I hate HDNet; The TURKS!!!; Welcome home to the Flyin' Hawaiian and other thoughts (music and afield) heading into the weekend

Watching the Turks today rip the spleens out of the Croatians has restored my faith in the anything-can-happen aspect of this wonderful sport. I was watching with my sons and when Semih Senturk fired that equalizer all three of us let out loud LOUD screams of surprise and amazement. Not having a dog in that hunt, we felt terrible for the Croats, amazed at the Turks and, speaking for myself, are those Turks straight out of central casting or what? From the coach on down, those guys are straight out of the "Hey, get me a Turkish looking guy for that part" universe. Awesome. Halfway through the second half, I just blurted out loud, "The Turks are going to win this game. I guarantee it." And when Kidney Boy scored with a minute to go, I doubted, but somehow not fully. These guys are the 2004 Greeks (though I'm sure they'd say the 04 Greeks are the 08 Turks) and the 2007 Asian Cup-winning Iraqis. They will not be denied.

Of course, that guy up at the top of the page is not Turkish, but is Haleah's very own Brian Ching, back in Orange Saturday for Dynamo's game against Commerce City (Read the link, another well-written piece from Jeremy Rakes, who used to work for me. I taught the kid everything he knows!). (Fave quote from Dom Kinnear in Jeremy's story: "Scoring is helpful.") Missing will be Pat Onstad and Dwayne De Rosario, who of course played for the Maple Leafs in their 4-1 victory against St. Vincent and the Grenadines (though how they took on two teams at once is something of a mystery to me!).

That means that Tony Caig will be back in goal for this game. The sentence itself says everything I want to say about the guy. If Colorado takes no shots on goal, we're sitting pretty, but it's when the other team takes aim at the net that Caig's deficiencies start to become evident. I resisted the urge to go negative on the guy earlier in the season, but after watching his "performance" against New England with my own two eyeballs, I have to say he has some work to do to get back in my good graces. Maybe we can get Rustu here after the Euros are over. Dreaming, I is.

Of course, seeing as how I won't be heading to a bar tomorrow night (date with my longtime leading lady takes precedence), there'll be no way I can DVR the game as it's once again on HDNet, the network I have come to hate. Games on HDNet = games I don't see. Bastids! I don't even hold it against Comcast for not carrying them. Now that's saying something, hating HDNet more than Comcast. Are the highlights even going to be on MLSNet? Right now, it looks like no. HDNet must die.

Stepping out of the footy for a second: Three pieces of music that Tiger should listen to while rehabbing his knee or at
the very least I expect to wind up on several people's year-end best of list:

The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley (Listen to a wonderful interview with the pair from Fresh Air here.)
She & Him Volume One by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (Listen to another great interview with Deschanel and Ward from World Cafe here.)
Rain by Joe Jackson (Still one more wonderful interview with Herr Uber -pianist here from World Cafe.)

I just got all three of these CDs last week and they are definitely worth your time. If you're not foot-tapping and totally into Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green's Gnarls Barkley's tunes then you get your Nutmegged registration fees refunded. It's a lot of fun.

I've been a fan of Jackson's since waaay back with Night and Day. Body and Soul I think I completely wore out a needle on back in the day as well. It's some awesome Jumpin' Jive. Rain will have you amazed at the man's continued virtuosity.

And Deschanel and M. WArd have put together a very, very fun disc. Enjoy.