Denting the couch

Today’s theme: soccer overload. I’m just finishing hour seven, and so far, I’ve watched 2 1/2 games on TV and coached an hour’s worth of practice for the 9 and 10-year-old boys team I’m helping out with. I started the day with a rather lackluster 1-1 draw between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. Liverpool didn't seem to miss their former star Michael Owen, but it looked like they should take some of the money from his sale and buy a defense.

Next it was off to practice. We’ve got a great group of kids, about half of whom decided to skip practice today. So, we ran a few drills and then scrimmaged with another team in the same age group. This was my first chance to see my guys in a game setting, and they were pretty impressive. They have such a better understanding of the game than I remember having at that age. These guys realize that it’s OK to pass backwards to get out of trouble, and they’ve already started to figure out passing into space and running on to the ball, concepts that I wasn’t sure they were ready for.

After practice, it was back home for a much more exciting 1-1 game, this time between Fulham and Manchester City. This game featured three Americans, all of whom played well, especially Claudio Reyna, who was dangerous in midfield and created a lot of chances for City. This is good news for US fans, since Reyna will be an important part of Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica. After struggling with injuries for so much of the past few years, it’s good to see Claudio healthy and playing well again. During the second half, I started flipping back and forth between this game and San Jose-Kansas City in MLS, which currently stands at 1-0 on a Landon Donovan goal.

Coming up later tonight, my DC United take on the New England Revolution in a big conference match. The standing are so tight right now that the winner of this game would move into 2nd place, while the loser will fall into last. Maybe Freddy Adu can score another beautiful goal like the one he scored Wednesday night. And after that game’s over, I plan to catch a replay of the Middlesborough-Newcastle match from earlier today.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get off the couch, but maybe not. Everton-Arsenal is on at 1:00.