RSL Road Trip 2010

For the last regular season match this year I was able to make the trip to Denver to see our RSL boys play the Rapids. It has been awesome being a season ticket holder this year and I've already renewed for next year. RSL are looking to be the favorites going into the playoffs, so it's getting super exiciting.

I rode to Denver with the same crew I traveled with to Seattle last year for the MLS cup final. Like usual we had some pretty good times.

Why Americans Should Be Soccer Fans

I'll have to admit that by the looks of how our group stage was going this World Cup I was a bit worried that the game would lose much of the traction it had gained in the U.S. over the last few years. The draw against England and the two wrongly disallowed goals that each would have easily put us through to the knockout stages I feared would have turned off many casual American fans once again to finally taking this game seriously. The casual American sports fan doesn't like to watch a game that ends in a tie, and definitely cannot tolerate a sport that can be so obviously unfairly officiated. Instead though, we got a miraculous result that will likely keep those casual fans hanging in there, so they will hopefully really see what this game is all about.

For some reason soccer is still hated among many American sports fans. They criticize the lack of scoring, the draws, the foul faking and the faulty refereeing. Some of these may be very valid arguments, but I would say the real reason Americans can't embrace the sport is because we've never been the best at it. In soccer, Americans have never been dominant on the world's stage, so they hate the sport, but I'm going to say that's the exact reason we should love it.

America was built on a foundation of facing great challenges head on and overcoming the odds. The pilgrims faced religious persecution so they sailed off to an unknown land. Our founding fathers wanted independence so they went to war against the British. It was Americans who first mass-produced steel, built an intercontinental railroad and were the first to land on the moon. Over the two hundred years of our existence we have come out to be the strongest military power, have the richest economy and in many sports, produce the best athletes. It is only in the world's most popular game that our nation fails to compete well on the world's stage.

Soccer is America's final frontier as the underdog. This is the very reason why we should love it. To face the odds and compete to overcome them is a very essential part of the American spirit. With the U.S. team advancing to the knockout stages, we now have a chance to challenge the world's expectations of us as a soccer power. What better opportunity do we have as Americans to come out on top as the underdogs?

To turn away from a sport because we suck at it is traditionally very un-American. The fact that so many Americans do this with soccer suggests in some respects a decline in American values. Could you imagine if Rocky would have had this attitude and refused to face Ivan Drago?

The U.S. has a men's national team that truly embodies the American spirit. They have shown game in and game out that they never give up and they never stop believing. In the wake of their miraculous win against Algeria, Landon Donovan said,

"This team embodies what the American spirit is about. We had a goal disallowed the other night. We had another good goal disallowed tonight. But we just keep going. And I think that's what people admire so much about Americans. And I'm damn proud."

So to all you American sports fans casually looking on to this world cup snickering about players rolling around on the ground and getting their dose of magic spray; I don't ask that you buy season tickets to your local MLS team or buy a jersey of some obscure player in Europe. I only ask that you take the world's game a little more seriously and get behind our American boys!

soccer players more creative than basketball players?

I have to follow up on my last post by saying yes, I know my logic was a bit ridiculous. You can easily turn it around in either direction depending on your point of view. The point I wanted to make though is that more scoring doesn't necessarily mean more exciting.

It's silly to try explain why one sport is better than the other, because people like what they like and that's the end of it. However, it is fun to express a personal point of view and why you like what you like.

That being said, I want to expand on my last post a bit. I made the point that I didn't see excitement in the sport of basketball because of a perceived lack of variety in scoring methods. Though I still think soccer definitely has better variety when it comes to scoring, I think the core reason for my preference is the amount of creativity that comes through in the game.

I like a sport where players are pushed to exhibit a great deal of genius and unpredictability. It's for this reason that I love soccer. It's amazing to see the thousands of different ways they come up with for putting a simple round ball in the back of a net. The level of creativity I see in basketball just doesn't even come close to soccer in this respect.

Both sports use creativity primarily for the same thing—to create scoring opportunities. In both sports it takes creative passing, fakes and dribbling to open up a shot. Then it's up to skill of execution to actually score. Creativity used in any other aspects of the game I would assume to be equal. This would include defensive tactics, overall game tactics and training methods. If you can think of inequalities in these areas or any others, please comment. As for this argument, however, it is assumed that creation of scoring opportunities is the primary objective for being creative in either sport.

I believe also that the demand for creativity in either sport correlates directly to how difficult it is to create these scoring opportunities. The harder it is to get open shots, the more creative the players have to be to get them.

I think anyone could agree it's far more difficult to get scoring opportunities in soccer than it is in basketball. Just look at the scores. Let's face it. It's not hard to get an open shot in basketball. There's usually just one guy to worry about blocking your shot and then it all comes down to how accurate you are. In soccer you have to worry about the one guy covering you, plus the goalkeeper, plus whoever else is in between you and the goal. Not to mention, the size of the playing field is much larger and you have more defenders and an offsides trap to worry about.

Therefore, based on the assumptions that—a) creativity in either sport is used primarily to create scoring opportunities; b) demand for creativity correlates directly with the difficulty of creating scoring opportunities; and c) creating scoring opportunities is more difficult in soccer than it is in basketball;—it is safe to conclude that soccer demands more creativity than basketball. In my mind this is what makes it far more exciting.

I don't mean to say that I hate basketball though. I still love watching big games in the playoffs and I get what people love about it. Everyone has their own reasons for liking what they like and it's all good.

If you have good points to add, please comment.

why i'm not really into basketball

So I'm watching the Jazz in the playoffs right now and I have to be honest that I just can't get into basketball. To me it just isn't fun to watch.

Now I've heard time and time again what basketball fans say about soccer—that there just isn't enough scoring. Basketball fans need a constant I.V. of scoring. They love the multiple lead changes and the buzzer beaters—I get it. But there's something about basketball that bores the heck out of me and I'll try to explain it.

There's a lot of scoring in basketball, but is it really exciting? How many different ways are there to score in basketball? I can only name about five; or six if you count hook shots. (The game would definitely be more interesting if you saw more of those these days.) If you think about it though, there really are only about five ways to score in basketball. You can shoot a jump shot, a three pointer, lay it up, dunk it, or shoot a free throw. That's it. And when you see these over and over in the same game, how exciting is it really?

In soccer there are hundreds of ways to score. You can shoot it from outside or you can try to walk it in. You can drill it into the near corner or bend it into the far post. You can cross it in high for a header or low for a deflection . You can score on a diving header or one up in the air. You can score on a free kick by bending it over the wall or by drilling it underneath. You can get a goal off a breakaway or work it in through a bunkered in defense. There are bicycle kicks, half volleys and full volleys. The list seriously goes on and on.

It takes a lot of creativity to put the ball in the back of the net in soccer. It's something that attracts me to the game and it's something I just don't see in basketball.

i think i'll take cancer

I've been freelance designing for a good 5 months now and I've really been enjoying it. It's nice being able to be home all day and work on various projects. It's nice getting out of bed whenever I feel like it. I also like being able to make real meals for lunch. Oh and did I forget to mention I'll be watching a Champions League match around noon today?

It also comes with its challenges though. Sometimes it's tough to keep the work flowing steadily. That's when I just end up working on my own personal stuff and learning new skills. I'm also still trying to figure out how I'll handle tax season next year and whether I'll be able to ever afford health insurance.

There's one big challenge I've found with design work in particular though. It's one thing that all designers are familiar with and is probably the toughest thing we face. The challenge is that our work tends to always go under judgment of people who know nothing about design. If you think about other creative arts or even other professions, you'll realize they have it much easier than we do in this regard. When a dancer enters a dance contest he is often judged by dance experts. Actors audition in front of people who know about acting. Singers are judged by voice experts. In most creative arts, your work is generally judged by people who know something about what to look for.

Graphic designers face the challenge of trying to impress people who really don't know what to look for in professional design, but often think they do anyway. I came to particular realization of this when I gave crowdsourcing a shot a few weeks ago.

Crowdsourcing is an internet business model where anyone can post design contests in which anyone can post entries in the hopes of winning the predetermined cash prize. The prize is often lower than the cost of hiring a designer to do the job and the result is often that they get hundreds of options to choose from for a really low price.

I've always kind of been against crowdsourcing because I think it really cheapens the profession, but I decided to give it a shot because I knew I could produce much better logos than a lot of the crap that was on there. The result, however, was not that my superior design skills beat out the competition, but that my highly conceptual and original logos were often turned down for logos that were really generic and had really no concept.

Designers will often submit 3 or so logo designs to a client to choose from even though they know which one is definitely the strongest. More often then not though, a client will choose one of the other designs for whatever personal preference reasons they have.

I think this is a challenge pretty unique to designers. Could you imagine if you went to the doctor, asked for 3 diagnoses and chose the one you thought was the most logical? You wouldn't be allowing the doctor to really do his job. In the same way, clients often disallow designers to really apply their expertise, which is really what they are paying them for.

Well, I thought this would be interesting to point out. Are there any designers out there who could give some insight to this and how to deal with it?

gentlemen broncos

Warning: May contain spoilers.

Last night I finally saw Jared Hess's third film Gentlemen Broncos and I absolutely loved it. It's a story of a Benjamin Purvis, a quiet and awkward homeschooled teen from rural Utah. He's an aspiring science fiction author who goes to writers' conference only to have his work stolen by his favorite author.

I was shocked though to see how badly all the hollywood critics hated this movie. Yeah, it probably could have done without some of the snake diarrhea, puke kisses, and steaming piles of crap, but I just don't get the lack of appreciation this film gets. It only scored 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here are some of the critics' comments:

"A tedious and unfocused concoction involving science fiction, plagiarism and the nightgown industry."—Colin Covert

"You can't root for [the characters] while laughing at the work they hold dear -- it just doesn't go both ways."—Jeffrey Chen

"Jared Hess, who made Napoleon Dynamite, a film I admit I didn't get, has made a film I don't even begin to get."—Roger Ebert

"Excruciating...its awfulness is so profound that it actually takes on a perverse fascination."—Frank Swietek

That's just a few of many negative reviews of the film. I just don't get it. I loved the film. Maybe you have to also be a mormon kid from a small town in the western US to understand the humor in Hess's work, but that's what I am and I love his movies.

Ever since I saw his first film Peluca in my BYU film class, I have been a huge fan of Jared Hess. I love how he captures the humor of what it's like to be an outsider in a small world of outsiders. Napoleon was an unpopular teen in a small town high school. Nacho was an outcast monk in a monastery. Now Benj Purvis is a backwards homeschool kid attending a writers conference with a bunch of other nerdy kids.

I loved how the film used creativity as it's theme. You see a boy who seems to have no personality, but when you see the depiction of his novel, a whole bizarre world is revealed. I also loved his interaction with his mother, also a struggling creative, who designs night gowns and makes popcorn balls. Seriously, how can you not find humor in that? An though they don't necessarily understand each other's creative pursuits, they are both support each other, which presents a strong message about what it means to be a family.

I also liked the theme presented in what it's like to be a creative seeing your work being bastardized and plagiarized. On one side he is talked into selling his book to a "film maker" with no talent while on the other side his story is stolen by his idol where his heroic character is replaced by much more effeminate version.

I really hate to see people reject Hess's work because it doesn't fit the mold of what you expect from a hollywood film. It's refreshing to me to see a film driven by a person's own experiences rather than box office expectations. It's also refreshing to see an independent film not littered with themes homosexuality.

I really hope Jared Hess continues to make films.

What did you think of Gentlemen Broncos?

Here I leave you with the fantastic theme music of the film, Zager & Evans' In The Year 2525

my thoughts on last night's match

norm's soccer blog