Dave’s Football Blog

Via World Footy News, here’s a clip of the US Revolution, our national Australian Football team, preparing for the International Cup this August in Melbourne. This is part of a larger documentary about the team called Australian Football, American Revolution.

Hey, someone had to film it. ESPN certainly doesn’t give a shit about Australian footy anymore, except for retrospectives and such. “Oooh, look, we even showed Aussie Rules back then. Wasn’t that weird?”

And now, a moment of horn-tooting. Sort of.

My Carolina Railhawks managed to shake off a disastrous road trip in which they took 1 point in 4 games and their coach was accused of flipping the bird at Rochester fans, and they pulled out a 1-0 win against USL-2 club Real Maryland to advance to the third round of the U.S. Open Cup, America’s domestic cup competition.

It took a penalty in stoppage time to break the deadlock. That part annoys me. During the offseason, the Railhawks signed the leading scorer in USL-1 and the leading scorer in USL-2, and yet they’ve only scored 13 goals in 14 competitive matches. So why is it that these guys need a penalty in the 90th minute to beat a USL-2 team that has yet to score on the road this season and has an away goal differential of -12? I know there are a lot of fans who would take nothing but 1-0 victories all season, but man, this team really needs to organize its attack a little better…

Still, a win is a win, and we get to play the Kansas City Wizards here in North Carolina next Tuesday. The Wizards are currently the worst non-expansion team in MLS. I think we’ve got a shot… if we ever start putting them in the net like we should.

“All we are saying is give us a goal…”

I touched on this briefly at FanHouse over the weekend, but it’s worth bringing up here again.

Three of the four Group Stage winners at EURO 2008 — Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands — went out in the quarterfinals last week. The one thing those three teams had in common? They all clinched their groups after two games, then rested their starters for the third to avoid getting anyone else hurt before the Knockout Stage began. Result? They looked tentative and rusty, and their opponents, who all had to must-win third games in the Group Stage, looked sharper and played better.

This same sort of thing seems to happen to the Indianapolis Colts every year, doesn’t it? Most of the time, they clinch the AFC South with a few games to spare, and what does Tony Dungy do? He rests his players to avoid getting any of them injured. Every time he does that, the Colts get bounced out of the playoffs early.

Remember what happened the year the Colts won Super Bowl XLI? Dungy couldn’t rest his players. The Colts had to scrape and claw for playoff position right up until the end of the season, and they didn’t get a bye week in the playoffs, so they had to play right on through. They didn’t lose their edge, and they pushed through until they won it all.

I get that coaches don’t want their players to get hurt, but you know what? Injuries happen in football, and you can’t be scared of them. What’s worse: the risk losing a player to injury in a meaningless game, or the risk of losing your edge because all your players had a game off and bombing out early? This seems even more crucial in a competition as compressed as EURO 2008, which only lasts for a month. Are you telling me that these guys are so out of shape that they can’t play a full six games in 22 days?

So the next time anyone argues for resting players before a knockout stage, point them to the Indianapolis Colts. They’re as good a sign post as anyone here.

Comedian George Carlin passed away on Sunday, and the world suddenly seems less funny because of it. Nevertheless, we still have his comedic legacy to make us smile, including this classic skit explaining the differences between American football and baseball.

Here’s hoping we always have a place for his stuff.

(Spotted on FanHouse)