Photo: Baby Bruce can get the girls even with a beer-stained shirt.

June 21st - Day 14

Fortnights & Kilometers

My blog is now a fortnight (two weeks) old. Forgot to tell you that the other day when we got off the train in Stuttgart we ran into Arsene Wenger. He pretended to be on the phone the whole time we walked together until he reached his hotel and I was cut off by security. He’s a tall guy. Really fit too (what?!)…

Been riding a lot of trains and subways, but also doing a ton of walking. It’s too bad that we never learned the metric system in the States because I can’t even tell you how far it is from here to there, I can only tell you if the walk was easy or hard on my aching calves…and how hungry it made me.

The good part about all the walking is that my calves are getting all ripped, but my gut is growing larger by the day due to all the brats and beers (both of which are mighty tasty). I’ve already sworn to myself that when I get back home the first thing that I am doing is hitting the gym. Just gotta get directions to it first.

Had a German hamburger yesterday, it was good. Interesting twist; they put cucumbers on it instead of pickles. Mike, our bartender here at the hotel, says that’s just what they do and that’s a good enough reason for me.

Baby Bruce has gotten past all his silly mistakes with directions that he was having early in the trip and has now taken control of getting me where I need to be. I KNOW that it was the smacks to the head that helped the most. Whatever it took, it worked and we’re cruising effortlessly from bar to bar to bar to bar to bar (with the exception of finding an ATM which took us two hours yesterday).

England won’t win this World Cup with Peter Crouch up front. It just won’t happen. The Germans are playing with a ton of confidence and if Klose keeps scoring they might end up playing on July 9th in front of their home crowd. I like Argentina, but wonder if they’ll be able to keep their heads if things get too physical. I’ve been impressed with Spain, their fans sure know how to party, but don’t know if they have what it takes to win it all. I’m not sure when the Brazilians will be forced to extend themselves, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I have no clue what Bruce Arena is thinking right now except that he wants all this real pressure to be over with soon so he can go schedule a useless friendly against Canada in October in Toronto. The game against Ghana will tell us a lot about Bruce’s ability in big-time situations when faced with a little bit of adversity. Sure, he’s got a few guys out due to suspensions, but that’s why you bring 23 guys with you. We’ll see how he comes out, but I would go with a low-pressure 4-4-2 to start and look to counter when Ghana starts sending too many players into the attack.

This is what I’d do:

Keller in goal…Bocanegra at left back…Conrad and Berhalter in the middle…Cherundolo at right back…Dempsey at right midfield…Reyna and Landon in the middle of the field…Eddie Lewis at left midfield…and McBride and Eddie Johnson up front.

Tomorrow: Nuremberg awaits.