Fulham USA: US Supporters club of Fulham FC

I taped this just before I left for a gig and didn't finish watching it until 2300 Saturday night. Grumble, grumble.

First of all, I hate them damned Dirty Yellows. The Hatter in me has never had any good thoughts about that crew, and today didn't change my mind.

Having said that, I've seldom seen such a textbook display of quality passing as we saw from Watford. Long, short, back, forward, sideways -- all of them clear, smooth, and accurate. With that passing acuity against a 10-man squad, it was always going to get ugly early. And so it did.

From the beginning it was obvious that something was not right with Betts. His crap decision making almost cost us a goal early on when Budurov had to jump in and concede a free kick. He completely lost his rag in giving up the penalty. Since when does an early red card become the better option? Whenever the keeper is sent off, two players suffer. With the exception of his weak distribution, our young keeper has...

Lowering My Expectations

So, the thing about the NASL is that the majority of their matches are on Saturday evenings. The thing about Saturday evenings is that, even on a very slow month, I have gigs on two of them. And so it is that I finally made it out to beautiful Toyota Field to watch the Scorps [who should really have been named Alamo City FC] play some Canadian side. For those of us who don't know, the NASL is around USL 1.5 level – that is probably English League 2 level. I don't expect Premier League or even MLS quality, so I can enjoy the game … depending, of course.

It was a lovely night for football. The pitch was well groomed – although I think it should have been watered before the match. Of course, this being the USA, the pitch belonged to everyone and his second cousin before kickoff. There'll be a nasty email to Scorpions Leadership about having the colors brought on to the pitch a good 15 minutes before kickoff. While HatterMom and myself stood at attention...

I work with some serious sports fans. Serious sports fans that, for reasons beyond my understanding, don’t care much for soccer. Over the years, I’d come into work on Monday, sharing excitedly news of Clint Dempsey racking up the goals (side note…weren’t those the days) or Tim Howard’s exploits, or Michael Bradley’s, and I’d meet blank stares. I’d try to explain promotion and relegation, or explain why I was taking vacation days to watch Europa League matches, or detail the process of qualifying for the World Cup. They’d listen with the requisite level of common courtesy, but I long ago gave up trying to truly convert them. They just weren’t soccer guys…But they know Landon Donovan. And it’s not just because we live in L.A. It’s because LD may well be the first superstar the United States has ever produced.

Of course, much has been made of his failed early ventures in Europe and his seeming unwillingness to give it another full-time try later in his career. And then there was the...