I’m not pretending to have any in-depth analysis for Sunday’s final. Anybody watching up to this point should be thinking a tightly marked game and the keepers making the difference. Advantage Italy, and if pushed I have them winning the Cup 2-0.

Friday Book Club: Clubland

When I was a kid, I used to really like coming home from school and watching Morton Downey Jr. on WOR. Somewhat fortunately, our cable system switched WOR to WGN, and that was it for my daily does of questionable viewing material. Like most bad television, it all tended to run together.

One episode that managed to rise above the rest did so for a truly random moment. It was one of what I later learned were several New York club kid episodes, and they weren’t limited to the Downey show.

On stage were the club kids in question, playing dress up. In the audience was a relatively normal looking guy with a question. Turns out, he was actually a rival party promoter, and basically cut a promo calling the club kids on stage out. There response was what I took as a rhetorical question: had he staged a party in a Burger King that was quickly ended when the police showed up?

As comebacks go, that’s not really up there with ’your momma.’

By this point, most of us sort of remember the end of the club kids era courtesy of seeing Seth Green mince around in Party Monster. Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture tells the full story, by the reporter who broke most of it for The Village Voice.

Frank Owen was an active participant covering the scene for his paper before the events that made the scene infamous and led to the Federal charges. For any writer that close, it would be difficult to avoid the hipper than thou treatment of what actually happened in these clubs. Owen isn’t the exception, and the initial chapters are much easier to get through without checking the publicity photo on the book jacket. Think Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder dressed like Oscar Wylde and try not to let that put you off.

The book picks up when the scene shifts to Miami and a relocated Staten Island tough guy who basically becomes a club and restaurant mogul and friend of celebrities even while his back story is waiting to crush him. There’s real tension there, a component lacking in what is supposed to be the main story back in Manhattan.

The club kids are hard to take seriously, their supposed leadership working as party promoters for a club owner with his own issues. The final third is the involvement of the criminal justice system, trying to bust club management for drug distribution and hang a murder on the primary club kid Michael Alig. We’re taken through what likely happened in graphic detail, but at that point the sympathy for the victim - much less the purpetrators - isn’t really happening. The narrative isn’t helpful, and it’s not clear where Owen’s sympathy really lies.

For those of us that were coming of age in the early 90’s, thank God for grunge. As phony as that seems years later, it beat this sad little self-referencing world of intentionally alienated white people playing cooler than you in lower Manhattan.

Unfortunately, Clubland suffers from the better South Beach chapters, and by the end the result is obvious and the story all used up. Sort of like the active participants.

What I’m Watching

Vancouver at Montreal in the USL First Division? Well, there’s a fair chance. Vancouver is currently leading the league, impressive if we overlook the fact that they’ve played more games than the other clubs, including six more than Montreal - currently third. Kind of get the feeling Vancouver is a paper table topper? Me too. Let’s find out for ourselves live on Fox Soccer Channel at 8pm when Montreal could jump Vancouver on differential, even with that massive difference in games played. All Times Eastern

Quote Of The Day

"I am convinced that our experts have come up with a satisfactory solution for a new way of calculating the ranking. We have acknowledged the need for a substantial revision. We are aware that it is difficult to meet everybody’s expectations but are confident that the new system will provide an accurate measure of the strength of each of our member associations." FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: Europe

Owen injury nightmare rocks club and country — from The Times’ George Caulkin and Matt Dickinson.

Beckenbauer hits out at ’cheats’ — from The Telegraph’s Astrid Andersson. Registration Required

Players and Refs Turn Cup Into Field of Screams — from The New York Times’ Nathaniel Vinton. Registration Required

Lippi the liberator banishes the myth — from The Guardian’s James Richardson.

Lippi ready to silence his detractors — from The Financial Times’ Kevin Buckley.

Hell hath no fury like England scorned, but Scolari’s rejection does not make him a cheat — from The Independent’s James Lawton.

The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: USA

A’s executive to head soccer effort in S.J. — from The San Jose Mercury News’ Dylan Heranadez. Registration Required

Why the United States doesn’t take to soccer — from USA Today’s Marco R. della Cava.

World Cup’s biggest loser: MLS — from SI.com’s Bill Syken.

Montreal Impact to get new soccer complex near at Olympic park — from The Canadian Press’ Bill Beacon.

Big Picture

Greedy owners are selling out baseball’s integrity — from NorthJersey.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Mayor’s Stadium Proposal Advances — from The Washington Post’s Lyndsey Layton. Registration Required

Making Virtual Football More Like the Real Thing — from The New York Times’ Seth Schiesel. Registration Required