HexagonalBlog

And Aloha means goodbye

As I alluded in my first preview post on the CONCACAF semifinal round, I won't be able to make comments on the first day of matches.  The reason is because I will be in Hawaii all of next week on business.  No really, it is business...for a few days at least.  Needless to say I probably won't be able to follow the matches when they're going on at mid-afternoon Hawaii time, and I'll probably be enjoying a mai-tai on the beach anyway. 

But fret not, because I will make a post that is timed to appear next Wednesday, so that you can make any comments on the matches or post links to reports that I should read.  And if you know of any restaurants or bars in Honolulu that I should visit, for soccer or otherwise, let me know in the comments.

I leave on Sunday and return on Friday 22 August.  Until then, aloha!

Hofbrau Beer Garden, PCB

(This post has been in the queue for a while, and I need to complete it before moving to my previews of the Qualifiers and the CCL.  I plan on adding a couple new features to the blog, such as reviews of restaurants I visit during my travels and soccer-related books, as well as making belated additions to the blogroll.  Stay tuned.)

I spent my 4th of July weekend in the Destin/Ft.Walton Beach area, where I lived for 2 1/2 years before I moved to Tucson last year.  (Has it really been a year?  Wow!)  On the 4th I drove to Panama City Beach for the festivities and I ended up at Pier Park, which is a new indoor/outdoor shopping area between US Highway 98 and Scenic Highway 98.  The center contains a number of large department stores and high-end shops and restaurants and it's close to the pier and the surrounding resort condos.  I passed by the Hofbrau Beer Garden and was intrigued, so I went in.

I have to say that it was quite a place.  It looks like one of those Bavarian beer halls that you might see during Oktoberfest, with the high flat ceiling, long wooden tables and bench seating, a guy singing German folk and drinking songs (and on this day, American patriotic songs) with a girl playing the accordion, servers in traditional German attire, and lots of German beer.  On Fridays they were giving away free beer in plastic cups from one of the tapped kegs, and the last person to get beer from the keg receives free beer for the remainder of the night.  I made a fine effort, but I gave up after four beers.  I was going to get a wheat beer in one of those half-liter flasks, but who can argue with free beer?

The restaurant serves traditional Bavarian food, from pretzels to sausages to sandwiches, and some other pub food in between.  I had a burger which was a blend of beef and pork, and it was very tasty.  I heard good things about the sausages, which were accompanied with lots of sauerkraut. 

 The beer hall wasn't as packed as I thought it would be on the Fourth of July, but they have live bands performing during the week which fill the place up.  Most of the patrons were either active or retired members of the military, which you might expect in a region that has Navy and Air Force installations nearby (and Eglin Air Force Base within a 75 minute drive).  One guy sitting next to me asked, "So, were you stationed in Germany, too?" 
On the wall there was a big screen TV displaying the German version of Deutsche Welle, and at the bar there was a TV tuned to Fox Soccer Channel (which was showing a Barcelona friendly.  I did spot a guy wearing a Bastian Schweinsteiger jersey (the German national team shirt), which drew a high five from the band singer.  I'd like to imagine that they attract a crowd for Bundesliga or EPL matches in the area, which would be greatly welcome -- when I lived there, bars weren't soccer-hostile, but most of the time you were definitely the only one interested in watching a soccer game. 

It is a surprise seeing a restaurant like this on the Redneck Riviera, but I've learned after living there that a lot of things about that region will surprise you.  I enjoyed my time there, and as I told the restaurant manager on my way out, I will be back for a return visit.

Happy Fourth, everybody

I'm off to celebrate Independence Day in a location close to a lot of ocean, so postings will be light until next Monday.  Get away from your computers and have some fun!  The soccer stuff will still be there when you get back.

(Of course, the Canadians are getting a head start, so Happy Canada Day to my readers to the north!)

Thank you readers!

Today has been a record-breaking day on HexagonalBlog.  Not only has today seen the highest number of unique visits to this site, but this week and this month have seen the most traffic since I started keeping track of statistics.  Now the figures pale in comparison to the traffic that Ives, Goff, and some of the BigSoccer.com sites see, but I'm excited just the same.  I'm also excited to see the visits that come from all parts of the world, and from some important places in the sports world.

Thanks to all those who have visited this site.

Jim McKay, RIP

Jim McKay, the legendary ABC broadcaster who brought a wide world of sports -- including soccer -- to the American public, has passed away this morning at the age of 86.  All of the plaudits that he has received over his life and will receive over the coming days are well deserved.  He brought dignity, respect, and great detail to his work, and he had a strong sense of a sport's or event's history that he communicated to his audience.  Perhaps that's why I remember his World Cup commentaries so well.  They were a masterful job of tying together the events of the tournament in a way that very few American commentators were capable.

His death reminds us of what we've lost in American sports broadcasting, and his life and career serve as examples for the next generation of commentators to aspire.  RIP.

Pardon a geek moment

But as a rocket scientist and a Tucson resident this event is soooo cool.

And now I'm off

Well it's time for me to head off to the Bay Area for a function at my alma mater.  It just so happens that the San José Earthquakes are playing at home to Columbus on Saturday, so I'll try to get a ticket to see the reborn Quakes.  I have no idea what I'll be wearing, but I should be easy to spot.

When I come back on Sunday I do want to address some of the comments about my Champions League post -- I've had very little time this week due to work.

Back later

Real life is interfering with my ability to blog -- I'm a little busy at work, and Valentine's Day actually has some significance this year, so I won't be back until the weekend.  Some interesting things have been going on in CONCACAF beyond USA and Mexico, and I hope to blog on some of them when I have time.

A tease

Sorry dear readers...I had two longish posts to publish, but I have to go on a business trip for a couple of days and won't be able to take my laptop with me, so those posts will have to wait until I return.  I'm putting a lot of thought into these posts (okay, more thought than usual) so I think it will be worth it.  To give you a preview, here are the topics for the two posts:

(1) The USA's bid for World Cup 2018 -- the factors that play into its favor, and those that don't.

(2) Can a Moneyball approach work in soccer?  (Starting from these articles from ESPN and the Grauniad)

Light posting through the holidays

I'm on travel through Florida for the next two weeks, so posting is going to be very light until after New Year's Day.  There's not much going on anyway (except for the conclusion of the playoffs in various Central American leagues), but I did have some posts that had been sitting on the hopper for a while.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!