World Cup 2022: A Voting Dillema

Feel free to call me anti-American but I've been looking at the competing bids for World Cup 2022 from Qatar and Japan and I'm thinking that...

1. If Japan wins and I get to see holographic versions of sporting events broadcast around the world to hundreds of stadiums, the invention of Star Trek like translators and the realization of some truly useful augmented reality apps...
2. If Qatar wins and I get to arrive to a game via water taxi or see stadiums that mimic ships and seashells or have their entire internal and external facade broadcasting on 420,000 square feet of some sort of futuristic jumbotron...

...then I just might be ok if the US doesn't get the tournament. In fact, if I was voting, my vote would now be in question. Sorry.

Watch a description of what Japan is pitching below. The introduction of this type of technology into sport just seems almost too good to pass up.

Here is a video showing 5 of Qatar's proposed stadiums. These are pretty amazing.

Morgan Freeman: Bring It to Our Country

First rule of negotiating: If you're trying to persuade someone to do something, get Morgan Freeman to say it.

View from a bus...

Just scrolling through South African pictures and came across this one, taken with a cell phone camera on a bus ride. Pretty amazing despite the technology used for the photo. It was a beautiful country.

Break Their Hearts, Steal Their Fans

I think I'm wearing Orange tomorrow, so I'm recruiting you with a couple of Nike spots.

This one just has a ton of cool one liners like the one in the title of this post.

This one was released in 2009 and shows the Dutch team's advancement through the brackets with the word "Bezet" in the final game, which means "Taken." This is a play on Dutch Queens Day celebrations, where people stake claims on street market spaces with tape the night before, marking their spot with the word "Bezet." Queen's day, or Koninginnedag is a national holiday in the Netherlands celebrating the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands and is supposed to be a day of national unity. The song in this commercial is by a band named Daily Bread called Shot the Picture.

Mani the Parakeet vs Paul the Octopus

The soccer teams have taken a back seat and I'm officially cheering for Mani, the psychic parakeet to win the World Cup tomorrow. That's right, Paul the octopus has competition and this bird is picking Netherlands to win it all. Hup Holland Hup!

NASA Proves that Jabulani has Issues

NASA has proven that it has no issues with focusing on its core mission and has officially proven that the Jabulani exhibits strange behavior when when it hits 45-50 mph. Watch the short video below to see some grainy footage of the tests and watch the trail of the ball. Pretty crazy.

Here is a link to the actual page on NASA's website (a different cut of this video is available there). To be fair to NASA, using something like the Jabulani to help educate students on aerodynamics is actually a pretty neat idea in my opinion.

Soccer Army

Here's an army of soccer players that we found in a mall in South Africa - didn't buy one of these guys and possibly regretting it a little... but not too much. The sheer number of them is what I thought was pretty cool. You could "knock them down" by unscrewing various parts and putting them in your carry-on. The US players are in the shot below.

Photos with Zakumi

Just starting to go through some of our photos from vacation and came across these two photos with Zakumi (the 2010 World Cup mascot). At some point during our trip, I developed a deep affinity for Zakumi. My wife just liked the fact that she was taller than him.

Sergeant Fu - Vuvuzela

There have been some homes broken into in our neighborhood recently so this song just seemed kind of perfect...

You can break into my house if you want to
You can take all my clothes if you want to
Take my TV take my cat and my big outside umbrella
But just don't take my vuvuzela

...a fat kid in a track suit...

"To an untrained eye he looks like a fat kid in a tracksuit who’s won a competition. But then you see how, even now at touching 50, he commands the field. That charisma, that magnetism." - The Daily Mail

Today brought a farewell to one of the most controversial coaches of the World Cup and I was sad to see him go...but at the same time his team was not the better one. His passion on the sideline was great to watch, his tactics in question, his star power unquestionable...


...his quotes sometimes priceless, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes baring the truth with no theater.

• My legitimate kids are Dalma and Giannina. The rest are a product of my money and mistakes.
• Pele has to go back to the museum.
• We all know what the French are like and Platini as a Frenchman thinks he knows it all.
• In the end, it is about whether God wants us to be in the final, but I know that is what God wants. This time we will not need the Hand of God, because it is the will of God.
• This loss is tougher (than any as a player). We had a chance to be one of the four best teams in the world, and we couldn't do it.

Grupo Revelação - Sina (Ao Vivo no Morro)

I have a ton of great memories of South Africa - here's a small one related to music and the international vibe of attending a World Cup. My wife and I were lucky enough to pick up a pair of extra tickets to go to the Argentina vs South Korea game that was held in Soccer City. Our hotel (filled 100% with World Cup fans) arranged for a small bus to get people to the game. Two Brazilians were on our bus and they wasted no time passing a CD to the driver to listen to on the road to the game...

...and that my friends is how I was introduced to Grupo Revelação, and their CD Ao Vivo no Morro. You may not understand a single word of this song but when you hit the chorus at 1:36, you'll wish you could sing along with the rest of the crowd and you just might make up some sounds that fit as best as you can because it is definitely infectious.

Of course, I turned to the Brazilian next to me and asked him what it was we were listening to but he didn't speak English at all. Luckily his friend who was with him did and I made sure to get the name of the group before we parted ways. The band is known for a genre of samba music called pagoda.

Not quite convinced? Here's another. I just love the crowd singing along to each of the chrouses in these songs. Definitely looking forward to 2014.

Wasn't such a bad call after all....

Great photo of 2nd England goal that shows it did NOT cross the line. Pretty funny (if you are not a die hard England fan).

Found via Grant Wahl @ Twitter.

Revenge for 1966: Gemany Eliminates England

44 years ago England was awarded a goal in the 1966 World Cup Finals over Germany, the referee erroneously thinking the ball crossed the line. As a result, England went on to win 4-2.

44 years later, England was not awarded a goal in the 2010 World Cup Second Round against Germany despite the fact that the ball clearly crossed the line. It would have made the score 2-2 and allowed for a different second half which saw Germany dismantle England, eliminating them 4-1.

In this case, history doesn't repeat, it avenges.

New York Post: This Sport is Stupid Anyway

Ignorance like this always amazes me.

Update: Although...to be fair, I have yet to read the article so maybe this out of context headline is redeemed in some strange fashion although I have my (serious) doubts. I also have my serious doubts that I will even try to read this article.

Update: For all of the international readers who are stumbling on this post, please know that this is not a majority opinion in the US...the Post is a sensationalist tabloid known for scandalous headlines, and this opinion is definitely not representative of the American public.

US Team Out of World Cup

"It's one thing to recognize slow starts as a problem, another thing to rectify it."
- Bob Bradley via Grant Wahl's Twitter feed.

Tough and bitter loss to Ghana today 2-1. Finishing was just as much of a problem as slow starts (2 prime examples below). Overall, I think the US team and fans should be proud of our guys. Timmy Howard challenging for that last ditch effort off that corner and follow-up cross is a symbol of what I will remember our 2010 team for. Our never-say-die attitude, heart, desire and teamwork were a joy to be a part of.

Warm Up with Andrés Cantor

Warm up for the big game this morning with one of the best Andrés Cantor calls ever. He ranks it in his top 5.

"¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!"

Big Picture World Cup

More cool photos of the World Cup over at The Big Picture. Altidore has a serious vertical leap.

Interesting thing about the World Cup

One of the interesting things that I have noticed related to the last two World Cups is the license that this even gives you to wear incredibly patriotic clothes that I would normally never wear. I can think of no other time in my life where I literally donned a US flag and and wrapped it around me as a cape. Not to say that I am not a patriotic person, I just normally don't wear the flag.

Seems that this license for enjoying things that I normally wouldn't enjoy applies to music as well. I have no problem confessing that I am now a big fan of this song from Shakira: Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Song. The video is pretty cool as well - lots of World Cup footage from the past and some cool fan scenes.

2010 - When Soccer Became Cool

Neat article in the Boston Herald about a watershed day for soccer in America can be read here.

"Nothing brings Americans together better than outrage, and they are outraged, which in and of itself is progress. There was a time, not so long ago, when nobody cared enough about soccer to get outraged no matter how bad the call was."

Reaction to Landon Donovan's Goal vs Algeria

Found this on The Original Winger today. Totally worth watching - I confess that I was screaming like crazy in my house as well. It's cool to see the momentary frustration when Dempsey's shot must have been blocked, followed immediately by joy. Can't wait until Saturday.