ROSS D. FRANKLIN / Associated PressHeroes – David Bowie
Cleaning up house on the things I posted about the last couple days. First, the US won 2-0 last night, which was pretty fantastic. To be honest, Mexico was probably the better team in most respects. In the first half especially, the US looked lackluster, was making terrible passes, and generated almost zero offensive opportunities. However, in the second half, Donovan had an uncharacteristically great corner kick to find the head of the flat-footed Jimmy Conrad who poked it in perfectly for his first ever goal for the national team.
Then, in stoppage time, Mexico made a pass which richoceted off the referee. Clark snapped it up and made a quick pass to Donovan, who was off to the races. He quickly beat several defenders and then turned on the afterburners, burst past the goalkeeper and put it in the net.
It was great to see Donovan playing more aggressively, and Jimmy Conrad had a fantastic game. Apart from the goal, he also made a number of key stops, including saving a goal late in the second half. Dempsey played well, though not spectacularly, and he definitely was exhausted by the time he was lifted midway through the second half. Bornstein was shaky at first, but kept at it and was really great as the game went on. He’s got a real future on this team, I think.
All in all, the US was still in serious trouble on offense, without a real forward and no real ability to get anything going. And their first-half performance was pretty terrible. But if they can play like they did in the second half against a strong Mexican team, I think they’ve got a good chance to really make something happen over the next few years.
Going back two days, here’s a quick addendum to my discussion about Al Gore on Tuesday. While I’m pretty sure he has no interest in running, it doesn’t hurt to make it clear to him how much this country could benefit from it. While I like a number of the already-declared candidates, there’s no one I would like to see running than the 2008 version of Al Gore.
The “draft Gore” movement isn’t particularly strong right now, but I could see it growing. However, the only way that will happen is if people make an effort. If you’re interested, at the very least stop by Draft Gore and add your name to the petition. If you want to do more, you can contribute there or, perhaps more importantly, just use the forums available to you (blogs, friends and family, whatever) to make your desires known.
This is more or less a democracy, after all. Wouldn’t it be swell if that could really mean something this time?
Update: More Gore news. It looks like he is going to set up a series of concerts “bigger than Live Aid” in July to raise awareness and get action going on global warming. More news as it comes out, but this could be pretty awesome. The intersection of music and politics always fascinates me, and especially so when it’s on an issue this important and with a name this big.