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!!

Euros.. win or go home..

To take a catch phrase from the NBA, its time in the Euros now to win or go home, and so far the first game was a delight. These hot swedish fans are going home now, and man I wish Sweden would have made the World Cup 2006 in Germany as I did not run into 4 hotties like this from any other country. Thanks to the Sun in the UK for letting me "steal" their picture.

Germany vs Portugal a game that I had picked to take place in the semi-finals took place in the quarter-finals due to the upstart Croatian team. I had picked Portugal to win the game as watching the group stages Germany looked a bit shaky and Portugal was like a machine. Well the machine came up against a machine killer, the super duper tall German backline. Portugal missed a ton of goal scoring chances and it seems this is a one-trick pony team with Ronaldo having to do everything, well everything that is but mark his man on free kicks. No way Klose should have been to free he used his head/shoulder/collar-bone to score the 2nd goal. Ronaldo you can throw your hands in the air, wave them however you care but you didnt mark you man. Portugal does not have an out and out scorer, a killer striker, a Torres, Villa, Podolski, or any of the other players in this tournament who have proven they have a thirst for the back of the net. The end of the game looked like a possible Turkey come-back and all was needed was a tie to send it to an extra 30 minutes and then penalties, while it did not happen in this game, i'm sure at some point we will get a total nailbiter 120 minute game.

The Friday game between Croatia and Turkey is not by any means a snoozer, the teams don't have the big name cache as Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany etc but both of these teams have played amazing. Turkey with their comeback kid spirit and ability to come from behind. And Croatia with their unbeaten record and tons of talented players, just imagine if Eduardo was around for these games. I will be watching this one for sure, as i've been watching all the games.

My Heart is still with the Dutch, as I feel they should have bottled it againt Romania, but even their second 11 players were better, plus with Huntelaar in the shop window looking for a big money move you know he was going to do his best to find the back of the onion bag. I watched the Netherlands vs France game at the bar Tonic in NYC that was packed with Dutch fans. There is a chance I will be watching Netherlands vs Russia at the same place as the atmosphere was simply amazing for mid-day NYC but I did not like the service. Aside from the $8 beers, I gave a $20 to the very cute bartender wearing her offical KNVB jersey and she gave my change to an old white bald dude at the bar.. I collected it from him, stupidly tipped her a buck and mentioned to her she gave me change to someone else, she then was like hey look its busy and didnt say sorry.. for sure that was the last overpriced Heineken I ordered from this place.. Yes it was crowded but shit this was before the game even started..
Anyway some pictures from Tonic and other days watching the games will be posted later, good times had so far by the fans

12 Games into the Euros.. thought so far..

This opening picture is the only good thing I will like about the Italian National Team during this tourney!!

Man what a great tournament so far, almost every game has been watchable big time for me and thanks to a new hard drive in my DVR i'll have them saved for a while. The coverage on ESPN has been very respectable, i wish they would get rid of that damn ticker at the bottom of the screen, but they have to let us know the NBA Finals are on tonight as if the whole USA does not know about The Lakers vs Celtics (watching as I type this and the Celtics have cut the Lakers big lead in the game to 2 points 73-75).

So far my thoughts of some of the best games. I totally loved and dug the Netherlands vs Italy. As my adapted country for this tournament I was shocked at how many people had not given much props to the Netherlands. I have a thing against the Italian National team that dates all the way dating back to the 2006 World Cup as I was at the USA vs Italy game. I have never seen a team dive so much, cry in pain, get carried off on stretchers so much in my whole life of 1 previous live game before that game. I don't know more than 5 players on Italy yet I do know they are old and play a slow defensive football and love nothing more than a 0-0 tie and taking it penalties. So when the Dutch came out, attacked, pressed and played Total Football I was very happy.

The best overall game of the Tourney probably has been Turkey vs Swizterland, where the host country went up a quick 1-0, the home nation fans were going crazy in the rain and Turkey was looking at their tournament being over with losses in the first 2 games. But they managed to come back and win the game in late stoppage time. With Portugal already having won earlier in the day Turkey knew they needed a win to keep hopes alive of advancing.

Today's game between Croatia and Germany was also a great match. Germany being the betting favorites of everyone before the tournament and opening the first game with a 2-0 steamrolling of Poland it was looking good. Croatia came out soft in their first game against an Austrian team that their own country did not even want to participate and while Croatia escaped with 3 points it was not a display of an up and coming young team. Well in today's game vs Germany it was alright as they played an amazing game, exposed the German flaws and won 2-1 to move to top of the group and basically win the group. Thus setting up a most likely quarterfinal game between Portugal and Germany.

Naturally i'm looking forward greatly to the Netherlands vs France. France has not looked good, and Anelka and Benizema probably will be replace by Henry and someone else. I love me some Thierry but his damn injuries have plagued him for years and we will see if he can suck it up to keep France alive. I know i'll be wearing my 70 Euro (damn those europeans must all be rich!!) KNVB Dutch Oranje jersey and going to the bar in NYC Tonic with all the crazy Dutch fans, just check out this video I found on the web of the fans and this is DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Ok lets see what the rest of Game Day 2 hold for us, but this is captive viewing for sure. I wish I was able to go, but looking at how small the stadiums are, it would have been totally disappointing to be there and have no shot at tickets at all, especially with a dollar worth only 63 euro cents these days.

Euros in Central Park

While not quite the turn out at the public viewing in Germany, the public viewing in Central Park for the 1st game of the European Championship was a fun time. It was sponsored by the Swiss tourism something and ESPN. They were giving away lots of red stuff, hats and t-shirts for the Swiss, i didnt bother to fight to get one, as well red is not a good color for me. I wore my Orange, and saw one other dutch fan, but it seemed like this damn Bee liked the Orange as it was hounding me all day long. Normally i wouldnt think twice about swatting/killing it, but knowing how the bees are all disappearing i gave second thought to it.

Watched the later Portugal vs Turkey game at a bar with AC, as it was freaking HOT HOT HOT outside, just insanely hot. It was a good crowd, the Bartender put the sound on as while the Yankees played a great game and a great comeback, more people wanted to watch the soccer, can you imagine that?? in NYC.. i guess its just a sign of the times that the Yankees do kinda suck these days.

Today off to a crazy German bar, gotta get there early i know. Here are some pictures from Central Park.

The 2008 Euros are here!!!!

To say i'm excited about the upcoming Euro 2008 soccer championship would be an understatement. Back in 2004, I watched the France vs England game, where England was leading 1-0 late in the game, in the 3 minutes of extra time, France well actually Zidane managed to score on a free kick and a penalty kick to snatch the victory. I was hooked on this sport soccer. I had not really followed or watched a match since the 2002 World Cup where the USA had a great showing. In the 4 years since, well i've become a total fan of the world game, including a life changing trip to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.. So now on the eve of the 2008 version of the tournament i'm excited for the games to play out.

For those at home not sure what all this hype is about, the Euros are a once every 4 year tournament matching 16 of the best national teams in Europe. This year the big surprise team that did not make it are England. This should not really be a surprise, as well England is just not that good. The English Premier league while the best in the world, has more foreign born players than Brits, this hurts the national team in that one week Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard will be playing with the best in the world during games with their club teams, but when national team duty comes up, getting 11 talented players to play together seems like an excerise in futility.

Ok enough about those over-rated and over-talked about English players, The tournament is broken into 4 groups of 4 teams. THey will play 3 games in a round-robin format and then the top 2 finishers of each group will advance on to the knock out stage games. The tournament runs from June 7th to June 29th, and all the games will be broadcast in the USA on ESPN family of networks. This is a huge change from 2004, where you either had to pay $20 PPV to watch at a bar, or buy the game at home for $24.95.

My predictions for how the tournament will turn out.

Group A - Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey. This should be a fairly simple group to pick. The Czech has a disappointment at the World Cup 2006, not making it out of the group round despite beating the shit out of my USA team in the opening game. Turkey had a very good 2002 World Cup, but i have not watched much of them and few of their players play overseas in big leagues, yet I might pick them as a dark horse team for this group. Switzerland suprisingly had a great 2006 World Cup winning their group and not giving up a goal in the process, yet I don't see their luck carrying on from that tournament. Portugal has to be one of the few teams that can honestly be looked at winning the whole thing. Cristiano Ronaldo is easily the best player in the world, and having a total cracking season, there will be pressure on him to produce, especially if he wants to validate the rumored $150 million US Dollar transfer fee to Real Madrid that is being talked about in the press. I pick Portugal to win this group and Turkey to be in 2nd place.

Group B - Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland. This is a rather easy group to pick. Austria simply SUCK, they only made it as one of the 2 host teams, and are ranked well over 100 in the world, I dont expect them to score at all, and watch teams run up the goal difference in games with them, which will be important as the other 3 teams could easily end up tied in points and need a tie-breaker to determine who goes thru. Germany is the favorite to win the group, and I think will as they are loaded with talent and experience in big time international tournaments. Croatia is the suprise team that is loaded with young talent, they beat England at Wembley to knock England out and make sure Croatia won their group. I'm picking them to go thru in 2nd place but could easily be tied with Poland on points.

Group C - France, Holland, Italy, Romania. The proverbial group of DEATH, every tournament has to have one of these both for the press to soak it up and the fans. This is a hard group for sure. My heart and jersey will be with the Dutch, thanks to some shopping my mother did in Amsterdam last month with an official KNVB Dutch jersey. Romania is a good team, and won their qualifying group, don't sleep on them, the French seems to start out slowly and that first game of the group could be a tough one on the French. They have amazing players, a great strike force but their players are spread all around the world, playing in France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and all sorts of leagues thus each playing a different sort of football for most of the year and taking some time to gel with their national teams. I predcit the Dutch to win the group, and world champs Italy to go thru in 2nd place. But this group is a total toss up considering its strength.

Group D - Greece, Russia, Spain, Sweden. Could be the easiest and least interesting group. Yeah Greece won the whole thing back in 2004 tournament, but it was hard to be a fan of them, as it was not exciting football to me in the least bit. Russia made it due to England's crashing out, and Russia is a talented team with a bit of confidence and a good coach. Spain is everyone favorite to finally lift the monkey off their back and go far and win a tournament. The team is totally STACKED with talented players but are known as choke artists. After watching their poor showing vs the USA this past Wednesday, they have to be at a low on confidence, and look for them to make it out of the group stages only to crash and burn in the next round. Sweden is a team I don't know much about, and many of their players who i have followed in the past like Lunjberg, and Larsson are a bit long in the tooth. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a stud upfront, but does he have the rest of the team to support him? I'm picking Spain to win the group and Russia to come in 2nd and make it out.

Now that will leave some interesting match ups in the knock out round. Of the teams I picked and if they finish in that order you will come out with the following knock out matches.
Portugal vs Croatia - Should be a good game, but the pressured and experienced Portugal team should win it.


Germany vs Turkey - Easily Germany would win this game, would be an intersting match up considering the tensions between Germans and the millions of Turkish immigrants living in Germany

Netherlands vs Russia. Gotta go with my Dutch, the Orange...

Spain vs Italy. This would be an amazing match, have to say the experience and international pedigree of the Italians win out.

So now the Semi-Finals would be as follows
Portugal vs Germany - Wow a rematch of the 2006 World Cup 3rd place match, one which I watched in the awesome town of Bratislava, Slovakia. Germany won that match but I would have to say everything is falling for Portugal this season with the wicked season Ronaldo is having.
Netherlands vs Italy - Wow another awesome match, I would have to keep on going with my Dutch, plus I have a problem with Italy for their dirty tactics in the 2006 WC game vs my USA.

the Final - Portugal vs Netherlands.. Hard to pick an honest winner, I might have to put the Orange away for this one, as I think it would be Portugal to win the whole thing...

Those are my predictions, and I'm sure they will be horribly wrong, but neverless tune in for some great soccer!!