Houston Dynamo v Real Salt Lake

OK, so I'm a little behind on this blog post....almost a month late on this one.

My Uncle got us tickets to a Dynamo game and by us I mean, my uncle, my cousin and myself.

The game was great....lots of scoring....the Dynamo won 4-3

I didn't take my big camera for fear of being hassled at the gate, and I don't have a point and shoot camera. So prepare yourselves to be amazed by the horrible pictures that I took with my camera phone!! =)

TICKETS!! YEAH!

We had great seats!!

It was fan appreciation day, so we got all kinds of cool stuff....this T-shirt

These thunder clapper things....this kid in the picture was rubbing one on his sisters head, trying to create static so it would stick to his dad's back!! LOL

This is the first corner kick of the game....also the first DYNAMO GOAL!

I was being sneaky here....here's a shot of me & my uncle.

....and me and my cousin....WHAT? Where'd he go?? I think he knew I was taking the picture and he hid behind my GINORMOUS head!

Same kid from above....banging on his sister's head with the thunder stick thing, while the Dynamo girls perform during half time.

After their performance....the Dynamo girls (unexpectedly) tossed some shirts into the crowd....

This one bounced off some guys head 2 rows in front of us and landed next to me!

FINAL SCORE

Uncle....I know I thanked you then, but thanks again for getting tickets....anytime you want to go again....COUNT ME IN!!! I had a great time and I hope that you did too!!

José Out

Chelsea and José Mourinho have parted ways....

I'm curious....who's going to do the talking and complaining in the Premiership now?

Dynamo Truck

The Houston Dynamo are our MLS team....this truck was parked near City Hall.



Since I'm a big soccer fan....I just thought it was cool.

The Biggest Sports Story of 2007

Da Da Daa.... Da Da Daa!
Who's voice leads off SportsCenter tonight?

Beckham's moving to Hollywood!

Will he choose #7 or #23? I think he'll go back to #7. We're sure to find out on Friday when he's officially announced by the Galaxy.

I'm still not 100% sure I like this move for Beckham, but he's determined to make it work and try to make soccer popular in this country. I think the biggest hurdle will be getting the media to cover the sport more. MLS barely gets any press nationally and hopefully with Beckham here in SoCal and he starts producing the free kick goals and the long ball passes that we all know he can, then MLS can get some buzz and ride the wave that is David Beckham.

Most Americans know who he is....which is a good thing for MLS....I don't think he's washed up....not even close. I think he had a very good World Cup until he got hurt....his free kick skills are UNMATCHED!! Corner kick skills are great and the ability to be a leader....well....I personally thought he was good captain for England.

I wish him the best of luck and I (personally) would love to have a press pass for his first match at the Home Depot Center.

And don't forget that he brings Posh and the kids with him too!!
In other MLS news....FC Dallas are in talks with Edgar Davids. Davids is a tough player and has a "bulldog" mentality....if soccer had "enforcer players" like hockey does he would be it.
He's also one of my favorite players and I wish he would have done better at Tottenham.

This is the Season

Champions League Draw

The champions from the last two years will meet in the final 16 of the Champions League.

Liverpool drew Barcelona in the draw....Liverpool won the title two years ago and Barca won last year. The first of the two home and away matches will be at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. Should be a great match.

Here are the other matches from the draw:

FC Porto v Chelsea

Celtic v AC Milan

PSV Eindhoven v Arsenal

Lille v Manchester United

AS Roma v Lyon

Barcelona v Liverpool

Real Madrid v Bayern Munich

Inter Milan v Valencia

The first legs will be staged on Feb. 20-21 next year with the return legs on March 6-7. The final is in Athens in May.

Champions League Update

Arsenal beat FC Porto 2-0 tonight.

Goals from Henry and Hleb.

I didn't see the match, only saw highlights on Fox Sports World Report....they are looking better and better.

Just had a bad start, I guess

EPL Season

The English Premiere League kicked off on August 19th. (I know, I haven't blogged in awhile....I've been busy!)

After 6 matches, my favorite team Arsenal is in 9th place with 8 points. 7 points behind the leaders Chelsea. It's early in the season, but they need to get on the stick and start winning some matches and getting some points! (photo from Getty Images)

Is Beckham Done?

David Beckham was left out of England's squad that will face Greece in an international friendly next Wednesday.

At first I was like....Really?

I really like David Beckham. I think he's probably the best in the world in a free kick situation and I also think he's a very good long ball passer. Especially across the pitch.

I mean, come on....I know that new manager Steve McClaren is not Sven II. McClaren has stated that he's going to do it "his way."

Beckham is with Real Madrid touring the states and may have just asked to be left off the squad....no one is reporting that....all the reports just say he was left off the squad and this could mean his international career is done.

Who knows? I haven't heard anything directly from either of the horses mouths. So your guess is as good as mine.

Beckham has 94 caps for his country with over half of those as the captain. I really hope that Beckham can reach his goal of 100 caps.

Good Luck Becks....I hope it all works out.

Chelsea's Captain, now England's Captain!

John Terry (as expected) has taken over as England Captain from David Beckham.

Already the captain of his club team, Chelsea, Terry was on a very short list of Beckham's replacements. It was basically Terry and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

I think that either would have been a good choice. Personally I would have chosen Gerrard, but that's just me.

World Cup Update - Day 25 - THE FINAL

FRANCE 1 - 1 ITALY
(Italy win 5-3 on penalty kicks)

(Other than the obvious), this was a great game.

France played very well and I think deserved to win until their captain, Zinadine Zidane, imploded and head butted an Italian defender.

Ummmmm....WTF?

Seriously, what goes through your head at that point? Did he think that the sideline ref wouldn't see it? All that guy does is watch the defenders!

I don't agree with some who've said that this whole head butt thing has ruined Zidane's brilliant career....it's scratched it a little, but I don't think it'll scar it for life. He's still a spectacular footballer.

You can watch the replay below.

The rest of the extra time goes on without a goal and we move on to penalty kicks.

All players made their kicks EXCEPT for David Trezeguet....he hits the crossbar.

That's all the Italians needed.

I still think that the Italians dive a little too much, but they're the World Cup Champions!

World Cup Update - Day 24

PORTUGAL 1 - 3 GERMANY

This game was fast paced and pretty wide open.

Germany wins and gets a 3rd place finish in the World Cup.

The World Cup Final is Set

vs.

France will meet Italy in Berlin on Sunday.

Right now, I'd bet on France....I think they have definitely peaked at the right time. So for right now....

Viva la France!

World Cup Update - Day 23

FRANCE 1 - 0 PORTUGAL

Today's game wasn't near as exciting as yesterday's but still a good game.

Arsenal striker Thierry Henry draws a penalty and Zidane burys it in the back of the net.

France moves on to the final game.

World Cup Update - Day 22

ITALY 2 - 0 GERMANY

Two big stats stood out before this match started.

1) Germany have never lost in the stadium in Dortmund.
2) Italy have never lost to Germany in the World Cup.

This has to be considered one of the best matches of this World Cup....the best part was that the ref didn't get involved and he let the players play!

They went in the extra time tied at zero.

Then the last 5 minutes of the extra time were amazing....great end to end action. Fabio Grosso scores for Italy with less than two minutes to play....then del Piero scores again for Italy to seal the deal!

Italy are on to the final in Berlin.

World Cup Update - Day 21

ENGLAND 0 - 0 PORTUGAL
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalty kicks)

Everyone was waiting for it to happen....and it finally did. Wayne Rooney was given a red card. I don't really think that he was given the red card for stepping on that guys groin, because I don't think he did that on purpose. He had to have said something to the ref and from his push of Christiano Ronaldo (his OWN TEAMMATE @ ManUtd).

FRANCE 1 - 0 BRAZIL

I think that France played GREAT attacking football, they were honestly the better team. Henry scores on a nice free kick from Zidane.

Portugal will meet France in the next round.

What is wrong with ABC?

What is wrong with my ABC affiliate?

I'm sitting here trying to watch the England v. Portugal World Cup match and every ½ hour my local ABC station is running a PROGRAM NOTE at the bottom of the screen telling kids that their normally scheduled Saturday morning programs aren't going to be on at the regularly scheduled times.

I don't have a problem with the program note, what I have a problem with is the SIZE of it and the regularity of when they run it.

They start showing the "program note" about 10 minutes before the scheduled program is to start. Then they show this message, what seems like,continuouslyy for about a minute or so! OVER and OVER and OVER!!

Now I have very little problem with the message itself...It's cute.

"Hey Kids! Catch {insert show name} later today at {insert show time} here on ABC 7."

But...The message is so !@#$% HUGE...It takes up so much of the screen that you can't see the bottom part of the field and if ABC shows any stats at the bottom of the screen, there's no chance that you're gonna see those stats!!

It was awful during the penalty shoot out....I wasn't sure who I was more upset with ABC 7 or England!!

Way to go ABC 7....THANKS! (jerks!)

World Cup Update - Day 20

ARGENTINA 1 - 1 GERMANY
(Germany win 4-2 on penalty kicks)

Argentina looked really strong, but then Germany scored and then it went to extra time and then penalties.

UKRAINE 0 - 3 ITALY

Italy was never in danger in this match and Ukraine really didn't show any fire and didn't create many chances for themselves.

Germany will play Italy in the next round.

World Cup Withdrawals

After 19 straight days of at least 2 games per day....There was no football today.

It's like I don't have anything to talk about with the guys at work.

I don't have to make my daily picks for the office pool.

There's nothing recorded on my DVR....No matches to watch.

I need Friday to get here fast!!

World Cup Update - Day 19

GHANA 0 - 3 BRAZIL

Ronaldo sets the record for most goals in World Cup competions....and Brazil rolls on to the next round.

FRANCE 3 - 1 SPAIN

France finally show up to the World Cup and play the type of football that they were expected to play from the start.

Brazil will meet France in the next round.