Predictions sure to go wrong

Six pools, one Sheet of Integrity, countless hours of gutless chalk and baseless punts on underdogs -- it must be March Madness time again! Yes, it's those magical few weeks when national productivity plummets as everyone who's been ignoring college basketball up until this point suddenly becomes keenly interested in the sport (or at least in the prize money for winning their office pool).

I make no claims of great insight or analysis; the vast majority of college basketball games I watched this season were with the sound off and podcasts playing instead. Still, I would be remiss if I, too, didn't jump into the pool with both feet. It's only a matter of time before my bracket is irreparably busted, of course, at which point I do like any self-respecting observer and cheer for chaos.

Midwest Region
First-round upsets: Missouri (9) def. Colorado State (8), Oregon (12) def. Oklahoma State (5), St. Mary's (11) def. Memphis (6).
Second round: Louisville (1) def. Missouri; Oregon def. St. Louis (4); Michigan State (3) def. St. Mary's; Duke (2) def. Creighton (7).
Sweet 16: Louisville def. Oregon; Michigan State def. Duke. Elite Eight: Louisville def. Michigan State.

West Region
First-round upsets: Wichita State (9) def. Pittsburgh (8); Iowa State (10) def. Notre Dame (7).
Second round: Gonzaga (1) def. Wichita State; Wisconsin (5) def. Kansas State (4); New Mexico (3) def. Arizona (6); Ohio State (2) def. Iowa State.
Sweet 16: Gonzaga def. Wisconsin; New Mexico def. Ohio State. Elite Eight: Gonzaga def. New Mexico.

South Region
First-round upsets: None. I know Minnesota (11) over UCLA (6) is a popular pick, but did you see how the Gophers finished the season? The same Gophers who lost to Nebraska while an NCAA bid was on the line?
Second round: Kansas (1) def. North Carolina (8); VCU (5) def. Michigan (4); Florida (3) def. UCLA; Georgetown (2) def. San Diego State (7).
Sweet 16: Kansas def. VCU; Florida def. Georgetown. Elite Eight: Florida def. Kansas.

East Region
First-round upsets: Temple (9) def. North Carolina State (8). I just can't pull the trigger on another sexy pick, Bucknell (11) over Butler (6).
Second round: Indiana (1) def. Temple; Syracuse (4) def. UNLV (5); Butler def. Marquette (3); Miami (2) def. Illinois (7).
Sweet 16: Syracuse def. Indiana; Miami def. Butler. Elite Eight: Miami def. Syracuse.

Final Four
Louisville def. Gonzaga; Florida def. Miami.

National Championship Game
Louisville 71, Florida 63

In-defense-able?

If the United States qualifies for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it will be this country's most white-knuckle ride to soccer's showcase event since Paul Caligiuri uncorked the Shot Heard Round the World and helped send the Yanks to Italia '90. Almost a generation since the days of Bob Gansler's college all-stars, the US national team is in anything but rude health as it prepares for two critical World Cup qualifiers in the next week.

US coach Juergen Klinsmann released on Monday his roster for the qualifiers at home against Costa Rica (on Friday) and at Mexico (March 26). However, the absences were just as noteworthy, if not more so, than the players included.

The summer of Indonesia?

Stop me if you've heard this one. A big European club announces it's going to visit Indonesia, cites the country's huge fan base and love of soccer, promises it'll bring its best squad and makes positive noises about starting an academy in the country. Sound familiar? Well, you can add Chelsea to the conga line of European clubs hoping to exploit tap into Indonesia's love of the beautiful game.

Chelsea will follow on the heels of English Premier League foe Arsenal as the second big-time club from England’s top flight to play in the capital this year, with the match scheduled for July 25.

Sponsored by lender Bank Negara Indonesia, the 2012 European Champions League winner will face the Indonesia All Stars, a team that will be selected by BNI customers via a poll starting today.

“We are very pleased to announce this historic fixture — Chelsea’s first game in Indonesia,” club CEO Ron Gourlay told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

“We know there is huge support for the team in the country. The fan [base] here is enormous. A figure of over 2 million fans in Indonesia on our Facebook page demonstrates that, and we are delighted our supporters will have the chance to watch us play in Jakarta.”

The London rivals could be just part of the cavalcade of stars passing through Gelora Bung Karno this summer, though. If you believe Wikipedia, the Internet's most unimpeachable source, fans in Indonesia could find their wallets tapped out long before Ramadan ends on August 7.

Knock-knock, lah

Singapore is a popular topic in the soccer world these days, albeit for all the wrong reasons. A still-unfolding match-fixing scandal threatens to turn the Little Red Dot into a world soccer pariah and, if that wasn't enough, the locals can't even be bothered to acknowledge their domestic league.

Fed up of playing in front of sparse crowds in Singapore's poorly attended S.League, players from Balestier Khalsa are going door-to-door to try to drum up their fan base.

"The more often the players go knocking on doors, the higher the chances of them becoming familiar with residents," Balestier chairman S Thavaneson told Monday's Today newspaper. "Who knows, they may become curious and decide to watch a game or two."

According to the article, the S.League had an average attendance of 932 last season. Why? Partly because of the Europoseurs, a problem that has plagued many an up-and-coming league and against which I have previously railed.

While Singaporeans are huge soccer fans, they are far more interested in watching English Premier League giants Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal on television rather than going to see local teams like Balestier, Woodlands Wellington and Tanjong Pagar United.

This news makes me sad. There is good soccer on display in Singapore, and the league has local players who at least are the equal of their peers in Southeast Asia. I've heard various excuses from Singaporeans about why they don't go to games -- it's too hot (Note: It's always too hot in Singapore), late kickoffs run too close to EPL games, the soccer isn't good enough, etc. All classics from the Europoseur songbook.

You know what's certain not to help things improve? Ignoring your local club and/or league in favor of teams you might get to see play in person once a decade. If you need a reminder of what it's like to be a fan, look across the strait and emulate Indonesia for a change -- those folks know how to support their club and have a good time, even if the footie isn't up to more exacting standards.

Seat back

This. Oh, so very much this. This Slate article touches on one of my top pet peeves about travel -- people who recline their seats without so much as a heads-up.

For the five minutes after takeoff, every passenger on an airliner exists in a state of nature. Everyone is equally as uncomfortable as everyone else—well, at least everyone who doesn’t have the advantage of first class seating or the disadvantage of being over 6 feet tall. The passengers are blank slates, subjects of an experiment in morality which begins the moment the seat-belt light turns off.

Ding! Instantly the jerk in 11C reclines his seat all the way back. The guy in 12C, his book shoved into his face, reclines as well. 13C goes next. And soon the reclining has cascaded like rows of dominos to the back of the plane, where the poor bastards in the last row see their personal space reduced to about a cubic foot.

Or else there are those, like me, who refuse to be so rude as to inconvenience the passengers behind us. Here I sit, fuming, all the way from IAD to LAX, the deceptively nice-seeming schoolteacher’s seat back so close to my chin that to watch TV I must nearly cross my eyes. To type on this laptop while still fully opening the screen requires me to jam the laptop’s edge into my stomach.

As the article also details, asking people not to recline their seats rarely proves fruitful. I understand why people lay back -- even if I'm not convinced it makes a flight that much more comfortable -- but it strikes me as odd that people reflexively do so the instant they're allowed, not bothering to check if their reclining will negatively impact their fellow passengers.

When I marched drum corps, our tour buses also had reclining seats. (Note: Reclining seats were the extent of the luxury on the horn bus; the Troopers, while a classy organization, were not flush with cash.) We were allowed to recline our seat, but only after saying "seat back," a phrase that was intended both as a request and a notification for the person seated behind us. To this day I still check with the person behind me on those rare occasions I do recline my seat; it just seems the natural, courteous thing to do. You don't know if that person has a hot drink or a laptop on their tray table, and a confined space 30,000 feet in the air is one of the last places you'd want to be asking forgiveness instead of permission.

A turn of the head, a short, simple request and a modicum of common courtesy. It's not that difficult and will win you many brownie points from those around you. Flying is rarely an enjoyable experience -- let's not make it more difficult for our fellow travelers.