Shea Saves the Day......Maybe

The Gold Cup Final was played yesterday at Soldier Field in Chicago. Most people at the start of the tournament probably expected a Mexico vs USA final, instead they were entertained with a USA vs Panama final. I like Panama way better than Mexico, so it was good that they made it into the finals. Of course I had to be for my home country USA!! I didn't watch most of the first half because my cousin was over and I was hanging out with him. Unfortunately I did see that Stuart Holden received another knee injury. The young guy has had some serious injury problems these last few seasons. He was finally back and ready to impress, and he was impressing. He's kind of like the Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere of the United States National squad. Anyways I watched all of the second half and we had plenty of chances. Panama looked good, but their offense didn't really kick into gear until close to the end of the game when the United States was getting tired. Panamas defense held tight. I really don't like Joe Corona, but apparently all of our fans do, so he got the start in front of Jose Torres. Finally they took out Corona and put on the wonderful Brek Shea! Shea can pass the ball and he has the right soccer mind, but I guess for a tall guy he is not very strong. He needs to work on the physical side of his game. Panama kind of pushed him around a little, but when they didn't he usually put in a good pass. In the 69th Minute Alejandro Bedoya sent in an amazing ball. Landon Donovan took a wild swing at it and missed it completely, but his dummy move caught the goalie off guard. Then Brek Shea was right there to tap it in. The funny thing is, Bedoya probably would've scored anyway even if Shea didn't tap it in. It looked like it was going in. Anyways, Shea got the goal and later Donavan said something along the lines of "I took a giant swing at the ball and completely missed it". The USA got the Gold Cup win and hopefully this will give them momentum going into World Cup Qualifiers in September!

To wrap up the tournament we'll list some of the players that impressed me the most! Jose Torres and Eddie Johnson really impressed me. When I went to the Semifinals game in Dallas Torres took quick precise touches and made good decisions on the ball. I had always liked Eddie Johnson at Seattle even though he had some rough times. In this tournament he proved that he needs to be on the A Team when World Cup Qualifiers come around! A more surprising player that impressed me was Mix Diskerud. Diskerud is actually from Norway, but I'm glad he decided to play for the US. He seemed to have a right soccer mind like Torres and was always in a good position on the field. He knew where to be, even off the ball making runs. Blas Perez, the FC Dallas man, looked very good. He had some nice assists and some cool goals. Dallas has missed him these last weeks while he's been helping his home country, so now he needs to go lead FC Dallas to the top. Lastly, Alberto Quintero impressed me from the very first group game against Mexico. He's a great winger from Panama and his skill and vision on the ball is of very high quality.

Come back and check out this blog for more entertaining soccer news and fun!

Are we even in America?

The Gold Cup experience was a very cool one. It probably held the most entertaining crowd I had ever been with at a soccer match. The only other non-friendly games I had ever been to were just FC Dallas games and the crowds there don't really get too pumped (although the 4th league German division game had a lot on the line, only 14,500 people showed up). The England and Ireland game had a huge crowd, but since it was a friendly not much was put into it. The only problem with this great crowd was that the best part of the cheering, yelling, and booing, came in the Panama vs Mexico match.

Making our way towards the stadium we could all tell there were way more Mexican fans headed towards the entrance. Maybe because we were in Texas or maybe just more Mexicans like soccer. The USA vs Honduras game was still very fun! Eddie Johnson, one of my favorite young forwards for the National squad, put in the first goal. You could tell it was going to be a pretty easy win for the USA. Landon Donovan and Jose Torres really impressed me, especially Torres. His touches were precise and quick. His passes were usually expertly placed. The biggest disappointment had to be Brek Shea. I had always wanted to see him play at Dallas, then he moved across the pond to England. Luckily he got subbed into the game in the second half. His touches were horrible, he didn't seem energized, and even though he had some good ideas on the ball, his passes never seemed to make it through to the target. But I still think Shea deserves a spot on the National "A" squad! Anyways, the USA beat Honduras 3-1 and booked their ticket to Soldier Field in Chicago.

More and more people flooded the entrance into Cowboys Stadium for the Mexico game. There was lots of Spanish yelling and screaming. When Mexico scored their only goal of the match the crowd was super crazy!! Blas Perez for Panama had been having a good year at FC Dallas and they are probably missing him greatly right now. But Panama definitely needs him. He's had a great last two games and has looked very impressive to me. FC Dallas better hold on to him if he improves even more, because a trip to Europe is not out of the question for Perez. He put Panama up 1-0 and Panama eventually won the game 2-1.

The Gold Cup finals will be on Sunday in Chicago at Soldier Field. Make sure to tune in and watch the game. I think the two best teams in the tournament made it to the finals and I'm giving the USA the title, winning 2-1. I would have said 2-0, but Panama's offense is amazing and our set piece defending is horrible!

Best and Worst Jerseys Part 2

The beginning of this blog was going to be very different as of today around noon. Then while devouring a piece of bread saturated with creamy chicken broccoli soup, my friend called me up and was like "yo dog, you want to hit up the Gold Cup Semifinals in Dallas tomorrow". So I thought and thought about it, then I excepted his offer. So later tomorrow I will be traveling to Jerry Jones's stadium in Arlington, Texas to watch the game on the giant High-def screens installed in his stadium. It has a better picture than what is going on in real life. Haha. Anyways, I will be watching both semifinal games in the wonderful stadium. USA vs Honduras and Panama vs Mexico. I am actually more excited to see the Panama vs Mexico game for a few reasons. One is, Panama is my second favorite team in the Gold Cup and the first match between these two teams was a real cracker! Anyways, you came to this blog today for the wonderful second edition of Best and Worst Jersey's part 2. Last year Dortmund's home jersey and Chelsea's away jersey's took home the best jersey's prize, while Man City's away jersey and Barcelona's home jersey were given the titles of worst jersey's. This season it was very hard to pick between the kits. I found way better sources this year, so I had a much, much bigger selection. So if you think you know a jersey that's better or worst, comment please!!!



Liverpool's Crazy 3rd Kit

Liverpool's 3rd kit last season

First off, what is going on with Liverpool's 3rd kits these last two seasons?  What is going on with all their kits besides their home kits?? I mean I'm pretty sure this Warrior company have lost their mind.
 I was not going to have a worst 3rd kit, but Liverpool's is so bad I had to include it!


Oh my gosh, there are so many bad home and away jerseys this year!

Swansea City's Kit (away)

I almost gave Liverpool the award (if you would call it an award) for worst away jersey. But I felt sorry for them and some people say its pretty cool. So I let them off!  It was very hard deciding the worst away jersey because there are so many leagues with so many teams, but I will have to say the good ole Welsh boys Swansea receive the title. Their sponsor may give them bunches of money...but on the jersey, the Chinese writing looks just ugly. I mean Chinese writing, along with Japanese, is sometimes considered as "pretty", but this is just straight up horrible. The main color base on the Swansea jersey does not know whether it wants to be purple or blue. The official word is purple. And the yellow,  is just ugly. LSU's (Louisiana State University's) uniforms which are purple and GOLD look much better. No, not purple and yellow, purple and gold! Come on Swansea, I expected better than this. Honorable mentions, or unhonorable mentions, include: Liverpool, Barcelona, and a few others.

Fulham's Crazy V-Necked Jersey

The worst home jersey was also a hard award to give because this year because there were just so many bad ones. Hey, the home kits also brought some good ones into play too. When you hear who wins this prize you might think why this kit? There were many worse than this. I had to choose this because there is one feature that I cannot get over. Fulham FC wins the award for worst home jersey. It was a close battle, but they edged out. Mostly because of the so called V-neck collar. I can not take it. AC Milan went with a V-neck collar on their away jersey but it looks so much better than this. I like the old fashioned pin stripes on Fulham's previous home jersey, but on this jersey the pin stripes do not make the cut!! Maybe I'm over reacting to the collar. I got some feedback that I over reacted to the home Barcelona Jersey last season, but hey, its the little details that count.

The Dark Knights

Even though I went on and on about how many bad jerseys there were, there are actually some pretty good ones out there too! Just maybe not as many as usually. The away kits were definitely the hardest for both best and worst. Top canidates were AC Milan, Arsenal, Juventus, Tottenham, Derby County, Porto and a few more. But the winner is the team who had the worst away jerseys last season (they must have read my blog).... MANCHESTER CITY! They got rid of that nasty looking red and went with black. The Dark Knights
of Manchester is a name being thrown around out there. And y'all know how much I like the collared jerseys. This one has a fantastic collar. I usually like the brighter jerseys when it comes to soccer jerseys. In other clothes dark looks pretty good to me though. And this jersey is a perfect example of how a blackish gray jersey should look!

The best home jersey was hard too, but not as hard as the best away. AC Milan sent out a great line of kits this year. Home, away, and third kits are all excellent. I had to give them the award for best home jersey. Mostly for 2 reasons. First: with a great line of kits, even if the home isn't the best out of 3 its still good enough. Second: the players just model these good. I think Adidas must look at the players of AC Milan and think, what would look good on them. Not just a cool jersey. The fact that this jersey is so simple also makes it nice. Some home kits lately have been getting way, way too out of hand. Adidas has been trying to tone it down on the home side. Like Bayern Munich's home jersey. Adidas got rid of most of the gold stripes this year on peoples jersey, but luckily they stayed with the gold for Milano. I think if they would have made the stripes black some of the pop from the jersey would not be there anymore. Just like the bad Fulham jersey, little details count to make a jersey super horrible or super great! Mario Balotelli almost even smiled in some of the kit pictures because he knows they are soooooo good this year!!!!

This special edition took lots and lots of work so I hope you share it with all your friends! I want to see it challenge last year's best and worst jersey's article!

Shea saves the Day

Even though the United States was already going to advance to the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup, a win would be nice and help them face an easier team in the first round of the knock out stage. For a while it looked like nobody was going to score a goal. Both teams had some good chances but the goalies always saved it in the end. Then the US head coach brought on the former FC Dallas and new Stoke player, Brek Shea. The crazy announcers of the game went on and on about how Shea really had to prove that he deserved a spot on the USA squad and how his talent was really sucky. Firstly, how many former MLS players and USA national team players do you know can even make it to a premier league bench? And part of the season Shea was injured. So on the fast break when Donavon made the pass to Shea and Shea finished it off beautifully, I was very happy.

The quarterfinals of the tournament start today! Panama and Cuba play against each other! I think Panama will slightly edge out Cuba. The game will not be completely one sided or anything, but Panama seems the stronger side. After all, they did come in first in their group. Poor Trinidad and Tobago come against Mexico who are probably the second best team in the tournament. Although, Mexico finished second in their group during the group stage!

Tomorrows quarterfinals include the interesting match ups of the United States vs El Salvador and Honduras vs Costa Rica. I think the USA should cruise by El Salvador, but you never know with the United States team. They're not the most consistent team in the world. On my club team that I play on, a guy is from El Salvador and his talent level is very high. You never know, maybe one day you will see him on TV playing in the Gold Cup, haha. Honduras and Costa Rica is the best match up of the quarter finals to me. Costa Rica is probably favored, but I think Honduras might have a few tricks up their sleeve. So that will be the game to watch!

COME BACK AND READ MORE!! In a week or two the special edition "Best and Worst Jerseys Part 2" will be released. The last best and worst jerseys was my most popular blog of all time. Hopefully the people will like this one too.

The new thing!

Cleats get more and more fancy these days. I mean, I have a pair of Puma Kings. Blue and gold color-way and Kangaroo leather. How can you not like that? Well now personalizing cleats is coming into style. Of course it will make your wallet lose weight, but there are certain advantages to buying a cleat that's got your style input.

Nike and Adidas are the only two companies out there that I know let you fully customized a pair of their top flight boots. Not just your name and number sown in, but the color pattern is yours too. So instead of just having to deal with the colors the companies throw out there, you can put your oranges, and greens in there any place you want.

My friend Adam's customized Adidas Predators

Although this is fun and all, most customized cleats take 4 weeks till on your doorstep. Which really sucks if you want them right away. But if you can wait, then of course you are fine. Also, most Nike and Adidas cleats cost a ton of money anyway, so its going to cost more to customize them. Although, on most of Adidas's cleats, the personalizing fee is only $25 dollars. Which if you think about it, is not that high to get them exactly the way you want. I don't really know Nike's customizing price, but they're usually higher. Lastly, the customizing does not change the quality of the boot, it just changes how it looks. So if you are just in it for the quality of the boot, then don't customize. But if you want to look stylish and cool (which is not always a bad option, you'll stand out infront of the crowd), customizing is the way to go. Mi Adidas is the Adidas customizing center. NIKEiD is the customizing center for Nike. Nike does not have as good a selection as Adidas, and it sucks that Puma and other companies do not let you customize.

I think the idea of customizing cleats and any shoe is very cool. I think both companies will make tons of money of this idea. Nike probably already has with all their Air Max shoes and so on. Hopefully other companies will catch up with this idea. The kangaroo leather on my cleats are cracking and will probably only last about 20 more games (practices, and other events included).  So a pair of customized boots may be on my doorstep during Christmas.

Hull City goes shopping.......

Hull City was promoted to the Premier League last season and they're not wasting any time on improving their squad (maybe arsenal could learn from this). Hull city currently have their eyes on two strikers: Danny Graham and Nicklas Bendtner. Both these strikers did not have the best season. Graham had a pretty good deal going for him at Swansea, or at least I though so. Then for some crazy reason he moved to Sunderland, where he did not play at the level he is capable of. So, maybe a move to Kingston Upon Hull, will pay off for him. Bendtner on the other hand was loaned from Arsenal to Juventus last season where he got little to no playing time..... AT ALL. When he got there, the staff at Juventus even said he was fat and they had to put him on a diet. So cleary, Bendtner needs to get out of Italy fast. Going back to Arsenal does not seem like the right move. He was never a great player and I don't think the fans liked him too much. So a move to Hull City would probably work out. Bendter has played for the head coach of Hull City before, so he already knows what's up.

Cesc Fabregas made the mistake of going back to his home Barcelona in 2011. He should have stayed with the Gunners, oh well. But anyways, many premier league teams would like to have his talents. Manchester United placed a bid on the Spanish international, but the bid was REJECTED. Tito Vilanova, the head coach of the ticky-tackers, said that he talked to the former Arsenal captain, and that Cesc said he is happy in Catalonia and does not want to move. Why stay at Barca? I mean the playing time there is always in question, and to me, the Spanish league isn't really that hard. But we will see where this goes for the next few days. The price can always be right in buying football players.

Come back and read Best and Worst Jerseys part 2 in about a week or so. It was one of my most popular posts........EVER!!!!!!!!!!! And check back in the following days for more amazing blogs!

Great Stadiums Part 2

People seemed to like my other great stadium blog, so I have returned with a second edition. This summer in Europe, I got to visit a few cool stadiums. Including: Emirates Stadium (home of Arsenal), Wembley Stadium (home of the England National team), the Allianz Arena (home of FC Bayern Munich, and AC Siena's stadium! The Emirates and the Allianz were featured in my last great stadium blog so it was cool to see them in person!

Signal Iduna Park is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund have been pretty successful in the last few years, although last season they did not win a single trophy. The stadium is usually called Westfalenstadion, but because of the club partnering with a company, the name is changed for now. Signal Iduna is said to be one of the nicest stadiums in Germany and is known for its great atmosphere every game day. The official capacity of the stadium is around 80,700, but the numbers are never exact. It also boasts a standing area that lets 25,000 fans
 stand and cheer on the black yellows. Signal Iduna Park has many cool features, including one of the first stadiums to have an under-pitch heating system. This makes sure the pitch is in perfect condition, even in the freezing German winter. The Westfalenstadion has been a part of two World Cups. When when it was fresh and new, in 1974 and the World Cup in 2006.

The biggest stadiums are not always the coolest or most interesting. Lyon's stadium, Stade de Gerland, is an example of that statement. It only holds 40,500 fans, but it has always been cool looking to me! It is one of the oldest stadiums ever featured on my blog and was built all the way back in 1926! Lyon was not even a team until created in 1950, so before their time, the stadium was used for multiple sports. The stadium takes a more rectangular shape then most stadiums and has a historical monument inside it. The arches, designed to look like they came from Roman theaters, became historical monuments in 1967. I thought that was pretty cool, because most stadiums can not put a historical monument on their resume. The stadium has been a host to a couple of important matches including games at the 1984 European Championships and several matches in the 1998 World Cup. Sadly, Lyon is building a new stadium that should be ready by the summer of  2014, so they will move out of the Stade de Gerland.

I hope you enjoyed this second edition of great stadiums. Come back to my blog often for more interesting topics.

Good Ole Transfers

Well this is one of my first real time event blogs in a while, so bear with me. As it may get a little choppy.

Summer is here and has been for a month or two now, which means the summer transfer window has opened. Of course all the crazy rumors are going around and people start to wonder if anything can be true! Americans coming to the Premier League? Fuzzy Belgians moving teams? Wayne Rooney leaving or staying? Many, many more are floating around!

Jozy Altidore, a player who I do not really like, has been on great form for the United States National team lately and he is ready to make his move to England. Not the Championship, or League 1, but the Premier League!! Sunderland is the team interested and has apparently made the deal. As much as I don't like Altidore, I'm glad to see an American play with high quality players. I think its great for the National team! This will be his second go in the Premier League after playing with Hull City in the 2009/2010 season. It didn't go to well, but you have to remember Altidore is only 23. So he's young and has improved a lot. It will be interesting to see what he can do in his return to the Barclays Premier League.

Marouane Fellaini has been wanting to play with a higher quality side then Everton after having a pretty nice season at the Merseyside. Many teams have said they're interested in him and he brings a few qualities. He's tall and a good aerial threat, but he can also pass and win possession. Arsenal, who needs another big tall guy besides Giroud, have said they are interested. You can never tell with them, but as an Arsenal fan I hope they get him. One of the big problems with Fellaini is that he is not very consistent. When he does get on a good run of form, he might do something crazy like elbow a Stoke player. In the end I think he's worth it for many teams. I think he will leave Everton.

Wayne Rooney has been a big story. Nobody can ever tell what's going to happen to the English man. The latest news is that David Moyes, new Man U boss, is going to keep Rooney no matter what. Of course, any player is always for sale as long as the number is big enough. But will Rooney impact Man U? Do they really need him? He brings something Van Persie does not! He brings a passing game and plays defense. An overall hard worker. The counter to that is, he wants to be the star, and I do not see that happening. The problem for many teams are his wages. The amount of money needed to pay him is too high. So, unfortunately, I see him actually staying at Man U. Why would he go to Chelsea or Real Madrid if he wanted to be the star?

Don't forget to eat your frosted mini wheats every morning!

Wienerschniztel vs. Cheeseburger

So, while in Europe I went to tour the amazing Allianz Arena. The home of FC Bayern Munich, triple winners. 1860 Munich also plays there but has to rent the stadium from Bayern for about 10 Million Euros a season. Yeah, a lot of money just to play in a stadium, but hey, its awesome. Well the 1860 Munich 2nd team (not even the 1st team 1860 Munich) had a playoff game at the Allianz the night I went to tour. So we went and watched the match. It then gave me a wonderful idea: to compare the play of the 4th league German division to the MLS.

Firstly, you can tell the style of play is totally different. The MLS these days are really are about tall and strong guys. Of course there are the short quick players too, but aerial threats seem to be an important part of the MLS game. Meanwhile in the German 4th division, its more European style. The quick short passes, with the occasional thru-ball. Both are fun to compare to each other. And it was fun seeing a different style of play.

If FC Dallas played the 2nd 1860 Munich team I would think it would be a super close game. I really do not think the quality of the 4th division play was that high. I might actually edge out FC Dallas 3-1 or something like that. The thing that would be interesting to see in the match is how FC Dallas adapted to the passing. When I have been to a couple of their games, I can see that it's hard for them to get a great string of passes on the ground going. While 1860 Munich tied some pretty good strings of passes together. Then you could counter that with how would 1860 Munich deal with the physical part of the game and defending set pieces (although they did score off a set piece in the playoff match).

So when the crazy announcer during an MLS game says "wow I think most of the MLS players are as good or are better than the players in Germany", he might be talking about the German 4th division.

Come back next time and read. I think I've got some pretty good editions coming out.

Belgian Waffles

It has been a long time since I stepped foot into Just Plain Football. I'm sure all my wonderful readers have missed me very, very much. Last summer I created this masterpiece and planned to keep writing it forever, with no breaks. Then school hit. Time was short and all the creativity I had was sucked out of me at school. Next, the beginning of this summer came into focus. But, I went to Europe on a great 3 week journey and toured many amazing places. Some of you probably read "Food and Football: a europe journey" Well now I'm back and ready to write expert blogs and give expert insight on the world of football. Hope you enjoy my long awaited return:

No, in Europe I did not visit Belgium. Although, a thought did come to me! Why is Belgium's National team not good? Shouldn't they be amazing? I mean look at their lineup, it boasts many Premier League Players including: Courtois, Mignolet, Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Kompany, Fellaini, Dembele, De Bruyne (now a free agent), Hazard, Mirallas, and Lukaku. Hazard did not even start in their World Cup Qualifier vs Serbia. The supporting players of these Premier League players are really good too, or on club level anyways. Maybe it's because they are just young or something like that. The experience could be lacking. The chemistry might not be there yet, but it will come. There are 3 reasons you should be afraid of the up and coming Belgium team: scorers/passers, good goalie's, and a good balance.

Eden Hazard joined Chelsea just his season. He impressed right away. Some players have trouble adjusting to the Premier League, not him. He was part of Chelsea's first "blank number of goals". I forgot how many but I remember it was an insane amount. So he either scored or assisted Chelsea's first few goals this season. Dembele and Mirallas are both good playmakers too. Especially the young Mirallas, he has ability to score and assist. The point of all these opinions/facts is..... everybody on the team has talent. Nobody seems to just be a Chamak and stand around and do nothing for 90 minutes.

Belgium have 2 fantastic goal keepers. I was surprised when I looked at the starting lineup of one of their World Cup Qualifiers and saw Courtois starting instead of Mignolet. I thought, who is this guy? Then I did some research and found out he is pretty boss too. Since I got to watch a lot of the Premier League games on TV, I saw what skills Mignolet had. It just sucks that Sunderland could not do anything to protect him, or even score on the other side of the field. I've seen potatoes more exciting then that team, oh well they stayed in the top flight though. Courtois has been on loan from Chelsea to Atheltico Madrid for 3 years now! He's earned some experience there and when Petr Cech finally retires, he will probably take his spot. Mignolet is looking for a bigger and better club, he might of found one already! So these 2 keepers are good for a National team. Let's face it, some National teams just have sucky goalies.

Lastly, the balance of short,tall,strong, and weak players look great on the Belgium side. You have strong and buff defenders like Kompany. Strong midfielders like Fellaini who had an excellent season this year. Then Lukaku up front, who had a great season on loan, is strong in the sense of physical strong too. Hazard and Mirallas are quick and have good control, while Vermalen, who did not have the best season at Arsenal, is a pretty quick and tall defender. This mix of players is good for any national team. England's youth system focuses a little too much on the buff part of the game these days. They might need to take a look at what Belgium is doing.

Well thanks for reading on my first day back in the Just Plain Football world. Don't forget to eat your waffles......