My eyes hurt...

from two straight days of playing Mario Kart. I feel worthless, but I can't stop it. It's too much fun. Especially playing online with friends (one of which lucked out and beat me tonight but I will avenge that loss). If anyone reading this wants to challenge me, let me know your Mario Kart license ID number and I will accept the challenge. Stephen King and Peter Lowry made that mistake tonight and paid for it dearly. I hope it doesn't affect their confidence at training tomorrow.

I did take a break today to catch the Man U/Barcelona game this afternoon. Great goal by Scholes which put Manchester through to the UEFA Champion's League final against the winner of tomorrow's game between Liverpool and Chelsea. It will be a hard decision whether to watch the game or rev up the "standard kart L" with Donkey Kong and throw some shells...

highlights from rapids game

Thanks to Justin, we have highlights from the game on Saturday...

Highlights

Meet the Team

Last night we had our annual "meet the team" event. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sell any flat screens. Our front office made it a very fun event nonetheless. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I got my hands on the the video game, Guitar Hero, for the first time and I was humiliated by fans of all ages. Thankfully, our goalie coach Daryl Shore, came over and boosted my confidence in my last attempt to play. I think I won the award for most active while playing though... so active I kept over-hearing people from behind questioning, "I thought they said his ankle was hurt. It looks alright to me...".

By the end of the night, I was walking out of the empty store with the new Mario Kart Nintendo Wii game and 3 extra wheels, which kept me and my roommate up late last night. Don't worry - today is an off-day, which can only mean one thing. More time on the couch tapping back into my teenage years! I've done a great job of keeping my roommate home from his job today, too. We all know that Mario Kart is more fun with a friend...

I'll be on my couch if you need me. And to all of you who beat me in video games last night, I will be practicing and I will be back (Joey, Jimmy, Anna, Mark, etc. etc.)!

Thanks for the pictures Julie

Rapids

We grabbed three important points Saturday night at Toyota Park with the help of two impressive goals from John Thorrington. There aren't any highlights on the website because the game was broadcast in high definition, so I'll try my best to describe them to you from my memory. The first one - well I have no idea how the first one happened. But I know the ball was in the air and John was approaching it from the center of the field about 20 yards out and his volley hit the upper far post and went in. The second was off a great assist by Justin Mapp who crossed the ball on the ground to John at the far post where he took a touch and placed the ball in the upper corner again. Colorado pulled a goal back late on a free kick, but that was it.

A lot of you were asking about my status in that game. I was available as a substitute, but I wasn't needed because of the way the game was going. We did sub in Stephen King, Wilman Conde and Calen Carr who did a good job conserving the win.

Tyler Kettering

After the decision of Dominic Cervi to try his chances elsewhere, we have been looking for a third goalie. Well, the search is over. We've signed goalie Tyler Kettering (great last name) who played last year with the Wilmington Hammerheads of the USL. He's actually from the Dayton area, like myself, and played his college ball in North Carolina at Gardner-Webb where he set a few records. Apparently, he's the first player from Gardner-Webb to sign an MLS contract. That now makes four Ohio-ans on the team: Dasan Robinson, Kai Kasiguran, Tyler and myself.

Colorado Game preview

My first week of practice since the beginning of the month is over and I'm... sore. But it's great to be back out there. It was celebrated (of course that deserves a celebration) by a late lunch with goalies Nick Noble and Jon Busch. Unfortunately, I still had to pay. Well I guess that's not too bad. At least I'm getting paid. I mean how can you expect someone who hasn't gotten a paycheck all year from Major League Soccer to buy lunch? I think his per diem from our trip to Mexico ran out a few weeks ago.

Next up is our game against the Colorado Rapids tomorrow night at Toyota Park at 7:30. If you can't make it to the stadium, the game is also being televised nationally on HDNet. If the atmosphere created by our fans is anything like last Sunday, I'd urge you to get tickets to this game.

Colorado is currently in 2nd place in the Western Conference after playing five games and coming away with six points. We know a little about their team from pre-season when we played them in Mississippi a week before the season started.

This Sunday we have our annual "meet the team" gathering. It will be held at a Best Buy store. So if any of you want to come browse the dvd section with me or sit in the 'surround sound' room and watch a movie, this is your chance! I may just try to sell an HD tv or two and hope for commission on the sale to recoup some of the money that MLS is taking back from my paychecks.

The Makeover

As you have already seen, the website has been updated. There are some new features, updated videos, new pictures and new articles, so be sure to look around if you haven't yet. Give us some feedback on the ease of navigation, any problems you come across (let's be serious, my web designer is pretty flawless), and anything you'd like to see added or implemented.

For those of you who have been looking for an update on the soccer side of things, here's your tiny section.

The 17,000 of you at the game on Sunday saw how many great chances to score we created and how few we showed to Kansas City. If you only caught the highlights on MLSnet, then you didn't see the whole story. I watched the game with my parents from the stands and I appreciate all of you who came up and said nice and encouraging things to me. I wasn't on the roster for this game because of an ankle sprain that happened at the end of the New England game. No, it's not the same ankle as last year. No, it's not as bad as last year's debacle. Yes, I plan on returning to play soon. No, I am not made of glass or porcelain or any other fragile material. Yes, I set the record for all the pop-a-shot games at Slugger's last night after the Cub's game.

We have two guys on trial right now. One is a left-footed player from Moldova (Jared Montz had a great joke about this that I really want to put in here, but just can't) and one is a right-footed defender from Paraguay. I'll see more of them as I progress back into practice sometime this week.

The mood of the team is very good. We're 2-1-1 with a home game coming up this Saturday, which we are already excited about.

Happy Earth Day

Today marks the 39th official Earth Day celebrated across the world, which was created by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in hopes of creating awareness for the deteriorating environment. Although we have done a good job of taking steps toward a sustainable environment with the help of alternative sources of energy, natural agricultural techniques, more efficient products and use of recycling programs, there's still a lot work that we can all do to help.

Whether you believe that global warming is truth or fiction or if you are uncertain of its cause, the environment is being affected by our throw-away society. Take a second to think about how much trash you produce in a single day, especially if you don't participate in recycling. Take that small pile and multiply it by 303,000,000, the number of people in the U.S. today. It's tough, but try to imagine how much trash we all produce in a single day. Now take into account the amount of energy you use on a daily basis: this includes air conditioning/heat, gas, electricity (anything plugged into an outlet is drawing wattage unless the outlet is turned off), and the energy used to create the products you consume. This continually pollutes our air, ground and water and has already drastically affected many ecosystems.

I wasn't aware of the impact that I was personally having on the environment growing up, but now I realize how much waste I've already contributed to landfills and the pollution I've produced and it's not cool. Some guys on the team and myself have been more responsible in the way we go about our daily lives. For example, we recycle when possible, we try not to drink bottled water (most tap water is safe to drink, but if you don't believe that it is, you can buy a rather inexpensive water filtration system), we don't 'red-line' our cars when driving, we use public transportation, walk or ride bikes when possible, we use more efficient CFL bulbs at home and we use linen bags for shopping instead of plastic bags. There are numerous, little things that you can do to help the environment just like we have done here, and most of it will save you money either initially or over the long-run.

If you want to start recycling, but don't know where to do so, check out this website for a recycling center near you. I think we all can do a little better in this area. And if that wasn't compelling enough for some of you guys... girls really like guys who care about the environment!

Well, we're headed back to the airport again tomorrow, but this time it's not to play the u17 National Team, to eat unknown meat in Mexico, nor to play the University of Mobile all-decade team. Believe it or not, the season is starting. Saturday afternoon at 4:00, we'll be kicking off the season at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The forecast says it should be in the mid 40's with most of the precipitation coming down in the morning hours. That should feel warm for us after training in Chicago today. For those of you not in the area, it was in the low 30's with rain and sleet when we started training, which turned to snowflakes the size of Brian Plotkin's head. It was as if someone was throwing snowballs at us from up above. But because we're all so tough on this team, we continued to train. Well I guess I would've gone inside if I could've, but I don't think Denis would've appreciated that.

It's a great weekend for all you Fire fans as the season is about to begin. And it's another lonely weekend for all of the family members of the players. After being teased by having us home for a couple days, we're being drug away again... don't worry the off-season is only 8 months away.

Congrats to our national team for beating Poland 3-0 yesterday in Poland. And a late congrats to Chad Barrett and our under 23 US National Team for qualifying for the Olympics in Beijing.

A pre-season day in the life of

The team got into Jackson, MS yesterday morning for our last pre-season trip of 2008. It's a good feeling to get this trip started not only because soon we'll be able to spend more time in our homes in Chicago, but also that it means we're closing in on opening day. On top of that, the people of Jackson are always extremely hospitable, which makes this week more enjoyable.

So I've gone over my schedule for a normal day during the season, but I've had some interest shown on the normal day during pre-season. I figured today would be a good day to do one...

6:30am - Hotel clock alarm goes off (Apparently the previous guest needed to be up early)
6:45am - Hotel clock alarm goes off again (Must have hit snooze the first time)
7:00am - Hotel clock alarm goes off again (Must have hit snooze again...) This time I make sure to turn the alarm off
7:10am - Cell phone alarm goes off
7:15am - Cell phone alarm goes off again (Yep - hit snooze the first time)
7:20am - Roll out of bed and throw on some shorts and a shirt and head down for team breakfast in the hotel restaurant
7:22am - Get back in the elevator and go up to the room to get my breakfast coupon that I forgot so I can eat
8:00am - Finish breakfast (Omelette, yogurt, fruit, oj and a glass of water) and go back upstairs
8:10am - Get our practice gear for the first training session and get heels taped in the training room
8:30am - Back in the room reading the USA today and attempting to get a few words in the crossword puzzle
8:45am - Change into practice gear, tape toes and get everything ready for practice
8:50am - Go downstairs to drive to training
9:00am - Leave hotel for training field
9:15am - Arrive at field and start warming up
11:15am - Practice concludes and we head back to the hotel
11:30am - Arrive at hotel, go upstairs to get cleaned up and ready for lunch
11:40am - Return gear to Charles, the best equipment manager in the league
12:00pm - Meet up with other guys in the hall and decide where to go for lunch
12:15pm - Walk a few blocks to a sandwich shop
1:15pm - Walk back from lunch to hotel
1:30pm - Back in bed (hotels don't give you many other options for relaxing) to watch some tv, read and check email - that usually leads to a nap, but being the 2nd day of the trip, I may tough it out today and stay awake
2:00pm - Write blog...
2:15 - Watch some tv and catch up on the NCAA basketball tournament - doing very well to stay awake
2:45 - Realizing just how tough I am by not napping
3:00 - Asleep...
3:30 - Phone alarm goes off, get up and rush to get taped for practice
3:45 - Continue to get ready for practice in the room
3:50 - Downstairs to catch a van to practice
4:00 - Leave for practice
4:15 - Arrive at the field and play 5 v 2 before training starts
7:00 - Leave field after practice and head back to the hotel
7:15 - Arrive at hotel, clean up and return gear to the equipment room
7:30 - Downstairs for dinner in the hotel restaurant
8:30 - Done with dinner and back upstairs to check and see if I am getting a massage tonight - I'm not
9:00 - Hang out with a few teammates
10:00 - Exhausted and in bed and finally done with this ridiculous blog entry

So there's a day in the life of a pro soccer player during pre-season. Most days are very similar to that, although I/we attempt to make them different depending on the opportunities we have.

...and let's cancel pre-season

I wish you all could have seen this field we're supposed to play on tomorrow night. Unfortunately, I didn't have my video camera. It's on a baseball diamond, for starters. The ground in the "outfield" is uneven and the grass is worse quality than the grass in a pasture. The infield of the baseball diamond takes up the whole right half of one half of the field. The infield is covered with little strips of what felt like fake grass you'd put on your patio, and it was painted a bluish - green. It was so bumpy that even if I looked down and ran, I'd still stumble. So I doubt we're going to play tomorrow night against San Luis, but only time will tell. As soon as I find out what our plans are, I will try to update.