SQJ Taipei

Le Tour

I first blogged HERE about the Tour de France.

CONGRATS to American Floyd Landis who is currently wearing the yellow jersey… worn by the leader of the Tour. They are through 12 of 20 stages and there are several people who could win it all. I’ll pick Landis or Denis Menchov (RUS) to win it.

CONGRATS also to Yaroslav Popovych and the Discovery team (who have had a terrible tour) for the stage 12 win. Nice job.

Here’s how I’ve ended up following the race.

The Official Site is as I reported… clunky but useful. I’m used to the interface since they haven’t ever changed it (seemingly) so its good for me.

Eurosport has nice coverage. It is fun to read the European perspective. I get the live race audio from Eurosport at this link –> Eurosport AUDIO link

ESPN’s tracker (at the TDF page here) is interactive and fun and information packed… but always seems behind.

I forgot to mention this blog in the other post… but it is a great way to follow “le Tour” as well. The writer is well informed about cycling and writes in a way that brings the subtle issues in the tour to light. Nice blog.

USA Soccer

Sure… the World Cup was a disappointment… but I’m not really sure what we learned about the team. We were down 9 guys v. 10 against the Italians (who won it all) and tied them and actually almost won that game.

I like Bruce Arena… a lot. I’ve never seen a major sports team… full of superstars… that had less finger pointing and blaming. Under his leadership, the US team is at least respectable… and were truly a team. I don’t understand some of his decisions (the lineup v. Czech Rep for one) but he’s obviously as close to a soccer genius as the USA has.

Anyway… he’s done… according to this report at ESPNSoccernet.

I’m not surprised… and it will give the USA a chance to land a coach who might be able to take US soccer to the next level.

Coaching speculation HERE. I’m hoping that former German star and coach (whose family lives in Cali), Jürgen Klinsmann… will open up to the idea… but he quit Germany because he was “burned out” so that is a long long long shot I guess. However… I’d think the US squad would be a great opportunity for him (or anyone) as they are loaded with young talent and will be “hungry” after under performing in this WC2006. We can hope, right?