Go Egypt

TigerBlog has spent much of the last few days working on the video for the Princeton soccer celebration that is coming up this weekend.

Princeton hosts Columbia in women's and men's soccer this Saturday, with the women at 1 and the men at 4. The day will feature halftime ceremonies honoring each team's NCAA Final Four appearance, with the 2004 women and 1993 men on hand.

TB has been putting together a video for the big dinner that follows the games.

Back in 2004, TigerBlog was the OAC contact for the women's soccer team. As he goes down the path of the video, it's hard to believe that nine years have passed.

Back in 1993, he was still at the newspaper, and he actually covered Princeton's first three NCAA tournament games that year, as the Tigers defeated Columbia, Penn State and Hartwick at Lourie-Love Field to reach the Final Four. It's hard to believe that was 20 years ago.

Actually, it's easier to believe that 20 years have passed since then than it is to believe it's been nine years since the 2004 women matched the men's accomplishment.

Time can be weird that way.

As TB goes through old video, he is immediately taken back to big moments of the 2004 season.

Actually, the team's highlight video from that year began in 2003, when Princeton lost a frustrating 2-1 game to Villanova in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. As the video said, "2004 would be different."

And it was. Starting with a 2-1 win over a Texas A&M team that came to Lourie-Love ranked fifth nationally, Princeton stormed through the year, falling only to Wake Forest and Colgate while winning 15 times during the regular season, including going 7-0-0 in the Ivy League.

The NCAA tournament featured four games at Lourie-Love Field, wins over Central Connecticut, Villanova, Boston College and finally Washington to reach the Final Four.

The 2004 Princeton women's soccer team remains the only Ivy League women's soccer team ever to reach the Final Four and the only team in any Ivy sport to reach the Final Four of a 64-team NCAA bracket.

It's amazing how much different things were 11 years earlier.

It starts, of course, with the hairstyles of the 1993 players and fans, at least as far as TB can see from the video he's been watching. Rob Pawloski, the goalkeeper on the team, has a ponytail that sticks out through a baseball cap that he wore during the games; TB doubts he still has the same look.

Beyond that, all of TB's pictures from 1993 are black & white prints that had to be scanned. Everything from 2004 was color, and they were already electronic.

There was no internet in 1993, so getting information on that team isn't as easy. Everything from 2004 is stored online.

The 2004 women's soccer coaches and players don't look too much different nine years later.

The men? Well, there is the matter of the head coach, Bob Bradley.

In the video, he looks really, really young. Not that he looks old now, though he certainly has been through a lot in the 20 years since he took the Tigers to the Final Four.

He left Princeton shortly after that and got in on the ground floor of Major League Soccer. Then he became an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team, under ironically enough, Bruce Arena, who was the head coach of the Virginia team that defeated Princeton in the 1993 semifinals.

Bradley was then elevated to the top spot for the USMNT, and he led the Americans to the 2010 World Cup, where he also won his group, before falling to Ghana in the knockout round.

For all of that success, Bradley was let go as the U.S. head coach. TB gets that this is the nature of coaching on the international level.

Bradley is now the head coach of the Egyptian national team. As it's turned out, that has become the hardest job in coaching in the world.

A country that politically is barely being held together has at least been able to rally around its soccer team, which is undefeated in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. It's not easy having that kind of pressure hanging over your head as a coach. This isn't about winning to save your job. It's about winning while there are massacres going on all around you.

All that stands in the way of Egypt and its first World Cup berth since 1990 is Ghana, the same country that knocked Bradley out in the round of 16 in 2010. Egypt plays home-and-home with Ghana, and the winner advances to the World Cup. The loser is out.

The first of those two games is today at noon Eastern time, at Ghana.

Scott Bradley is Princeton's baseball coach and Bob's brother. He just walked by and told TB he's nervous.

While looking for footage and stills for his video, TB came across the 1992 team photo, which has Bob Bradley in the back, looking like a young Bob Bradley, or young Charlton Heston, if you prefer.

In front is a little boy holding a soccer ball and wearing a Princeton jersey. It's Bob's son, Michael, now one of the best players on the U.S. national team.

They've come a long way in 20 years.

Today is a huge step in the father's continued journey.