Soccer and football merge, in a way

This is an intriguing development. German soccer reporters are noticing that some strikers have more running and more creative responsibility in their job description. One aspect at play here is the similarity with US football:

(English translation follows) "...mitunter wirken die Laufwege wie die von Wide Receivern im Football - einem Sport, bei dem Spielzüge und Laufwege vorher angesagt und auf dem Spielfeld bis ins kleinste Detail abgestimmt sind. Andrej Woronin etwa startete beim Spiel seiner Berliner Hertha gegen den FC Bayern vom Mittelkreis aus, bewegte sich auf die rechte Seite. Nach zehn Metern schlug er einen Haken und lief diagonal in Richtungs des Strafraums, um seinem herandribbelnden Mittelfeldspieler Cicero Platz zu machen. Auf Höhe des Strafraumkreises folgte der zweite Haken, Woronin lief nach rechts in die Gasse. Dorthin spielte Cicero den Ball, Woronin schoss ihn an Michael Rensing vorbei ins Tor." http://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/527/466112/text/4/
"...[strikers in soccer] sometimes appear to be running patterns like wide receivers do in American football - a sport where plays and running patterns are called [in the huddle] beforehand and are defined down to the most subtle head-fake detail. At the beginning of the Hertha BSC match against FC Bayern for example, Ukraine star striker Andrey Voronin of Berlin started running from the center circle toward the right flank, then veered in a "V" pattern back from the sideline, running diagonally towards the penalty area, which cleared a path for the dribbling midfielder Cicero. At the top of the penalty area, Voronin again cut back on a second hook, spurting into a "seam" and taking a pass from Cicero to kick the ball past goalie Michael Rensing into the goal."

This choreography can be seen in knowing looks before the beginning of a half or during extra time in championships. See 22-yr-old Pitroipa's mischievous smile at his teammates in Hamburg two nights ago just before the whistle blew for 15 more minutes of overtime. Lo and behold, a play had been called with a "pattern" just like in US football, with a double pass involving Jonathan Pitroipa which failed, but was agreed on beforehand. What a shame that the young striker was stopped (and "taken out") by Bremen goalie Tim Wiese in the final minutes. The outcome of the 120 minute ordeal hung on whether the Burkina Faso playmaker's dash for the goal and cunning foot-flick of the ball around the last defender, would culminate in a rousing victory. It was oh-so-close to becoming a great play-of-the-day. He is player to watch who HSV management want to groom and develop over time with a contract till 2012. He plays all over the midfield and can dribble into dangerously close range of the opponent's goal on his own or with a give-and-go or speedily recovered an errant ball with his lithe and heads-up moves.

If one of his striker teammates like Petric, Olic or Guerrero are saddled with an injury or benched for accumulated yellow cards, his hour will have come.

Gerhard Richter - S. with Child

Gerhard Richter - S. with Child Having recently learned about how Gerhard Richter handles his medium, I realize how protracted and personal this must have been in the making. I sense the floor dropping out from under me in this work. And it works. Yes, it's a Madonna and Child, but no, it's not, it's S. with, not and, her child. First he takes a snapshot and, leaving nothing to chance, traces its outlines onto his ground and then the work begins in earnest. An important feature is how he split the snapshot into wide, evenly spaced striations so a cross-texture of rough wooden planks seems to cut through the picture-plane. The upper left takes this wood of the horizontal "fencing" and allows it to be a staging area for his colors and textures. His palette self-referentially laps over into the scene--the unformed and as yet uncombined pigment the medium from which he will weave the image of a beloved mother and child. The palette affords a view of his own inner life, laid bare, on display alongside that of his wife's Bonnard-like intimacy. Their snapshot, his materials, converge into art. I feel like the label "in process" hangs over this piece. His far younger second wife, the second generation of his infant son, a second layer running across the piece by the cross-planking, weather-warped and deteriorating, as though the snapshot of "S." had been left on a billboard in wind and weather. The fudged, undried buon affresco countenance of S. a foil to what snapshots are meant to do, preserve. Biographically, she brings to him renewed conjugal unity, their child staving off his barren years, yet accelerating their approach by making the artist a father and partner of more than a companion--the adults now fellow parents. The process detaches you from the immediacy of a family album. The suckling child on S's breast rendered by Gerhard Richter into a mist-beaded contemplation of how we fade away in the flesh--at the same time the religious ikon quickening our human soul with its eternal image of maternal and religious nourishment. The weathered effect of his prepared canvas gives the scene a fragile honesty, as delicate as the English Patient's book of life.

Tour de Farce

There's a big problem in this country, a big problem in sports. Someone needs to step up, say enough is enough, and we're going to do what we can do to combat that problem.

Jim Scherr, CEO of the United States Olympic Committee, commenting on the U.S. situation

I know I owed quite a lot to fellow athletes around me who were a model to live by. If it wasn't the inspiring endurance of runners like Todd Volk, Tony White Bull or Jeff Turning Heart, it was looking at the achievement in sports such as wrestling. Fellow South Dakota sports teammate in track & field, Jim Scherr, with his brother Bill, are examples of this.

In the statement above, Jim has framed the crux of competitive sports in plain, unequivocal language. I hope he realizes he may be the one who can step up--and put a stop to all of it. With a little help from powerful friends. The malady calls for concerted action, not just from within the sports world's governance organizations.

Sports heroes are looked up to, set an example for others to follow and plant seeds of hope in young athletes who truly believe in them. This year, I have noticed a failure on the part of professional road bicyclists to grasp their role model function. As one confession after another rolled in to the news ticker here in Germany over the past few months, there has been surprisingly and disappointingly little talk about the squandered chances to set a positive example to young people. With media focusing on the failings of certain big names, they are not providing coverage about the underlying dilemma. Through ineffective leadership and insufficient stewardship, a wonderful sport is being dragged down by blood doping and drug abuse. With each passing interview and confession, I have yet to see a role model look into the camera and frankly admit the sense of shame he must feel that he has disappointed the next generation of aspiring cyclists who are looking up to him.

Where is the "I am sorry." directed at young athletes?

Instead only one word of "Bedauern" (regret) creeps in, while looking quite unconcerned, the focus is on the embarrassment of the individual athlete and the self-centered shame of the nation affected. Accusations of complicity between athletes and organizers are passed back and forth. The sport in general and the tour in particular morphs into a farce with teams wanly protesting by refusing to start at the starting line. Credibility suffers. A general sense of unease emerges and dishonor to the establishment and community. Cyclists who admit to manipulation or doping are punished, though the penalties may not impress them, they are so oversponsored. After admitting their error, they are back on the saddle somewhere.

What needs to happen
It is certainly a tragicomic affair this year and devastating to those who love the sport. Funnily, though, I am not seeing a strong, grass-roots emotional tug anywhere, just unease. It may be too late to reschedule the tour to next year and have a blackout moratorium until the rules are rewritten so the farce can be stopped. A needed step back so the seed of hope in young cyclists is not suffocated. But it would not have been a bad move.

Maybe a gold medal 10k winner in Tokyo is in fact among the racers - one who will get up after stumbling and win people's hearts over. Someone who will speak up for the values which have to come into focus for the sport to regain its place as a great test of honest endurance. Is it possible that a fallen racer will reconsider and start a campaign for reinstating the honor and pride the sport has lost. The rules can't merely be changed, a sea-change needs to be set in motion, too.

Afterthought - but my main point.
See Bill Bradley's book Life on the Run where, significantly at the close of his popular book, we find him and his teammate at a basketball clinic, passing their knowledge and skills on to younger people. Senator Bradley's book tells of Willis Reed explaining the basic low post moves a center should have down pat for his defender, going through the motions for 50 young school kids on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. "After you drive once you've got him set up for the drop dribble. ... take one bounce away from the basket, turn, and shoot. You'll have him flat-footed." Bradley continues by relating how "Willis gives the group a little lecture about hard work, responsibility, and the need to set goals. He says practice and study go hand in hand with a clean life. He speaks with the assurance of a man whose life has been built upon moral certainties. ... The kids are enraptured. 'There isn't much these days that hasn't been done,' he says. 'There's been a man on the moon and somebody has already run a mile in 3:55. But you have a chance for a real first: One of you can be the first Indian to play in the NBA.'"