Roughneck Rooney to Captain the Lions?

I was browsing through Soccernet today and I came across a rather interesting article on their front page about England manager Fabio Capello's statement that he can see Wayne Rooney as wearing the armband for England in the future. Capello, who is currently rotating things more than Rafa when it comes to the armband, feels that Rooney is good at everything. If by everything, Capello means that he can run up and down the pitch and score, then sure, Rooney is good at everything. I do not think Rooney is captain material. He is hyper-focused on his role as a striker and I do not think he had leadership potential. I think when picking a captain for a squad you need someone who can think in every position on the pitch. Apart from the manager, the captain is the main motivational force for most players and I do not think Rooney will have the ability to motivate England (in all honesty, I do not think God could motivate them at this point) into winning any kind of competition in the next ten years or so. Rooney is a striker, hands down. He belongs in the six yard box and not in the center of the team huddle before the walk out of the tunnel. Sorry, Wayne.

I felt so European this weekend.

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I got in from D.C. about five hours ago and I had to quickly put together a project for class, had I not had to do that I would have got this up here sooner. I spent the entire weekend and most of last week walking through our nations capital. I ate some pretty good food. I recommend Zaytinya, especially on Sundays. The omelet and the lamb that I had were both amazing. The food was a bit pricey but me and Josh made out pretty well considering he got two Turkish coffee's. The table service was absolutely amazing. As soon as one basket of bread was gone, we quickly had another. And once you were done with your dish it was whisked away if by magic. Great place if you are in the area down around the Virizon Center. Also in that area is the International Spy Museum. I dragged my friend Shibley down there on Friday because I really wanted to walk through and see the stuff they had. Admission was $18, which I thought was a little steep but it is D.C. and the exhibits were really interesting. I would recommend that WWII buffs stay away from the museum. Most of their exhibits deal with efforts to crack the German code and general intelligence during the era. They also devote a large portion of the tour to the Cold War. Once again if you are really well read about these time periods, you won't fell like you got your moneys worth.

I did get a chance to visit the National Portrait Gallery, the National Art Museum, the Native-American History Museum, and the the Museum of Natural History. I recommend them all, especially the food at the Native-American museum. It is a bit pricey but it is worth it, especially the blue cornbread. The museums offer something for everyone really. I saw a lot of interesting landscape paintings that were simply amazing. I do not think they get the credit they deserve though due to the twenty-seven rooms of Renaissance art that focused mainly on the two stages of Christs' life that we know very much about; his birth and his death. In the National Portrait Gallery, I recommend the second floor. I would take extra time and look at the exhibit from Lincoln's inaugural ball and the Presidential Portrait Gallery. Moving on to the other museum I visited, the Museum of Natural History, I got to see the hope diamond but the really great exhibit is the dinosaur one. Yes, I sound like a kid but it was really fun to get to see the recreations of the skeletons.

I also learned how to use the Metro while I was in D.C. I come from Nashville, ya'll. All we have in the way of public transportation is the city bus. And if I was not feeling European already, this greatly added to the experience. We went to see the Washington Nationals play on Thursday and Saturday night and we took the Metro from Foggy Bottom to Navy Yard and to be squished into the train with tons of supporters and standing in the queue to ride the escalator up to get to the park was awesome. If that was not amazing enough, you get to the top of the escalators, go through the turnstiles to the Metro and when you exit the station, there to your left is this image. The gates to Nationals Park. The team lost both nights but it was amazing to get the experience of following your team in the European way with the metro stations built right next to the parks and grounds.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend despite the stubbed toe, scared knee, and sunburn I got. I'm not sure if I would ever want to live in D.C. but I would surely want to visit again and I plan on doing so as soon as possible.

Lehmann's Lament

So, now that the young Gunners are effectively out of all competitions for the year, dissension is starting to form among the ranks. This is mainly coming out of the bench hugging goal keeper, Jens Lehmann. Lehmann, who until this year had been Wengers number one, has recently found himself playing second fiddle to the Spanish keeper, Manuel Almunia.

Lehmann is thirty-eight years old compared to Almunia's thirty. Now this is not a major point of contention except that before coming to Arsenal, Almunia did not really see that much playing time with the three clubs he was loaned out to. Wenger is just trying to build a squad to compliment his young Gunners. That is another point to take to heart, the Gunners themselves are a young team. With time and experience the team will get better and there is nothing that a goalkeeper can really do to help the offense, in my opinion.

So Lehmann should give Drogba a call and see what he is doing this summer, maybe they can rub each others back and braid each others hair like the whiny girls they are.

Footie Across America.

So I just got into D.C. and I've seen a couple of interesting things so far. I saw a lot of Washington on the drive in and it looks really pretty at night. I am going sightseeing tomorrow with Shibly, so I will have tons of pictures by next week.

Secondly, I saw signs that soccer is not dead in this country. David Beckham is not the life breath behind this either. I saw three or four pitches from the air on my flight in. When I was at the airport in Detroit, I passed a girls soccer team on their way to a tournament it appeared.

So, no, footie isn't dead in America and it is more than likely growing.

But Who Will Stop Wigan?

That's the question at the Bridge after both Carlo Cudicini and Petr Chech were injured in the past two weeks. Chech had to get an astounding 50 stitches after a misplaced hit on the traing pitch. Cudicini, who filled in for a better part of last season after Chech was injured, injured his hamstring in last nights Champions Leage win against Fenerbache.

So in comes Hilario. This kid isn't half bad in goal and he will step up to the task at hand. I don't know why the BBC consider this to be a setback. The keepers for Chelsea have proven themselves time after time as some of the best in the world. Sure, it's not a a goalkeepin core built of Chech's but they are all trained by the same coach and while Chech is a better keeper overall, there is no reason to be moaning about the third keeper coming into play. Chelsea have been in far worse situations and have come out smelling like a rose. But, only time will tell if the Blues will continue to climb the Premiership ladder and hop over United to take the league this year.

D.C. Will No Longer Be United!

I really wish I could say that but since United will not be in town this weekend I will have to settle for two good friends of mine, Josh and Shibley. I am heading down to our nations captial for the weekend to hang out with two of my good buddies. Now I haven't seen these guys in almost a year so I think there will be probably ten minutes of catching up and that will be pretty much it. By the time the eleventh minute comes I expect us to be tossing verbal assaults at each others teams. Me and Josh will probably swap slurs more than all of us. I support Chelsea and he supports some pansy boys from some northern city in England. Man Chest United or something to that extent. Sounds like Josh should be telling he fianc something important. Lol.

When the hell did Jackie Chan join FIFA?