Right On Time

It's 11:37 am and I just realized that I haven't posted on my blog yet. After a couple of days of forgetting to post a few weeks ago I put a note on my bulletin board that simply said "BLOG."
It hasn't really helped me much though. I still forget to post every once in a while and when I do remember it isn't because of the note, I just seem to randomly remember. Maybe I need to start training myself to write a new post at the same time everyday in order to make sure I do it everyday. I think that from now on I am going to start posting right before I go to lunch, which is at about one in the afternoon. I'm never really doing anything at that time anyway, usually just on facebook or watching TV or something.

6 weeks left

I'm getting a little bored writing just about the upcoming World Cup this summer so I've decided to throw some random posts into my blog every once in a while. So pretty much since we've gotten back to school everything has been pretty much the same. This rain sucks and I keep getting a lot of work in all of my classes. My grades aren't exactly as good as they were last semester so I'm going to have to step it up in the next few weeks to try to get them to where I'd like them to be. I've also decided that I am going to try out for the soccer team and the first try-out is tomorrow morning. It starts at 7:30 am so I won't be able to make it because of English class but there is another one on Wednesday at 7 am so I am going to go to that one. I think there are about 5 other kids trying out so I guess I'll just have to see how things go.

World Cup Teams- South Korea

South Korea is a team that I really like to watch play. To the average fan they wouldn't really seem like much of a threat but after the 2002 World Cup, which they hosted, South Korea can be considered a team that might cause an upset or two. At the 2002 tournament they made it all the way to the semi-finals and after a relatively disappointing showing in 2006, they are looking to repeat that success. When they competed as the hosts in 2002 they had, as expected, great crowd support which seemed to help them a lot. They have great team chemistry and they will be relying on that to take them through the tournament.

World Cup Teams- Nigeria

Personally I hope Nigeria does well at the tournament since it is the first time it is being held in Africa, but unfortunately I don't think that they are going to make it very far. The Nigerian team has some great strikers but their defense is pretty weak for a World Cup team and the fact that they have to play Argentina makes that even worse. I think they will be able to make it out of the first round because of their talented strike force but after that, they are most like to go out in the round of sixteen due to their weak defense.

World Cup Teams- Argentina

Today I am going to talk about the Argentinian National team. Argentina is considered one of the favorites to win the world cup and for very good reasons. They are a very exciting team to watch and that is because of their star players up front and in the midfield. There are two reasons that make Argentina one of the favorites and their names are Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi. These two strikers have been in absolutely amazing form over the past two seasons. They play with arguably the two best club teams in the world, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. They are two of the top scorers in the Spanish League and they are expected to continue with their great goal scoring form this summer.

Gold Cup

In my last post I said that I went to the Gold Cup Final and in this post I am going to write more about that. I went to the game last summer at Giants Stadium with my dad. The final was between Mexico and the USA and it had, as expected been sold out. I was really excited to go see the game because I knew the game would be exciting. On the way down my dad and I talked about which team was going to have more fans. We both that that it would be about half and half but as we got to our seats and the stadium started filling up, we could see that we had clearly been wrong. The stadium was filled with fans wearing red, white, and green and probably a couple thousand Mexican flags. There must have been 80,000 Mexican fans there and maybe 5,000 American fans. During the first half the game was pretty good with a few good chances for each side. Then in the second half everything changed. About fifteen minutes after the restart Mexico was awarded a penalty kick. The stadium went quiet as Gerrado Torrado ran up to take the shot. As the ball hit the net the stadium exploded. Everyone was out of their seats yelling and screaming with joy. I had never experienced anything like it before but I would get the chance four more times. The final score was 5-0 Mexico and even after the fifth goal was scored everyone reacted like it had been the first. Going into the game I did not know which team to root for but after that first goal it was easy to decide. The game may have been in New Jersey but 80,000 Mexican fans made me feel like I was sitting in the Azteca Stadium in the middle of Mexico City.

World Cup Teams- Mexico

Mexico is the last team in Group A. Mexico is going to be an interesting team to watch at the tournament. They almost didn't make it to the finals, leaving it to the last two games of the qualifying round to secure their qualification. Since then though they have hired a new coach, Javier Aguierre, and they have been playing very well ever since, including a 5-0 win against against the USA in the Gold Cup final at Giants Stadium, which I was at. Mexico are going to have a very dynamic team at the World Cup this summer with a good mix of experienced and young players. Two players that will have the most responsibility are Rafael Marquez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Marquez will lead the defense against some of the world's best strikers. Blanco will play an attacking midfield role and will be responsible for coordinating Mexico's offense and creating as many goal scoring opportunities as possible.

World Cup Teams- France

France should have gone into Group A as the team to beat beat after two straight friendly losses their chances of going far don't seem too good. France is going to rely heavily on their three star players, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, and Franck Ribery. The trio play their club soccer at FC Barcelona, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich, respectively. They have all been experiencing pretty good season and they will all be hoping to carry that good from into the World Cup this summer. Their weakness is going to be in the defense. There is not much coordination in the back because France only has one true central defender, William Gallas. In order for them to have any chance at this year's finals, France is going to need to find a new partner for Gallas to play with.

World Cup Teams- Uruguay

Uruguay is the second team in Group A. They hosted the very first World Cup back in 1930. For this coming world cup there are not really seen as big competitors. They barely qualified after having to beat Costa Rica in a playoff game. While they probably will not make it out of the group stage it will still be entertaining to watch them play. Their defense is not that good so we will probably see quite a few goals scored on them. On the offensive side of things much is to be expected of their star striker, Diego Forlan. He has been playing well with his club team in Spain, Atletico Madrid, over the past few seasons so he will be doing as much as he can to prove that he can compete with the best; possibly looking to gain the interest of some of the top clubs in Europe.

World Cup Teams - South Africa

I've decided that for the rest of my blogs I am going to write about the teams that are participating in this summer's World Cup in South Africa. The first team I am going to write about is South Africa. They are the host country and will be playing in Group A along with France, Uruguay, and Mexico. Historically the host country has done well when playing in the World Cup, usually making it to at least the quarterfinals. It is going to be hard for South Africa to match this feat though. They only have one big name player, Steven Pienaar who plays for Everton in the English Premiership. As an offensive midfielder he will have a lot of responsibility on the attacking side, especially since they will have to play three teams that are expected to score a lot of goals.

World Cup

There are ninety nine day left until the World Cup starts in South Africa. I can't wait. Today was a little warm up for the tournament. It was an international friendly day and I was able to watch the USA play the Netherlands and then Spain versus France. Later tonight I am going to watch Mexico take on Norway at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Hopefully Mexico will win because the USA lost their game 2-1. The second goal was a bit unlucky because the shot from the Dutch player took a big deflection off an American defender and out goalie was wrong footed and unfortunately had no chance to make a save. The second goal came pretty late, at about the seventy minute mark, but we still got a couple of good chances to tie the game up after going down. It wasn't the best game but I think that it was a good game for some of the younger players on the team to get experience playing against one of the best teams in the world. The Netherlands are currently ranked third in the world behind Spain, first, and Brazil, second.

Bruises

Last night I played indoor soccer at the Whittemore Center and this morning I woke up and my legs and back absolutely killed. I got hacked down about three times and took a hit straight to the shin which was the source of the most pain. I've been trying to get back in shape because I might try out for the school's team in the spring. Basically I've just been running because the group that I played had been playing at five, when I have class so I hadn't been able to make it. Luckily they started to play at six so I can start playing two or three times a week. Supposedly the try outs are after spring break so I still have some time to get back into shape.

Two More Weeks

Another Monday, another week of class, stress, and work. At least there are only two weeks left until vacation though. I haven't decided what to do yet. I kind of just want to stay home and relax and spend time with my family. A couple of my friends want to go to Myrtle Beach for a few days. I know that would probably be a lot of fun but it does involve a lot of driving and probably quite a bit of money that I probably shouldn't be spending. Depending on how much the trip will cost I'll probably try to go down for three or maybe four days. Hopefully the weather will be a lot better than it has been here!