World Cup predictions (4)

So I got 6 out of 8 teams right. I think I'm doing better. Now I'm really going to start guessing...

Quarters:
Germany vs. Argentina: Germany wins because they are the home team
Italy vs. Ukraine: Italy wins because they have more experience
England vs. Portugal: Portugal wins because England has been boring
Brazil vs. France: Brazil wins because they are the defending champs

Hope...

• Cristiano Ronaldo can play a full match
• A real England team shows up
• France plays like they did today against Brazil
• Argentina makes pretty passes again
• Italy and Ukraine don't just play defense

Thoughts: Too bad the cute Swiss team and the hot Spanish team had to leave. I liked the Aussies' spirit; they sure began to grow on me. Kaka needs to take off his shirt sometime and needs to stop humpinng Ronaldo. I hope Robinho is back soon. Sergio Ramos and Luis Garcia both look really girly for some reason...

The Best and the Worst of the World Cup so far...

Best...

• match was between Italy and Australia or Argentina and Mexico
  
• goal goes to Maxi Rodriguez's overtime goal vs. Mexico
  
• goal scorer is Maxi Rodriguez because I say so
• goal keeper is probably today's savior, Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. Isaksson and Cech are close seconds, though they are both out of the tourney.
  
• referee may be the one who officiated the match between Ukraine and Switzerland
• surprise team was Australia. Good effort today.
  
• penalty kick goes to Francisco Totti. Beautiful.
• team is Germany (or maybe Brazil or Spain if they show off tomorrow)
• coach may be Pekermann of Argentina, but then again he has a great roster
  
• young player in my opinion is Lionel Messi
• fan service is coming from Andriy Shevchenko. Of the guys who take off their shirt after every match, he is by far the hottest.
• national anthem in my opinion is Germany's. So beautiful...
  

Worst...

• match was today's boring one between Ukraine and Switzerland. 2nd place goes to Argentina vs. Serbia and Montenegro because Serbia was terrible
  
• goal goes to Niko Kovac's one, not to discredit him but the shot was like nothing
• goal scorer is Frank Lampard because he's taken over 20 shots and half of them don't require saving
  
• goal keeper is Zeljko Kalac. He's the one who let Niko Kovac's goal go in.
  
• referee goes to the one who officiated the match between Portugal and the Netherlands
• foul was the one committed by Daniele De Rossi. Bloody...
  
• red card was given to Italy's Marco Materazzi. Should have been a yellow
• penalty kick goes to Omar Bravo. Maybe Henrik Larsson's miss is close.
• penalty decision was to give one to Ghana because of Gooch's non-existent foul
• penalty-taking team is Switzerland. They didn't make a single one.
  
• team was Serbia and Montenegro because they didn't show that much heart. 2nd place goes to the U.S.
• coach during this World Cup may be Bruce Arena. Hiddink is a close 2nd due to some really bad decisions.
• national anthem is probably the U.S. one because it's hard for groups of people to sing

WOW

The Portugal vs. Netherlands game was insane. It was almost a brawl. Head-butting, wrestling, glaring, bad tackles... A card-fest insued. The only word...WOW.

At least Cristiano Ronaldo is alright. He was crying as he had to leave due to injury in the 34th minute. Now most people think that a guy is a pansy if he's crying, but at least he shows some heart. Really, tons of people would kill to be playing for the Portugal national soccer team, in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, against the Netherlands, along with Luis Figo and Deco... For whatever reason, guys should be devastated when they have to leave the pitch and possibly never play again in the World Cup. The goalkeeper from Paraguay in the 8th minute of his first game... He's not being a pansy or whatever, he's just crushed that his dreams may be over. If he never gets over it, then something is wrong, but please let the boy cry.

England sucks and is boring as ever. Ecuador's game plan seemed to see if England would self-destruct. Instead they lose to a free kick by Beckham. The only guy I liked out there from England was Aaron Lennon, and he wasn't even supposed to do anything except hold the ball. Such a waste. Also, 4-5-1 sucks unless it acts more like a 4-3-3. England seemed to almost be a 2-5-3 sometimes. Terry and Ferdinand will need help against Portugal. Portugal will need Simao to be as awesome as he was today. Their match-up has an equal chance of being exciting and being boring. Let's see what happens on Saturday...

I've actually gotten my first 4 predictions right. I'm glad Mexico put up a fight against Argentina. Awesome shot by Maxi Rodriguez. Yay Lionel Messi! Mexico represents CONCACAF well with that overtime showing.

Tomorrow Wimbledon and World Cup will be competing. I will probably watch Italy vs. Australia (to see if a flood of cards are handed out) and tape Ukraine vs. Switzerland. For some reason I feel like that match may be a bore. With my bad luck, I'll probably have them switched. Oh well.

Wimbledon is 3 days away...

...sweet...The draw came out this morning and it's going to be interesting.

The best 1st round match-up ever: Roger Federer vs. Richard Gasquet

I will be cheering for Gasquet all the way. Definitely will record any soccer going on while this match is broadcasted. I am rooting for Mario Ancic to go far (hopefully he takes the title) this year. Here's the pecking order of people I want to win the title: 1 = Ancic, 2 = Henman, 3 = Gasquet, 4 = Monfils, 5 = Roddick, 6 = Djokovic, 7 = Blake, 8 = Murray, 9 = Agassi, 10 = Johansson

Woman's side: 1 = Kuznetsova, 2 = Safina, 3 = Mauresmo, 4 = Williams, 5 = Krajicek, 6 = Ivanovic, 7 = Mirza, 8 = King, 9 = Jackson, 10 = Vaidisova

As you can see, I don't care that much about women's tennis anymore, not when Lindsay Davenport is out. Plus soccer is crowding out everything. There's always Wimbledon next year...

World Cup predictions (3)

Knock out stage is here! Here's the list of who I think will pass to the quarters (and who I hope will pass).

Germany vs. Sweden: Germany wins (hope Sweden wins)
Argentina vs. Mexico: Argentina wins (hope Mexico wins but they looked pretty bad)
England vs. Ecuador: England wins
Portugal vs. Netherlands: Portugal wins (close one)
Italy vs. Australia: Italy wins (close one)
Switzerland vs. Ukraine: Switzerland wins (depends on which Ukraine team shows up)
Brazil vs. Ghana: Brazil wins (hope Ghana makes it exciting)
Spain vs. France: Spain wins

Random side note: What's up with the players carrying those black purses? Is it a new fashion accessory that I've been too ignorant to take note of?

World Cup has a bunch of good-looking guys...

...though most of them are too old. I was bored one day and compiled a list of players 22 years or younger. Of course my definitions of "hot" and "cute" may be different than yours, but all of these guys have potential. (As you can see, I have a thing for Spanish players.)

HOT
Cesc Fabregas (Spain, Arsenal): 4-May-87
Niko Kranjcar (Croatia, Hadjuk Split): 13-August-84
Sergio Ramos (Spain, Real Madrid): 30-March-86
Jose Antonio Reyes (Spain, Arsenal): 1-September-83
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Manchester United): 5-February-85
Fernando Torres (Spain, Atletico Madrid): 20-March-84

CUTE
Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona): 24-June-87
David Odonker (Germany, Borussia Dortmund): 21-February-84
Lukas Podolski (Germany, FC Cologne): 4-June-85
Arjen Robben (Netherlands, Chelsea): 23-January-84
Wayne Rooney (England, Manchester United): 24-October-85
Robinho (Brazil, Real Madrid): 25-January-84
Philippe Senderos (Switzerland, Arsenal): 14-February-85

We lost.

Bruce Arena was too conservative. We were too defensive. Maybe we should have put in Eddie Johnson earlier. Maybe we should have put in Brian Ching. Whatever.

Props to Italy for winning against the Czech Republic. I can't wait to see who the prima donnas go against next.

World Cup predictions (2)

Group play is almost over. My predictions didn't turn out that well, but I still have a chance with the second half. I actually got group A right. I somehow forgot about the Swedes (how could I forget the underwear model Freddie Ljungberg?) and Paraguay could have played much better. I wanted a miracle to happen for the Ivory Coast, but the Netherlands are a really good team. I may get Group D right, Group E will need a prayer, Group F is kind of shaky, and now I don't want my Group G prediction to be right (France sucks!). Group H also may turn out well, as long as Ukraine wins or draws.

Hopes for the rest of group play: Portugal and Mexico draw, Italy and USA win, Brazil and Croatia win, Switzerland and Togo win, Spain and Ukraine win.

Predictions vs. hopes for the next round:
Germany vs. Sweden - prediction: Germany wins; hope: Sweden wins
England vs. Ecuador - prediction: England wins; hope: England wins

Things to note: Spain by far is the hottest team in the World Cup in terms of physical appearance. Andriy Shevchenko is giving out free fanservice after each match by taking off his shirt (yay!). Cristiano Ronaldo finally scored a goal (but unfortunately he didn't take off his shirt) and is not supposed to play today. Mexico needs to pass better. The U.S. has heart. Ghana may be the best African team with their 2-0 victory over the Czechs. Michael Owen is out for 5 months. Frank Lampard can't get a good shot off. Alex of Japan runs like a maniac. Niko Kranjicar is the hottest Croatian athlete (he even beats Mario Ancic!). Robinho should not start but play more minutes (he's good). Ronaldo is fat. Kaka should have scored a 3rd goal against Australia (oh well). Lionel Messi is cute and I wish he had more minutes.

In and Out (2)

what's in

• Ecuador!!!!! I actually got one of my world cup predictions right. Lovely goals today and nice saves by Mora. Now you need to beat Germany!
• Spain! They were on fire yesterday. The red card was unnecessary, since Spain would have won anyway. They also have hot guys on this team...
• Rafael Nadal. This is late, but he won his 2nd French Open title. Definitely a "Fed killa".
• Dinara Safina. What a way to make a statement after beating Maria Sharapova. You rock.
• Manchester United. How the hell did they secure so many hotties? With each game I discover more and more of them. I think I'm going to stalk this team...and the Spanish national team...and the Brazilian national team...

what's out

• USA. Just read the lament that I wrote before. Oh, and add Bruce Arena because he made some bad decisions. He should get at least half the blame.
• French Open. It's over, it was fun, and I might have watched too much of it. I'll probably be saying the same about soccer about a month from now...
• Maria Sharapova, because I've always wanted to say this. Go Dinara Safina! Unfortunately her commercials are still around.
• School. Actually I have 2 more lectures and 2 more tests. So close to being done...
  

Today was depressing

They lost. Outclassed in every way. The U.S. should have done way better than that. My only props go to Eddie Johnson. I was most disappointed in Bobby Convey. He made the starting line-up (which made me happy at first), but then he didn't do so well. His crosses were low and too close to the keeper. Also we needed more people in the box. I think Clint Dempsey should have come in and shook things up. What also sucked though was our defense. They better pick it up or we are SCREWED.

Other World Cup

• Ivory Coast has a chance with Drogba, but there's the Netherlands' Arjen Robben. They'll need to tighten up their defense. Though I will be anxious to watch Argentina vs. the Netherlands. It could be very entertaining.
• Good job Mexico! They did a good job and clearly played for the keeper's loss. I hope they get out of the group. They were also doing better than Portugal, who should have been more explosive than they were. Poor Cristiano Ronaldo though, he was so close to scoring a goal with that header...
• Ecuador surprised Poland! That made me really happy that day. I think if they beat (not tie) Costa Rica, they'll be into the next round. That would be awesome!
• Opening matches coming up: Italy vs. Ghana (please tie), Brazil vs. Croatia, South Korea vs. Togo, France vs. Switzerland, Spain vs. Ukraine, Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia. Players to watch for: Ronaldihno and Kaka (Ricardo) from Brazil, Thierry Henry from France, the Spanish team (some skilled guys as well as some hotness), Andriy Shevchenko. I will definitely watch Brazil vs. Croatia and Spain vs. Ukraine. I hope all four of these teams put on a good show!
  

World Cup predictions...

...that suck. Had to get this out before the inaugural match (which starts in less than 4 hours!) or else this wouldn't be fair. Here is who I think will get out of each group (or who I want to get out of the group).
Group A - not so sure about this group, but Germany and Ecuador
Group B - hmm... England and Paraguay
Group C - by far the hardest group to predict... I'm going with Argentina and Ivory Coast (the surprise team hopefully)
Group D - Portugal and Mexico, unless Iran pulls of a surprise (now I don't want this surprise to happen)
Group E - another hard one... Of course I would like to see USA and Italy, with USA on top!
Group F - Brazil for sure, and probably Croatia
Group G - France most likely, and maybe South Korea?
Group H - Spain (unless they go on vacation or something) and Ukraine?
Also let's hope that we can come out on top of our group. If we get out second in the group, we will almost 100% face Brazil in the knockout stages. And you know by now that Brazil is the heavy favorite.

In and Out

Okay, I'm starting a new thing here called "In and Out". Basically I will divide things into three categories: what's in, what's out, and what's on the line. What's "in" consists of what I'm doing, what I'm obsessed with, things that are cool, etc. What's "out" consists of what I'm done with, stuff that losing my interest, things that suck, etc. What's "on the line" consists of things I'm ambivalent about, things not quite "in" and not quite "out". So here goes the inaugural entry (sorry there will probably be some repetitious ranting from my previous blog entries).

what's in

• French Open. Though it's almost over. All of my favorite players are now out after Novak's retirement in today's match on the men's side. On the women's side, Kuznetsova is in the semis. I'll probably watch a bit of the women's semis, skip the men's semis, and then watch the finals of both. French Open tennis has been worth it this year, though.
• World Cup Mania. Since the WC isn't exactly here yet, I have to read blogs, watch Studio 90, and scour for photos. Go USA! Other teams that are hot: Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Portugal (you know why)
• Gettyimages. Thank you for feeding my obsessions (photos galore). Though I have to ask, why are you taking pictures of David Beckham when John Terry is hotter?
• Clint Dempsey. I already liked him a bit from the few MLS games I saw him play, but he just keeps getting better. I have a thing for strikers/midfielders anyway. He joins the list of players I want to see on the field (Bobby Convey, Oguchi Onyewu, Claudio Reyna, Kasey Keller).
• Cristiano Ronaldo. He is still the hottest athlete ever. Any elite soccer players will have a good body, so it's the face that counts most!

what's out

• NBC. Their coverage of the French Open sucks. I'm glad that ESPN2 had most of it. The only thing they do right is show the finals live, but that's not hard to do.
• Studying. I just took 2 tests on Monday, so I won't be studying until the weekend.
• Exercising. I've been watching too much TV instead.

what's on the line

• Rafael Nadal. For some reason he's not charming anymore. Maybe him turning 20 did something to him? Maybe I don't like repeat champions? I don't know...
• Landon Donovan. He's still a good player and all, but he had horrible free kicks in the Morocco game. He's on the rise, but not over the line yet. Let's see how he does on Monday.
  

Hot Pictures

No real point to this post but to put up pictures I found of these hot soccer players. Enjoy!



(from top to bottom: Kaka (Brazil), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal))

The Chem 260 Rant

I really need to write this. I really do.
Chem 260 has been absolutely horrible so far. The class isn't hard or anything, but the professor is horrendous. I could write an essay about what he's doing wrong, but I won't. I'll just list a bunch of things that I hate about his teaching.

1. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Okay, he might have gotten some of Schrodinger's wave equation and the Boltzmann distribution, but spectroscopy? He said that an IR spec. is a "fingerprint region". He glosses over entanglement and puts it on our test. He spent half an hour trying to figure out why the signs changed on an equation when it was supposed to change according to the rules he taught us. He puts up figures from the book and then when he can't figure out what the figure says he reads the caption to us. Like I'm illiterate or something. I would think of more examples, but since I've studied so much for this stupid class, I probably understand almost all the stuff I didn't understand after leaving his leacture.
   
2. His lectures are so disorganized that he mentions something and never elaborates on it. He mentioned "Selection Rules" like 50 times and then just gives us guidelines for no reason. He says that this graph doesn't have a "Q" branch and never says what it is. He briefly mentioned Arnie Wahl, says something about his graphs being great posters, and expects us to know what concept he invented. Just about the moment he would explain something, he goes into another topic. Just wait. He mentions Raman spec. on Friday, doesn't tell us why it is different, and will ask us a bunch of questions on it for the test.
3. He teaches the class like it's Intro Bio. Really. He expects us to memorize names of people, random things he mentions, principles that none of us will ever use again, etc. It's like whoever can write down the most things he says will get the highest grades (which are obviously not the chem. majors - we just like to write structures). He has us practice how to make calculations in class so that the pre-med kids can get it. He reuses exam questions (now this part isn't like bio) and lets the pre-med kids copy down answers they've memorized. And he's a chemist! How can you be so nice to them when you don't want them in this class in the first place?

This class is going to suck. Since the average is so high (84% on the first test), I don't think I'll be able to get out of here with more than an A- unless he feels like being nice. He's making an 84% the lowest B+ and I got an 86% on the first test. Why can't this class be like orgo, where I could completely mess up a 20-point mechanism (along with the usual careless mistakes) and still comfortably get an A?

My new favorites!

I have been watching too much TV. Now that the French Open is on, I've just been staring at the TV for hours at a time. I have no social life whatsoever. Oh well. Today I found a new favorite tennis player to watch, Novak Djokovic (see picture on the right). Doesn't he look old in the picture? He's only 19! I had heard of him before but today was the first time I saw him play. He's got some great shots! The win over Fernando Gonzales was awesome. He's definitely above Robredo and Nadal on my favorites list.
Then there are soccer players. I think I might get even more into this sport after discovering a multitude of hot guys. Just look at Cristiano Ronaldo (see picture on the left). He is by far one of the hottest athletes I've seen in my life. There's also Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko, Christoph Metzelder, Sebastian Kehl, Luis Garcia, Lukas Podolski, Xabi Alonso, John Terry, David Beckham...I can't even remember all the guys. Maybe it's the fact that they have more photo shoots than tennis players (someone should get Mario Ancic a makeover), or maybe they are just hot. Ahem, anyway...
I'm ending here with a picture of my favorite guy on the U.S. National team. Bobby Convey is awesome and he's not even a starter (hopefully he'll play a lot anyway). He's 23...not too old... ESPNsoccernet says that he likes to sing...