This year I am moving over one section to 231, still on row 5, but closer to the aisle. I also picked up an extra ticket, with the expectation of taking all three boys to some games. My youngest is three and a half years-old, so I may be stretching it a bit, but I say start them on Falcons football early and often!

On the Falcons news front, I just noticed that Atlanta signed first round pick Sean Weatherspoon to a five-year deal early this week. No idea of the financials since they were not disclosed. It would be a miserable experience to miss on a first round pick, but I expect Weatherspoon to be a mainstay, contributing and helping the Falcons right out of the game.

Go Falcons!

ESPN has a nice preview of the upcoming series, complete with some interesting notes and tidbits of information. The pitching match-ups look outstanding!

METS (47-38, second place/NL East) vs. BRAVES (50-35, first place/NL East)

Friday: RHP R.A. Dickey (6-1, 2.62) vs. RHP Tommy Hanson (8-5, 4.19), 7:10 p.m. ET

Saturday: RHP Mike Pelfrey (10-3, 3.39) vs. RHP Tim Hudson (8-4, 2.44), 4:10 p.m. ET

Sunday: LHP Johan Santana (6-5, 3.15) vs. RHP Derek Lowe (9-7, 4.40), 1:10 p.m. ET (ESPN)

I am just keeping my fingers crossed that Jeff Francoeur does not “beat the crap” out of Atlanta.

Go Braves!

If Atlanta hangs tough in June (I am still not sure why I am projecting things this far forward) I think they will make or break their season in the first part of July. Closing out the first half of the season, Atlanta hosts Florida, followed by a road trip to Philadelphia and New York. By the time those nine games are over, the Braves should know if they are a buyer or seller coming out of the All-Star Break.

After the Braves host the Marlins today, the first place Atlanta Braves will head to Philadelphia for three games, followed by three games in NY against the Mets.  Trouble?

As good as the Braves are at home, they are miserable on the road.

From Elias: The Braves improved their home record to 30-9 with their 4-1 win over the Marlins. Since 1980, only three major-league teams reached 30 home wins in fewer games than the Braves: the 1998 Yankees (36 games), 1998 Padres (38) and 2008 Cubs (38). [Source:  ESPN July 4, 2010]

There are a couple of ways to look at this trip.  First, if the Braves can manage a .500 trip, which should be considered a success.  Second, their record over the next six games does not matter as long as the Braves do not give first place in the NL East.

Go Braves!

The FIA has fined US F1 309,000 euros ($379,500) – the equivalent of the championship entry fee – and ordered it to pay the costs of the FIA disciplinary process. It also disqualified the team, “which definitively deprives US F1 of the right to take part, in any way whatsoever, in any competition.”

The remaining assets of US F1 were recently sold off at auction, where its sole tub netted less than $8,000.

Maybe a new US F1 hopeful will rise with the upcoming US Grand Prix in Austin in 2012. It would be nice to see a US based F1 team, or at the least a US driver. Wishful thinking.

Once again the US went down early; this time inside of the 5 minute mark. I just do not get how we can have such poor defensive lapses, which is what happened again on the winner in the first few minutes of extra time as Ghana easily split the last two US defenders.

Making matters worse is that the US just does not have a top notch striker; a finisher who can consistently find the net. We had some chances, but there comes a time and a place where the chances have to find the back of the net. The US just does not have that quality up front that you know given the chance will win the day.

I am not sure where to from here. I’ll have to reflect on the bitter sting of this one for a while, as I am sure Team USA will be doing the same, with the realization that they squandered a golden opportunity.

In the 2006 World Cup, after finishing top of the CONCACAF qualification tournament, the U.S. was drawn into Group E along with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana. Since three of the teams were ranked in the top 10 of the FIFA World Rankings at the time, it was considered a Group of Death.

The United States opened its tournament with a 3–0 loss to the Czech Republic. The team then drew 1–1 against Italy (ending up being the only opponent the Italian side failed to defeat in the tournament). The United States was then knocked out of the tournament when beaten 2–1 by Ghana in its final group match.

This time things are different, right? The US is playing well as a team, which was really the talk most often while I was in England and Scotland earlier this week. Of course, for the most part the US and our chances were dismissed, however to a man almost everyone I spoke “football” with was complimentary of the way the US plays as a team.

But more important, what’s truly caught the soccer world’s attention here, is how the Americans have played: not necessarily the results of their play, but the character of it. Their mistakes have been large, but they’ve recovered from them. When they might have given up — down against England, down against Slovenia, all but down and out against Algeria — they persevered. While other teams have suffered personality rifts or even outright mutiny, there hasn’t been a whisper of discontent out of the U.S. camp. They’ve become the embodiment of optimism here, of the power of hope and belief.

So there is hope, because a true breakout win today against Ghana means the US can actually make a run as the US are on the “easy” side of the bracket. The winner of US/Ghana will play the winner of Uruguay/South Korea, both of which are winnable games for this US squad. A win in the quarterfinals would take the US to the semifinals to most likely pair up with Brazil or the Netherlands. And then? Well, I am getting ahead of myself. First Ghana.

I have a feeling of hope and optimism that the US will actually put together a full game today, and not get behind early on a defensive lapse. If the US can continue to attack and actually land something in the net I think we will advance 1-nil, nay, maybe 2-1.

This is it! Go USA! USA! Let’s cheer for our boys and the Red, White, and Blue!

For my upcoming Scotland trip (16+ hrs travel time counting wasted hrs trying to go from here to there) I picked up …

• Phil Steele’s 2010 College Football Preview, which features Auburn and Alabama on the cover. Steele advertises his annual as the most accurate preseason magazine over the last 11 years.
• Lindy’s Sports Southeastern 2010 Preview, which features Georgia’s A.J. Green on the cover.
• Athlon Sports Southeastern 2010 Preview, which agrees with Lindy that A.J. is worthy of being placed on a cover.
• SportingNews College Football 2010, which is yet another regional annual with Green on the cover.
• Athlon Sports Pro Football 2010, which has nothing to do with college football annuals, but I decided to pick it up since it features Matt Ryan, and I wanted something to balance out my college football reading material.

The funny thing about all these annuals is that I never save them; not really a collector of annuals. If I was a collector (or was a collector in the past) I bet I would have a crap load of money on my hands for people that enjoy buying old annuals.

All of these annuals may be somewhat of a letdown in light of the recent realignment activities and discussions. If I have some time, and anyone is interested, I will post some impressions.

The funny thing about such a poor call was all the other poor calls. We actually drew a yellow card after a ball hits Findley in the face?

Robbie Findley got a yellow card in the 40th minute for a hand ball in Slovenia’s penalty area, an automatic suspension for the Algeria match because he also was cautioned against England.

I would love to see the replay again because I saw a face-plant, not a handball. I don’t think it is a horrible thing that Findley will not be around for the next match because he just does not have the experience to know WTF to do with a quality ball.

There were other poor calls, but ultimately the U.S. put itself in a poor position going down 2-nil at the half. The first goal was completely unmarked; nice riffle shot which froze Howard. The second was typical of a U.S. defensive lapse on a counter attack.

As poor as Team U.S.A. played in the first half, they were great in the second half. Loved the emotion and the attacking style of play. Hope they come out for more of that against Algeria next Wednesday, a game I am sure to miss due to a work assignment in Scotland. Oh well.

So it goes. The U.S. is still in the hunt, but has to hope for some sort of miracle. I think the U.S. can advance with a U.S. win over Algeria and two England wins (Algeria and Slovenia).

Go U.S.A. !!!

I consider this a major victory after being so terrible on the road earlier this year.

As I wrote prior to this road trip, the Braves just needed to be up to the task in order to set the plate for the back half of June; of course some serious NL East head-to-head action looms in July leading up to the break.

While the Braves were out west they managed to put some distance in front of their rivals. The Mets are lurking and playing well, just 1.5 games back. The Phillies are stumbling, now 3.5 games back, but you know this is only a temporary situation.

Monday will be an off day before hosting Tampa Bay and KC.

Go Braves!

Sure it did not exactly happen that way, but one of my favorite sayings that I learned from my dad applies. Sometimes I would rather be lucky than good.

A draw is a great result for Team USA, and it was well earned, improving our chances to advance.

Going forward I think it is imperative to pull out Ricardo Clark, and get Herculez Gomez into the mix at some point. I am not even sure what we can do different on defense, but thank God Onyewu is fit.

Go USA!