Our Foreigners Are Better Than Your Foreigners

Last night, the U.S. team played Ghana in their first game of the 2014 World Cup, at Arena das Nunas in Natal, Brazil. After Clint Dempsey scored 30 seconds into the game, the U.S. held the lead until the 82nd minute, when Ghana finally equalized. But in the 86th minute, John Anthony Brooks (he goes by all 3 names), a defender, headed in a corner kick to win it.

Someone made the point that Brooks, who plays centreback for German side Hertha Berlin, was born in Berlin. Another defender, Timothy Chandler, also plays for the Bundesliga club in the city in which he was born: Eintracht Frankfurt. Still another defender, Fabian Johnson, was born in Munich, and plays for German club Hoffenheim.

All 3 are the sons of German mothers and American fathers, men stationed in Germany, as a result of our winning World War II and needing to fight the Cold War (though they were born at the tail end of that).

This does not include midfielder Julian Green, whose American serviceman father and German mother moved to the U.S. before he was born, and so he was born in Tampa. Though he played for German youth teams and is signed to Germany's most decorated club, Bayern Munich, he chose to play for America -- probably because Germany's team is too good for him to make it, at age 19.

Then there's midfielder Mikkel "Mix" Diskerud, son of an American mother and a Norwegian father, born and raised in Norway, and plays for Norwegian side Rosenborg.

This is to say nothing of the Hispanic immigrants, or the sons thereof, who have played for the USMNT (United States Men's National Team) and gotten it into every World Cup since 1990. The current contingent includes defender Omar Gonzalez (born in Dallas to Mexican immigrants) and midfielder Alejandro Bedoya (born in Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey to Colombians). While not Hispanic, Aaron Johansson was born in Mobile, Alabama to immigrants from Iceland.

And then there's Gedion Zelalem. Born in Germany to Ethiopian parents, after his mother died he moved with his father to America, to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He now plays for Arsenal, thankfully, and recently made his first-team debut, against Coventry City in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, despite having just turned 17. But he hasn't decided who to play for internationally: Germany, Ethiopia, or America. Having not played at the senior level for any, he is eligible to play for any of the 3 -- but only for 1 of the 3.

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So, what's the deal? We can't find enough Americans? No, we can find enough Americans. Whether they're "American" enough for you is beside the point: We're not breaking the rules, we're using the rules.

So is everyone else. Well, not quite everyone else. But most of the teams. Here are the other countries playing in this World Cup, in alphabetical order, with their foreign-born players:

* Algeria: Only 7 players were born at home, the other 16 in France: Cedric Si Mohamed, Madjid Bougherra, Faouzi Goulam, Nabil Ghilas, Sofiane Feghouli, Yacine Brahimi, Medhi Lacen, Carl Medjani, Nabil Bentaleb, Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaïba, Hassan Yebda, Saphir Taïder, Aïssa Mandi, Riyad Mahrez, Mehdi Mostefa and Raïs M’Bohli.

In 2010, 17 of their 23 were born in France. This is a by-product of the 1954-62 Algerian War of Independence from France. While many men born in one of France's former African colonies have played for France -- most notably, Senegal-born Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira -- with Algerians, it has usually been the other way, with the most notable exception being Zinedine Zidane.

Former Arsenal star Samir Nasri was also born in France of Algerian descent, but chose to play for France -- until current manager Didier Deschamps, himself a sensational France player once, dropped him from this year's squad.

* Argentina: Gonzalo Higuaín (France).

* Australia: Dario Vidošić (Croatia) and Nikita Rukavytsya (Ukraine). Vidošić is 1 of 7 players on their roster having names suggesting ancestry from the former Yugoslavia. Despite this, and despite liking to claim (like America) that they are a nation of immigrants, the other 21 players on the team were all born in Australia.

* Belgium: Anthony Vanden Borre (Congo, formerly Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo).

* Bosnia and Herzegovina: Emir Spahić (Croatia); Zvjezdan Misimović, Sead Kolašinac and Muhamed Bešić (Germany). Considering the piece-by-piece breakup of Yugoslavia, the fact that a Croatian-born player is playing for Bosnia is hardly a surprise.

* Brazil (hosts): No foreign-born players.

* Cameroon: Benoît Assou-Ekotto, Charles Itandje and Allan Nyom (France); Maxim Choupo-Moting and Joel Matip (Germany).

* Chile: Jorge Valdivia (Venezuela), Mark González (South Africa), Matías Fernández (Argentina).

* Colombia: No foreign-born players.

* Costa Rica: Oscar Duarte (Nicaragua).

* Côte d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast: Sol Bamba, Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro and Giovanni Sio (France); Mathis Bolly (Norway).

* Croatia: Eduardo da Silva and Sammir Cruz Campos (Brazil, both of whom go by only their first names); Vedran Ćorluka and Dejan Lovren (Bosnia). Croatia was the heart of the former Yugoslavian team.

* Ecuador: No foreign-born players.

* England: Raheem Sterling (Jamaica -- at least it's a member of the British Commonwealth).

* France: Patrice Evra (Senegal), Rio Mavuba (born on a boat fleeing the Angolan civil war, grew up in France).

* Germany: Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose (Poland), Cacau (Brazil), Marko Marin (Bosnia & Herzegovina).

* Ghana: André and Jordan Ayew (brothers from France), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Germany -- his brother Daniel has played for Germany), Adam Kwarasey (Norway), Albert Adomah (England).

* Greece: Loukas Vyntra (Czech Republic), Panagiotis Giorgios Kone (Albania), José Holebas (Germany, in spite of that Spanish-sounding name: Greek mother, Uruguayan father).

* Honduras: No foreign-born players.

* Iran: Daniel Devari (Germany), Steven Beitashour (America -- San Jose, California, his immigrant parents being an Assyrian Christian father and a Persian Muslim mother).

* Italy: Thiago Motta (Brazil), Gabriel Palletta (Argentina).

* Japan: Gōtoku Sakai (America -- New York City).

* Mexico: Miguel Ángel Ponce and Isaác Brizuela (America -- both from California, the former from Sacramento, the latter from San Jose. Possibly payback for all those U.S. players with Mexican parents?).

* Netherlands: Bruno Martens Indi (Portugal, parents from Guinea-Bissau, though has lived in Rotterdam almost his entire life), Jonathan Alexander de Guzman (Canada, the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario).

* Nigeria: Peter Odemwingie (Uzbekistan).

* Portugal: Pepe (Brazil); Nani (Cape Verde), William Carvalho (Angola), Éder (Guinea-Bissau). Each of those countries was once a Portuguese colony.

* Russia: No foreign-born players. Not even players from the other "republics" that once made up the Soviet Union.

* South Korea: No foreign-born players.

* Spain: Diego Costa (Brazil). No other foreign-born players -- and the team's Catalan and Basque players don't seem too interested in changing that through their regions' independence movements.

* Switzerland: Johan Djourou (Côte d'Ivoire), Valon Behrami and Xherdan Shaqiri (Kosovo); Gelson Fernandes (Cape Verde), Blerim Džemaili and Admir Mehmedi (Macedonia). Somebody showed me a graphic saying that, if only players whose grandparents had all been born in Switzerland were eligible. only 3 of the 11 players in the starting lineup for their 1st World Cup game would have qualified.

* Uruguay: Fernando Muslera (Argentina).

What Have They Done?; Nílton Santos, 1925-2013

This has not been a good day.

First I find out that the U.S. soccer team got a "Group of Death" in the World Cup draw. Germany, which could well win the whole thing. Ghana, which has knocked us out of the last 2 World Cups. And Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo, probably the best player in the world right now and one of the 2 best players the last few years along with Lionel Messi.

Then I find out that Robinson Cano has accepted the Seattle Mariners' cave-in on his request for a 10th year on his contract.

This, on top of the Mets announcing that they have signed Curtis Granderson.

I can forgive Granderson: He always gave his all in his 4 years in Pinstripes. He's a good guy. But the Mets? Curtis, what were you thinking?

As for Cano: Statistically speaking, he is up there with Hall-of-Famers Tony Lazzeri and Joe Gordon in the discussion of "greatest 2nd baseman in Yankee history," and with those 2, Giants legend Frankie Frisch, and the one and only Jackie Robinson for the title of "greatest 2nd baseman in New York baseball history."

And, yes, he did help the Yankees win a World Series. Unlike Granderson, who got to 2 ALCS's but no World Series, except for the one he played in with the Detroit Tigers.

But Cano could have become a Yankee legend.

Instead, he chose to get paid.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have Jacoby Ellsbury to play center field. 2nd base will be harder to fill, but new signing Kelly Johnson, who had been playing for the Tampa Bay Rays and has some power.

The Yankees have signed Hiroki Kuroda to a new 1-year contract, so that settles one part of the starting rotation that had been a question mark.

As for Cano and the Grandy Man...

Look at that picture again: What are they saying to each other?

Curtis: "Oh, dear God, Robbie, what have we done?"

Robbie: "I think we blew it, homie."

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Nílton Santos has died. He was one of the greatest defenders in the history of his country, which was the defining country in soccer from the 1950s, his time, until the early 2000s.

Nílton dos Santos was born on May 16, 1925 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- 4 days after Yogi Berra, but 5,200 miles apart. He became a left back, and was one of the 1st players at that position, anywhere in the world, to truly be an attacking force. He once said, "I have never envied today's players the money but the freedom they have, to go forward." His knowledge of the game earned him the nickname O Enciclopédia -- The Encyclopedia.

Wearing A Estrela Solitária.

The Lone Star, or the Botafogo Star,

is one of the iconic symbols of Brazilian soccer.

He played his entire professional career, 1948 to 1964, with Rio club Botafogo, winning the Rio de Janeiro State Championship in 1948, 1957, 1961 and 1962. But it was in the World Cup where he truly made his mark. He was selected for 4 of them, oddly being assigned a different uniform number each time: 7 in 1950, 3 (the traditional number for a left back) in 1954, 12 in 1958 and 6 in 1962.

He was named to to the Brazil team that played on home soil in 1950, but did not get into any of the games. Maybe he should have, as Brazil suffered perhaps the most stunning defeat any sports team on planet Earth ever has, losing the Final to neighboring Uruguay at the brand-new Estádio do Maracanã. Although Brazil led 1-0 roughly three-quarters of the way through the game, Uruguay scored in the 66th and 79th minute to win 2-1 and stun the largest crowd in the history of soccer, 199,854. (After renovations and conversion to all-seater, the stadium now seats 78,639.) The loss became known as Maracanazo, roughly translated as "The Maracanã Blow."

He played in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, in which Brazil reached the Quarterfinal, where it lost to he great Hungary team of Ferenc Puskás. But in Sweden in 1958, it all came together. Nílton scored a spectacular goal in their 1st game against Austria, dribbling through their entire team, with manager Vicente Feola yelling at him the whole way to pass, but he refused, and scored.

The Final would be against the host nation, Sweden, at Råsundastadion in Stockholm. The team of Gilmar; Djalma Santos (no relation to Nílton), Orlando, Bellini, Nílton Santos; Zito, Didi; Garrincha, Vavá, Pelé and Mário Zagallo -- not all Brazilian players are referred to by just their nicknames -- gave up an early goal, but roared to a 5-2 victory seen on worldwide television. The world fell in love with Futebol do Brasil -- or, as Pelé would later label it, "O Jogo Bonito," The Beautiful Game. They would also win the 1962 World Cup, beating Czechoslavakia in the Final in Santiago, Chile, despite Pelé being injured in mid-tournament.

Nílton played for only 2 teams in his career: His hometown club (well, one of many in his hometown) and his country. He made 723 appearances for Botafogo, and 75 for Brazil. He never went into management. He was named to the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, and the FIFA 100 in 2004.

He and his surviving teammates from 1958 attended a 50th Anniversary commemoration in Rio in 2008. He died on November 27, 2013, of a lung infection in his native Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 88.

UPDATE: He was buried at Cemitério São João Batista (St. John the Baptist) in the Botafogo section of Rio.

U.S. Deservedly Out of World Cup

Well, today we saw a game that shows that the U.S. has a lot further to go than we thought.

Ghana scored in the first 5 minutes. Clint Dempsey was brought down in the penalty area, leading to a penalty-kick goal by Landon Donovan and extra time. But in the 3rd minute of said extra time, Ghana scored again, and it drained the life out of the U.S.: 2-1, and we're out, and fairly so.

There can be no excuses:

* Can't blame the weather: It wasn't bad, and Ghana also had to play in it.

* Can't blame the opposition's rough play: It wasn't especially rough.

* Can't blame the officials: They weren't very good, but they did give us the one penalty we deserved, and they didn't wave off any fairly-won goals, unlike the last 2 games.

* Can't even blame bad luck: The bad luck we had with that winning goal waved off against Slovenia was an "equalizer" for the good luck we got with the Hand of Clod goal against England, which (it can now be said) we did not deserve.

The game had the result that it did because the U.S. played like a team that was satisfied just to be there, and because Ghana played like a team that wanted to win. In fact, if Michael Essien, one of the stars of Chelsea's Double-winning side, had been available for Ghana, it might've been 3-1 to them in regulation.

The U.S. once again played like a good second-half team. But soccer games have two halves, and we didn't play well in the first half in any of our 4. We got exactly what we deserved: Into the knockout stage, and no further.

We were ranked 14th in the world, and that's about right. We are not one of the best 8, and it showed today.

The first part of America's struggle with soccer is over: The game has been sold to the country. Now comes the more important part: Finding players who will not be content to merely show up in Brazil in 2014, but will observe the Herman Edwards Rule: "You play to win the game."

France and Italy, two major powers of the game, were laughably bad, even scandalously bad, in this World Cup. We weren't. But we were still not even close to being good enough. And there's a lot of work to do before we will be ready for Brazil '14.

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It could be worse: At least the U.S. didn't start The Great Johan Santana against his former team, the Minnesota Twins, and lose 6-0 at home, to a 3-hit shutout pitched by... Carl Pavano, The Yankee Who Wasn't There.

The Mets are a joke, and I don't care how close to first place they currently are.

And Dustin Pedroia, so soon after hitting 3 home runs in a game for the Red Sox, broke a bone in his foot, and will be out for several weeks.

The Yankees, baseball edition, are doing fine. The Yanks, soccer edition, not so much.

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Days until the World Cup Final: 15. 2 weeks.

Days until the New York Football Challenge at Red Bull Arena: 27. 4 weeks.

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 600th career home run: 30 (estimated). 1 month.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series: 41, starting Friday night, August 6, at Yankee Stadium II. 6 weeks.

Days until the new English Premier League season starts: 49. 7 weeks.

Days until the first football game at the new Meadowlands Stadium (still unnamed): 51.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 70. 10 weeks.

Days until the first regular-season Giants game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 78. 11 weeks.

Days until the first regular-season Jets game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 79.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 89. Under 3 months.

Days until the Devils play hockey again: 105, on Friday, October 8, at home at the Prudential Center in Newark, against the Dallas Stars. The schedule was released this week.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 121, on Sunday, October 24, at Madison Square Garden against The Scum. Then the Rags come to the Prudential on Friday, November 5. The first game of the season against the Islanders is on Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, at the Nassau Coliseum, followed the next day by the first game of the season against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Philadelphia Flyers, at The Rock.

Days until Rutgers and Army play the first college football game at the new Meadowlands Stadium: 112.

Days until the next North London Derby: 148, on Saturday, November 20, at New Highbury. The English Premier League schedule has been released as well.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 153.

Days until Derek Jeter collects his 3,000th career hit: 328 (estimated). About 11 months.

Days until the Rutgers-Army football game at Yankee Stadium: 504.

Days until the last Nets game in New Jersey: 659 (estimated).

Days until the 2012 Olympics begin in London: 747.

Days until Alex Rodriguez collects his 3,000th career hit: 845 (estimated).

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 700th career home run: 1,108 (estimated).

Days until Super Bowl XLVIII at the Meadowlands: 1,317.

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 756th career home run to surpass all-time leader Hank Aaron: 1,771 (estimated).

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 763rd career home run to become as close to a "real" all-time leader as we are likely to have: 1,795 (estimated).