Colin, don't get too excited.

Ninja Kick!

Preston, I'm looking at you to learn how to do this.

Top 10 best college mascots

#10: The Tree- Stanford Cardinal
Earns points for being bizarre. Also for a suspension due to public drunkeness at a game, which looks obvious from the picture.

#9: West Virginia Mountaineer (no name)
I've never been to West Virginia, but this guys looks exactly like what I think a Mountaineer would look like. Or the guy that was looking into Greg's window.

#8: Dubs- Washington Huskies
Shoutout to the hometown. Pretty cool mascot anyways though..... Went on the injured list for a while last year, hence the lack of a gameday picture.

#7: Wake Forest Demon Deacon (no name)
I have no idea what this nickname is supposed to mean, but this guy looks awesome.

#6: Pistol Pete- Oklahoma State Cowboys
Gets points for having an awesome name and a really big hat a la Turd Ferguson from SNL jeopardy.

#5: Sparty- Michigan State Spartans
Has a sweet costume, could beat up any other non-live mascot.

#4: Chief Osceola and Renegade- Florida State Seminoles
Chief Osceola rides out on Renegade before each game and plants a flaming spear onto the field, which has to be one of the coolest traditions in college football. Florida State claims permission from the Seminole tribe to use the nickname. Most Seminoles dispute that claim. Not too surprising that a team from the South has a racist mascot. (Check out Ole Miss' mascot for the most racist mascot around).

#3: Uga- Georiga Bulldogs
Been around forever, and recently tried to bite an Auburn player in the back of the endzone. The most pampered mascot in college sports bar none.

#2: BEVO- Texas Longhorns
Points for being a live mascot, having huge horns, and being huge in general. Sweet story regarding the origin of his name- A long time ago Texas A&M beat Texas 13 - 0, then stole Texas' Longhorn, and branded the score onto him. Texas students changed the 13 to a "B", the - to an "E", and squeezed in a "V" before the "O". BEVO.

#1: Ralphie- Colorado Buffaloes
I debated for a while betwen BEVO and Ralphie. Ultimately Colarado wins for taking a live Buffalo and sprinting across the field with him before each game. Awesome. Anyone else pumped for a trip to Boulder for some snowboarding and football once Colorado joins the PAC-10?

World Cup Best XI (last wc post?)

Goalie- Iker Casillas

His save on Robben's first breakaway was as good as any in the tournament. Spain needed him to be perfect, winning each knockout game by 1 goal.

D- Maicon

The bending goal he scored from a yard off the endline was beautiful. To attempt it was crazy enough in itself. Also played solid defense, and is just downright mean looking. The best right back in the game?

D- Pique

Puyol scored a great header, but was also exposed a couple times defensively, and fouled to save his ass. Pique was a rock.

D- Lahm

Lahm is probably more known for his offense, but he might a couple last-man back saves, and was a perfect captain.

D- Ramos

I really don't like Sergio Ramos, but I gotta give the man his props. Was almost unstoppable going forward, but never seemed to get beat 1 on 1 defensively either.

M- Shweinsteiger

The easiest call for me of all the players. Very impressive for a former winger to move into the middle and control play so well. Watching him consistently hit 60 yard balls on a dime was sweet.

M- Snjeider

Scored 5 goals in clutch situations.

M- Ozil

Is this guy a future World Player of the Year? He played like a man agasint some of the biggest names in the world. So smooth under pressure.

F- Gyan

Yeah, he missed a big PK. But, he came back strong to hit one upper 90 in penalties. His upper body strength was phenomenal, which he showed against the U.S. Also had to play by himself.

F- Villa

A 1-man wrecking crew up front for Spain. I can't believe Spain was so successful playing without Torres, but Villa was c-l-i-n-i-c-a-l.


F- Forlan

Forlan scored a bunch of goals, but more than that, he figured out the jabulani before anyone. His free kicks were always threatening, and he scored 4 goals outside the box.

Manager- Low

Germany smashed England and Argentina without their best player and captain. Nuff said.

Players getting snubbed:

Xavi- I still dont see quite the player everyone else seems to see. Also, didn't take advantage of his goal-scoring opportunities.

Iniesta- I thought he would be on this list before the tourney, but 1 goal doesn't tell the whole story. Good but not great. Let's be honest- Spain ran through Ramos (and Navas) on the right, not down the middle.

Donovan- Was considered.

Mueller- Just not enough space. He certainly deserves to be listed.

I know I took the easy road out by not having specific positions, but was having a hard time filling the other center-back. Any suggestions?

Top 10 best player nicknames

1. David Beckham - Golden balls

I like it better than "becks"

2. Kasey Keller - "Special K"

Washington's finest

3. Stuart Pierce - "Psycho"

This picture frightens me.

4. Andres Iniesta - "Choir boy"

On his way to youth group no doubt

5. Arjen Robben & Franck Ribery - "Robbery"

Fitting

6. Dennis Bergkamp - "The non flying Dutchman"

Who has time to fly places when your busy perfecting the best technique this sport has ever seen?

7. Leo Messi - "Atomic flea"

Sounds about right

8. Landon Donovan - "Landycakes"

Now some might take this nickname as derogatory, however my brain does not process anything negative about Landon Donovan....so wow what a nice compliment! I love you Landon.

9. Phillip Lahm - "The Magical dwarf"

Haha

10. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - "The baby face assassin"

Believe it or not this is Solskjaer at age 37.

Honorable mention:

John Mensah - The rock of Gilbralter

Eddie Lewis - Lewbanger

And for those of you wondering....The answer is Yes. Today has been a very slow day at work...

Biggest soccer story of the week

Everybody's been talking about Netherlands-Spain, but the big news of the week was The Wok absolutely destroying The Pot 4-1 on Tuesday.



5 quick things we learned from the game:

Kenny is still quick as Hell.

Mike would rather take a card in a 4-0 game with 20 seconds left than give up a goal. Good effort Michael.

Colin wants to win the goal of the year.

Jordan likes to kick the ball really hard at the goal.

Greg invented a new position known as "holding left-midfielder".

The best elective of all time

It seems Germany isn't demolishing teams solely because of the Pele'-esque Miroslav Klose. Hah just kidding. A large amount of their success should be attributed to the research done by German college students. Team Germany had these students track every single game played by each player on all 31 other World Cup Teams.

That fluky goal scored from the goal kick against England? Seems Germany knew Terry's tendency to push too far up the field. Germany basically has an encyclopedia on each player's PK tendencies/free kick tendencies/dribbling moves, etc. Pretty sweet idea.

Oh, and the man with the wisdom to start such a program? Future US coach and California's own Jurgen Klinsmann. Click the dirty tackle link on the right, and scroll down. It's a really good article, and I'm having trouble linking it.

Random

From thebiglead.com: (their words not mine)
Cristiano Ronaldo has a son. According to a statement released via his various social-networking outlets, the 25-year-old soccer star fathered a child, born in June, with an American woman. Ronaldo will retain sole custody of the child, who will move to Portugal. Crucially, because he was born here and his mother was an American citizen, Ronaldo’s son would be eligible to play for the United States. He could be wearing red, white and blue as he sails forty-yard free kicks into the crowd. Too early to get psyched for 2034?

And

Airport security in Colombia found what you would expect in a Colombian airport – a replica of the Wold Cup trophy made of 11 kg of cocaine. Police found the trophy in a box with team jerseys during a routine search. The trophy was gold with green stripes just like the real trophy, but the green paint was in “bad condition” so they figured it couldn’t be the real Wold Cup trophy.

Click the link on the side of the page.

Gossip

First off, this is just a rumor. BUT, the more I looked into it the more likely it seemed. And yes it involves the most dynamic footballer in the world:

Apparently, there are a bunch of rumors going around that the English captain got a 16-year old pregnant before the World Cup. Also, it was confirmed that Gerrard had moved out of his house, although his wife said it was "due to their floor being re-done."

To top it off, his wife Alex Curran (seen here, looking smoking hot)

may be having an affair with a player from Derby County (weak).

This is big for reasons besides the usual salacious details because it could have had a huge effect on England's World Cup. John Terry is said to have led a revolt of half the team against Gerrard. Apparently that overrated p.o.s. was mad because he had his captaincy stripped because of an affair, but England management knew about Gerrard's affair, and he obviously stayed on as captain.

As to whether it's true or not, it is hard to say. The rumors suggest there was a two week court-ordered gag order placed on the topic on June 30th. This article though, says there is no gag-order. (I'd suggest searching around for the rumors though, cuz they are interesting.) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291625/England-captain-Steven-Gerrard-rocked-internet-lies-affair.html?ito=feeds-newsxml




The other question you might be asking- am I still a Stevie G Supporter? I have a question for you- Are you retarded? I will always be a Stevie G Supporter.

Exit stage

So, here we are again. The United States making an early exit at the World Cup. For a while there, it seemed like team USA had a great opportunity to make the semis. USA is better than Ghana. USA would compete with Uruguay. Problem is, we go out and lose to Ghana. A team playing without its best player. A team who did not score an actual goal in the group stage. A team who's striker was heavily criticized by Ghanian media, yet sliced through our defense like OJ through Nicole.

How does that happen? I think we all know the answer to that........


Lets look at Bradley's chain of behvaior....
1) Start Ricardo Clark at CM against England and Frank Lampard. By the way, just FYI:

is better than

2) Stare blankly as Ricardo Clark watches Stevie G run right past him.
3) Bench Ricardo Clark for Jose Torres. Watch team implode in first half. Insert Maurice Edu instead of Clark. Watch team make brilliant comeback.
4) Bench Ricardo Clark against Algeria. Watch team win a must-win game.
5) Start Ricardo Clark. Watch Ricardo Clark take on two defenders in own half. Watch Ricardo Clark lose ball. Watch Ghana score. Watch Ricardo Clark pick up yellow card. Bench Ricardo Clark.
6) Watch team force extra time.

Does anyone else see a pattern here?
United States with Ricardo Clark =



United States with Maurice Edu =


Time for a new coach. Who should it be?

Worst weekend of my life

One of the most fun couple days in recent memory..... followed by a soul destroying weekend.

USA 1 Ghana 2

England 1 Germany 4

(Sounders 1 Philly 3)

Donovan, Lampard - its been fun.

Welcome to Amerrrrica

Fucking Ref

Lets just take a moment to think about that horrible call that cost the US the comeback of the century. Its such an obvious decision for the ref.

USA/Slovenia - Continued

Props to whoever vandalized the refs Wikipedia page. I couldn't have said it better my self. (Thats as big as I could make the screen shot - click to enlarge.)

USA/Slovenia

Just thought I would throw this picture

up...It makes me feel better about the

officiating today. I don't think its possible for

us to get a fair ref.

In both '06 (Ghana), '02 (Germany) and now 2010

we've had game changing calls go against us...

its becoming more and more clear that we should

just start expecting this.

Luis Suarez: profile of a cheater

Given their recent performances one might have thought Daniele De Rossi & Cristiano Ronaldo where going to have a one-two finish for biggest cheater/pussy at this years world cup.

But out of nowhere a dark horse has entered the race! Hailing from Uruguay (no surprise there) Luis Suarez has staked a firm claim for himself with a ridiculous overreaction to Itumeleng Khune’s goalmouth challenge in yesterday’s game. With the slightest of contact Suarez threw himself to the ground leading to a penalty and a red card for the South African. I spent the rest of the day trying to decide if I was angrier with the referee or Suarez.

This was hardly an isolated incident. Suarez spent as much of the game tripping on imaginary tackles as he did playing the game. Granted South Africa probably would have lost anyway but its times like these you wish soccer gods were real and they could exact some sort of revenge (murder).

Final score

Fair play: 0 Cheaters: 3

A draw is not an option

Lets get one thing clear about Friday's game-A draw would be a huge letdown. Tying Slovenia is so 1994. This is 20fucking10. It's all well and good to tie England. But Slovenia is shit. And we must beat them. What is the point of advancing if we can't beat a team like Slovenia? Have we improved at all in 16 years if we are going to be satisfied with a draw? Hell no.

It's not all about the end result, how you get there matters. Losing a close game to Germany after beating Slovenia and Algeria one thing. Getting blown out by Germany and advancing out of our group based on goal-differential is a totally different, and much crappier thing.

Beating Slovenia and pounding Algeria like Mr. Garrison pounds Mr. Slave's tight ass would prove we have made some strides. A little consistency goes a long way. I expect the Yanks to win 2-0, and so should you.

And Utah makes 12?

Do we really want Utah in our conference? I don't and its not because of the mormon thing. That isn't really a reflection of the University of Utah anyways. Here's 3 reasons to keep Utah out of the Pac-10.

1: Divisions

If Utah joins the Pac-10, that makes 12 teams. Undoubtedly, they'd break it up into 6-team divisions. The problem is- how do you make those divisions? If we do north-south, then UW is rarely playing USC or UCLA, which means less exposure and less excitement for fans. I'm sorry but a Cal-Stanford-Oregon-OSU-WSU-UW division is not nearly as fun as the current set-up.

2: We don't need 12 teams.

I would be fine with adding Colorado (and the Denver market that comes with it), and sticking with 11 teams. The Big-10 did it with 11 teams without any problems. Then we would still get to play most of the schools each year, and we don't have to start watering down our conference.

3: Utah will suck

It's a popular idea that schools like Boise State, TCU, Utah are screwed over by the current system, and deserve a shot at national title games, etc. Bullshit. Here are the schools boise state played last year after beating Oregon at home in the first game of the year...

Miami of Ohio, Fresno St, Bowling Green, UC Davis, Tulsa, Hawaii, San Jose St, Louisiana Tech, Idaho, Utah st, Nevada, New Mexico st, TCU (who also plays shit teams).

Basically these midmajor schools can go all out for 1-2 games a year, and then beat up on nobodies. UW would have won every one of those games. USC could have beaten them with their walk-ons.

Hopefully Utah spending a couple years getting destroyed in the Pac-10 will end the myth that midmajors "deserve" anything.

Public enemy number one

Thoughts about De Rossi's dive in the first half against Paraguay?....I went from contentedly watching the game to enraged in the space of five seconds. Strong contender for dive of the tournament I'd say. Its disappointing to see such cheaters rewarded with world cup wins.

In Mariners' baseball news...

Lol, just kidding Mariner fans. No one cares.

Actually, just an FYI that it sounds like this blog will be weekdays only. That is, until the cries from our fans for 24/7/365 coverage are too strong to overcome.

Yanks win 1-1

Don't cry, Robert Green. We are big fans of your work!

Props to the people who predicted the 1-1 score. Bigger props to Colin for having it published beforehand. Thoughts on the game:

-Onyewu didn't play like he was nursing an injury. He had a misread on the Gerrard goal, and should have been tighter on his man, but that looked like a mental mistake. Happy to see him looking fit going forward.

-Dempsey had one of his typical games. He didn't keep possession much and didn't track back well (especially first half). Still though, he created a goal out of nothing.

-Clark absolutely can not lose his man like that. If Clint Dempsey does it, it's forgivable because he's making plays. Clark gives nothing offensively, and cost us a goal. Terrible.

-Howard played really well (obviously). Watching the replay of Heskey sliding into him made it that much better of a performance in my mind. Heskey came in cleats up at full speed, and nailed him in the chest. Howard played through the pain. Hopefully his leadership rubs off on other guys.

-Bradley's decision to start Findley took guts. The guy hasn't done much in MLS this year, or for the national team, but his speed is huge. He and Altidore were applying tons of pressure on England's backline. Special recognition to Fabio Capello for inserting Carragher (AKA the slowest defender on a World Cup roster) into the game. Almost gave us the victory when Altidore hit the post.

-There is no reason to wait so long to sub our forwards. They really aren't that much better than the backups, and were looking tired. Not to mention Altidore has been criticized for not being in gameshape. I would love to see Gomez/Buddle come in together around the 60-65 mark for both forwards.

Time to score more goals than Slovenians.

Sports Illustrated's Top 10 WC goals all time

Nelinho's goal at #5 is incredible. How do you even think of taking that shot??


http://http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/world-cup-2010/writers/rob_smyth/06/11/top.10.world.cup.goals/index.html?eref=sihp

Prediction Time

1950 World Cup

United States- 1
England- 0

Will we shock the world again?
Leave a comment with
your prediction and reasoning.
However biased it might be.

An awesome calendar

Click on the image to play with it! Its interactive

Does Jake Locker know the legal age of consent?

Breaking News: U$C ruling to be announced Thursday

PosseUpSports is reporting that U$C will receive a 2 year bowl ban as part of the penalty for the Reggie Bush case. They will also lose up to 20 scholarships, and forfeit wins from their national title season.

A 1 year bowl ban would not have hurt SC's recruiting that much. With 2 years though, now kids will have to decide whether they want to go to a program that cant really accomplish anything for 2 of their 4 years. How about guys that are the big-time superstar recruits- guys that might leave after their junior seasons? Doubt they are going to be okay sitting out 2/3 of their postseasons.

The scholarship loss is just as big. Teams take about 22 players a year on scholarship. If the loss of 20 scholarships is going to be those same 2 years as the postseason ban, $C is screwed. That's basically half of 2 recruiting classes.

Forfeiting wins probably won't impact their future recruiting as much, but having a national title taken away is a huge black eye. Also, worth wondering if Bush will have to forfeit his Heisman.

With UW seemingly on their way back, the timing of all of this couldn't be better.

Update: ESPN has spoken with PosseUpSports and is now reporting on the story as well:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5267933

Just for kicks, here's Bush's crazy highschool highlight video:

Vancouver Whitecaps FC New Logo

The Vancouver Whitecaps FC released their new logo for their MLS team yesterday. It looks pretty cool in my opinion. It's way better than their last logo, but I can't wait to beat the shit out of those socialist hippies up north.

Portland will release theirs during the USA-England game on Saturday (Lame!) and I'm sure it will be as shitty as their team. They have released "clues" about their crest on their website.

http://www.portlandmls2011.com/

Golden Tate is hungry

From the Seattle times article:
"Seahawks rookie Golden Tate was a little late for National Doughnut Day, which was last Friday.

And he arrived a little too early for Top Pot Doughnuts cafe in Bellevue. It doesn't open until 7 a.m. on Saturdays.

So when Tate and a friend found their way into the cafe at about 3 a.m. on Saturday, timing became a problem and precipitated a visit from the Bellevue Police officers and a warning for trespassing.

So what prompted all the trouble? Maple bars. Freshly baked.

"They're irresistible," Tate said. "It was kind of a foolish mistake that won't happen again."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2012061824_hawk09.html

10 most slappable part 2: WC countries

10. Japan: Is it too late to take back Pikachu and friends?

9. Greece: Less thinking, more doing.

8. Ivory Coast: For making everyone try and pronounce "Cote d'Ivoire"

7. England: No taxation without representation!

6. Switzerland: Pick a side Dammit!

5. Germany: This one is fairly self-explanatory.

4. Italy: The only country I hate because of the way they play soccer.

3. Mexico: You invite us to your resorts... and then take our money. Boooooo!

2. North Korea: Tried to sneak in a forward to their team as a GK. Big surprise.

1. France: Pussies.