It didn't take me long to figure out what my Bicentennial-plus-one blog would be about as I sat waiting for my car to be serviced. As I found a chair I immediately saw the three magazines laying on the table, waiting for my perusal. My choices were GOLF with serial philanderer Tiger Woods on the cover (GONG!!!), Sports Illustrated with Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Landon Donovan gracing the cover, or ESPN the Magazine's World Cup Preview with a leaping Samuel Eto'o.
I had no more opened Sports Illustrated to read a wonderful story about Landon Donovan, when a man from the service department interrupted me...my first thought was, "Oh nooo...what is wrong with my vehicle?" But instead, he surprised me with, "Hi, I'm Kevin...I was wondering where you got your Manchester United front plate?" I smiled and we launched into a twenty minute review of the EPL season, with several USA World Cup nods in between. His family are diehard United fans, except for their 15-yr-old son, who evidently floated down the river in a wicker basket...as he is a...*coughs*...C-Club fan.
I asked Kevin how that could happen...was it some kind of DNA anomaly?
Anyway...Kevin doesn't get paid to talk about footy, so he went back to work...only to return later to discuss college footy teams!
As I was reading about Landon, I found out several things that I didn't know about him...the most surprising was that he has a twin sister (Tristan).
The article, written by Joe Posnanski, opened with what I thought was an accurate description of footy and how some find it boring because of a lack of goals:
"Fans, though, will say the scarcity of goals in soccer is the whole point. A goal at the highest level of the game is a miracle. Consider the odds. You have to move a ball across a large field, eluding ten obstinate foes, without using your hands. You cannot legally pass the ball to a teammate who has raced past the last defender. Once you approach the goal, you must put the ball into a net eight-yards wide and eight-feet high, guarded by the one man on the field allowed to use his hands. It is, when you think about it, an impossible task.De acuerdo contigo, Joe.
But it is not impossible. It happens. And this, the lovers of the sport will tell you, is why soccer soars. What it takes to score a goal goes beyond hitting a home run, beyond scoring a touchdown, beyond athletic skill, something that transcends ball handling and deft touch and a powerful shot. It takes, for lack of a better word, magic."
As I said above the article about Landon was very interesting. The final paragraph was the kicker. Donovan had struggled his entire career to make everyone else happy, when it finally dawned on him that the only person he needed to impress was himself:
"This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. And I need to embrace it. In the past I needed something to get me going. Now I know: If I want to have a good game, it's right here." *pounds chest*It's all about heart.
Speaking of hearts...the magic is 3 days away...my heart is racing...
USA, SPAIN, BRAZIL...NOOOOO...THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU CALL THEM:
ESPN the Mag listed the official nicknames of the 32 teams represented in South Africa. I thought about making a game of it, but there are quite a few which aren't very obvious...so I decided to list them. If you want to test yourself, put a piece of paper over the right-hand side of the blog.
Brazil Canarinho
Portugal Seleccao da Quinas (Team of Shields)
Greece The Pirate Ship
Slovakia The Fighting Jondas
North Korea Chollima (Winged Horses)
Spain La Furia Roja (Red Fury)
Switzerland Schweizer Nati (Swiss Nation)
Chile La Roja (Reds)
Honduras Los Catrachos (Hondurans)
Ghana Black Stars
Paraguay Albirroja (White and Red)
Serbia Beli Orlovi (White Eagles)
Australia Socceroos
Germany Die Mannschaft (The Team)
Slovenia Zma jceki (Dragons)
Algeria les Fennecs (Desert Foxes)
USA The Yanks
England The Three Lions
Nigeria Super Eagles
Argentina La Albiceleste (White and sky blue)
South Korea Treguk Jeonsa (Treguk Warriors)
Mexico El Tri (Tricolor flag)
South Africa Bafana Bafana (The boys, the boys)
Uruguay La Celeste (sky blue)
France le Bleus
Netherlands Flying Dutchmen (or Oranje)
Denmark Olsen's Eleven
Italy Gli Azzurri (the blues)
New Zealand All Whites
Japan Samurai Blue
Cameroon les Lions Indomptables
Cote d'Ivoire les Elephants
Did you know them all? Me neither! A couple that struck me as odd:
Japan...not sure I would ever consider the color blue as Japanese...what about the red dot in the flag? You would think they would be called The Rising Sun.
Greece I thought was odd as well. The Pirate Ship? I wouldn't associate piracy with the Aegean...hmmmm
And finally, the USA!!! Don't you think it would be something to do with our heritage? Maybe the Golden Eagles, or Stars and Stripes? Yanks seems so....British.
My alltime favorite has to be Bafana Bafana!!! I did know this one before and it just rolls off the tongue!
WHO IS SEEING RED?
The cliche of Latinos/South Americans being hot-headed is known the world around. Is it true? Well I found some interesting statistics about the World Cup qualifying. Which teams had the most red cards during the run-up to the Cup?
With SEVEN red cards: Chile
With FIVE red cards: Uruguay
With FOUR red cards: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
With TWO red cards: Paraguay
What does this mean? All of the teams are from South America, and one from North America.
Honduras lagged behind it's South American counterparts with only ONE red card in qualifying. Come on, Los Catrachos!!! Hold up your end of the deal!!! :)
The Portuguese and Spanish (responsible for inhabiting these lands) had ZERO!!!
In contrast, the countries from the cold Northern parts of the world, Switzerland, Netherlands and Denmark had ZERO as well.
Maybe there is something to that theory...or maybe they just play with intensity!
ONE LAST HILARIOUS ITEM:
As you may well know, North Korea and the United States haven't exactly been buddy buddy since Kim Jong-Il took over as "leader." South Korea has been an ally of the US, but it's communist northern neighbor is anything but.
The differences in our countries' philosophies also includes "information dispersal." Twitter, facebook, internet, cable TV, Dish Network, Mobile phones, blah blah blah...you can get information on the WC at anytime of the day in the US.
North Koreans, whose team is in the Group of Death against Brazil, Portugal, and Cote d'Ivoire, will not be apprised of their team's results...UNLESS THEY WIN...which ESPN added would be...NEVER.
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