Ice Bucket Challenge

Well yes, it's been a long, long time since I last wrote a blog post. I think the last time I wrote was before the USA vs. Belgium knockout game in the World Cup. Wow! That was awhile ago and a lot of stuff has happened since then... like the actual final of the World Cup, plenty of transfers (and transfer rumors), new kit releases, and all the usual fun summer soccer stuff. One reason I didn't write was because I was in Seattle drinking coffee and exploring the Pikes Place Market, along with going to Soccer City USA (Portland), and eating maple cookies while in Canada. All that took place during the World Cup, so after watching all the group stage games I missed a lot of the knock out rounds. Luckily I did get to watch the final in my hotel room in Seattle. That was just 2 weeks out of my summer so you might say, "you gooner why didn't you write when you got home?". That's a pretty good question but I guess I was lazy or something like that. If there was one person to light the fuel to get me writing again it would be Pep Guardiola doing something as horrible as he is.

A few days ago the MLS all star game took place in Portland, a city I just enjoyed a few weeks ago. The all star team was very strong this year featuring players like Tim Cahill, Thierry Henry, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Deandre "Soon to be a Spud" Yedlin, Nick Rimando, Landon Donovan, Bradley Wright Phillips, Diego Valeri and many, many more. They went up against the horrible coached, but still my second favorite team, Bayern Munich. The German giants started their new Polish star Robert Lewandoski and the Alpine Messi, Shaqiri. The other big stars were there and would feature a little later in the game. Although this was a friendly the MLS All-Stars clearly wanted to win but fell behind to a wonder goal from Lewandoski. I thought this was the start of a 7-0 defeat but it went into half time 1-0. Henry looked great for an old man, he had some great passes, great moves on the ball, and a few good looking shots.

At the beginning of the second half Caleb Porter subbed in 10 new all stars and left one out on the field, Thierry Henry. A minute or so into the half he subbed out Henry so he would get the standing ovation in what might be his last all star game as the French legend is thinking about retirement. Bradley Wright Phillips is having a great season up in New York for the Red Bulls and he showed how good of form he was in when Diego Valeri, playing on his home pitch, put a perfect ball over the top of the defense which was headed into the path of a surging Wright Phillips. Wright Phillips set him self up and blasted it passed the Bayern keeper. This tied the game up and gave the MLS momentum. And then who else but Landon Donovan to put one past Neuer to give the All Stars a win. Donovan was in a tight space but slid the ball right under the Golden Glove winner. He then took of his shirt and paraded around with his undershirt showing which read "take that Jurgen". Okay, maybe he didn't do that but he wanted to.

Yes the All Stars beat the German champs 2-1, but really it was still considered a friendly. I don't think this means Bayern will do horrible this season and I don't think it means the MLS is now the best league in the world, however it is good that the MLS can put up a fight against a team like Bayern. Sometimes these all star teams don't perform well... AT ALL. So it should make the MLS feel some what better as a league. I do think that its improved greatly just over the last three years, but more on that later.

The thing everyone will remember from this match was at the end when the worst coach in the world, Pep Guardiola didn't shake Caleb Porters hand, the All Star coach. During the second half 2 all stars made some questionable tackles on some of Munich's important players. There have been worse tackles but these might have been uncalled for. Still Guardiola didn't have to wave his finger at Caleb Porter who was trying to be nice and shake his hand, he might have told his players not to dive in and they just didn't listen. I know its a friendly Pep, but you came to play a game of soccer and every now and then something like that is going to happen. If Guardiola is such a gentleman like everyone says he is, he would've shaken Porter's hand and not ignored him. Not the "World Class Guardiola" I always hear about.

So some of you might I've heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge. I need to do a little more research on it but I know its raised money for ALS. Someone will pour a bucket of ice cold water on themselves and then challenge specific people to perform the challenge. If they don't pour icy cold water on themselves they are supposed to donate some money to help ALS. It's all about raising awareness for the disease. Well Caleb Porter decided to do that challenge and challenged a few people including Alex Morgan, Jurgen Klinsmann, and oh yeah, Pep "no handshake" Guaridiola. Will the Bayern coach participate, or leave Caleb Porter hanging again?

The Diving Dutchman and Costa Rica

Yesterday was a great day for football. I thought both games were played outstandingly. It was really entertaining combined with tons of controversy (say that in your best Ian Darke voice). Holland took on Mexico in a game where the on field temperature felt like 104 degrees Fahrenheit and Costa Rica took on Greece in a round of 16 game that not many people saw happening.

I really thought that the Netherlands would handle Mexico easily, that was not that case. Van Gaal made 3 changes from the Spain game, I didn't see that as a good idea because you shouldn't fix something that isn't broke. In the end it worked out but it was very hard for the Orange. After having a good first five minutes the Netherlands couldn't keep possession of the ball and Mexico dominated. The referee decided before the game to make sure there would be a water break at around the 30th minute and 70th minute. Van Gaal said after the game that he used these water breaks as a time to go to his plan b and talk to his players about their different tactics. Taylor Twellman and Alexi lalas said this is an unfair advantage because it was a timeout, but more on that later. Anyways the first goal didn't come until the second half when Giovani dos Santos hit a magical shot that put the Mexicans up 1-0. I knew the Dutch were in trouble now, they really hadn't looked that threatening the whole game. Memphis Depay was brought into the game at the 56th minute. Depay has been a super sub in this tournament, he's full of pace and he has some tricks up his sleeve. Dirk Kuyt, the old man as I call him, played a great game. He ran to every lose ball and really kept the Netherlands alive at the end of the game. The Dutch didn't make their break through until the 88th minute when Wesley
Sneijder hit a cracker of a volley off a corner. That gave the momentum back to Holland. Arjen Robben, who had another great game, gave Mexico trouble on the wings. Robben really wanted the win and when he went down in the box the Netherlands were awarded a penalty. Klaas Jan Huntelaar, the substitute, stepped up and slid the penalty into the side net. After the match Huntelaar actually said that Robben came up and asked him if he wanted to take it. This is pretty surprising considering Robben can sometimes be selfish when it comes to set pieces, him and Ribery have had some fights in the locker room at Munich. Robben isn't that good at penalties though, so he made the smartest decision. The Netherlands advanced to the quarter finals on that 94th minute penalty.

The big controversy after the game was whether the penalty was a dive by Robben. All though Robben is an expert diver, that was definitely a foul. People forget that you can embellish and it will still be a foul. Robben did make the most of it, he did flail his arms up, but there was contact and it was a foul. If you say that Robben's penalty wasn't a foul than Diego Costa's never should have been. He dragged his leg and used it to his advantage. Even though I hate Mexico they played really well and should be proud of their World Cup.

Alexi Lalas said that diving is a part of the game just as much as a professional foul to hold up play. He went on to say they are both skills that are hard to pull off and a player has all the right to use them. I don't think many people agree with that but at least its one side of the argument.

The second game yesterday was Costa Rica vs Greece. Not many people thought that this game would be taking place, but it did, and it was a pretty good game really. Although there were only 2 goals scored I thought it was entertaining. Costa Rica went ahead in the 52nd minute with a goal from Bryan Ruiz. The shot was very soft but its placement was so perfect that it slid into the side net of the goal. Costa Rica looked like they had won, then Oscar Duarte got his second yellow and was sent off. This really changed the game, luckily for Costa Rica they were playing against a team that doesn't attack very well. Costa Rica was so close to winning it, right until Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored in the 91st minute. This stunned the CONCACAF nation who were so close to a quarter final match against the Dutch. The match went into extra time and then to penalties. Costa Rica, despite having crazy tired legs, took some amazing penalties and eliminated Greece. The final was 5-3 on penalties.

France took on Nigeria today and Germany battled Algeria, more on that later. The USA takes on the Belgian Waffles tomorrow, should be a pretty good game. I'm giving the USA a slight chance but I do think this will be the end of the apple pies at this tournament. Belgium should advance but this World Cup has been full of surprises.

Dancing Columbians and Brazil thanks the Crossbar

Today was the beginning of knock out round play in the World Cup. Two very good games all including South American teams took place.

Brazil are many people's favorites to win the whole World Cup. They're on home soil where they hardly ever lose and they have giant amounts of talent. Today their World Cup dream almost ended, but thanks to some good play, a friendly crossbar, and an amazing goalie from the MLS they advance to the quarter finals.

Brazil took on Chile in Belo Horizonte on the fist day of knock out play. Chile had been the surprise team in group B knocking out Spain and coming in second in the group behind the Netherlands. Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal have led Chile with some great play. The first half of the game was super exciting and played at a very high pace. The players ran end to end without much midfield play. David Luiz scored the first goal of the game off a corner. It might have been an own goal but for now we'll give the credit to the PSG man. After that the atmosphere in the stadium went crazy, Chile didn't give up though. After a small error by Hulk in his own half the Chileans acted quickly and Sanchez hit the back of the net. That tied the game 1-1 and that's how it would stay until penalty kicks. In the 119th minute Chile fired a shot from just outside the box. The shot had tremendous speed but it was denied by the crossbar. If that ball had hit the back of the net Brazil's World Cup probably would have been over. Julio Cesar has always been one of my favorite goalies, I've loved him since the World Cup in 2010. Sometimes he is criticized for not being as good as he should be. Today he had a great game and saved the first two penalty kicks from Chile. Brazil ended up winning in penalties 3-2.

Neymar didn't score, except in the shootout, but he made some great plays and I think he will cause more trouble in the following matches for Brazil. Fred and Jo, Brazil's strikers, have been pretty horrible so far this tournament. One of them, most likely going to be Fred, really needs to step up if Brazil wants to win the tournament. Chile played very well but just couldn't beat Brazil on Brazil's turf. Sanchez had a great game and Chile ran as hard as they could the whole game. They had a great tournament but meeting Brazil in the round of 16 is a tall order.

In the other Round of 16 game another all South American match took place, Uruguay vs Columbia. With Uruguay coming off the vampire drama I didn't think they would win, and they didn't. Columbia played great and their new star James (pronounced Hamez) Rodriguez played great again. He scored both goals for Columbia as they advanced to play Brazil with a 2-0 win. His first goal should be nominated for goal of the tournament with Tim Cahill's and Robin Van Persie's. He chested a header and with the ball coming down he took it on the full volley, it hit the crossbar and went down into the goal. He's been on great form this tournament and I hope Arsenal is interested in him.

I only had Columbia coming in second in their group then losing to the Italians in the Round of 16. We see how that worked out. I think the Brazil vs Columbia game will be interesting, Brazil should win but Columbia might make it a tough game. By they way, Columbia's celebrations are pretty good, all the dancing and stuff they do.

Come back for more World Cup coverage and fun stuff like that.

"Iron" Robben, the Golden Boy, and Messi the Messiah

This tournament has plenty of star players in it. So far some of the big names have really proved why they are so famous. Neymar, the golden boy, has played well in front of his home country, very well. I've always liked Neymar because he was one of those typical young players that had all the hype about them. Instead of following the trend and not being that good of a player, just being all hype, he actually proved that he could play very well. Plus he's entertaining to watch. I've been a fan of Arjen Robben for awhile ever since I started watching Bayern Munich play a few years ago. He looks like an old man but he's very pacey and has a magical left foot. A left foot that rivals that of Leo Messi. Messi, who as I've stated before is not my favorite player, really needed to have a great World Cup. So far, he has done that pretty well.

All three of those players has helped their country tremendously so far. They will be needed even more in the knockout stages of this tournament.

The Netherlands take on Mexico in the round of 16. I think the Dutch will handle them pretty well,
but Mexico did hold the Brazilians to a 0-0 draw. Arjen Robben has 3 goals and 1 assist so far in the World Cup. Two of his goals came in the dismantling of the former World Champion Spain. One of them was very important because it gave Holland the lead and the second one was a World Class goal as he stormed down the pitch with 99 pace (FIFA 14 reference), made Casillias fall to the ground, and hit a nice shot into the goal. He scored the first goal vs Australia and had the assist to Memphis Depay in the Chile game. Robben has looked very quick and he also got his mind set right for this tournament. He always knows where to be on the field, he's a pretty hard worker and he is a great compliment to Robin Van Persie and Wesley Sneijder. Robben could be up there for player of the tournament so far.

Neymar had all the pressure in the world on him at the beginning of this tournament. After getting down 1-0 to Croatia it had to be him to tie the game up 1-1. He went on to score a penalty in that game after Fred flopped like fish. Neymar also scored 2 very good goals against Cameroon. Brazil needs his pace and trickiness to succeed in this tournament. Although he hasn't bagged
an assist yet, he can pick out a great pass every now and then. After having all of Brazil's hopes placed on him through commercials, advertisements, etc, he has really proved how good he is.

When I have seen Messi play for Barcelona, which is not many times, I was never that impressed with him. I heard he could do some great things and that's why he's been FIFA player of the year so many times. Maybe I just always caught him on TV when he was having a bad game. So far this tournament he scored a great goal against Bosnia from outside of the box after running past a few players, he scored a cracker of a goal to give Argentina 3 points against Iran in stoppage time, and yesterday he scored 2 goals against Nigeria. Many people have Argentina going all the way and lifting the World Cup Trophy in Rio. They won't be able to do it without their star man.

It will be interesting to see how Robben, Neymar, and Messi play in the knock out rounds. All three of their countries have plenty of talent but just wouldn't be complete without them.

Suarez Bites another Chunk

Tuesday was the conclusion of the "Group of Champions". It's called the group of champions because it includes 3 teams that are former champions of the World Cup: Uruguay, Italy, and England. Not one of them topped the group, the small CONCACAF nation of Costa Rica emerged out of what should've been a group of death for them to win the group. Yesterday all they had to do was tie against England to win the group and that's what they did. It didn't look like they played for a tie, it just happened to go their way. I was actually watching the Costa Rica vs England game instead of the Italy game because I wanted to see how Wilshere and Lallana played, along with the fact I just like watching England. Then Ian Darke mentioned that the Uruguayan vampire was at it again. I quickly switched channels to see what was unfolding. Just a few minutes after I switched channels the Atletico Madrid man, Diego Godin, scored what would be the winning goal for Uruguay. Godin scored the goal that gave Atletico the La Liga title, he scored in the champions league final, and has now scored in the World Cup. Italy had taken Balotelli out and they just couldn't hit the back of the net. Some people have accused the Italians of playing for a draw, which would have sent them through. They probably should've tried to be a little more attacking. I like a few players on Italy so it was sad to see them go, but unfortunately after a great game of football the headlines were all on Suarez.

Suarez has bit 2 players in his career, or I guess now that would be 3. Chiellini was the victim this time. Suarez had to save a bite for the world's biggest stage didn't he? But its pretty sad that he did it because Suarez is a World Class player and is one of the best strikers on the planet; this biting incident might get him suspended for the rest of the World Cup. Coming off a great year at Liverpool he would have a major impact in the knock out stages for Uruguay. Not only can he finish chances off, but he can also set up his teammates. On the bright sight, twitter and the rest of the internet have really made the most of their opportunities to create funny pictures dealing with his vampirish act.

It would have been interesting to see how England performed with Theo Walcott or Oxlade-Chamberlain. Neither of them might have played, but if they did they might have made a difference. Also, it looked to me like Roy Hodgson went the "Liverpool way" instead of playing his best players in the match against Italy, but they could've been his best players.

In group C Greece and the Ivory Coast battled it out to for the opportunity to play in the knock out stages. Greece ended up winning (


to my surprise) and advanced. Columbia won the group pretty convincingly and might be a surprise in this tournament. I didn't get to watch either of the group C games but I heard that Columbia was very dominant over Japan.

Well so far my ESPN World Cup bracket has been pretty bad. I'm ranked 488,720 in the world. Costa Rica and Mexico really messed it up. I think Costa Rica messed everyone's up haha. But come back for more World Cup Coverage.

Orange Greatness and Mexico Advances

Today, unless it rains, I will actually get to go play some soccer. Which is always fun during the World Cup because it really gets you in the soccer mood. Today (yesterday) was the first day of final group matches. We found out who would be advancing from Group A and from Group B. I wrote this intro yesterday and I have only decided to keep it in here to point out that right when I was about to leave to play soccer, it started storming. The weather always does that to me.

In Group B we already knew that Spain and Australia were out, and we knew that Holland and Chile were through, we just didn't know who would finish first in the group. The Netherlands would take on Chile in São Paulo wearing their famous orange kits. It took the Dutch awhile but they finally made the breakthrough in the second half through the sub Leroy Fer. Off a free kick Fer leaped very high and buried it into the net with his head. All the Dutch had to do to win the group was tie, so now it definitely looked like they would at least do that going into the last 13 minutes with a 1-0 lead. It got even better for the men in orange when Arjen Robben sped down the left wing on a counter attack, crossed it into the young super-sub Memphis Depay who tapped it in. Arjen Robben maybe player of the tournament so far. He's had a lot to do with each of the Netherland's goals. He's looked quick and creative with every touch. I've always liked Robben and I'm glad he's having a great World Cup so far, I hope he can carry that form into the knock out stages. I found out about Depay before the tournament started and watched a few of his high light reals on Youtube. I was very impressed with him and I'm glad he has shown up well in the cup so far too. Anyways the Netherlands won the group with a 2-0 win over Chile. They will avoid Brazil unless Brazil makes it to the finals along with the Dutch. Chile will advance and play Brazil in the round of 16.

We knew Spain and Australia were both out of the tournament before their game yesterday so Spain played some of their World Class backups. This would probably be the last game for this generation of Spanish players, or at least the last real competitive game. David Villa, one of Spain's most important players from the last few years of success had an emotional last game in which he scored a cheeky goal. Fernando No-Scores (pronounced no-scorez) also hit the back of the net along with Juan Mata.  Spain won 3-0 but didn't really celebrate after any of their goals after a very disappointing World Cup. They shouldn't be too sad though because 2 Euro championships and 1 World Cup in the last 5 or 6 years is about as amazing as it gets.

The Magical Mexican Ochoa

Well Mexico really proved me wrong, big time. I thought no doubt Croatia would advance in Group A behind Brazil. Brazil did advance in first but instead of Croatia the CONCACAF nation of Mexico advanced. After such a horrible qualifying campaign I did not see them playing so well. They tied Brazil and beat Croatia 3-1 along with a 1-0 win over Cameroon. Chicharito said it himself in an interview after the game, "people think that CONCACAF is easy, but its not". He went on to describe how well Costa Rica and the United States have played this tournament. Mexico will take on the red hot, or orange hot Holland in the round of 16. That's going to be a hard game for the Mexicans.

Come back and read more World Cup coverage.

CONCACAF Looking Strong, MLS not to shabby.

At the beginning of this tournament we probably thought that the North American and Central American teams wouldn't fair to well in Brazil. There would be a chance that Costa Rica, Mexico, the United States, and Honduras wouldn't make it out of their group. All four teams not advancing. The story has been much different. The USA has a chance of advancing out of their "Group of Death", Costa Rica has advanced to the knock out stages, Mexico has it all on the line against Croatia today, and even though Honduras wont advance they haven't just looked horrible.

Ruiz scoring against Italy to propel CR into the knockout stages

Costa Rica was drawn into a group with Uruguay, England, and Italy. The group of champions they called it because everyone besides Costa Rica has lifted the World Cup trophy. What was little Costa Rica going to do in this group, nothing right? Well it turns out they qualified with one game to spare. I always said Costa Rica was a good team when the US played them in qualifying, we just happened to catch them in the snow. I didn't think they were good enough to take down Uruguay and Italy, but they did, and it wasn't a fluke, they just played that good. With help from Joel Campbell, Bryan Ruiz, and a top class goalie from La Liga, Costa Rica looked very promising in the group stages.

Mexico, although I hate them, has been able to hold on in their group. Today they play Croatia in pretty much a winner takes all match. Brazil should handle Cameroon, so the winner of the Croatia Mexico game will go on to the knock out stages with Brazil. Mexico had a horrible 2013, they barely made it to Brazil, and they went through many coaches. If they make it out of the group stage today I would say that's already a trophy for them, because for awhile it looked like they wouldn't even be here.

During the draw back in December I thought there was no way we could do anything good in our group. For awhile I didn't believe we could get 1 tiny point. Now we have 4, and we should have 6. When Dempsey and Bradley moved back to the MLS I was scared that this might lower their ability to play against world class teams in Brazil. Instead (excluding Ghana for Bradley) both of them have played pretty great so far in the World Cup and both played great in the World Cup warm up matches. In the starting lineup against Portugal we had 5 MLS players taking the pitch. More than I would've ever liked, but they played the best match the National team has ever played. I'm still not a big fan of us trying to "grow" our players in the MLS, but we have clearly made some progress. I hope that David Villa is the start of more world class players coming to America.

The good people at Arseblog have said that the US team has been one of the best teams to watch this year at the World Cup. Our collective team effort is what makes us good, not relying on one individual star.

Overall CONCACAF has proved that we are more than we used to be. We've improved and we should improve over the following years. We still have a long way to go to really win a lot, but for right now I'm pretty happy with how our qualifying nations have performed.