Amazon Kindle! Best gadget if you are traveling

Ok this post is not necessarily about beer drinking, but that is something i do hope to post about this summer as i will be mostly in New York City, but the city has opened a number of new beer gardens, some rooftop and some ground level. Outdoor drinking needs a boost in the city as all around the world it seems to be the only way to do it.

this post is about the Amazon Kindle.. On my recent trip i took one, and trust me for long plane flights, long bus rides, long anything in a foreign country when you just want to read something in English this is the device for you. its thin and light, plus it hold more books than you can ever read on a single charge that last for weeks. So if i should like i'm in the bank and a shill for Amazon, well i am.. i dont own their stock as i wish when i first saw an ipod back in 2004 i had bought apple stock. Missed the boat on those but if you want one or were thinking of getting one dont hesitate. do it

Grocery Shopping in Iceland

So I went to the grocery store today out in the big shopping mall. The store for huge for a New Yorker like me who is accustomed to smallish stores it was slightly overwhelming for the grocery store to basically be like a Super Target. I would say Super Wal-Mart but you know I haven’t ever been in one of them. Note for those exact sticklers, for prices I assumed an exchange rate of 1 USD to be 100 Iceland Kroner. The real rate I’ve been getting from the ATM is about 112, so if you want EXACT prices you can cut another 12% from what I’ve written here.. This is from the Hagkaup which i have no idea what the translates to and google doesn't give me anything good.

Orange Juice 1 liter $3 – Good deal considering how much a glass is at the café
Pretzel Sticks $2 – again decent, good for snacking when I go exploring the city
Icelandic Glacial Water 1 liter - $1.79 – I hope it’s better than Poland Springs, cause this was free from nature at some point
Cranberry Juice 1 liter - $5 – a bit pricey but always a good secondary hangover cure for me. Still at home I am getting 64oz (2 liters for my metric challenged folks) for $2.99 on sale, $4.50 normally.
PowerAde tiny bottle like 10oz probably - $2.69 – Damn I chug huge bottles at home for $1 each. But essential as my best hangover cure.
Pomi Tomato sauce $1 – great deal, I will be making some pasta for sure
Honey Ham $4 for a quarter pound, so that works out to $16 a pound – gotta make sandwiches for the 8hr Golden Circle Trip tomorrow.
Pepperoni - $3.50 for about 16 small round slices – probably works out to $15 a pound
Gouda Cheese - $4.50 for half a pound – not my favorite cheese but the only one I could easily translate
Pesto Ham - $2.75 for 5 thin slices, again probably in the $15-$20 pound range
Bacon $2.40 for 3.5 ounces(.1 kg), per pound this works out to $10. And it aint even oscar mayer
Potatoes - $1.45 for 2, the per pound price is $5.50. Come on Ireland is close even if you have to import them this is crazy.
Onions - $1.15 for a big one, per pound price is $5.50. Damn I’ve paid .99 cents a pound for sweet Vidalia onions at home before.
Box of 20 tea bags – $3.89 – not bad at all, I’m at Café paris right now and one tea bag, and a pot of boiling water is going to cost me $4.

Well despite spending $40 or so at the grocery store I will be saving money since the café I’m at now wants $18 bucks for a sandwich, and that is fairly normal for prices here when eating out. Since I have a great apartment with kitchen I’m staying at, and I’m not a big fan of eating at the most trendy expensive places in town I’m going to cook up a few breakfasts, and easy lunches. This way when I’m spending $8 or more for crappy draft beer I wont feel so bad since I’ve been able to save on the food portion of my trip. I did manage to check out beer prices at the state run liquor stores, the cheap stuff can be had for $1.50 a 330ml (12 ounces for my metric challenged friends), import stuff like Stella and Heineken about $3.50 for same 330ml, I bought a few “micro-brews” that are local for about $3.50 a bottle, they are in the fridge now I will report on them in a later post.

So the beer is a bit more expensive at the liquor store but still affordable, hard booze on the other hand is still downright crazy. I looked at what a 750ml of Jameson costs for a friend who will be here in June and love the stuff, that was $59, and a full liter was $80. I think in the states you can get a liter of Jameson for $25 bucks? No way the taxes make up the rest of that. I mean its farther to the USA from Ireland than to Iceland if my geography classes meant anything.


So overall I’m going to save a bit here, spend a bit there. I guess in the end it will wash out, but no doubt food at the grocery store is a sticker shock to this American. The beer prices of $8 for crappy draft also are a bit Norwegian/Swiss to my travels.. Oh to be back in Bulgaria where the good local beer at the bar is $1.50.

Day 1 in Iceland. I'm a Viking Now!

My first day or really 12hrs in Reykjavik, Iceland. I got here by taking the non-stop from JFK to Kefavlik airport, the flight was not full at all, on a Boeing 757. I was in economy and must say while its been a year since I’ve been on a plane the seats felt cramped, thankfully I had the middle row to myself. The flight was about one hour delayed due to rain in NYC, well that would be just the start of the rain I would be experiencing over the next 24hrs.

Slept about 2.5hrs of the 5hrs flight, landed in Iceland at an airport that looked like it would be in the middle of Montana, meaning there was NO ONE AROUND. Off the plane in a new york heartbeat and after a short bus ride I was into the terminal, the cold hit me hard at first but now its not that bad, the listed temperature was about 40 degrees. The wetness well that is another story, its been raining all day long, I’m giving my new reebok rainproof jacket a run for the money for sure.

The immigration was probably the easiest I’ve ever had to get into a country and now this is 36 and counting. I mean the last time I went to Canada the border guard asked me since I was driving how many DUI’s I had and the purpose of my trip, if I told him the truth it was to rape and pillage the women while drinking cheap good beer I wouldn’t have gotten in, so I used the old friends and family line. Well for Iceland it was as simple as how many days are you staying.. my answer 4.. after that I never heard or saw from another immigration person, fresh stamp in the passport achieved.

My bags were there before I was even done getting some cash from the machine, at first the exhange rate got me. 1 USD is 112 ISK, lets just call it 100 to be fair, well my jetlagged brain tied to take out 60,000 ISK.. yeah just a bit above my max limit, I don’t need my card canceled on me the first day that I’m here, so I went with the more sensible 10,000 ISK.. but as I would learn that would barely make it for the first day, the roundtrip bus from the airport into the city was 4500, or $40 USD, am I at JFK or what?

Now the not-so-fun started since it was 8:30am when I got to downtown rejkjavik and my place I was staying didn’t do check-in till 3pm. I was able to stash my bags inside and then went to get some tea and croissants, yeah I’m not Iceland I know not Paris.. I wandered about the city for a bit and found the national museum of Iceland was free on Wednesday, so at 11am I checked out the 2 floors, where I was able to pose as an 11th century Viking warrior as such the picture above. City Hall was right on this pond full of ducks and had plenty of English language reading material.

In killing time I found a great place, called the Laundromat NYC. Its café with food and adorned with pictures of various Laundromats all over NYC. Knowing from past travels its not that easy to find a Laundromat when you got dirty draws, my get away from it all idea of a bar where you can hang out when you was your clothes well this place got into my dreams one night, as I went downstairs to piss they had 3 washing machines, not in use and if I was here long I surely would make sure to give them a whirl.

YAY finally check-in time, let me tell you the place I’m staying at Apartment K is one of the best deals/bargins I’ve ever had. For $55 bucks a night, I get an apartment that would make many a people on the lower east side of NYC totally jealous. A sectional couch, full kitchen with a fridge, stove, microwave(how the hell do I use one of these things??), freezer.. nice sized bathroom. Also a 32” HDTV Samsung with good English channels, also a mini-mac hooked up via HDMI to the TV with a ton of movies saved on in, some music also… Very happy with the room and would recommend to anyone, check-in was a bit rough with having to make phone calls all over the place, but once done its all good…

The city of Reykjavik is dead on a Wednesday for sure, after walking about the center city and basically in 3hrs seeing everything and having a good feel for things I have found a few bars that show sports. Watched some of the most meaningless champions league quarterfinals I’ve seen ever. Both teams who were down Tottenham and Inter Milan needed to score at least 4 goals to even have a chance and anything, and both epically failed in that quest. The semi-final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will be an epic 2 leg tie, it will be the 4th game between the teams in a 25 day span, talk about re-defining El classico.

Internet is fast here, 11Mbps at the apartment I’m staying and I’m about to try to stream some Rangers vs Capitals at the bar to hope its as fast at the bars. Beer is average at best, I’ve tried Gull, Viking and other local brands and its never cheaper than $6 a pint, and could go up to $9 each.. but then again this country didn’t start brewing beer till 1989, so they still have years to go..

Ok day 1 almost over, time to watch some hockey!

Top 10 Reasons NOT to have the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Ok i'm slowly getting over the fact that FIFA and Sepp Blatter are a bunch of corrupt bastards who will host the World Cup where they get paid the best. Its no different than the Olympics in reality. Yet I really thought the USA should have hosted the 2022 World Cup and the fact tiny Qatar got it really struck my nerve. So i have come up with a Top 10 list of reasons why it should not be in Qatar. If you do venture to go, there are things you must bring with you

10) Bring your patience. You think our TSA is bad? Qatar has one international airport and its too small so they are building a new bigger one to open in 2011. So if you think our airport delays are bad, for a country bordering Saudi Arabia home of a majority of the 9/11 hijackers we all should just be nudist to try to get through the airport.

9) Bring your own tent as we are all sleeping in the sand. As of 2009 from the official Qatar tourism website, there are 9800 hotel rooms in the COUNTRY. Lets compare that to the 75,000 rooms in NYC, 100,000 rooms in Las Vegas, heck even Orlando has 80,000 rooms. The Germany World Cup had 3 million visitors (myself included), and South Africa about 350,000. I don’t care how many hotels you build you are going to come up short.

8) Bring your own medical travel insurance. June 11th to July 11th period of 2010 that the world cup was held this past year the temperature in Qatar was UNDER 100 F (37C) Twice (july 4th, an July 8th) And 4 days in a row above 115(45C) degrees (June 18 – 21). Does anyone in the soccer world want a player to drop dead in the heat?

7) Bring your own bottled water. Drink water is more expensive than gasoline, which costs a whopping 22 cents a liter (that’s 83 cents a gallon for my metric challenged friends).

6) Bring your own gas mask. For all my tree hugging green friends out there, Qatar has the world highest CO2 emissions in the world at 55 tons per person in 2007. Look on the bright side its down from 64 tons per person in 2005. Oh btw the USA who is NOT in the Kyoto protocol is a nice 18 tons per person.

5) Bring your own Emancipation Proclamation. Of the reported 1.6 million person population, only 25% of those are natural born Qatari people. The United Nations along with the US State department have said that working condition for the immigrant non-citizens is akin to SLAVERY. As a black man living in America I’m very happy for the Emancipation Proclamation and 14th Amendment to the Constitution and Lyndon Johnson pushing the Civil Rights act some 100 year later.

4) Bring your own 11. The Qatar team SUCKS. It is currently rated 113 out of 205 teams in FIFA ranking, right between the powerhouses of Central African Republic and Thailand. I think if you bring your own 11, you can probably compete with the host country that is going to get the automatic birth.

3) Bring your own Burqa. Women don’t even bother to pack your cute outfits, the clothing of choice in Qatar is the full face Burqa, lets all dress up like Snake Eyes from G.I Joe. So we wont be having any fans looking like this.

2) Bring your own tissues. No Prostitution allowed. I thought it was the worlds oldest business and isn’t this part of the oldest region in the world? The garden of Eden is suppose to be right up the road in Modern Iraq. Ok not that I’m advocating the oldest business in the world, but come on Germany set up drive thru sex huts, I mean that is taking care of the needs of the drunk soccer fan after a tough loss right? In a country that has 2.46 men (aged 15-64 so all fair game) per woman what to do? Oh yeah bring your tissues. But then again if we were holding The World Cup based on male to female ratio it would be in Armenia with its great .88 Men to 1 women ratio and we could all be chasing the Kardashian sisters 4th cousins twice removed.

And Number 1...

1) Bring your own booze. I love beer, there its said. While you can drink in Qatar if you are not Muslim and not in public, soccer and beer seem to go together. Every previous Host of the World Cup has brewed their own beer in the country and was proud to drink it.. lets go thru the list.
1930 Uruguay (Patricia),
1934 Italy (Peroni),
1938 France (Kronenbourg),
1950 Brazil (Brahma),
1954 Switzerland (Feldschlosschen),
1958 Sweden (Falcon, shite beer might be worse than british beer…),
1962 Chile( ChiCha is well I just love that name, Cristal is the most popular lager)
1966 England (Newcastle Brown Ale, not the most popular but I like it),
1970 Mexico (Corona, u get another chance in 86),
1974 Germany(Becks, but oh so many to choose from, u will get another chance),
1978 Argentina (Quilmes, I overdosed on this when I was in BsAs)
1982 Spain (Estrella is pretty good Damm Beer better than the on the street),
1986 Mexico ( Dos Equis the most interesting beer in the world),
1990 Italy (Moretti this time),
1994 United States of America (Budweiser, ughh still the most popular)
1998 France (u again love your Red Wine, but I’ll still have a Kronenbourg),
2002 Japan/South Korea (Ichiban means number 1 in Japanese, nuff said),
2006 Germany(oh I went to this one and drank everything you put in front of me, check the archives),
2010 South Africa (Black Label, I’ve sadly never drunk one of these)..
ok Qatar you got 12 years to start brewing you own beer and start a tradition….

FIFA you CORRUPT BASTARDS

How the hell does Qatar get to host the 2022 world cup? Out of all the bids for both 2018 and 2022, this was rated HIGH RISK by the FIFA technical committee? reason why, well the heat for June and July is over 100 degrees EVERYDAY of the month. Oh and aren't we suppose to have climate change/global warming worse by 2022.. Also the whole population of the country is less than 1 million people... So you want 300,000 people to travel there, how are you going to house, feed, transport, heck even remove their shit? That is totally unstainable for this small country.. Ok yeah they hosted the asian games a few years back but this is the DAMN WORLD CUP. the games are going to be some 8hrs after USA Eastern Standard Time, so more games in the middle of the night and early morning, thus bad for the fans in countries that give a crap...

Also what sort of host team are they going to field? I guess Budweiser wont bother to try to be a sponsor for FIFA by 2022 as its a damn DRY COUNTRY... Ok this is just a sign of how corrupt and horrible bidding for not only the World Cup, but the Olympic games are, its basically how much money and what promises you can make, i guess beach front villas on the persian gulf for all the executive club memebers is what counts..

A total disgrace for the worldwide game of soccer...

Thanks for everything Amsterdam.. now on to Brussels

I write this as i leave amsterdam and must say that the city was lovely. Amsterdam has special place for me, as when i was 6 weeks old my mother sat me on her lap for a 7hrs KLM flight from NYC. While i dont remember that trip at all, it was my first international trip of what i hope is a long lifetime of many flights.

The Atmosphere on Monday for the Netherlands game was amazing, much better than the drunken Brits. Things were very quiet in the city on Tuesday but at night we managed to find a Brazil bar to watch the Brazil vs North Korea game, the atmosphere in there was nothing short of electic. From the DJ playing a cheesy "BRAZIL" chant after every chance the Selacio had, to the halftime entertainment of a Samba band marching into the bar and playing there drums as the ladies showed off whatever moves they could in 15 minutes it was great. The game kicked off at 8:30pm, and we got seats and a great view at 8:05, but by kickoff time the entire bar was PACKED and people were even outside watching on a TV in the window, i must say the crowd arrives right on time for these matches here, its not like in NYC where you might pre-game adn get a good seat at the bar for a while before the game starts.

Wednesday was a day to wander around the less tourists parts of the City, i had heard alot about the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam and after a slightly confusing but nice 30 minute walk from the Lesipledein we arrived. Kickoff was approaching of the Spain vs Swiss game and low and behold just 5 minutes before the game we found a real Spanish bar. Real in the sense that 2 guys were wearing Espana shirts. The place said it was closed the kitchen till 6pm, i figured it was just their mid-day siesta but as it turned out the whole staff were the only customers in the bar and they were not going to be working if La Fuerja Rioja were playing. A few San Miguel beers, a nice place of the finest spanish meats and bread, a glass of rose wine for my buddy Paul and we had the first real upset of the tournament. Spain a team that has only been beaten twice in what seems like the last 4 years lost 1-0 to Switzerland. The Swiss a suprise at the 2006 World Cup are off to a flying start in their group.

Later Wednesday night being the americans we are and wanting some english language entertainment we opted to pay 15 Euros for the Boom Chicago improv show at the theatre in the leisplein. I would recommend it to any tourists in town as we got a free beer and a solid 90 minute of decent improv entertainment from the 4 member cast. After the show wandering around the bar on every corner streets, i saw a beer that i had not had before. It was called a Leeuw Bier, and like so many of the nice amber lagers here it was tasty. More interesting conversation with some Dutch football fans with the main topic being if Johan Cruijff could play as well in today's modern game as in the Total Football days of the 1970s. I think that any of the greats in the past could easily compete at todays game, while they dont have the size and speed of todays players, the game is not always about that.

More wandering at night ensued and a cool bar was found. The Mini Bar is a relatively new joint from what i was told. Check it out online at www.minibaronline.com the concept is a cute one, there are about 40 lockers/mini bars in the place. You can buy a key for a locker and like a hotel its your own mini bar. Pull out a little bottle of Vodka and mix it with Cranberry, or take a beer for a friend. At the end of the night your tab is computed or if you are a real baller you just have the send you monthly statements on your credit card. Since i was only in town for a night and not buying a locker, i had the waitress bring me a 3.50Euro Henieken. That price was about the average for a bottle, with a full half liter(US 16oz draft ) running about 5 Euros. With the 400 year Dutch tradition of not tipping, the costs of beer here in Western Europe is not that bad. When you do leave a 1 Euro tip for 2 beers, they treat you like they just saw Jesus come down from the mountain. If in Amsterdam i would recommened checking out the Mini Bar. The Address is the unprounceable Prisengracht 478, its right near a canal like so many other places.

I must say as i approach Brussels on the "slow" High-Speed Train i'm looking forward to the thousands of great beers available there. Compared to the crap UK beer i was drinking my first week, these Dutch and Belgian beers are a marked improvement.

The Oranje Crush in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city that has it all as many of us do know. I came here this trip not for the drugs, not for the sex, heck not even for the beer, but for the Football or as its known back home the soccer. Yesterday got to watch a Netherlands vs Denmark game in Amsterdam with lots of fans dressed in Orange. So far in terms of being in the 2 home nations that i've seen play in person England and the Netherlands, well the Dutch won hands down. Both in terms of attitude and passion of the fans. Whereas in England the backpages of the newspaper all have but promised making the World Cup Final, winning the World Cup, turning Rooney into a player better than Pele, Maradonna, Zidane etc and thus putting all the pressure on the team if they don't exceed beyond expectations. Here in the Netherlands despite my total and utter lack of knowledge of Dutch i surely don't see any headlines about the Dutch winning the world cup. Heck for a team that has been to the final game of the World Cup twice, only to lose they seem to take things day by day.

The game started at 1:30pm local time, it would have been 7:30am back in New York and i know i would have barely been able to get up for the game, much less get to a bar with any sort of atmosphere to watch it. I got seated at the Cinema Cafe outside area on a great closed off street in the RemebrantPlein about 12:30 and watched some of the pre-game, the crowd was thin but then around 1:15pm it seemed that everyone just left from work, home, school whatever they were doing and all showed up on the place. there are at least 15 bars in the area and its closed to cars so a great place to watch and mingle. The bars all had TVs on outside, strangely as is the case with many live sporting events some TVs were a second or so ahead of the others, thankfully i made sure to sit at the one with the exact live feed and not a delay.

The game was rather boring, with the Dutch getting on the board first from an own goal from a Danish defender. He headed the ball away from the goal an it was going wide, but then it hit the back of his teammate and went into the goal. It was bad luck, but a great play by a Dutch player to even keep the play alive and make the cross into the 6 yard box. The second Dutch goal was a bit better with the intital shot coming off the goalpost and then Duyt Kuyt finishing off easily from a few yards out. The Dutch seemed to dominate the game to me with most of the possession and scoring chances. Denmark had one decent chance early in the game but my Arsenal man Bendtner as usual missed an easy header from a few yards out.

The atmosphere after the game was great, despite seeing one dutch fan and bartender get into a fight. Not sure the cause of the fight but the bartender won as he flung a whole tray of just washed glasses at the fan and when the fan was outside he was cut up and pretty bloody. The cops came and unlike NYC didn't drag both people away to jail, just seemed to separate and calm things down. Just goes to show you that in Amsterdam its laid back and anything goes just fine.

Later today i'm probably going to try to get to Amsterdam Stadium and the FC Ajax tour and do the stadium tour. Hope to learn a bit about the legendary Dutch team and their glory. I had a blast after the game talking to fully decked out Oranje fans about their team, past players, other teams, the Dutch legends at Arsenal etc. Always enjoyable to talk to knowledgeable footie fans anywhere in the world.

USA vs England in London June 12th

So the first big game of the World Cup that i wanted in fact HAD to watch was the USA v England game that was held June 12th. I was in jolly London to watch the game, the number of American fans was well less than you could count on your hand. Watched the game with probably 400 drunken English fans at the Montague Pyke Pub near Leister Square. From my week stay in the UK (Edinburgh Scotland and London) the most consistent thing between the cities was that the beer was utter crap. Even drinking imported beers such as Stella, it seemed not as good as when had in Belgium or even the East Village in Manhattan. I only found one UK beer that i found which was an Inns & Gunn from Scotland.

Ok back to the game, I was not at all worried that the USA went down in the 4th minute, it was a lovely piece of skill by new Captain of England Steven Gerrard, it was a horrible piece of defending by Riccardo Clark, but he has not been one of my favorite midfielders for the USA, and one Gerrard was past him it was up to Tim Howard to do something. While Howard might have stopped Gerrard in a few Mersyside Derbys in this game Gerrad got the best of him.
I thought the USA looked decent in the first half with a couple of decent chances. Clint Dempsey had a header that was stopped at the post, and Altidore had a free header that he missed wide. Landon Donovan was basically invisible the whole game. The eventual goal that Clint Dempsey scored while not a lovely piece of skill on his part like the Europa League chip over Juventus that saved Fulham, the goal did fit Dempsey motto of "Just Do Shit". With a ball that the keepers don't seem to enjoy stopping no problem with taking a 25 yard blast. In fact i've always screamed why American players dont try more long range shots. Yes it was a total howler from Robert Green. The sort of blunder than can ruin a guys confidence for years to follow and i'd be shocked to see him in goal for a dnother England Game.
The 2nd half had stretches where it was dominated by the English. In fact there was about one 5 minute stretch that had me incensed. Riccardo Clark i believe had a horrible first touch to give up an easy turnover. At that point England simply held the ball for minutes, had a few shots on net and earned at least one corner. While nothing came of it, the USA simply has to control possession more and not make blunders like that.

My heartbreaking moment of the 2nd half was when Jozy Altidore beat old ass Jamie Carragher like a rented mule around the outside, cut into the 18 yard box and blasted a shot. Green got his hand on it and then it went off the post. I wanted that goal!!!! While Jozy made a great effort, i think there is something about proven goal scoring assassins like Drogba, Torres, Eto'o, Messi that they simply dont miss chances like that.. I seriously thought we should have had that goal, and a 2-1 victory for me would have turned the 7 quid i bet on the game into 70 quid!!!!
Timmy Howard had to easily be our man of the match he stopped 6 shots in the 2nd half, while a few were great saves, at the same time Emile Heskey had an open shot and put it RIGHT INTO HIS CHEST, you gotta aim for the corners.

At the end of the game i was a grumpy miserable louse, i had not been drinking beer during the game as i was too nervous and really felt a 2-1 victory should have been ours. My friends were trying to cheer me up, but it was only after i started reading facebook posting from English fans and their utter self loathing/hatred for the team, the nation, etc that i finally felt it was a "victory" for the USA team. One point is always better than zero points in your first match.

As I write this i'm speeding thru the Netherlands on the way to Amsterdam for the early Netherlands vs Denmark game. Should be a great scene as for a 1:30pm kickoff time, there are already 4 or 5 Dutch fans all decked out in Orange ready to pre-game.
Glad that in the next couple of days we will get the first games from the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Portugal all the so called contenders, we will see if any of them can destroy a team 4-0 like the Germands did.

World Cup Group Predictions

Ok with only one more day until the start of the World Cup i figure this is the perfect time for me to do my predictions and pre-tourney analysis of the groups and how the draw is going to work out.. here we go group by group

Group A - I think the 2 teams going to advance from this group are Uruguay in 1st and Mexico in 2nd place. While France has a world of talent, they have not been in good form since the 2008 Euros and with the controversy about 3 of the players screwing an underage hooker still going on back in France at the first sign of trouble that story is going to pop back up. south Africa as hosts are simlply not good enough, remember they got the bid as automatic hosts and would have not qualified on their own given their recent form.

Group B - on paper this is a fairly straight forward group with favorites Argentina taking the top spot but the 2nd spot will be a fight. The greeks can play good defensive form and show up like they did winning th 2004 euros. The Nigerians could get a nice boost from the support from the african home advantage. South Korea is an unknown to me as they did well in 2002 with help from officials and home crowd. I will go with Nigeria as the 2nd team coming out of this group.

Group C - This naturally is the group i will be most interseted in as my beloved Yanks are here. i think by now most British and world fans have to give props to the English based Yank players such as Dempsey, Altidore, Howard and Donovan. Hopefully this cup will have better group stage results than the horrible 2006 performance. Our Defense is still very shaky with Gooch not really having played in 8 months. England to me are not in good form, from injuries and the like. I will go big with an upset here and USA getting 1st place in group and England 2nd place.

Group D - This could be one of the most competitive groups, even more so than the annointed Group G of Death. Germany will be without its leader in Michael Ballack, and top goal scorer Miroslav Klose not in any sort of form. Serbia did amazingly well in qualyfing and have unknown talent in some of their players. Ghana will be without their leader Michael Essien out to injury for most of this season, but might get an Africian boost, we saw how talented they are at the 2006 Cup. Australia while having advanced in 2006 and heartbreakingly robbed by a crappy offical call in the Italy game, did not look good in their warm up against the USA last weekend. I have Germany number 1, and Serbia number 2 in this group.

Group E - The Netherlands are always one of my favorite teams in any tournament, they start out hot but find a way to fade in the knockout rounds, but i think this will be a much better result for them this year. Cameroon had made this tournament and playing on african soil should give them a boost. Denmark making a well deserved return to the tournament but i simply dont know who their players are, and Japan i have not seen ever on the big stage. I have the Dutch in number 1 spot, and Cameroon getting the 2nd place out of this group.

Group F - One of the weakest groups as i dont see New Zealand or Slovakia doing anything ofnote, New Zealand were horrible at the 2009 Confederations Cup. I have Italy going number 1, and Paraguay going 2nd. but that order could easily flip if Italy have trouble early on as they have in past tournaments.

Group G - The much talked about group of death. There will be some great games played in this group. The apparant loss of Didier Drogba for Cote D'Ivorie is a huge blow and at age 32 this was probably his last world cup, his form has been spectacular this entire season and hopefully we will get to see him play at some point. It will be inspiring to the team if he can get out there broken elbow or not. Brazil are brazil everyone favorite to get out of the group and mine also. Portugal has one of the most exciting players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, but barely made it to the tournament and have been disappointing as a national team. I have Brazil in first, and Cote D'ivorie in 2nd. Gosh i would love to be up in little west africa in Harlem to watch some of the ivory coast games.

Group H- Spain by far is in top form, having won the 2008 Euros and donig well in the 2009 Confederations Cup and brining the same nuclus of a team. Star Striker Fernando Torres has injury problems that have seemed to plague his career but new Barca signing David Villa will fill in just fine with his goal scoring prowess. The rest of the group should not be very good and whoever comes out 2nd will have been in good form. i'll go with switzerland coming out of this group as they did well in the 2006 cup.

Ok my breakdown of the knock-out stages will come a bit later

T minus 3 days and the World Cup Begins

3 2 1 and we are going live..

Well this blog is about to come to life for what is hopefully a great 2 months. After going to the world cup in Germany in 2006 and attending 5 games, my goal had been to do at least the same for the 2010 edition in South Africa. Despite planning for a while, i found it simply too difficult to manage travel both to and within South Africa, along with questions about accommodations, tickets and security. It seemed to me that people in South Africa were boosting the prices of everything as much as 5 times, while this is common during big international events such as Presidential Inaugurations, Olympics etc it was not the best light for your country to seem to be full of people wanting to retire from making money on the tourists.

So instead to get my World Cup Football fix, i am headed over to Europe. The time zone for the games is the same, i couldn't imagine waking up on the east coast of America for a 7:30am Argentina vs South Korea game, both in terms of waking up that early and finding any bar/pub/restaurant with proper atmosphere. In Europe that game will be at 1:30pm and folks will be skipping out of their afternoon from work in order to watch the game and surely in most cities in Europe you will find passionate fans from both countries.

My plan for travel is going to start in United Kingdom, in fact i'm writing this pre-world cup right now from Edinburgh, Scotland. l have read and been told its one of the most lovely cities in the UK but right now its just grey and raining for the 2nd day, not really inspiring an adventure spirit. When the games start on June 11th, I plan to be in at least 5 and possibly 6 countries when their home teams are playing. So far if travel plans go according to plan i will be in London for the USA vs England game on June 12th, and passionately supporting my Yanks, despite whatever bodily harm might come my way. June 14th calls for an early game in Amsterdam to watch the Netherlands take on Denmark. Then after a few days in Belgium who don't have a team that qualified its off to France, plan to be in the South of France, possibly Nice for the final group game June 22nd between France and South Africa, which could be pivotal to see if France makes it to the knock out rounds. Then its across the border to Italy probably in Milano for the June 24th Slovakia vs Italy clash. Right now surely not many people think much of that game and its an early east cost 7:30am, or an ungodly 4:30am California game, but i think that Slovakia will be dangerous and could be a 2nd place team in what is a weak group.

The granddaddy game of the group stage has me flying off to Porto, Portugal to make the June 25th Brazil vs Portugal game that will surely be important to see who gets 1st place and who gets 2nd place in what is considered the Group of Death. Assuming Spain makes it to the knockout stages and beyond i hope to be in the Basque region to watch a potential Spain vs Ivory Coast/Portugal/Brazil round of 16 match.
After that i'll simply be traveling with the World Cup schedule in mind, no flights or busses this time that in 2006 had me missing the Argentina vs Netherlands game cause i was on a flight. This time the travel will be made around the game schedules.

I hope to meet some interesting people, see just how passionate the game is watched overseas and even visit in the off-season some of the great football stadiums such as the San Siro in Milan where so many great world cup and champions league games have been seen by myself.

I hope the readers stay tuned here for what hope to be daily updates on the food, culture, citis, bars and great football games taking place in europe during this world cup 2010 summer.

I know I will be enjoying this year, hope you can enjoy my musing here on the blog.

Made it to Vancouver..

Hey anyone out there reading, made it to vancouver. Check me out on Twitter
www.twitter.com/DrinkingEurope as i find that the best way for quick updates from the olympics. Today is a slow day, Men's Skelton, Men's Super-G (will Bode Miller choke??) and some hockey games. Hope to take in Latvia vs Czech Republic at 4:30pm local time. Will post a seattle update and 1st day of Vancouver in a bit.. bear with me.. thanks

Vancouver Bound...

Well in keeping with my love of sports and big events, i'm headed to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver later this week. I'll be there from the 18th to the 26th and hope to take in at least one or so men's hockey games, and speed skating. There will be plenty of beer consumed for sure as Vancouver is suppose to have decent microbrews..

So stay tuned here for hopefully what will be daily exciting updates.

Now the Silly Season Begins

Now that the Champions League game is over, we can get into all the rumors of who is going to transfer to what team. The hottest and first rumor out of the gate is that Kaka (real name as born Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite) will move from AC Milan to Real Madrid for a whopping 65 million Euros, well now is just a rumor and we have to wait until probably after Brazil's important 2 World Cup 2010 Qualifying games.

Well the UEFA Champions League Final was a great game as long as you were not a Manchester United fan. Wow the first 10 minutes it looked like a totally different game, with a great chance for Ronaldo in the first minute, but from when Eto'o scored in the 10th minute until the last whistle. As an adopted Barca fan for the game, i must say I totally enjoyed it, and have to say the Spanish midfield duo of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta were amazing controlling the pace and tempo of the game.

This summer there is still some soccer to look forward to, this weekend the first team might be able to punch their ticket to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. If Australia simply win against Qatar then they are in, and the whole Asia group will be wrapped up by end of June.

The Europe group should show some clarity by the end of June with some teams almost locks and some team elimiated.

The USA team have a big 2 games coming up, tonight vs Costa Rica in Costa Rica a place we have never won a game, while we can't book our place until September at the earliest we can go a long way for sure.

Well until then, it will be a bunch of transfer rumors, and wondering if said player is worth that many millions of dollars, pounds, euros. Even in this recession, football is not feeling it and i expect to see some mind boggling numbers thrown around for good, great and even some washed up players.

UEFA Champions League Finals Preview

Ok well after a great season of Champions League football, we are less than 24hrs away from the final being played in Rome. This has been a season of some brilliant games and great goals in the Champions League this season. As an Arsenal fan, i was hoping that my team had a chance to make it to the finals with a shot at their only silverware of the season but Manchester United spoiled that dream. So in the style of most American sports fans i have to root for the other team, in this case FC Barcelona. This is not a problem as I adore Thierry Henry, in fact he is partially the reason that i'm such a huge football/soccer fan over the past 5 years since watching him with France in the 2004 Euros.
This will be billed as one of the better Champions League Finals in recent years. With Barcelona and Manchester United both having won their leagues and a few pieces of silverware already they are clearly the best teams. The season long argument of who is the best player in the world Messi vs Ronaldo will take centerstage in all the hype and build up to the game. As a neutral observer i will have to say Ronaldo is the best player in the world, his ability from the dead ball/free kicks, along with his use of both feet, head, and other tools tell me he is the best. Yes he is a whiny prat when he is knocked on his butt, never letting his hair get messed up on the ground, as he looks up at the ref for a call going his way but he is still the best. Messi can have moments of brilliance, but he is not a dead ball player, and being only 5 foot something tall he can't outjump defenders and use his head..
THe supporting casts of these teams is where the game will really be won. I think Barcelona is LOADED.. look at the scoring trio of Henry, Eto'o and Messi this season. They combined for 71 goals between them, that is more than all but 2 entire TEAMS have scored, with only Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid having scored more goals as a team than that trio of player. Barcelona will be hurt by the suspensions of Dani Alves and Eric Abidal for sure, but they are a deep squad and should be able to manage for 90 minutes.
The coaching advantage everyone is saying goes to Sir Alex with his years of experience, but i think that Pep Guardiola has the full respect and trust of his team, not saying that Sir Alex has lost his dressing room, i just think this is an even matchup.
I hope everyone gets a chance to watch this game, 2:45 EST in the USA, just before Noon on the west coast, and the evening in Europe.. catch the game..
I'm calling for a 2-1 Barcelona win and a helluva a party that night on Las Ramblas.. whatever the case lets hope for a game for the ages!!!

Best and Worst of 2008

After a little thought about this past year that is leaving us I thought it would be good to write a Best and Worst list of 2008 in a number of areas. 2008 saw extremes of good and bad in many categories so I thought I would put my mind to it and give some examples of what happened this year that made me go WHOA!!

Best Moment 2008 –
By far the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the night of November 4th, 2008 will live in history for a number of reason. Not just because he is the first African-American president, but because he showed that if you are smart, work hard and stay out of trouble you can do whatever you want. In looking at the history of the past 100 years of Presidents I cannot think of anyone who has been elected who came from less. This is a man who grew up to an 18 year old single mother who had no money, status or connections. Despite a time of hanging with the wrong crowd and doing drugs, he managed to graduate from an Ivy League school – Colombia University and then go on to an Ivy League graduated school – Harvard Law School. The true American dream as the son of an immigrant from Kenya and a mid-western woman. Having only served in US Government for 2 years and state government for 7 years before running for office it is true his experience might have seemed lacking but the people of America believed in him. It was not a black thing, as he manged to get more percentage of the votes in ALMOST EVERY CATEGORY over the last democratic candidate John Kerry did in 2004. It was only the 65+ year old White people who favored Kerry. And for those folks I have a giant F U, most of yall probably still think Black people should use different water fountains, ride in the back of the bus and not be allowed into public swimming pools.

Anyway as good as the night of November 4th, 2008 was, so will be the morning of January 20th, 2009 when Barack Hussein Obama swears to protect and serve the constitution of the United States on a bible used by Abraham Lincoln.




2008 Best Book - Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman


In the year that oil prices shot past $100 and up to almost $150 and then crashed with the rest of the global economy down to $35, Thomas Friedman wrote a book talking about how American can re-invent itself as an industrial superpower again with a Green revolution. Thankfully Friedman knows a bit about the subject writing back in 2005 The World is Flat, which if you don’t believe in that after watching one country after another following into global financial panic caused by the credit crisis well then you need to go back and read the book. We are all interconnected as a society now, so any gains that America makes in the Green Energy Technology revolution can help the whole planet that yes is getting Hot, Crowded and is already Flat. A great read for the new year, as hopefully President-Elect Obama and his awesome true freakin GENIUS Secretary of Energy nominee Stephen Chu, nobel prize winner in Physics can help lead us into a true Green Revolution and that $1.65 gasoline will not encourage people to dust off their SUVs and fill them up again.



2008 Best Music Album – Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

Raphael is a talented cat no doubt, while his solo albums have not had the widespread success that he had as a member of Tony Tone Toni, for music lovers his stuff has hit the spot. From his “gospeldelic sound” on Instant Vintage, to his straight back to the 60s Soul revival on his current album, its always a good listen. I must say as I grow older I not as hip to all the new artists coming out, anyone who tells me that Katy Perry is a groundbreaking artists needs to either be taken out to the woodshed or just given a copy of the last stupid “I Kissed a Girl” song done by Jill Sobule and I’m sure there will be another copycat in 10 years. If you like the sound of the 60s or was not alive and wondered how the 1960’s sounded in terms of black music, check out this release. Note a great talent of the 60s Mr. Stevland Morris aka Stevie Wonder does his harmonic thing on a track, worth the price of admission alone.




2008 Best Movie – Iron Man


Ok yes I’m a comic book nerd, and if was not for my collection of Marvel’s back in the 1980’s I would not be into reading at all. While Iron Man was one of my favorite it was not my favorite book back in the day, that honor would goto Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Well 3 of those above have had movies made and were all rather disappointing in ways. Yet for the true Comic Book nerd out there IRON MAN is DA SHIT. Taking his origin as literal as possible and just changing Vietnam with Afghanistan the movie has great acting from Robert Downey Jr, great supporting cast I mean I never thought I would see a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow and LOVE IT. This movie is the best comic book movie possibly ever, and surely my favorite movie of 2008, yeah it won’t win any big-time Oscars, but hell if you didn’t enjoy this check your pulse.




2008 Best Sports Event – UEFA Champions League Final Manchester United vs Chelsea


While my soccer/football allegiances fall to Arsenal, I totally enjoyed the semi-finals and finals of the 2007-2008 Champions League final. Played in the middle of the night on a rainy wet miserable night in Moscow, the game that went to extra time and then penalties featured everything you could want. From a goal by the player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, to a stupid sending off by the moody Didier Drogba for girl slapping someone in the face. Yet it was the penalty shoot-out that would decide it all, with Mr England Captain himself John Terry with a chance for Chelsea FC to win their first ever Champions League title, well his shot was wide and then Manchester United won it. Overall a great game. Also don’t overlook the semi-final 2nd leg game between Chelsea and Liverpool that went to extra time also that was a thriller. We can only hope for 2009s games to be as good as last years.




2008 Best Technology – Apple ipod Touch 2nd generation


While I do not yet own one of these, having seen and played with one, this is all you need in your pocket. While it does not have the phone capacity, I think the whole sign you life away for 2 years to AT&T/Apple for $120 a month is sort of crazy. For everything else you might need the iPod Touch does it. With WiFi, email, browser, music, video, youtube, and access to the 3rd party apps store which then lets almost unlimited expansion. 36hrs audio playback life and 6hrs video playback, in a package that fits in your hand I must give Apple props for doing it well. I have been an anti-apple person from way back in the Apple 2e days, when my friends had those and I was given a crappy IBM PCjr in 1984. Yet I stuck to IBM, DOS, Windows operating systems forever and never been seduced by the Mac zombie crowd. Well in 2009 that probably will change when I get my first true Apple product (yeah I have own a ipod shuffle before but that does not really count now does it?)




And now onto the worst things that happened this year.

2008 Worst Event – Sub prime Crisis/Credit Crunch/Global Financial Meltdown


It can be called by so many names, but basically the economic malaise that spread from a bunch of overpriced unsold houses in California, Arizona, Florida and other states has spread around the world taking out Iceland in the process along with wrecking financial markets. We living today get the privilege to live through the first ever worldwide recession, and while much of it might be called just Fear, the reality of it is cheap money is gone. The US Government will print up as much as needed, and yet the rest of the world feels safe in knowing it’s the USA printing these dollars and not say Mexico, Brazil or Argentina. In the past financial crisis have been limited to one country or region, but hell this one is worldwide, it has even affected the seemingly untouchable Gulf Arab states as we have watched oil plunge to $40 a barrel from $140 on worries about lack of demand. The US Consumer has been cut off, so therefore has 70% of our economy that relies on buying cheap shit from China. While its good to see 2008 behind us in terms of the crisis, its just the start and anyone who tell you that by the 2nd quarter of 2009 cheap credit will be flowing again might have already had too much holiday cheer in terms of adult drinks. It will take a bit longer, how much longer no one can easily predict but this problem that has taken us 20+ years of easy money to get into is going to take more than 2 quarters to get out of.




2008 Worst Downfall – Eliot Spitzer


As years of being the so called Sheriff of Wall Street, the now governor of New York State took a nasty spill after being caught up in a high end prostitution ring. Well high end if only you talk about the amount of $$ being spent, as the ‘ho he was last caught with certainly was not some worldly, speaks all these languages and fine wine/culture whores her agency said she was. Nope she was a New Jersey run-a-away who featured in Girls Gone Wild videos and then decided to sell her cooch to horny old men who were happy to pay it. The thought of Spitzer spending $4500 bucks and then being able to keep on his black socks while he banged away is more comical than it is sad. Bye Bye Eliot.. Oh and to my peeps overseas, yeah its amazing that American political figures can take a big tumble for this, when you can goto Amsterdam and anyone politican, sports star, or regular Joe the Plummer can get whatever on the menu that you want for 50 Euros and its all good.

2008 Worst Technology – Blu Ray


After a nasty 2 year battle with HD-DVD, it seems that Blu-Ray won. Well there is no winner as despite the demise of the competing format, people are not flocking to Blu-Ray out and out. Reasons could be the cost of replacing your whole DVD collection that you have been slowly building since 1997. Or it could be the fact that hell many people(my sister included)who buy nice big HDTV, don’t even subscribe to HD service and wouldn’t know the extra quality of Blu-Ray if it slapped them across the face. Anyway with DVD sales finally slowing down, and better technology to stream HD images and 1080p into the home over internet/cable/satellite lines I doubt that Blu-Ray will ever amount to much more than a few year fad. And hell other than 2% of the videophile population out there, who can tell the difference between a standard DVD movie up scaled or a broadcast in 720p vs 1080p, not many of us. The extra cost is just not worth it.




2008 Worst Sports Collapse


Either the NY Mets or the NY Jets, funny both teams played at one time in Shea Stadium, it could be that stadium is cursed and many are glad to see it being torn down this year. As a partial NY Jets fan, I’ll have to say the Mets Collaspe for the 2nd straight year to not make the playoffs has to win, but the sting of the Jets losing 4 of the last 5 is still fresh in my mind. Whatever the case, both teams hit the golf course early this year.

Get Some Nikka Costa Funk in yo Trunk

If you have never heard of Nikka Costa, now its time for your lesson in Funk. She has been a performer all her life, from age 10 being a child star and opening for the Police in front of 200,000 in Chile, to her recent spell for the last 10 years playing rock, soul, funk, blues, you name it. Her new album comes out today entitled "Pebble to a Pearl". I have been listen and watching Nikka in concert since 2001 and since then very few if any live concert experiences has been as amazing. She puts her whole soul into the performance and her band is FONKY.

Her new album released today October 14th features 12 tracks. I must say many of the funky tracks are throwbacks to 1970s sweaty in your momma's basement funk. Be sure to check out Can't Please Everybody, Pebble to A Pearl, Cry Baby, Keep Wanting More for your workout of funk. Pick it up from Amazon for only $12.

She will be performing on Conan O'brien show airing October 16th, and also is on tour till the end of October, if she comes to your town check it out here are a list of some of the remaining dates. All shows are $25 or less for concert tickets, so even in this recession its something hopefully everyone can enjoy.
14-Oct Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
15-Oct Orlando, FL The Social
17-Oct Atlanta, GA The Loft
19-Oct Baltimore, MD Recher Theatre
20-Oct New York, NY Webster Hall
21-Oct Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
23-Oct Boston, MA Showcase Live
24-Oct Burlington, VT Higher Ground
25-Oct Montreal, QC Saints
26-Oct Toronto, ON El Mocambo
28-Oct Chicago, IL Park West
29-Oct Milwaukee The Rave
30-Oct Minneapolis, MN Varsity

to leave you here is one of my favorite live songs that she performs back from the 2005 tour, i shot this with my digital camera in Philly. the song is On & On, from her 2005 release can't never did nuttin'. Still waiting for the day I hear this at a strip club, that girl will be happy cause i'll be doing my best Pacman Jones to make it rain.

John McCain you have lost your marbles..

I really was trying to avoid ever talking about politics on this blog, cause like religion it totally polarizes people.. in fact your not suppose to talk about either of those things in public.. I would much rather talk about beer, babes, soccer, traveling, whatever.. But now with only 40 days till the US Presidential Election and the so called "greatest financial crisis to hit us ever" in front of us, the news coverage of this event usually has me fuming mad.

There is no way the $700 Billion dollar bailout is going to work, first and foremost the gov't has no idea what to price toxic shitty subprime debt at. The last 2 companies to unload their debt including Merrill Lynch sold it at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar. The banks are still giving it a value of 60 cents on the dollar. The government is going to overpay and the assets will never go up in value. I mean it was just a month ago that Bernanke and Paulson were all saying "everything is fine.. the fundamentals are strong.. so and so was too big to fail but its all good now.." Yet today its all about the politics of fear.. the Iraq War was entered cause of the fear of a mushroom cloud over the USA.. now its the fear of going back to the stone age.. Politics of Fear I'm done with you..
It funny but I'm with the GOP Republicans as to no way to this bailout, but their leader John McCain is so out of it, its not funny anymore. I think the only thoughts in the mans head are the stump speech and lines he has memorized, not an original thought, not an original idea going on up there.. This interview below with Brian Williams below is an example.. when asked the clear question



Brian: Where does that money come from, can it be printed.. are we talking about a hike in takes..

McCain: If we restore our economy and cut the out of control spending, I think we'll be ok. But if we dont do this, the consequences of failure are emornous. So if we get our economy back on track and grow the economy and keep peoples taxes low and cut the out of control spending... Blah Blah Blah..

I screamed at the TV.. ANSWER THE EFFIN QUESTION YOU #$%!*. Oh and don't even get me started on Palin answering about how since Alaska is close its foreign policy experience.. Lady I've been to Russia, I have more experience than you do living next to it...

Yes they are going to print the money, they are working overtime right now at 14th & C Streets SW Washington DC. For those who have never been that is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, actually one of the best tours in all of DC.. But that is where they print the US Currency, and trust me they are working the prints overtime for the next plenty of years to get all that money printed and shipped off to the Fed.. Maybe tomorrow i'll work on a calculation of just how tall a stack of $100 bill uncut sheets would have to be for 700 billion worth.

Ok that venting felt good... now back to regularly schedule talk about beer, babes, travel and soccer.. i promise

Nikka Costa rocks..

Check out the video for the new Nikka Costa song. If she comes to your town on tour in October, go see her.. you will not be unsatisfied.

Videos from Steve Nash Charity Soccer

Just a few videos from my digital camera at the Steve Nash Charity Soccer game in Chinatown. Sorry they suck so badly, but that is a combination of my digital camera and my lack of skills.. Hey I had 3 beers watching the Germany vs Turkey game, so i should be forgiven..


First video is my fave of Thierry Henry doing all sorts of tricks and Big Baron Davis taking the ball from him. Baron was the crowd favorite, but mostly cause he was so horrible on the ball, yet he scored a goal


This is just a video of Thierry coming right down the side where I was watching, the speed and skill is just amazing.


Last video for today is the penalty kick that Thierry took. I think it was only about 10 feet away and it was a rocket of a shot, good thing it found the net cause this ball and someone face, i would say the ball would win that battle.



More to follow..

Wednesday in the Park with Thierry

Today was an all-soccer day for myself. Around the world everyone tuned in to see if the cardiac kids Turkey could keep their improbable run at the Euros alive. Well despite Television problems all around the world, the game went on and Turkey was about 1 minute away from sending it to extra time. Future goat Philip Lamb scored with only 30 seconds left to put Germany up 3-2. He would have been a goat if the game went to extra time and Turkey had won, as he was SMOKED one on one for the 2nd goal that Turkey scored in the 86th minute. I am actually glad the game ended on time, as I would not have been able to hang around the bar for extra time as I had to run over to watch my man crush Thierry Henry in a charity game.

Steve Nash the 2-time NBA all star is a big soccer fan, in fact I heard he supports Tottenham Spurs, which considering he is good friend of Theirry Henry he can't be that much of a Hot Spurs fan. Anyway due to France basically totally sucking at the Euros, Thierry's summer vacation began a bit early and he was able to come to NYC to play in Nash's charity game. The game took place at the soccer field at Sara Roosevelt Park on the edge of Chinatown. Its located between Houston St and Delancy St, and ELdridge and something else. I guess its a spot where folks come to play pickup games all day long. The game was schedule to start at 5:30pm, and I booked it over from the bar One & One right at the end of the Turkey vs Germany game, so I was inside the gates at about 4:50pm, and they probably closed the gates to the crowd at 5:15pm so extra time would have been no good for me.

There were 2 teams, the blue team and yellow team, naturally since Nash was the organizer he put Thierry on his team, but the blue team had the equally talented and trying to show off his stuff Salomon Kalou of Chelsea fame. Too bad John Arne Riise was not there as they could have showed off how to score an own goal in the dying seconds of a big champions league match. Some other players on the blue team were $10 million american teenager Jozy Altidore, Claudio "Capt America" Reyna, Juan Pablo Angel(he must have been hurt as he did not play), Baron Davis the point guard from the Golden State Warrior who must have never kicked a soccer ball before cause his touch was SHOCKING, and a few other guys. The yellow team had Nash's Phoenix Sun teammates Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, the aforementioned Thierry Henry, Robbie Fowler(former Liverpool player), Jason Kidd, Steve McManaman(Liverpooler before my time).

The game started at 6pm, and it was 8 vs 8, so there were a few subs on the sidelines. The place was PACKED.. inside they stopped letting people in and it was 3-4 people deep. Outside the black fence it was at least 8 deep on the street, and as you can see in one of my pictures, the people were literally climbing up and hanging on like 8 feet off the ground just to see the game. The police only numbered about 5 people, so they tried to get people down, but in the end it was fruitless, the NYPD should know if Thierry Henry is in town, you need more force!! The game was very cool, it was played at a high skill level for sure, and FAST.. when you are literally 3 feet from the players its only then that you realize just how much speed the game is played at on the highest level. Everyone was good natured about fouls as they were none, no contested tackles or headers, only 1 50-50 ball i think when Baron Davis playfully bear hugged one of his fellow basketball players. Thierry showed some really cool skills to impress the crowd, including a seal dribble almost to the net, and plenty of step-overs. There was a playful penalty shot that he took that was like a LASERBEAM. The goal might have been 8 feet high but it was very very narrow, the type you would get with a 5 on 5 game of pickup soccer, well he buried it high and tight, it was good he did not miss cause anyone near the net or behind the net would have been CREAMED by the laserbeam of a shot he unleashed. I have a video of it and will be getting it on youtube in the next few days.

The game was free for all i believe, they did have some orange seats, like the ones you take to the beach with the built in beer holder on one sideline for either guests of the players or folks who donated to the Nash Foundation. I've read they do good work and have built a hospital in Paraguay. The website is Steve Nash ORG check it out and if you can on there donate a few bucks if you can afford it.

Ok Pictures now.
Thierry Henry doing some tricks after a dead-ball. Look at the fans literally hanging onto the Fence all around to see



Salomon Kalou was impressive, i guess he wants the whole blog world to say how good it was so he can get a starting spot on Chelsea this year



Thierry and his skinny calfs. I was shocked to realize up close just how small/tiny most of these professional footballers are, yet TH has some muscles on those skinny legs


Leandro Barbosa playing some D, one of my few decent action shots


After the game all the fans basically stormed the field as the NYPD was not in force and there were only about 2-3 organizers, all the players were REALLY NICE and signed tons of autographs and took pictures. Thierry did a little bit of media/interview and then tried to run for the exits but was stopped and i heard signed a decent amount of autographs. Here are some pics from after the game

Claudio "Captain America" Reyna signing for the only 2 Beckham shirts I saw


Leandro Barbosa, who is from Brazil and showed he has a few skills


Salomon Kalou very sweaty and a cute fan. If my folks up in Harlem knew their boy from Ivory Coast was going to be there(he was not mentioned in the NY Times article) I'm sure it would have been more of a mob scene.


Jozy Altidore with 2 girls hanging on to him. He was INCREDIBLY nice, signing for a while, taking pictures, talking on people's cell phone, everything.


Baron Davis, who was a fun guy, but obviously had not kicked a ball in a while


Water break with one of like 3 really cute girls dressed up like soccer players who were handing out vitamin water.


myself and Jozy Altidore. Best of luck with your move to Villareal, the team just gained one new fan, go Yellow Submarines!!