World Soccer update

Real Madrid defeated Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey. However, during the parade celebrating the victory, there was a small disaster involving the winner's trophy.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, the Celtic-Rangers match did not quite live up to the excitement generated by a recent spate of letter bombs sent to prominent figures associated with Celtic.

Why I will not be rooting for the USA (or Honduras) in the World Cup

Back in October of 2009, the United States faced Costa Rica in its final qualification match. The U.S. team had already clinched a spot in the 2010 World Cup, so the game was meaningless to them, but Costa Rica's qualification depended on earning a win. The late goal by Jonathan Bornstein meant that Costa Rica had to take on Uruguay in a playoff for one last chance to go to South Africa. Uruguay won, so Costa Rica will be watching from home this year.

Obviously, people in Honduras were quite happy (and have even made Bornstein something of a hero), but I can only imagine what the Costa Ricans must have thought as they witnessed the U.S. players and fans going beserk over a completely meaningless goal.

Maybe this is the U.S. team's way of making up for the U.S. approved coup in Honduras last year.

Six more teams qualified for the World Cup finals today

Six more teams qualified for the World Cup finals today. I believe that this means that all the spots have been filled. Here were the results over the two (or more) legs:

• France defeated Ireland on a controversial goal by William Gallas that followed an uncalled handball by Thierry Henry. (See photo above of French coaches celebrating.)
• Portugal beat Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Slovenia upset Russia.
• Greece upset Ukraine.
• Uruguay beat Costa Rica.
• Algeria defeated Egypt.

Olympics Update #1

The men's and women's finals of the BMX competitions were rained out yesterday and have been rescheduled for today. The number one male rider in the world is Maris Strombergs, from Latvia. I don't know anything about women's BMX.

In other news, the women's softball gold medal went to Japan in a shocking upset of the seemingly invincible US team. The US team had won 22 straight games going back to 2000, and they had already beaten Japan in these Olympic games. Softball (along with baseball) was recently voted out of the Olympics and can't possibly return until 2016.

The Japanese players celebrate.

The US players left their shoes at home plate.