Our Squad...

I get it that he has experience and he's been playing for Rangers, but Demarcus Beasley has not shown up since 2002. He had the cross to Duce (Clint Dempsey) to score our goal at the last cup but overall he looked outmatched and intimidated the whole tournament (that would what was the World Cup Finals in 2006). Granted so did most of our team.

Goal!! Fuck yeah. Watching the Turkey game. Nice fucking play by Donovan to push it past the keeper.

Anyway, more on the squad later. No blogging during match play!

Bayern Munchen alright...

Well Diego Milito is the hero and for good reason, giving Internazionale Milano the win yesterday, against the flow of play for the most part, though we all knew this was by design. Mourinho is brilliant, that's definitely not in question any longer, though I still don't care for his style of coaching- both on and off the field. There's a little Phil Jackson, a little Bill Belichik in along with a healthy dose of the dark emperor Palpatine. Supposedly he heads to Real Madrid next, so watch out beloved Barca... young master Messi must prepare himself.

Speaking of Messi, how nice is it that Milito is an Argentine? If they didn't have chump change Maradona as a head coach, they might have a chance. Actually, they still do, but considering they barely qualified and that the team of so much talent has been rather poor in general in recent international play suggests the chance is slim.

Since this is probably the only post about the Champions League final, I couldn't forget to mention Arjen Robben - my god was he ready to go. Too bad Muller, Klose and others never really showed up. Then again, it helps when you put ten men behind the ball and dare the other team to try and get behind them.

Oh and the handball by Maicon? No big deal, right?

Some things to consider...

Okay, so I should address the fact that I didn't mention Portugal in my team lists. B Blatz pointed this out and all I can say is that Cristiano Ronaldo forever ruined that hopeful young squad in my mind. I used to really like Deco too. Simao, another favorite. But I can't do it, not with that Clark Kent cheesedick winking at his bench after getting Rooney thrown out last time. He is good though. I suppose Deco, Simao, and others keep them off the must-lose/enemies-of-my-state list but I still don't want them to win. (Which they probably won't but could - will address later.)

Okay, settled.

On a more technical note, I just want to say that the use of the vernacular is expected and probably encouraged so those with more sophisticated tones of discourse are officially warned. Fahkin' sorry but that's how it's gonna be. And oh yes, I did just imitate an English accent, which will also probably happen frequently in tone and terminology. Fah fahk's sake that's right! And yes, you will be annoyed.

Moving on, some things I'll bring your way if you follow the BLOG:

1. Up-to-Date schedule of games including maybe some back stories behind the bigger matches.
2. Scathing day-after refereeing when the calls go against any team I want to win.
3. Pre-Tourney predictions and team reports - which I encourage others to talk about. For example, how Italy is taking too old of a squad to do any real damage, or how now that Ballack is out (also old), Germany is too (think average age of their team in general). Or maybe how because Dunga is coaching Brazil, it's not going to be the beautiful finesse game of Brazil past but more a quick-counter/deadly set piece attack with overall size and power. (Maicon to Alex all day long.)
4. Also I'd love to do a FIFA compare stat thing from one of the new systems once the squads are announced. Who has the strongest eleven according Electronic Arts?
5. Ummm... And fuck the Lakers, Celtics, Red Sox and Yankees, and Dodgers, and Padres, and Drogba...
6. Finally, put your forty where your mouth is. We can and will make gentleman side bets with the increment of betting being the ubiquitous 40 oz of malt liquor. Any non-malt must be specified before hand in the bet. The totals from Fantasy Football do count, though they can't be bet down. (Mosconi - your magic number is 7)

Cool, that's all I got for now. Let me know what else I can put up here and maybe some tricks like a countdown clock or an in-match chat feature. (Looking at Austin, 'cuz you have so many other blogs and Dave 'cuz you know comp sci pretty good.)

Cheers mates (get used to it)

The Chimpion

So how is Brazil going to lose...

What's up? No joke, I don't see how Brazil loses this tournament, but then again, these things are decided on the pitch. And for the record, I don't want Brazil to win.

I suppose it'd be good to establish my favorites:

1. USA
2. England
3. Argentina
4. France
5. Cameroon
6. Holland

I would have left it at 5 but I didn't want to leave out the Dutch, for real.

Now my least favorites, or, as I'd like to say, enemies of the state of J. Drew Hess:

1. Italy
2. Italy
3. Brazil
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Cote D'Ivoire
7. Mexico?

Finally, who I'd like to see try really, really hard:

1. Chile
2. South Africa
3. Slovakia
4. New Zealand
5. Honduras

And so it begins my friends. I think it's interesting to think that the World Cup is a 32 team tournament and yet it is still considered the World Cup Finals. Is there any other tournament that has 32 teams in the Finals? Exxxxcellent.....