Welcome Red Stripe and Tsunami

A big, warm welcome to our friends at Red Stripe and Tsunami. We are joining with those teams for summer league.

Believe me, we're serious about this summer league thing. We are going to do two-a-day practices on Saturday, followed by weight training during the week, all in preparation for the Sunday matchups.

Ok, not really. Summer league is about fun and staying in shape. Or, for some of us, getting into shape for the first time.

We still need a name for the team. Any suggestions? Cat suggested Trifecta...

Watch Confederations Cup final on Sunday at 2:30 pm on ESPN

The US had an amazing victory against top-ranked Spain earlier this week in the semifinals of the FIFA Confederations Cup. Many of the young guys who will be fighting for World Cup roster spots had inspired performances - Jozy Altidore, Jonathan Spector, Charlie Davies among them. We play Brazil in the final match of a tournament that matches up regional champions (Euro, Gold Cup, Copa America, etc).

Here's a photo of me watching the first-round US vs Italy matchup in the delivery room. My wife is awesome!

Gold Cup coming to DC

Katya alerted me that the US will play a Gold Cup game in Washington in early July. The Gold Cup is the regional tournament sponsored by CONCACAF, akin to the Euro but, umm, not nearly that competitive.

http://www.goldcup.org/page/Home/0,,12802,00.html


Katya asked me to forward this message:

Hey guys- anyone interested in going to the game July 8th? Should be a TON of fun! PLease let me know who's down to go nad I can get thie tickets. Pete, could you forward this out to the team? Thanks!

Katya
jafarikh AT gmail DOT com

A yard of beer

You were probably wondering...why wasn't Ally at our playoff game?

Well, she was hard at work on a yard of beer.

She's out in Colorado Springs to manage an event at the legendary and luxurious Broadmoor Hotel. Beautiful place by the way. You have to stay there once in your life. Watch out for the many deer on the property. Adrian is a big fan of the nearby Garden of the Gods, he knows what I'm talking about.

The last time I stayed on the property, I attended a close friend's wedding. Kenny Loggins made a surprise appearance to play a few tunes. I have photographic proof should you require it.

See you back in DC, Ally.

No longer a bachelor

At this very moment, Georgie boy is getting married to Megan. They met at work, proving that there is apparently an upside to being an auditor at a major accounting firm.

Three cheers for the happy couple!

George, it took a lot to tame you but it has been done!

The festivities are being held in Charlottesville, and our own Carlitos is there. We'll expect a full report tomorrow from our man at the scene.

On Tuesday, George and Megan are headed to the Bahamas for their honeymoon.

All the best from the team!

It's Goleros vs Flirts

I haven't followed developments in the division, but according to Jer's email, we're playing Flirts tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. at Trinity. This could possibly mean that Capital Crew's game versus DC Thunder was canceled and the Flirts won the division on goal differential or another metric. Don't know.

Does anyone know?

Anyway, we have a good rivalry with the Flirts. We've beaten them by narrow margins in some key games, and they've opened up some good leads against us in other games. I believe we are 2-2 and lifetime.

Here's to a sportsmanlike game!

Scheduling issues

Two important scheduling announcements:

1. Playoff game this sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Trinity. Jer is running the RSVPs this week. He needs to hear from everyone, so email him now please (jvanderlan AT yahoo DOT com).

2. Coed classic is on for the original weekend, July 25-26th.

I hope everyone is having a good week!

3-way merger executed to form summer team!

For summer league, we are executing a complicated three-way merger between Goleros, Tsunami Naranja, and Red Stripe. We'll draw players from each regular season squad for an unbeatable fun-loving juggernaut.

There's talk of a happy hour later this month.

What do you think we should name the team?

Meet my boy!

The last 24 hours were quite an ordeal for me and Monica. But we've never been better, to borry the phrase of a friend who also recently had a baby.

I wanted to share this photo with you. I consider this team family so I'm looking forward to telling you all more about it.

This is Pierson, or Pierce, born on June 16, 2009 at 11:42 a.m.

Before/after

Someone took some funny shots of Carolyn and I at a recent happy hour. There's the serious shot of two urban professionals. Then, there's the after shot - it looks like we've had a few drinks and have loosened up a bit.

Funny.

Fan appreciation

Check out these photos of our fans this season. We've got the greatest fans! Seriously, it's so great to have so many friends and family around. We are really fortunate.

Future Golero

Our most loyal fans

She came back for the first game

Ally's Clan

I foresee an evening game

As you know from email, I'm taking your scheduling requests for the playoffs. Please get them to me today. It's likely that we'll be short on numbers no matter what so I want to give us the best chance possible.

I'm guessing the league will schedule us for a night game. The reason is that Capital Crew and DC Thunder play the last makeup game on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. Thus, the scheduler will probably give them the full 24 hours to recover. I foresee us in the 8:00 p.m. slot at George Mason High School.

Goleros finish 4th, will face either the Flirts or Capital Crew in the playoffs

We have finished 4th in the Division, which is a substantial gain in the standings in the last weekend of games. We were 4-4, a .500 record.

We will face the 1st seed in the playoffs. The winner will play for the playoff championship the next weekend. The Flirts are currently sitting in first, but Capital Crew has a game to play versus DC Thunder. It's the only outstanding game on the schedule in our division. It means nothing for our standings but everything for the Crew, the Flirts, and DC Thunder. DC Thunder must win to avoid relegation, and if they do win, the Flirts win the division and claim promotion to the First Division. Capital Crew must win or tie in order to claim the division title and be promoted. Go DC Thunder!

What a competitive division. You rarely see teams with 7-8 points get relegated. Usually, it's fewer than 6.

CCSL>Second Division>
Rank	Team		W	L	T	GP	PTS	GF	GA	GD	GDA
1		Flirting With Sobriety	5	2	1	8	16	24	11	13	1.6
2		Capital Crew	5	1	1	7	16	30	19	11	1.6
3		Gang Green	4	3	1	8	13	20	13	7	0.9
4		Goleros	4	4	0	8	12	22	31	-9	-1.1
5		Lost Tourists	3	3	2	8	11	16	16	0	0.0
6		The Diplomats	3	3	2	8	11	22	29	-7	-0.9
7		Armory	3	4	1	8	10	18	22	-4	-0.5
8		Little Urban Achievers	2	4	2	8	8	22	24	-2	-0.3
9		DC Thunder	2	4	1	7	7	21	22	-1	-0.1
10		Tsunami Naranja	2	5	1	8	7	14	22	-8	-1.0

Adrian propels team into the playoffs with 90' goal

It wasn't pretty, but the result was important and the teamwork was memorable. We steadily ramped up our effort and finally emptied the tank of our under-manned opponent, Gang Green.

Coming from behind, we scored two goals in the last 3 minutes: a superb finish off a rebound by Meg, to secure the tie, and an extra-time volley to the far post by Adrian, for the 3-2 win.

Credit to Gang Green. They came up short by only a minute, after scoring one goal with 8 players, another with 9 players, and then showing great long-ball and one-on-one skills to keep us on our heels.

But we didn't give up. I think we did more running and found each others' feet a little better. Our female players were really involved in the attack, which was crucial. Let's not forget Heather's goal, called back on an offensive foul by Adrian.

That was fun.

What did we do right?

Did anyone get the assist on that first goal?

Ty was in reserve

Notes: 3-2 win vs Gang Green on 6/14/09, National Mall. Goals by: Chris (Jer), Meg (Jon), Adrian (unassisted). GK: George. Discipline: Adrian (yellow for dissent).

Lost Tourists defeat Little Urban Achievers in makeup game; Goleros secure 2nd division slot for next season

Believe it or not, it was statistically possible for us to be relegated to Third Division going into this weekend's fixtures. This was because the teams below us suddenly began winning at the end of the season while we remained static at 3 wins. Usually, 3 wins is enough to avoid relegation. Despite the fierce competition in the division, it will be enough again this season.

We needed either Little Urban Achievers or DC Thunder to lose this weekend, to avoid giving us a must-win situation and possibly going to tie-breakers. LUC lost to Lost Tourists 1-0. Thus, LUC finishes with 8 points; Tsunami finishes with 7 points. Both teams are guaranteed to place below us. We currently have 9 points, with the opportunity to pick up more in our last game.

We can now focus on having fun. BTW, a win will probably put us in the playoffs. We even have a chance at a decent seed.

Yet another playoff plan

If we somehow eke into the 4th spot, we'll have a chance at promotion if we can win two playoff games. The top 4 seeds will play for promotion.

Our focus this week is not on the playoffs, however, but on our on-the-field product. We need to string together some passes and get a rhythm.

ok so with all the emails Ive received its obvious you guys are passionate
about playoffs & promotion/relegation. Its nice to see quite
honestly.

What Ive decided to do is change how we are going to do
playoffs to allow for others aside from just the top two seeds to get promotion.
So instead, were going to try and eke out some more field space on the 28th and
give one additional round for the top 4 seeds. The 5 & 6 seeds will
still get the additional playoff game for bragging rights.

June
21st 1v4 and 2v3
June 28th Championships and 5v6

Hopefully
this appeases a lot of your concerns. Lets all do our anti-rain dances so
that we wont have any more rainouts this weekend and we can keep these plans to
wrap up this season.

thanks!!

Sanjay

U.S. vs Iran?

The U.S. is currently talking to Iran about a potential friendly. I asked Washington Post reporter Steven Goff today about it online. Here's our Q&A.

Arlington, Va.: Iran is back in the news, for both politics and sports.
Have you talked to any U.S. national team players about how they would feel
playing a friendly in Iran? The Insider has let us know that a friendly for
later this fall is possible. I'm guessing the players would be more than happy
to leave politics at home in such a unique matchup. But do they have concerns
about security, and how would the U.S. federation handle this?
From a Loyal
Insider

Steven Goff: Initially, the Iranian federation said their national team
would play the USA in mid-October -- which conflicts directly with World Cup
qualifying. They also mentioned the possibility of a game in November as well.
The USSF told the AP that a game is possible later this year, but at this point,
it's much too early to gauge the situation. A USA visit to Tehran would be
historic and, in my opinion, free of problems. The scene outside and inside the
stadium for the USA-Iran World Cup game in 1998 was memorable (in a good way).

Playoffs truncated

Due to many rain cancellations this season, the league doesn't have the time or field space to schedule playoffs over two weekends. Thus, the commish is truncating the playoffs. See his email below.

Hey all,

I wanted to give you an update on where we stand with
getting the Spring season wrapped up. The rain has just wreaked havoc on
our schedule this season. I think I read that there has been 20 inches of
rain since the end of March. Just insane...

So to get the
season wrapped up before the summer starts (July 4th weekend) we are going to
have to truncate playoffs. We are trying to get the last of the rainouts
from last weekend scheduled before the weekend of the 20th. We will then
only have a single round of playoff games on June 21st and June 28th. The
plan is for the 5 seed to play the 6 seed & the 4 seed to play the 3
seed. These games will be June 21st (fingers crossed). Then we would
hold the championships on June 28th where each divisions 1 and 2 seeds would
play.

If games this weekend are also canceled, we will need to
reevaluate this plan as well and may have to truncate even
further.

We hate to have to cut the season short, but Im sure you
all are well aware of the scheduling constraints that we've had. I want to
specifically thank Lou for working his magic to try and work things out as
amicably as possible and to Jesse for his flexibility in always being able to
get full ref crews on short notice. Also thanks to you all for your
flexibility throughout this season.

Please let me know if anyone
has questions or concerns.

thanks!

Sanjay
CCSL
Commissioner

¿Dónde está Ermy?

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We've missed Ermy in the last few games. You're probably wondering...where has he been?

In Peru.

We agreed to loan him out for the remainder of the season to his hometown team in Trujillo, Peru, a northern coastal city. So he's back home for an extended period to see family and put the moves on some fierce opponents. I wish I could be there to see it myself.

Fancy Footwork

Learn more about his adventure from our excerpted email conversation. Best of luck in the tournament and safe travels!

Peter,

I am going to Peru to play Soccer. It is a tradition in my hometown (Trujillo nort of peru) to reunion the 13th of June which is the day that start the festival and lasts 5 days with lots
of food, beer, music ..etc. Many people from my hometown travel to Trujillo
from different parts of the world to this date. There are two soccer
teams in my hometown which are very competitive and don't get
along very well, (it remainds me like Mexico and USA when they play
soccer) they practice all year around to be champions. Anyway, to
make the story short, this year there will be 4 teams, two that I
mentioned, one from players residentes in Europe and USA (I will play for
this team) and other team from Lima. Usually the stadium gets very
crowded I will guess from 10 to 15 thousand spectators.

I will scout some jerseys and let you know.

Ermy

Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009, 22:43:13 -0400

Subject: Re: have fun in peru...
From:

Ermy,

I'm looking for posts to put on the blog. Before you leave for Peru, tell me
why you're going, what you're going to see, and whatever else. It's a cool
story. Also, scout out some jerseys for me down there. I will probably text or email you about the baby when it comes! Oh, and I'll work on DCU/Real tickets. I don't have season tickets to DCU anymore so I'm not priority. It's not open for public sale yet. But I'm working on
it.

PI

Happy hour this week!

Don't forget our happy hour tomorrow night at Union Jack's in the Ballston Mall!



Happy hour last week was a nice end to the week - and fun! We enjoyed drinks and some mezze at Cava, one of the many bars and restaurants in the area designed by Griz. He says they didn't intend it to have such a bar scene, which explains the narrow bar area. Sure, the bar space is small, but what great colors and seclusion from the street! Very cool atmosphere. Another fine job by our original Golero!




I love this photo of Adrian and Heather.

Here are a few others:

DCU vs Real Madrid tickets on sale now

Single-game tickets are now on sale for DCU vs Real Madrid. Tickets are currently $60-90 and represent a modest discount over the public prices to be announced in a few days.

See the commisioner's email below.

FYI pre-sale tickets for the DCU/Real Madrid friendly....
----- Forwarded
Message ----From: "Walker, Zach" <ZWalker@dcunited.com>To: Sanjay Nayar <snayar@yahoo.com>Cc: matt@allaroundeducator.comSent: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 3:40:24
PMSubject: Real Madrid Tickets Advance Sales
Hi Sanjay,

Just
wanted to see if you could pass this around the CCSL circles: https://secure.dcunited.com/real-madrid-ya?r=ZW

Its
an offer for all CCSL members to be able to purchase tickets to the D.C. United
vs. Real Madrid game before the public sale date on Friday. Please feel
free to pass it around and let me know if you have any questions,
thanks!

Zach

Thursday, June 11 @ 6:30 pm BE THERE ARE BE SQAURE!!!

Hey Team,


So after last Friday's RAGER of a Happy Hour at CAVA, we have decided to have another one, this Thursday, June 11 at Union Jacks in the Ballston Mall. Let's try and meet by 6:30 pm.


Adrian, Peter and I will be there so if you want in on this trio of fun let us know.


Many thanks and hope you are all having a great week!


Ally

A "thank you"

Last week, you saw our charitable donation go through.  This week, we got a note from Kate Larned at United for DC, thanking us for the donation.  Thought I would pass it along.  It provides a nice update of what the organization is doing and how our modest contributions are helping.  Check out United for DC's website here.

Best wishes to Kate and her team - and keep up the good work! 

Hi Peter and Ally,

 

Sara is no longer working at D.C. United- she left to be a full-time mom. I have been working here for almost two years and have taken over running the foundation since Sara left. I can't tell you how much we appreciate your support over the years- especially in economic times such as these. The check arrived late last week so I will have your charitable receipt to you this week.

 

Our year has been going pretty well. We just finished our second set of spring reading visits at our six adopted D.C. schools. The children completed a three-week reading challenge and all got excited for summer reading (as farfetched as that seems). As well, United Soccer Club just finished up its spring after-school soccer program. And our next fundraiser- the golf tournament- is coming up on July 9th. So as you can tell things are moving right along.

 

It has been a tough year for finding sponsors and donations so your contribution is greatly appreciated. Our Kicks for Kids program in particular is struggling to find support but your donation alone will help us bring out seven kids to experience a game that otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity.

 

Again, thank you for keeping us in mind. We hope to see you at an event soon.

 

Best,

Kate

Who had points?

We lost last night by a disappointing and surreal score of 6-2. We fought hard, that much I'm sure of. We're going to leave it on the field and prepare for our next game, an important one versus Gang Green.

Who had the goals and assists?

Notes: 6-2 loss to Capital Crew on 6/7/09, National Mall. Goals: Jon (Chris), Ashley? (?). GK: George.

Game on today