Spain U-19 pics!

Spain's U-19 (Under 19) team just won the UEFA Championship again! Look at these future hotties, and they are totally my age! (from the UEFA site)

MLS is stupid

How could they have scheduled a Chivas USA vs. New England Revolution game the day after the All-Star game? Basically anyone from those two teams can't play. It is so not fair. I wanted to see Ante Razov and Clint Dempsey charging at those Chelsea bastards. Why? They should move that game to Wednesday, August 16 or something. These 2 guys got voted on and then they don't get to play. Fans picked them! Oh well, I guess we get to see Brian Ching too. I still lament the fact that he didn't play in Germany... The MLS team is like half D.C. United and half USA World Cup roster. Interesting.
By the way, I hope they do some fancy promotion for the MLS All-Star game. Hot pictures of Frank Lampard, John Terry, Andriy Shevchenko, and Michael Ballack are definitely welcome.
Darn, all the hot U.S. players are overseas (ahem Brian McBride and Bobby Convey). I better on the lookout, because I totally missed the U.S. team promotion in Maxim in February.
Other side notes: I've rediscovered Eddie Gaven this weekend. I hope he makes the USA national team roster for a future World Cup. Also have hopes for Jonathan Bornstein and Kenny Cooper. By the way, MLS teams just don't manpile correctly. Chivas USA may be the only team that actually does some, and they are no where close to being as crazy as the Italians. Probably because this stupid country is so homophobic still...

In and Out (4)

what's in

• Comcast Channel 8 - because they're showing D.C. United vs. Chicago Fire on Saturday. I finally get to see the team dominating MLS.
  
• Spanish slang - because I'm still obsessed with Spain right now and it's interesting to see how things are said with completely different literal translations. Also, now I can say that Math class is shit in Spanish.
  
• Ann Arbor Art Fair - so many people about, and I will check it out tonight.
  
• Studying in the Arb - there are benches there, outside is cooler and fresher than my apartment, and it's so much quieter and private there. Now if I could only get internet connection there (and a laptop), then I would do all of my HW there.
• German - because I'm hoping to fit 3 more semesters of German in before I graduate, instead of taking Spanish. I just want to practice speaking Spanish, not reading old Spanish literature, and basically I think that is what Spanish 276 is.
  

what's out

• Orchestra - I dropped orchestra in favor of a social science class that fulfills R&E. This will help me fit in German. I might do band for winter semester, or maybe take composition next fall. Hmm...
• FIFA - How could they suspend Matarazzi 2 games for insulting a guy, and Zidane only 3 games for head-butting Matarazzi? Do I sense some injustice? Either FIFA isn't revealing how serious the crime was, or they have a total bias for Zidane.
  

what's on the line

• Landon Donovan - I'm giving him another chance this Saturday to show me how he really plays. It was really immature of me to blame much of the U.S. World Cup mess on him. It's the same as blaming Ronaldinho for Brazil's elimination, or saying he isn't the best player in the world because of his World Cup performance. So if Ronaldinho is still the best player in the world to me, then Landon Donovan does not suck. He just had 3 bad days, maybe.
• Robby Ginepri - Can he revive in time to defend his points? He's doing pretty good right now in the RCA Championships, but still... Right now all that is going for him is how good he looks in those Under Armour shirts. I love Under Armour, if you can't tell by now...

other

• According to this article, Iker Casillas was supposedly in New York watching the Red Bulls vs. the Rapids. What? How come I didn't know about this even though I'm stalking Spanish players somewhat? And where are the pictures?
• Fernando Torres shaved off his hair. He still looks decent, but still...that prettiness is gone. I hope his hair grows fast because he is so much hotter with hair. Not long hair that requires a headband (e.g. Sergio Ramos or Luis Garcia), or blonde hair, but something like his WC-do. Yeah.
• Andy Murray takes 5 sets to beat Andy Ram of Israel. Did you really have to do that to yourself, Andy Murray? Surely you could have beat him in 3 and then enjoyed some ice cream or something...
  

Power outages suck and the eventual Spain trip

So yesterday night at 11 PM we lost power here. It didn't come back until 4 PM today. Reading fanfiction and stuff on a public computer in the Fishbowl is kind of disconcerting. Not that I mind that much what people see me reading...it's my own business, not theirs. I had to (unfortunately) throw out my ice cream. It was quite sad.
By the way, I was on the way to my Oral Exam for German when someone yelled out my name from a car. I feel bad not figuring out where or who she was. Oh well, random incident of the day.
So I decided yesterday to start planning my eventual vacation to Spain. I figure I might as well start now, since I don't think I'll be getting much vacation anytime soon. To get in a good grad school I'll need to work in a lab for my next 2 summers or so, and then once I'm at grad school I'll be there all year long (no breaks). And there's no way I could study abroad. Firstly they prefer Spanish majors. Secondly you need to be at least a sophomore, but more likely a junior or a senior (I have a lot of credits but not many count towards my GPA). Thirdly, junior year is when I'm supposed to start my research, and there's no way I can go abroad for a semester if I'm working for a professor. I don't even know if I can escape Ann Arbor next summer (though I really, really want to). I do want to go to another University for research, just so I'm experiencing something different. Unfortunately, if I do get a break between my Umich schooling and my work at Emory, most likely I'll be working in Ann Arbor. That's why I'm so jealous of people who get to go on vacation! My brother was lucky enough to get a break between college and work. I may have to wait 7 or 8 years before I get my break.
I could try to go during Spring Break, but I think it would be really expensive. And travelling to Europe is so expensive anyway. I mean, Jackie is going to London for 8 days and is spending $2400, when half of that time is probably spent doing band stuff. Plus, can I really convince my parents to dish out $1000 or so for a week in Spain? I would have to go with a bunch of people, and I can't think of anyone else who is as desperate to go to Spain as I am. And I kind of want to go alone (even though that's probably dangerous), because I feel like I'll have more freedom to do whatever I want.
Well, I better keep up with my Spanish if I'm going to go to Spain. I checked out Borders' collection of Spanish books, but there wasn't much contemporary stuff from Spain. I feel like I know like no slang whatsoever and I have no feel for conversation. Not like people are going to expect perfect Spanish from me or anything...

I may become a stalker.

I think I've really been suffering World Cup withdrawal. I check ESPNsoccernet and BBCsports all the time to see the latest transfer rumors, as well as any more dirt on the Wayne Rooney/Cristiano Ronaldo incident and the Zidane/Matarazzi incident. I've also been scouring player websites and sites in Spanish for news on my two new obsessions, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas. Too bad they both have girlfriends. Fernando is probably going to marry his, since supposedly he has the date when they hooked up tattooed on his leg in Roman numerals. Crazy. Cesc is only 19 so I'll leave him alone. Even Philipp has a girlfriend named Nichola. I guess my German knowledge actually did something useful (jk).
Anyway, Fernando is probably as big as Lebron James is here in the States. He's friends with the singer of El Canto del Loco, a very famous rock/pop band in Spain. Since Cesc likes this band (I'm such a freak), I looked them up. They are more pop than rock, and sound a bit too much the same on each track, but they aren't bad. And my Spanish isn't too bad, since I can understand them (if I can figure out what words they are singing since they say things so fast). I mean, I already have enough problems sometimes figuring out what English words American bands are singing, so Spanish just makes it work. I also raided Yahoo!Music for German music for fun. They have some decent rock bands...better than Spain at least...time to download their songs or something...
Wonder if Cristiano Ronaldo has a girlfriend? I swear these soccer players marry way too early. I think Deuce is single though...haha...

Sidebar update

I changed the group of 20 athletes on my side bar. I also got new pictures for many of them. I guess here's the list of who's in and who's out.

who's in: Marin Cilic, Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres
who's out: Tommy Robredo, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo

I noticed some interesting trends...
1) I like Croatian male tennis players. Maybe I think they're hot or something? I don't like Croatian female tennis players, though. Well, I can only think of one, Karolina Sprem, and I don't like her that much.
2) I like Spanish soccer players. I think I have fallen in love with the Spanish National team. Other guys I like on the team include Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Jose Antonio Reyes, and Juaquin.
3) I tend towards younger males. I guess I don't want to be ogling old men because I feel perverted. Kaka looks like he's 20 even though he's 24. Cristiano, despite being 21, looks like he's 25. I like Cannavaro now, especially from the WC, but he's not up there because he's like 30.
4) I like larger-structured females. You're probably thinking, then why 2 gymnasts? Notice that they're both from the U.S.? One of the reasons I like U.S. gymnasts is that they don't look anorexic (or as anorexic) as the others. Of the tennis gals, Lindsay, Amelie, Svetlana, and Dinara are all the non-poster girls. Amelie has a very masculine face and large shoulders. Lindsay is also big-boned. I probably picked the 2 least "attractive" Russian girls to rally behind. I admire their body type (since there's no way that I'm going to be a stick) and I rather look like Sveta than like Maria.

In and Out (3)

So yeah...I haven't really told you what's going on in my life these last few weeks...well here it is.

what's in

• Summer term - I'm taking Math 216 (Calc. 4 = Differential Equations) and German 101. German is actually a lot of fun; it's like looking at the other half of English. If you thought gender was hard in Spanish, it's so much worse in German... Calc. hasn't been bad, though I just had that killer long test today right before my 2nd German one. German's easy, of course, but taking it pass/fail lets me be lazy about vocab.
• summer heat - it's been muggy some days, really hot and sunny others, and yet my math classroom is freezing. I can't go to class without pants or else I'd lose my limbs.
• painted nails - because it helps with the boredom sometimes. Plus I can stare at my nails and look at all the kinks in the paint during math lecture...
• working out - I decided that I should stop losing weight and should start eating ice cream and building muscles! (Now you're probably thinking - what do ice cream and building muscles have in common?)
• MLS - since World Cup is gone, and I'm now obsessed with soccer, I'll take whatever I get. Though I wish they'd show some D.C. United and some New England Revolution action soon. Not that I don't mind Brian Ching or Ante Razov, but still...Clint Dempsey!! And MLS isn't completely useless, since D.C. United whooped ass against Celtic FC of Scotland 4-0. Maybe we won't be as lifeless in 2010!
• U.S. Hard court season - I had to throw this in. After all, I still have time to obsess over sports!
• Amelie Mauresmo - because she's truly #1 on the WTA with 2 grand slam titles. She didn't play pretty but she fought hard, and that's all that matters. She also looked good in her Champions' Ball gown and with the plate of course.
• Roger Federer - he's making new records with the crazy amount of points he has. Oh, and that 4th Wimbledon title, and that jacket...
  

what's out

• World Cup - It's over, it's done. Now the teams get a short break before they must qualify again. Well at least there's Euro 2008 and Copa America and other things. Premiership and other leagues start late August. Just in time for the fall semester...(even more things to keep track of!)
• Wimbledon - I wish it was more dramatic, really. The only drama was that the Americans all lost before the quarters. Thus here comes the next one...
• Andy Roddick - what the hell is up with him? He struggles through his first round match, completely kills the second guy, and then dies in the third round. Andy Murray, for gosh sakes, beat him. That's sad. I support Murray and all, but Murray isn't even close to the top 10 right now. Roddick needs to fall down even farther I think...
• Kim Clijsters - because she hasn't followed up her U.S. Open win with anything special. She can't conquer Justine Henin-Hardenne, not even once recently.
• Marat Safin - why does he keep self-destructing? I swear he used to fight through matches and win them...
• weaving ends - because I have a tote, a tank top, and a short-sleeved shirt that are just lying on my chair waiting to be finished up, but I hate sewing in ends like no other. Otherwise I've had a very knitful summer. (I need a camara to put pictures of my projects up, which I'm sure you would enjoy...not)
  

World Cup final thoughts

Italy is the World Cup champion again! Good job Italy for hanging in there...definitely wasn't pretty and you definitely didn't have control but you did what you do best - defended.
There's a bunch of topics I want to address, so here comes the long entry...

1. The Hosts: Germany was a great host. They had great fans and great spirit. The only glitch I can remember off the top of my head was allowing a Croatian fan to walk onto the pitch during the Brazil-Croatia game.
2. The host team: Germany put on a good display. They have a mixture of youth and veterans. They have a promising future because of the following people: Philipp Lahm, David Odonkor, Lukas Podolski, and Bastian Schweinsteiger. All these guys are in their early 20's and will probably play 2 more cups or so.
3. The World Cup final match: Italy had control for maybe the first half hour but then their passes started being picked off, etc. Controversial penalty is somewhat balanced out by the one that should have been called later. Close off-sides call that could have given Italy a 2-1 lead. Zidane's head-butt. Controversy, tension, diving...basically many of these knock-out matches were filled with this. The refereeing was actually good (in my opinion) because he didn't let this match get out of control even though it could. Zidane had to be sent off. It was 1000+ times harder than Luis Figo's headbutt, which should have given Figo a yellow card. Zidane did have that awesome penalty kick though. That may have been the only instance of good finishing and luck for France.
   
4. Diving: There definitely was a huge increase in diving starting with the knockout rounds. People complained about Portugal the most (I did too), but other teams were just as bad. Of course Portugal wins at being the worst divers and thus can't get away with it, but Totti and Henry definitely pulled off some awful dives. So what would the WC final teams be if the prominent diving teams were out? For me it would most likely be: Australia vs. Ecuador or Ghana (can't remember if Ecuador did any diving, I think Ghana had maybe 2 instances). For sure all the major contenders did some diving: France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, England, Netherlands, Spain. Even Ukraine did some during their "cinderella" run. Therefore I don't think diving really screwed any team over except for Australia. I don't think it really changed the final.
5. Refs: They were awful mostly through the group stages. They weren't that good during the round of 16. They were the best today and in the semi-finals. Another reason why I think the final was the real final.
6. Star-studded teams: They just don't seem to click for some reason. England and Brazil seemed to suffer the same problems. Miscommunication, lack of intensity, lack of creativity, etc. The U.S. had the same problem, but they weren't star-studded. Funny.
7. Lack of goals: I think we just didn't have the finishers on the field. Granted, the defense of many teams was good, but really these guys needed to put more shots on goal. Pauleta, Podolski, and Lampard are 2 guys that had tons of opportunities that they wasted, though Lampard wins at being the worst finisher. Also the crosses could have been better. This one probably can be blamed on tight defenses. And look, the 2 teams with the best organized defenses get to the final. Cannavaro of Italy and Thuram of France have been outstanding. Klose was perhaps the best finisher, or maybe Ronaldo.
8. The overhyped/overranked teams: They ended up being Brazil, England, Czech Republic, and the U.S. (off the top of my head). The few bright spots on each team...
1. Brazil: Kaka, Robinho, Ze Roberto
2. England: Aaron Lennon, Rio Ferdinand
3. Czech Republic: Petr Cech, Pavel Nedved
4. U.S.: Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu (despite a few mistakes, a solid performance)
9. Strange parallels: Spain and Argentina both had sizzling starts, both were touted as having tons of depth, and both were eliminated early. Brazil and England both managed to scrape through and both lost in the quarters.
10. England: Just because for some reason ESPN and other American networks like to obsess over England (and be very biased towards them), I will name the few players with the few plays they made that kept England in the tournament for so long. With this system, David Beckham was the best performer on the English team. Now that's really wrong and it just shows just how bad the English team was.
    
1. John Terry: the line clearance in the T & T match that kept the game scoreless until the 80th or so minute. Wonder what England would do if they had gone a goal down.
2. Ashley Cole: the pressure he put on the Ecuadorian that forced his shot high after John Terry's bad header. Same as above: would England have won the game if they had gone a goal down?
3. David Beckham: he created goals in the Paraguay, T & T, and Ecuador matches. The Sweden game didn't matter as much (though they did avoid Germany), so Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard's goals aren't so important. Sorry.
11. Karma: It didn't seem to work out right. Germany beats out Poland last second only to have the Italians do the same in the semis. Italy gets a penalty from a dive against Australia only to have France get one against them in the final. Portugal has a tough tussle with the Netherlands, resulting in red-cards for 2 players, only to get some help from the referee against England (not including Rooney's incident) to help them advance. The South Koreans get lucky with the "save behind the line" in the French match only to have what looked at the moment to be an offsides goal to be awarded to the Swiss. So the final message is that you need to have luck, to actually be good, and to keep fighting to win the WC.
12. Impressive players...
1. Old guys: Cannavaro, Zidane, Vieira, Luis Figo for being solid for their teams (minus Zidane's head-butt)
2. Young guys: Fabregas, Torres, Sergio Ramos, Lahm, Odonkor, Lennon, Messi, Tevez, Ronaldo, Robinho for bringing energy, creativity, and passion to the game (as well as some nice skills)
3. Others: Maniche, Joao Ricardo for being better than expected
   
13. Unimpressive players...
1. Ronaldinho: could have been more dangerous
2. Adriano, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Beckham: not mobile enough
3. Crouch, Lampard, Pauleta: could not find net (enough) [and I'm missing some other people]

Well soon I'll be suffering from soccer withdrawal. Don't know what I'm going to do about it...

Wimbledon predictions

Because I should do some. Two rematches this year: Mauresmo vs. Henin-Hardenne and Federer vs. Nadal. I hope Mauresmo wins, since she's one of my favorites on the WTA, and for the men, I just want a competitive match. It'd be cool if Federer won his 4th Wimbledon title and if Nadal wins his first and does a back-to-back. I feel, though, that Henin-Hardenne and Federer are the favorites. I'll probably end up cheering the underdogs again...(will it work this time?)

Mr. Roboto - according to the Univision announcers

I had to do this. Not only do I think he is the most awkward-looking soccer player, Peter Crouch has his faces...

okay, somewhat normal face

another somewhat normal face


tongue


he throws his hands up...

(the "maiden" protests)

the best face

(he sure didn't get his cookies)

World Cup penultimate thoughts

So I got one of the finalists right. The Germany-Italy match was amazing!! Wow Italy! I hope they shatter my last prediction and win the final! Anyway, how was I supposed to know that Torsten Frings would get suspended? Craziness.

After watching the Portugal-France match yesterday and reading some articles, I'm tempted to stop supporting Cristiano Ronaldo. What horrible diving! If you want calls to favor you, you don't have to flop around so badly. He didn't help himself by getting the wrath of English fans, though I think booing makes him play better. Why does he have to mar such talent with those antics? He just seems so whiny...and I definitely don't like whiners. Off to the line he goes. Another major blunder and he's off my list...

Talking about my list, it really needs to be updated. First of all, I need to add Cesc. He's just impressed me a lot this tourney. Fernando Torres...maybe. I might even add Andy Murray soon, depending on my mood. If Lindsay retires, I will remove her and look for another female to put up there. Hmm...I also wonder why I do support Tommy Robredo...maybe I should replace him with Joachim Johansson once he returns to the tour...

Lastly, my +10 team (which is really 11 because I can't play soccer at all) that includes some of my favorites and hotness of course.

• Goalkeeper: Ricardo of Portugal
• Defenders: John Terry, Fabio Cannavaro, Philipp Lahm, Sergio Ramos
• Midfielders: Kaka, Zinedine Zidane, Juan Roman Riquelme, Cesc Fabregas
  
• Strikers: Miroslav Klose, Lionel Messi
• Substitutes: Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Alessandro Nesta, Fabricio Coloccini, Rafael Marquez, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Deco, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Arjen Robben
  

The only problem is that I think Philipp Lahm and Sergio Ramos play the same position. Oh well, Philipp could be a LB, right?

World Cup predictions (5)

So 3/4... Who'd thought Brazil would lose? Here are my final predictions.

Germany vs. Italy: Germany wins because they'll bounce back from the bad game they played against Argentina. Italy hasn't had to play any "hard" matches besides the one against Australia, and they barely won that one.
Portugal vs. France: France wins because they just beat Brazil. Portugal won't be able to get away with as much diving perhaps...
Final: Germany vs. France...I feel like Germany is going to win, now that Brazil is gone. France is having another dream run, so don't count them out.

Notes: I didn't get to watch Italy vs. Ukraine or Brazil vs. France, so I don't have the best predictions. If Portugal and France go to pks, Portugal will probably win with their awesome goalkeeper. I think that if England didn't lose Wayne Rooney, they might not have lost the game. Argentina should have used Lionel Messi even with the goalkeeper injury. Cristiano Ronaldo should not return to Manchester United; he should fear for his life.