>>>>>>>>LBJ would get my vote. (Clinton was no lightweight, either). When I was a kid there was a paperback book of news photos with made up words coming out of LBJ's mouth. One I remember was him at some disaster scene and saying, "If ah'm lying may lightning strike this spot."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Welcome back Mike, aren't you at least going to wait until he shows what he can do in Miami before voting for him as President, I thought than only in third world countries a sportsman would be considered as presidential candidate :P
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I must be rusty because I am missing the Miami reference.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Your opinion of the World Cup was probably about the same as mine. I was disappointed, and not because the U.S. and our traditional second choice, England, went down in flames. The first round with the South American teams doing so well was great, because I love their stylish play. When Argentina and Brazil went down it took the wind out of my sails. Germany knocked the snot out of Argentina, and Brazil was already gone by then. The final was a snore, even though I was glad to see Spain win. They both were as cautious as a nun in a frat house. It was nice, though, to see the streets of Madrid with Spaniards celebrating their first WC win. It remains my favorite sporting event, even ahead of the Olympics. Yeah, I know, un-American ;-)
>>>>>
>>>>>I found the final fascinating. The unexpected aggression of the Dutch, the inflexibility of the Spanish (they play their game very well but never seem to have a plan B) and also the involvement of the referee who could easily have reduced the Dutch to 8 or 9 players by half time. Also nice to see a world cup played in rain and cold weather.
>>>>
>>>>The one Dutch player was amazingly fortunate not to be tossed out for the chest kick. He has the reputation of being a dirty player and did nothing to disprove it. He got yellow carded but it should have been a red. It's right there in the FIFA rulebook.
>>>>
>>>>As a minor league ref I was very disappointing in the refereeing. One game in particular was horribly botched by a guy from Honduras. One of the commentators, a Brit, said after the game these are supposed to be the world's best referees and they are not living up to it.
>>>
>>>They're the best referees by region so you will get inexperienced referees from smaller countries who have little big match experience. To me thats part of the appeal of the World Cup. Players would do well to stop moaning and remember that referees rarely make the better team lose but are often used as an excuse by a poor team.
>>
>>There's probably something to that. I still thought there were some shockingly bad calls.
>
>Like the England goal against Germany that was not.
>
>How we laughed.
>
>But we girded our loins and proceeded to stuff them 1 to 4.
>
>There's an England friendly tonight against Hungary. I hope no one goes.

That was one of the calls I meant. No youth referee should have missed that one, not with the help of a linesman.

Being a linesman, or assistant referee, is a pretty easy job. As long as you keep even with the second to last defender all you have to watch for is offside or not and whether the ball went over the goal line or not. Being the main referee out in the center of the field is a lot harder, especially when kids get into their teens and get a little sneaky. And you have to make the decision instantly. You can't decide 10 seconds later, yeah, I think that was a foul. The game has moved on.

My most embarrassing experience as a referee was in a tournament a couple of years ago that drew traveling teams from all over the upper midwest. I was completely unprepared for how good these guys were -- very speedy, playing the ball a lot in the air, constant fouls. One thing that surprised me was that the U-14 teams were probably better than the U-16s. Most of the U-14s were going to be playing high school soccer in the fall. By the time you're 14 or 15 you are either on the HS team or just playing recreationally. At least in the U.S. lots of youth players drop out about the time they become teenagers, when it becomes more their decision than that of their parents. Plus they have new distractions.

I am glad Emily was able to make the varsity in volleyball. From now through the end of October will be the end of it for her. She is probably good enough to play at some dippy college, like their captain from last year is doing, but she is more focused on going to a good school. She is not good enough to play at the schools she is interested in. Well, maybe Yale. That's an interesting thought. Schools like Yale are very hard to get into even with top grades.

I asked Tamar if she could put Nathaniel -- now employed at the evil empire in Seattle ;-) -- in touch with Emily. She said sure. He went to Yale and I found out to my pleasant surprise he worked in the admissions office as a student, so he is in a much better position to advise her than I am. They also have a generous financial aid policy, which would be sweet. Of course Emily, being Emily, immediately asked if I would buy her a car if she gets heavy duty scholarship money. I said sure, that would definitely be a win-win.