Michael Drew
Michael Drew is a Wisconsinite currently residing in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He enjoys thinking and writing about politics, history, and philosophy, listening to music and podcasts of all kinds, watching and occasionally playing sports, and playing the cello.
Thanks to your generosity, we were able to upgrade our service plan. Hopefully this will help us address some of our performance issues.
Devcat is done with rearranging local software extensions. If anyone notices any problems, say so :^)
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025Yeah, "I think what happens in a lot of places is they assume a ‘create the culture’ kind of functio…
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025Hamas has released a statement! The Qassam Brigades and the resistance were keen to respect the sanc… on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025The stuff that I think about mass transit in NYC involves "undocumented visitors setting women on fi… on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025You can't judge whether or not you're a racist oppressor based on whether some of your critics calli…
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025I wish it was that easy. on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025A good HR department can have useful compliance and administrative functions (think benefit manageme… on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025Based upon my experience, most "HR types" aren't that smart enough to come up with that scheme. In o…
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025I’m not sure it’s going to work. For one thing, who is the target audience? It wasn’t the people who… on From Vox: How Democrats should respond to Trump’s war on DEIIf you don’t care, why defend it? I didn't defend it. I defended my use of the term 'localization' t… on From Vox: How Democrats should respond to Trump’s war on DEIFrom what I understand with LatinX, the *NEW* term is offensive. Like, People of Spanish Descent see…
February 20, 2025
You know what they say about haircuts: They grow on you.
February 19, 2025
Movie of a Man who has Been Out the Night Before
February 18, 2025
Buy land, they’re not making it anymore
February 17, 2025
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Series! Recap of World Series of the 1920s
on Musk vs Gore on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025 on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025
on Series! Recap of World Series of the 1920s on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025
on Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025
…I take it back. Hat tricks are cool. I thought Jozy had all four.
Still!
(!)Report
I can’t wait to get home and watch this on DVR. Usually I try to avoid reading about games that happen when I’m not home, but for whatever reason I made an exception today and checked in on the game every once in awhile. I’m kind of kicking myself right now for that.
Still, watching Jozy reach his potential over the last year, and especially the last few months, has been nothing short of amazing.
What is this, 12 straight wins now? And this one was probably the toughest – on the road against a top 15 team that’s playing at full strength (or close enough) without two of our top 3 attackers, and without our top central defender and top left back.
Meanwhile, MLS is thriving and has an absurd number of millionaires lining up for expansion franchises.
I think this game might finally stick in the US.
Also, too: this is now officially the most regrettable post of my blogging career:
https://ordinary-times.com/blog/2011/07/29/the-good-german
Crow tastes good.Report
Yeah, this is a good time to be a soccer fan in the U.S. (plus, soccer-playing robots!).
Here’s hoping for a good WC group draw.Report
Sorry if I spoiled it for you!
Pretty crazy what they’re doing. I was ready to say, ‘Eh, they haven’t really played anyone’ when they went down 0-2. They weren’t going to be satisfied with that, though, apparently.
I was totally a Klinsmann spetic myself – he didn’t seem to have a sense of what he was getting into to me, in terms of creating and sustaining interest in the U.S. and in terms of keeping a team motivated who have to face being not one of the great powers in the game despite the status of the country they represent in the world. But that was based purely on judging his affect. (And probably stereotype – ‘clinical German’ style not meshing with all-effort U.S.’ native style.) Turns out he knew exactly what his task was. & how to do it (and turns out he had some talent to supplement the effort with, too).Report
Don’t worry- as I said, I had been checking in on the score periodically.
On Klinsi, I couldn’t agree more. For me at least, one of the things I underestimated- and shouldn’t have- was that he is by no means a coach that fits the German stereotype, and that in many ways his style actually fits the American individualist psyche quite well even as it is almost antithetical to the philosophy that has dominated the way the game has historically been coached in the US.Report
That must have been a fun game, with the USMNT down 2 at halftime and winning 4-3, with B-H scoring their 3rd in the 90th minute.Report
Damn – I just took a look at the stats for the game. The shots on goal and shots attempted were the same for each side – a fairly high 12(6). I can’t think of a game where the US had stats like that against a quality non-Concacaf opponent, much less one where those stats actually matched the opponent’s. But even more impressive are the possession stats: 60/40 in the US’ favor. Possession stats can be overrated obviously, but playing against an attack-minded team like Bosnia, to dominate possession like that just shows how much the team’s mentality has changed now that they’ve bought into Klinsmann’s style.Report
I’ve not seen the game yet, either, but it’s a super-exciting result. It’s easy to get excited about the possibilities next year for the USMNT.Report
Funny thing about that is, Klinsmann announced that his team would not have majority of possession in the match: “‘We won’t have majority of possession. We will have to show everything we have to compete eye to eye. We want to challenge them. We want to come in and say: “Hey, we want to give you a game and, possibly, we want to beat you,”‘ he said with a quick chuckle.”
A little misdirection, perhaps? [/Dr. Evil pinky-at-corner-of-mouth]Report