulch it and then bag it.
• Trimmed the hedges. Got to use the new telescoping pole hedge trimmer that allows me to get our 8-10 foot high hedges without making stage dives into the bush. Of course, the machine must weigh about 40 pounds. I can't raise my arms above my waist tonight.
• Killed some bamboo. If your neighbor ever grows this next door, just go ahead and light it all on fire. Otherwise I'll see you in the backyard every weekend with some Round Up and some trimmers.
• Cleaned out the back porch and car port.
• Dismantled, cleaned and put our Weber grill back together. Replaced the cooking grates and flavor bars with new pieces. Looks like a new grill. Christened it tonight with filet, ribeye, homemade freedom fries and a good merlot. Dinner was on really clean back porch with a wonderful view of some bamboo-less hedges.
• Bought bags of dirt, mulch, fire ant killer, slug bait and a saw for next week's projects. Probably hurt my back loading 200 pounds of earth into the hybrid.
• Made more progress on cleaning up my office. For some reason, boxes still abound in this room of our house.

Time to go watch some 24. Carlee and I are starting on Season 1 (I can't believe it took us so long to get into this show).

I May Not Be Good At This

I signed up for MFLS (Major Fantasy League Soccer) this past weekend. This happened about 15 minutes after we purchased MLS Direct Kick which gets us access to almost all of the local MLS soccer feeds around the country. MLS Direct Kick will pretty much guarantee that I will be able to watch more MLS soccer then I ever thought possible. In fact, this past weekend I think I watched 5 MLS games, 1.5 EPL games, and 1/2 of an Italian game. At some point I decided I was even a little upset that I couldn't get watch LA Galaxy game. No, I do not have a problem.

MFLS: My roster for week one probably didn't do well. I signed up at the last minute, felt a little rushed and had a little too much weight on one or two teams. Despite pressing refresh on my browser, the scores have yet to be posted so it remains to be seen just how bad I did. This afternoon I played a little bit with transfers and have the following roster headed into week two.


I've never been good at stats. I've never tried any kind of fantasy league for any sport because of that very fact. So I think I am pretty much going to get my ass handed to me by Carlee...she signed up too. Before she signed up though, she researched which players and teams had the best goals for/against ratios. So yeah, I'm gonna be losing pretty quickly here. But at least I know I married the right woman.

The Series is Tied

The AFC vs Thunder (my adult team vs. my youth U-16 team) match was last night at 8 PM and the series is tied 1-1. The adults won 6-0! That's right, 6-0. With the game last year at 4-3, it makes sense to wonder what the differences were this year. There were a few:

1. Ratio: We played 1-2 less women then we normally do. Making the ratio 7:3 or 6:4 depending on the time of the game. Normally we play 5:5. I am not sure this would make a big difference for some other co-ed teams but our men are all college level players (as are a few of the women) so this may have tipped the scales in our favor.
2. Tactics: We played 3 men across our defensive line to manage the U-16 speed. They never adjusted to the fact that through balls down the middle and 1 on 1 encounters were not going to beat the back line. When they attacked on the outside, they exposed us a little bit.
   
3. Mental Preparation: The adults came out with revenge in mind. We were looking to prove that we could compete. I am thinking that the kids came out overconfident a little bit. When the tide turned on them, their overconfidence made it tough to pull through the challenge. So I think mentally, we were more prepared and a bit more mature.
4. Finishing: They hit the post twice, missed about 4 crosses with clean paths to goal and generally were just unable to put shots on target. In fact, the game was almost evenly played. They dominated entire portions. I think that the first 10-15 minutes of both halves we were unable to mount an attack on them. When we did get on the offensive side of the ball, we shot and we finished. They could not. 6-0.

So the darby is tied at 1-1. The rematch next season is going to be a hard fought game.

Old Standards

My good friend Cool Hand has been quiet recently but when he came back on line yesterday he did so with one of my favorite standards: Conversations with the boy. These posts are always great nuggets of insight into the life of parenting. I think if you click on his 'kids' label you will get a chance to read more of these, plus conversations with the girl (also a great standard).

I'm ok with living vicariously at the moment, so don't even ask.

Program that Tivo to HGTV?

Yup. HGTV. Set your Tivo now for April 15th at 11:30 PM EST. My brother, his wife and their killer pad in Arizona are being featured on HGTV's What You Get for the Money. Rumor has it that there are some great (staged) bike riding and fruit salad action shots of the gorgeous couple as they show you what life is like for famous people.

Daniel van Buyten Strikes

If you didn't catch the AC Milan v Bayern Munich game yesterday, you missed a thriller. The complete 4 goal highlight reel is below. The game ended up hinging on one player and a referee. Daniel van Buyten, the Belgian defender, was involved in 3 out of 4 goals in the 2-2 tie.

1. Goal 2: van Buyten ties the game with a scrum volley in the box.
2. Goal 3: van Buyten gets called for taking down an AC Milan player in the box. Video evidence shows that the call is an "appallingly bad decision" by the Russian referee.
3. Goal 4: van Buyten ties the game again with another volley, this time in the 93rd minute.

AC Milan looks lethal and if it wasn't for the bad call by the referee, I would have walked away saying they should have won the game. However, I am glad that Bayern came back with the tie. BTW, with the urine tossing Kahn out of goal, backup Michael Rensing starred in goal for Bayern Munich with two amazing saves on headers from the Italian team. If he had saved the PK I would think that Kahn would be worried about his starting spot.

Milan 2 - Bayern München 2 03-04-2007
Uploaded by CatrachoMillonario

Step Away from the Internet

I will need to stay away from news sources for the next few days in order to not find out the results of the following games before I have a chance to watch the Tivo.

• Milan v Bayern Munich
• PSV v Liverpool
• Roma v Manchester United
• Chelsea v Valencia

I am officially in love with ESPN2 (and I think "Classic" is carrying one) for televising these games. Looks like a great week to be a soccer fan.

Rematch: Armadillos vs. Thunder

The big rematch approaches. This Thursday at 8 PM, my adult co-ed team takes the field against my U-16 boys team. The U-16 team is the current state champion in their age group and they are just getting bigger, better and faster. The co-ed team is the defending champions of the Lafayette Adult Soccer league and we just keep getting older and slower, but supposedly wiser.

Last year, the adults lost 4-3. Game report here. Bets can be placed with me - the youth team are 2-1 favorites according to the local bookies.

Demerit

I had the opportunity to watch Watford play Chelsea this past weekend on FSC. The American Jay Demerit returned to Watford's starting lineup and would have been the man of the match...until stoppage time hit and Chelsea snuck in a game winner (1-0). Damn them.

Demerit had 2 game winning saves and was a steady presence in the back line. The biggest save was in the 77th minute when he stuffed Frank Lampard with a sliding tackle in the box. Coming off of a pretty boring and easy defensive game against Guatemala, it was good to see Demerit put to the test and even better to see him rise to the occasion.

In the end though, Watford fell. Demerit's quotes from Soccer365:

"We deserved a point, but it is almost laughable now, because we have had these feelings before. You hope these things will not happen again, but they keep on happening. You have to take the positives from each performance, and there were a lot of them to come from Saturday's game."

Jay has an awesome story that you can read about in many places. His Wikipedia page is a good summary. The gist is that he was playing in the 7th division side in 2004. 3 years later he is in the first division (although with heavy threat of relegation). That's right, he went from the 7th division to the 1st division in 3 years.

On May 21, 2006, Jay scored the goal that advanced Watford to the first division. Wicked cool to see an American have such a big impact at that level. Watch the highlight of that goal below.

You can go here and read the Watford program with info on Jay.