Ladies and gentleman, the World Cup has come to an end. Across the globe, our brightest soccer light will not shine for nearly four years. I am even more despondent, you see, because – alas – my blogging career is now ending as well. That’s right, the Yank will retire after a mere three more posts. Unlike the World Cup, it is not believed that I will begin blogging again in four years. Nope, I think I am signing off for good. And – it’s for the best – and I will tell you why.
You see, just as the soccer world is now ready to enter a new cycle, so is my life. During this next phase, my work commitments and family obligations are simply too important for me to sacrifice the significant amount of time I need to properly prepare posts for your personal pleasure. I know a few of you will miss my writing (including how it always applied alliteration) and my musings on soccer (some of which came in sonnet form), and I will miss it too.
I have written over 1,000 posts for the STO family of soccer sites (STO, PLTO, SATO, and LLTO) over the last 30 or so months, and I have tried to mold each one into a statuesque bit of satire and sport for you to behold. Sometimes I have been successful. Sometimes I have slipped up. Sometimes I have flat out sucked. But, at the end of this journey, I believe the bulk were good. Some were even sublime. Those are the ones that I want you to remember me for.
So, over the next three days I will be showing you 30 of the best posts I ever wrote for this family of sites. I will spend tomorrow educating you on my Best US Soccer Blogs. Then, I will present unto you my Best World Soccer Blogs. Finally, in my final post ever, I will unveil to you my the Best of the Rest of my Soccer Blogs. This last bunch will be composed of the ones that didn’t fit into the other categories. In fact, they didn’t fit anywhere but STO. Why?
You see, the proprietor of this site (David Wilson) and his business (Braveheart) gave me pretty much free rein to write about whatever I wanted on this site, and for that I must sincerely give my thanks. Now the site has risen amoung the top internet destinations for soccer commentary, and I expect it to remain my main source for current soccer news, analysis and opinion. I won’t be a writer anymore, but I will be these sites’ most voracious reader.
So, those of you who have enjoyed my musings (and even those out there who wish I had a mute button), please come back over the next three days to see the archives of the Yank’s best blogs. I have enjoyed being a soccer blogger, and I will miss it. Some say a “blogger” is one who “writes entries in, adds material to, or maintains a web blog.” I think that is true in its most generic sense. I really think a “blogger” is really anyone who translates their passion onto the webpage.
Thank you for reading my blogs, but all good things must come to an end.
Well, at least according to that bawdy Brit Chaucer…
