12/22/02 Asad and Diallo (FRC)

From Martins' Article:

"Former Revolution midfielder Shaker Asad has joined the Palestinian national team. Asad, 23, who was born in Gaza and played for the Revolution for three seasons before being cut this past fall, is looking for a chance to revive his career, he told the Wall Street Journal."

Since when does the Wall Street Journal report on the career decisions of second rate mls players, let alone good ones?

 

i talk out loud to myself when i read the paper sometimes too...

 

Strange but true story: I went to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarejevo, and in the Athlete's Village, I managed to be befriended by some of the Polish luge team. They had done better than expected and were passing aroung the shots of Sliviovitz, the really strong, sweet plum brandy that seems to be the breakfast staple of railway workers all over the Eastern Bloc. We toasted a lot of different things, including Alex Czernatinski, who was one of the first Poles to play in the west. He was playing for Anderlecht at the time, the team I supported.

At the time I was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and I wrote an article about this, and other Olympic stuff. This was what they called the A-head, a human interest-type story on the front page. Often these had to do with international events and was as "light" of an article you'd ever see in the paper (except for the time the printing plant in Holland set up a fake story on April Fool's Day). In this case, the Palestine national team getting together to play in Chile sounds like the kind of story they'd like, especially given the whole political situation. Hell, if I could get away with writing a story about Dutch baseball, a.k.a. honkbaal, an exclusive interview with "Li'l Shaq(er)" isn't totally out of the question.

But unfortunately the follow-up question that was never asked is "Without having talked Imad Baba out of retirement, how can you possibly hope to win a game?"

Tom