USA vs. Mexico, Manana!

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6:00 p.m., PST.

Update:

In just a few short minutes, Mexico turned the tables on the United States, then ran away with its second straight Gold Cup win.

U.S. Soccer Team Wins ESPY For Best Moment

And, yes, I voted! I follow Landon's tweets (grins). Aside from that, I have to say watching that game live and seeing that goal scored, trumped all the other competitors in this category!

Spain Wins!

Celebrating Spain's victory using my Espana shot glass! One of these days I'll take a picture of my collection.

Some S. African Music Before The Finals!

Kind of in a South African mode tonight, in anticipation of the finals in the World Cup this weekend.

Some "commercial" S.A. music, courtesy of Elton John and his "The Lion King" score.

The Circle Of Life


The Lioness Hunt



Of course, I have already moved on to "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

Who's Your Team?

USA World Cup Run Stopped Cold

While it was still an exciting game, the tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched the game and saw team USA knocked out of this round.

Sigh.

I'm going to go shopping. I need an uplift in spirits.

Landon Donovan, USA God!

Well, in my neck of the woods, it's the hope that both Korea and USA win, so they can meet in the next round.

Fun video of reactions across the nation to his goal last Wednesday.

TEAM USA TAKES GROUP C!!!

AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

I swear, I cried when team USA finally got a goal that wasn't called back! Because they had more goals than England, team USA wins Division C, and advances along with England.

My stomach hurts, and now I have to get ready for work!

UPDATE: 7:00 P.M.:

I found this part of a report about the game pretty funny.

As the need for a goal increased, Bradley sent in Benny Feilhaber at the half, Edson Buddle at the 64th minute, then Beasley. Now it was the old pro football drill of everybody go long. How American was that? Only instead of Joe Montana sending everybody deep, it was Howard, the American keeper who plays in England, half-Hungarian, half-African-American.

Now, because of goals scored (more than England), it is the English that will have to face the big, bad Germans, and team USA plays Ghana in the next round.

World Cup Watching In Koreatown

As many of you know, I work in Koreatown, and since Korea's game against Nigeria was at 11:30 a.m. today, I took advantage of it being aired in a big park on two screens.

This picture is from the screen on top of the building. I watched most of the second half of the game from that screen.

This next three pictures are where Radio Korea set up another screen, had speakers, and a Korean announcer calling the game, as well as some dancers and drummers sparking the crowd.

Another picture of the same area. You can see the screen next to the while ribbon hanging from the building.



It was fun to be in a crowd rooting for a team that's not a Los Angeles team, be it Lakers, Kings, Dodgers or whatever.

Now, on to tomorrow's game. GO USA!!! BOOO ENGLAND! USA has a chance to move on, so long as England doesn't score many goals against Slovenia and team USA does as well (or better) than England. If both teams tie their opponents, and team USA still has more goals for, they advance with Slovenia. Even if England draws and team USA draws, as long as team USA has the more goals, they WILL advance.

Oh, And, Um, Congratulations To Lakers (The Fans Don't Riot-Only Soccer Fans Riot)

A belated congrats to the Lakers and their championship win last week. And, yes, I did watch the game! I used the DVR to record the shows I wanted to watch but had to miss because of the game seven.

Two images from the game: One we like ...

one we don't like ...



Photos from Reuters.


Which brings to mind a comment made at the start of the World Cup from a certain Glenn Beck.

I don't get the baseball thing, but the soccer thing, I hate it so much -- probably because the rest of the world likes it so much, and they riot over it, and they continually try to jam it down our throat." [snip] It doesn't matter how you sell it to us. It doesn't matter how many celebrities you get. It doesn't matter how many bars open early. It doesn't matter how many beer commercials they run. We don't want the World Cup. We don't like the World Cup. We don't like soccer. We want nothing to do with it. You can package it any way -- you can spend all kinds of money. You can force it on our television sets. We will not enjoy the World Cup.

Hmmmm. So soccer fans riot, but true American sports fans don't.

I seem to remember the Republicans hijacking the term "soccer mom" to brand them more representative of "middle America." Now, soccer is a pejorative term used by the Republican right?

The term came into widespread use near the time of the 1996 Republican National Convention. The first use of the term in a news article about that election appeared in the July 21, 1996 edition of The Washington Post. E.J. Dionne, the article's author, quoted Alex Castellanos (at the time a senior media advisor to Bob Dole) suggesting that Bill Clinton was targeting a voting demographic whom Castellanos called the "soccer mom." The soccer mom was described in the article as "the overburdened middle income working mother who ferries her kids from soccer practice to scouts to school." The article suggested that the term soccer mom was a creation of political consultants. Castellanos was later quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying "She's the key swing consumer in the marketplace, and the key swing voter who will decide the election."

A Point, Is A Point, But Team USA Deserved The Win

That goal should have counted. Umpire Jim Joyce and referee Koman Coulibaly have something in common. A bad call affecting a game in a dramatic way. However, unlike Joyce, who immediately knew he had made a mistake, Coulibaly has remained silent about his disallowed goal in the USA/Slovenia game, a goal that would have given USA the lead, and possibly the win (and the three points that go with it).

First off, team USA came back from a two goal deficit at the half, to tie Slovenia, which in and of itself was a magical feat to begin with. But when the Edu goal was called back, team USA had to settle for a draw, and a single point.

The only good news is the rumor that Coulibaly will be pulled from refereeing any further World Cup matches.

FIFA will now assess Coulibaly’s performance, and will almost certainly keep him from refereeing any more matches in the World Cup. However, this doesn’t mean that he won’t have one more opportunity to break the heart of another football-loving nation (yes, we love it now, and it loves us). Coulibaly may find himself barred from refereeing another match, but according to FIFA, he might be eligible to be a line judge in the knockout round.

Soccer’s governing body would be hard pressed not to keep this guy as far away from the field as possible. A repeat performance by the man of a thousand shrugs is, hopefully, not going to happen.

World Cup Schedule

Artists perform during the World Cup opening ceremony at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Luca Bruno/Associated Press)

For those following the World Cup, just click on the link above for the FIFA schedule of all the games. USA plays its first game against England tomorrow. S. Korea plays Greece tomorrow, as well.

Hey, I work in Koreatown, damn it! I have to know these things (grins).

Go USA, go USA!