World soccer update

Leaving aside Serie A for a moment, there was a lot of soccer played this weekend. The major matches include:

Chelsea 2 - Tottenham 1 (see photo above-- a goal was awarded to Chelsea despite the fact that the ball didn't cross the line)

Arsenal 1 - Manchester United 0-- The Premier League title race is not quite over yet.

Real Madrid lost to Real Zargoza, but then Barcelona lost to Real Sociedad.

Corinthians 1 - Palmeiras 1 (6-5 on penalties)-- Corinthians move on to face Santos in the finals of the Campeonato Paulista.

Video below

AEK defeated PAOK in the Greek Cup finals 3-0. The match ended a few minutes early due to rioting fans (see videos below)

Below are actual match highlights

What I have been reading lately #48

The Skating Rink-- Roberto Bolano

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town -- Nick Reding

Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink -- Jeff Johnson

World Cup Update #5: Best National Anthems

Here are the best national anthems of the teams at this year's World Cup Finals (presented in alphabetical order)--

Brazil

Cameroon

Italy

Spain

Uruguay

And the best national anthem of a team not at this year's finals--

Champions League Final: Barcelona 2 - Manchester United 0

Above: Lionel Messi scores Barcelona's second goal.

Below: Thierry Henry shows off his new trophy.

Above: Barcelona players celebrate their success by tossing rookie manager Josep Guardiola into the air.  In his first season, Guardiola won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.

Below: Sir Alex Ferguson walks off the pitch after the game.

Random Pictures

Barack Obama... America's president to be. YAY!

This is the Spanish national football (soccer) team after winning Euro-2008. They lifted their ancient coach, Aragones, and bounced him up and down! Hehe!

This is AC Milan's owner, Silvio Berlusconi holding one of Milan's many trophies!

This picture is from this weekend's game, Arsenal v. Liverpool. This is just weird.

Best for last. This is from this weekend's game, Milan v. Udinese. Kaka' in one goal's celebration ran over to the injured Gattuso. He looks like he is wearing a towel as a scarf. They are so awesome!!!

P.S. Christmas is in 3 days. This will be Luca's first Christmas. (For those of you who don't know, Luca is Kaka's son, duh!)

Schweinsteiger's Post-game interview

Here is a video of the German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger trying to answer questions after the Euro 2008 final (which Germany lost). Unfortunately for him, the Spanish team chose that place to have their celebrations, so behind Bastian you can see the Spaniards singing and parading... If this was any other German, I wouldn't be bugged, but Schweinsteiger is my favorite... So I am bugged...



Translator's note: It's unclear what the reporter is asking before the happy Spaniards come bouncing through, but he then asks Schweinsteiger (twice) if their celebrations are "hard to bear." Schweinsteiger kind of shrugs him off and says that the Spanish "can do what they want."

Euro 2008 Final -Spain v. Germany

Germany after their 1-0 defeat.

Full report to follow...

Spain vs. Germany Preview (kind of)

As you all must know, the Euro 2008 final is today. This is the biggest tournament (maybe) in football, after the World Cup. In the final are two of the biggest soccer countries in Europe - Spain and Germany. The funny thing is that anyone could have predicted this result. Sure, maybe some people guessed it would be Portugal instead of Germany, or the Netherlands instead of Spain, but this is not an abnormal final. What is abnormal, is the way we got here. There were upsets (Russia v. Netherlands or Croatia v. Germany), there were blowouts (Netherlands v. France and Netherlands v. Italy), there were comebacks (Turkey v. Czech Republic and Turkey v. Croatia), and, finally, Germany didn't actually play that well.

Anyway, I have compiled some statistics, so that you can see how the different teams compare. To compare the squads, I have combined the probable starting eleven into one gigantic player representing each team.

• The height of the Spaniard is 64'5" (19.61 meters) compared to the German 67'1" (20.44 meters). This comes out to be a 2' 8" difference in heights.
• The Spanish player has 435 caps (aka appearances for the national team), whereas the German has 571.
• The Spaniard is 265 years old, which is 35 years younger than the German, whose age is 300!
• Finally, the Spanish player has scored 43 career goals in international competition, and the German has scored 131.

Euro 2008 update

In just a few hours, Italy will play Spain in the last quarter-final of Euro 2008. Italy will not be able to use either Gattuso or Pirlo, both of whom are suspended for one game due to accumulated yellow cards from earlier matches. I don't know if any Spanish players have to miss this game - probably not. Those of you who saw Turkey beat Croatia or Russia beat the Netherlands in their earlier quarter-finals will know that we can only hope that today's match is just as exciting. Those of you who only bothered to watch Germany defeat Portugal will probably not understand what I am talking about.

David Villa's Hat Trick ball

After the Russia v. Spain game, which Spain won 4-1, David Villa went to the ref hoping to keep the ball which he scored his third goal of the game with. (BTW - He dedicated the goal to Fernando Torres). The ref, however, wasn't going to allow it. Luckily, fellow Spaniard Pepe Reina (Liverpool's goalie), spoke English well enough to persuade the referee. David Villa got to keep the ball, and any possible crisis was averted!