Union: Doop?

The Philadelphia Union, the team that brings us Bimbo this season, is now advertising doop, described in Jeff Gamage's article in yesterday's Inquirer as an "undefinable word." Gamage called the team's ad campaign promoting doop "high risk high reward." The guess here is that it will be high reward - the Union in its short history has been getting it right when it comes to marketing and promotions. But time will tell.

Trip Down Memory Lane - #8: Beating the State Champs at JAGS in 1998

Our two year reign as state champs, at U15 and U16, had come to an end earlier in the spring of 1998 when we lost an overtime decision to arch rival Cherry Hill Rockets in the first round. (Payback is tough – two years earlier, at U15 - we had beaten the Rockets, former state champions, 3-0 in the first round of the Cup.) JAGS was all we had left to play for this year.

The tournament was at Rider College and I can’t remember who we played and haven’t had time to look it up. We made it through to the final and drew the Wyckoff Torpedoes, who had just a few weeks earlier won the U17 State Cup and were headed to regionals.

Don’t recall much about the game except that it was on one of the back fields at Rider and Lauren Calone, who went on to play at Georgetown, scored our only goal and we held on for a 1-0 win. That night I received an e-mail from Renee Engelhardt, mother of Torpedoes star, Erin Engelhardt (who later played at UVA) congratulating us and saying if Wyckoff had to lose, she was glad it was to us.

NY Times Jinx?

We've all heard of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx - where an athlete or team is celebrated on the cover of the nation's top sports magazine only to see its streak broken, drop our of place, lose its next 10 games or otherwise end whatever was the cause of being on the cover.

Is it possible the New York Times can also jinx teams? Two days after the Times (and Coach P's Soccer Blog) wrote of Manchester United's 24-game Premier League unbeaten streak (15-0-9), the Reds dropped a 2-1 decision to 19th place Wolverhampton. Manchester had problems before the match started when Rio was injured during warm-ups. But they took an early lead on a goal in the 3rd minute only to see the Wolves equalize seven minutes later then collect the game-winner in the 39th minute.

Perhaps if the Times had not played up the streak Man United would have found a way to at least earn a draw. But maybe it's not the Times. Could there be a Coach P's Soccer Blog jinx?

2nd best sports blog on the web

OK, I may be a bit biased, but I happen to think my son Scott, among his many other talents, is a great writer. See, for example, his blog about a cross country trip in 2007. So I was happy to learn he has started a new blog on running. (If you have to ask what running has to do with soccer, you probably aren't reading a soccer blog anyway.)

It has a clever name: "I Thought They Said Rum" and starts off on January 31, 2011 with an account of Scott's fantastic run in the Philadelphia Marathon when he registered a 3:09:44, good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. As one who has run seven marathons, I am impressed with anyone who can cover 26.2 miles in any time. As one whose best time in those seven was 3:50 something, running the distance in the time Scott did amazes me. If you think it's easy, try running a mile in 7:15, then doing it 25 more times, and still having to run the length of three soccer fields to finish.

The photo with this post says it all -- the joy of not only finishing a marathon, but of Scott knowing he reached a goal that took months of training, sacrifice and discipline. (If the clock has been in the picture it would have been misleading as a runner's official time is the "chip time" measured from when he crosses the starting line - which may be a minute or more after the gun goes off and the elite runners head out.)

So anyway, after you read Coach P's blog, check out Scott's running blog. And well-done, Scott!

Glory, Glory Man United

In 120 years, only two teams have gone through the English Football League's regular season without a loss. This season, the storied Manchester United side seeks to become #3 to accomplish the feat.

Jere Longman's story in today's New York Times, describes Manchester's efforts and its loyal worldwide fan base. According to Forbes Magazine, at $1.84 billion, the Manchester United franchise is more valuable than the new York Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys.

With 14 games to play, the Red Devils are 15-0-9. If they pull off an undefeated league season, you'll be hearing team song, Glory, Glory Man United alot more.