Football is coming mainstream in the United States! At least international football. Evidence? Euro 2008 emulates the good fortunes of World Cup 2006 and was broadcast on ESPN, although there were a few that slipped away from the regular cable version, but I believe the football fans can live with that.

It was really time consuming to enjoy the game, kind of ironic. I really enjoy most of the games, especially the more prestige teams such as when the Group of Death (Group C) plays. European giant Italy and France didn’t do so sweet this year although Italy did manage to squeeze through the group stage but was stopped by Lady Luck that saw Spain winning the crown for this year’s campaign.

There are certainly many honorable mentions in this campaign that established national reputation, and fabricated a number of rags-to-riches stories.

Turkey was at full stretch at the semi-finals against Germany. Their story has to be the most amazing one in this year’s tournament - a hat-trick of goals in the second half humiliated the Czech Republic and sent themselves through with Portugal. Then a devastating goal from Semih Senturk, from Croatia’s perspective at least, forced a spirited penalty. Vatreni was cruelly crashed out of the competition. Germany and Philip Lahm’s 90th minutes goal seal the ill-fated Turkish team whose line-up was disrupted with injuries and suspension. They played their hearts out and they deserve to be where they are at.

Mine and many others’ favorite has got to be the Brilliant Orange - The Netherlands. Their games are pleasing to the eyes, it flows effortlessly on its offense yet unable to defend their leads. As one of the commentator had said - “I love it, they just don’t know how to defend, they only know how to attack!” Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Rafael Van der Vaart, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin Van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, and the list goes on. The 3-1 scoreline that the Russian left them was overstated. Strategically, Hiddink had the edge and hence the result.

Spain won it’s first major championship since 1964. Satifying the thirst of it’s 44 million loyal La Rojas. The goal from Fernando Torres was simply brilliant, although Lehman was being a little too adventuous himself.

With that, the curtain closes on the the 13th UEFA European Football Championship. Much goals, much drama. It was an excellent championship that witnesses nations’ rise and fall.

See you in 2 years in South Africa for World Cup 2010. Till then, glory glory Man Utd!

Yes. It’s FINALLY over. Euro 2008 is done with, and maybe, just maybe, I can have my blog be the Featured Blog at wordpress.com/tag/football. Because, I mean, football is just better than soccer. Yea, football doesn’t describe the sport as well it should. We should be like ‘Tackleball’ if we want to be accurate. But, where the hell does soccer come from? I mean, seriously. I want to know. Where does the word soccer originate?

Does anybody know? I don’t.

• got my polio and hepatitis b shots for the missions trip to ethiopia (less than 2 weeks away)
• ate leftover dutch baby pancakes from the pancake house for breakfast
• ate leftover pizza from blackjacks for lunch
• forgot to eat dinner
• took some bc powder for a honkin’ headache. man does that stuff work wonders. 
• mouthed-off to a ref at an indoor soccer game
• got a 2 minute penalty at an indoor soccer game
• played rock band drums at catalyst for an hour after work
• played the literal drums at catalyst for two hours following the rock band hour
• played my guitar for an hour following those three hours. worked on new songs.
• received a total of $200 in sponsorship for ethiopia. yay!!!!!
• found out my car is a bit broken and needs fixin’
• finally finished a big project at work
• felt the presence of God in my car and thanked Him for a rekindled fire
• blogged

Arsene Wenger believes that Arsenal Reserves captain Havard Nordtveit will have a role to play in the Arsenal First Team next season.

Wenger, responding to a question from Norweigan paper Dagbladet, told reporters “I expect that he takes the step up to the first team and get a few games there.”

Nordtveit, an 18-year-old Norwegian defender, was scheduled to make his first-team debut in the Carling Cup last January, but suffered a knee injury.  He played well for the Reserves at the end of last season, and was an unused sub in Arsenal’s final Premier League match.

Perhaps Nordtveit is the reason Arsene remains ardently opposed to purchasing another defender?

Euro’s final was exciting. Villa really didn’t play!!! ArGhHhhHhHh~ I thought he may be substituted in at least to run around. ZzZzZZzzz~ But nevertheless! A 5-man midfield did quite contain Germany. Hmm.. I thought Schweinsteiger played quite badly. He had a lot of missed chance. But probably its cuz Spain’s defence rocked. LOL. Torres finally did it by scoring the winning goal, after failing to do so thus far. Heh…

There’s a lot of violence and “discipline problems” during the final match. Everyone got so agitated. Haha.. But it’s interesting to be the on-lookers. Haha~

Nevertheless!!! Spain won the Euro 2008!! Weez~

Alright, enough of soccer~ Here’s some updates~

After slacking so long, I finally have only 1 month more to slack before finally starting work. Finally went to take the photo for my staff pass, which I had procrastinated for so long, and also to take my X-RAY required by company.

Other than these, it’s still SIM-ing all the way.

Here’s some movies which I want to catch:

The Strangers

This is a horror movie, which supposedly is inspired by a true event. Hmm.. I like the way the poster look. Eerie and creepy. Hope it’ll be a good horror movie. I haven’t been watching any horror films lately. Kinda miss it. Haha~

10 Promises to my Dog 「犬と私の１０の約束」 (Reads: inu to watashi no tou no yakusoku)

I saw this trailer when I was in Taiwan!!!! Didn’t know that it’ll be shown in Singapore. It’s good, apparently.

Get Smart

I like Anne Hathaway, so I feel like watching this movie. Haha~ And the trailer looks stupid. HAHA!

Yup~ That’s all for my movie talk.

Not content with one fluttering Brazilian born catch, Big Phil will try to reel in Real Madrid Fancy-Dan Robinho for £25m.  For those of you keeping score, that is £1m for every La Liga goal scored by the twenty-four year old in three seasons at the Bernabeu.

Barcelona are keen to boost morale by bringing in a sunny summer striker.  But, when that fails, they may bring in yet another sulky, has been one from England in the person of Andriy Shevchenko.

Arsene Wenger will hope he found another Flamini in Werder Bremen midfielder Amaury Bischoff.  So expect the young Frenchman to mope around, grow a ratty beard, fill in at a number of positions and become really awesome just as his contract runs out.  The boss may also keenly examine Obafemi’ Martins’ £13m release clause, when Adebayor fucks off to whatever big club it is this week, or maybe Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for £21m if he’s in a spending mood.

All that time in Austria has got “Rock Me Amadeus” stuck in the heads of Real Madrid and Manchester United, who both want to import Columbian forward Radamel Falcao from Argentine club Boca Juniors.

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate dug up Didier Digard, who is a bit too nubile for PSG’s tastes, but he may have to put him back after the PSG board bungled up the transfer deal.  The French giants wanted the 5m euros up front, rather than in two separate payments.  No word on whether that was in non-consecutive unmarked twenties.

In this space, I’ve previously hoped aloud that FIFA would take action against South Africa if that nation’s leaders didn’t apply political pressure to Zimbabwean “president” Robert Mugabe.

Well, David J. Warner, in an excellent post over at FanHouse, applies some cold water to this theory. When an organization’s leader is as impossibly corrupt as FIFA head Sepp Blatter, then hoping for a principled stand is little more than foolish wish-casting. Point taken, unfortunately.

I haven’t really followed soccer (football, whatever) since the days when my family had season tickets for the NASL-era San Jose Earthquakes, and even that was limited to swooning over Paul Child and his curly brown hair. But yesterday was the UEFA final between Spain and Germany, and it reminded me what a great game that soccerball game really is. A truly superior sport.

Still, I didn’t think I would be writing about yesterday’s game until I saw the astounding pre-game ceremony. The only thing missing from that pre-game show was Prince playing with his giant forked penis, and that would have actually fit right in with rest of the production. Maybe next time. I can’t believe this, but I’ve been looking and looking online and can find no photos of the pre-game ceremony. You’re going to have to believe me about what I am about to tell you.

(more…)

If you have no idea what this is about, please read this post before continuing.

Well the Old Timers and Young Guns regions are halfway through with the first round, and Verne Lundquist is the only seed lower than #4 to win, and he creamed Jon Miller. Gus Johnson hammered Ian Eagle, ditto with the heavy favorite Marv Albert over Dick Enberg, and Dan Shulman beat Matt Vasgersian.

Next up, the two regions will be done with round 1 with the 2/7 and 3/6 seed matchups.

(2) Harry Kalas vs. (7) Bob Uecker (Old Timers Region)

The Skinny: Both are known for baseball commentary, but these guys are absolute greats. Kalas, in case you didn’t know, is the voice of NFL Films and the voice of the Phillies, his grave voice and passion is spectacular. Uecker is the radio voice of the Brewers, and “Juuust a bit outside” is probably his tagline (Major League reference).

Potential Downfall For Kalas: His voice is perfect for your funeral narration…..

Uecker: His baseball career was so bad that it may end up hurting his chances in this one.

Who is moving on?

(3) Vin Scully vs. (6) Brent Musberger

The Skinny: Scully has called numerous World Series and was the TV commentator for “The Catch” for CBS. Even at his age (which is between 100-150 years old), he is still belting those home run calls. Musberger has hosted too many sporting events to count, his “You are looking live!” line never gets old, and his most notable game was Doug Flutie to Gerald Phelan……you know the rest.

Potential Downfall For Scully: Talks too much….puts up useless info on baseball players, but then again, it IS baseball.

Musberger: Come on, there’s a DRINKING GAME after him!

Who is moving on?

(2) Mike Breen vs. (7) Mike Tirico (Young Guns Region)

The Skinny: While these men work every game with nightmare partners, they stand out as the best in their 3 men booth. Breen has done a very good job calling NBA games and even did some Arena Football for NBC, he’s very consistent and oh yeah, “BANG!”. Tirico has a passionate voice, he’s the only thing that prevents me from destroying the TV set whenever MNF comes on, and an even better radio announcer.

Potential Downfall For Breen: Seems to cheer for the home team or the star player a tad too often.

Tirico: Too vanilla…..

Who is moving on?

(3) Kevin Harlan vs. (6) Sean McDonough

The Skinny: The deep voiced Harlan should be the lead announcer for the NBA on TNT once Marv Albert retires or croaks, great knowledge and much of the time lets the crowd do the talking instead of himself. He’s one of the tops for the NFL on CBS and seems to be getting bigger games in terms of importance. And how can you not like “LEBRON JAMES!! WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE!”? McDonough is the youngest to ever call a World Series on TV at the age of 25, so I think that should prove him worthy of a spot on here.

Potential Downfall for Harlan: Sometimes in the NFL on CBS he seems to have problems with knowing when to raise his voice for a certain play.

McDonough: Voice cracks quite often…..

Who is moving on?

We move to the other part of the bracket next time………

Spain’s victory in Euro 2008 was a galvanizing moment for a country troubled by separatist forces. But it was just that–a moment. As powerful as soccer is in Western Europe, political divisions often run deeper. The euphoria will pass and old tensions will resume. That’s simply how things work.