Canada 2007

Tickets for the biggest football tournament Canada has ever hosted (and likely ever will host) are now on sale. The FIFA U-20 World Cup is being held June 30-July 22, 2007 in 6 cities (Victoria, Burnaby, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal).

Edmonton is hosting 6 games:
Prelim round games on July 2, 5 and 8 (Canada is playing in the later 2)
Round of 16 on July 11 and 12
Quarter-Final on July 14
Semi-Final on July 18

A package for all Edmonton games is $160 and I am certainly considering it. Not sure if I can make it to all of the mid-week games, but it might be easier buying the package than trying to get individual games (though I'm not sure that Commonwealth would sell out for any of the games).

So, are any of you going to be there?

The Italian Outcome

Wow! Relegation for Juventis, Lazio AND Fiorentina and a 15 point deficit for AC Milan.

Read the article here.

Man U Moving?

Looks like Man U has a new owner and maybe moving? Come on you Reds!

Zidane and Ronaldo to the U.S?

Maybe it was to expected that rumours like these were starting to pop up in the newspapers. But being the naive fool i am, i did not see it coming. And it will take me some time and effort to get used to the idea that Zizou will be playing in the U.S for a club named the New York Red Bulls. An article about the rumour can be found here.

Despite the fact that it was also mentioned in one of the best Dutch newspapers, i don't believe it is going to happen. Why play low level football in a country that will be all over him for the very last action he made on the pitch? I envision a very unpleasant depth interview in Harpo, and an even more unpleasant talk at the Dr. Phils show (WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!). Whatever his role in the U.S. would be, it would not be an anounymous one. And i think he wants to be just that most of all.

Zinedine, if you are considering to make a career move to the other side of the ocean, don't do it. Why not pick up golf, fishing, maybe origami? Just lay low for ten years and win another world cup as the coach of France, together with Henry. Please don't end your career in country where they gave the noble name football to a game where you have to throw around a cigar shaped object.

For Ronaldo it is a total different thing. Since the world cup, i really don't care where he is going. But i guess he will be trying his luck at lesser clubs in Spain and Italy before considering to be a "star" in New York city. I wonder if Real Madrid ever earned back the 48 million euro's they spent on him in 2002.

And the U.S? They will rise in the football ranks with or without Ronaldo or Zidane. Already there are 16 million kids play for a club in the States. That number will only rise with the influx of more Mexican immigrants. I would not be surprised if they will be a serious contender for the world title in the next couple of decades. If it will not change the game too much, i will welcome that.

the O2 was way cooler

it just ain't the same...

have you seen chelsea's strategy in slowly revealing their new kit...from adidas. dammit, i just stocked up on the umbro shirts!

no racism...

...is good. but i spoke too soon in my apology to materazzi because it appears that the comments did have racist overtones. anyway we may never know if you are a racist, materazzi, but you're still a stupid asshole (as this quote proves: "I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is").

and a note about my satirical "a modest maternazzi." the idea was taken from an italian woman who phoned into cbc 1010 post world cup, saying that if materazzi was a racist it was the fault of the nazi architecture that surrounded him. just in case anyone is curious.

World Cup predictions revisted

Before the tournament Brad asked for predictions on 6 questions. Looking back on my answers shows just how little I know:

1. Who will be the final four?
My answer: Germany - Czech Rep; England - Brazil
Results: Germany was there

2. Who will be man of the tournament?
My answer: Pavel Nedved
Results: Czech's got eliminated in group stage

3. Who will win the golden boot?
My answer: Adriano
Results: 2 goals. 3 behind Klose.

4. What huge team is going to be the first eliminated?
My answer: Italy
Results: No comment.

5. Who will win the best young player?
My answer: Lionel Messi
Results: He played 122 minutes in Argentina's 5 games. He was a finalist for the award though thanks to fan voting.

6. Who will win the tournament?
My answer: Brazil
Results: Lost in the quarter-finals.

a modest matternazzi

don't blame matternazzi. it's not his fault that zinedine zidane was sent off.

the blame should be split between adolph hitler (more on this later) and the dirty arab who head butted matter- nazzi. but what would any of us expect from a poor boy of algerian heritage. zidane was bound to be a scumbag -- just like all arabs.

the truth is that the romans, or the italians as they are now called, are superior to all comers. the most superior in the world. just look at the facts: they killed the savior; they had an empire that lasted almost fifteen hundred years; they have the most beautiful women, great film, great literature, great food and everything that makes a civilization civilized; and they are the most beautiful players of the beautiful game.

tonight's battle between france and italy was a crusade; it was a battle between a team led by a filthy wog and a team of righteous catholics. no matter what matternazzi said, no matter how horrible, no matter how loudly the french call "racism", the fact is that zidane showed his brethren's classic overreaction to insult. a civilized christian would turn the other cheek to insult, but infidels always show their true colours with a violent retalitation.

moreover, matternazzi's racist comments are mitigated by the actions of the Deutscher Fussball-bund. how dare they play the final game of the 2006 world cup in the house that adolph built? the nazi architecture and the history of hate that are the olympiastadion left little choice for the clearly superior matternazzi. what else was he to do? zidane, a clear inferior, dared to speak back and then strike back at a man from the greatest empire in the history of the world in a shrine to aryan greatness. therefore, matternazi's words were justified. and let's face it...matternazzi probably would have said nothing if the Deutscher Fussball-bund had chosen a less controversial site for the final game. the ghost of hitler MUST have been an influence.

your career will forever live in ignominy zidane...unless you apologize to matternazzi. maybe then you will find some forgiveness. until then, you are just a dirty wog who couldn't keep his head when his superiors put him in his place.

too bad you had to cheapen italy's positive and righteous victory.