my wife is from Brasil ,MG .Belo Hozonte Im from Boston in my city we say we are red sox fans GO SOX ! in her city they dont say they are fans they say they are Cruzaro,Athletico,Flamigo ect. They dont see themselfs as fans but personaly identify with that particuar team.its completely wacky but the more I watch the more I understand.

CLIENTS???? WHAT CLIENTS????

IT' S USA VS CZECH REPUBLIC...

God I'm so f---g nervous you'd think I was playing. Even if the house is burning down, no one gets a callback today until after noon!

I think Kasey Keller gives us a good chance for a low scoring draw or even a 1-0 victory... I'd like to see the latter of course. Czech Republic's keeper is just as good. This is the Soccer equivalent of something like Randy Johnson against Roger Clemens (both in their primes).

Hey, if my memory if correct didn't Canada beat the USA in regional play? Be nervous!

However, as previously stated this is a different month.

So, my chant is "Deutschland UBER alles" (German decent, so if I can't cheer for Canada it's Deutschland)

That's called getting your lunch handed to you! OUCH!

We looked like poo-poo. I have to be crazy to think we'll do any better against Italy but I'll still be there in my US jersey with my flag hoping the Azurri will stub their weiners.

Now we gotta hope for a 2-2 Italy Ghana Draw!

FRR... Germany and the Czechs are the two best teams I've seen so far having watched every game. England looked dead... thank god for them, Argentina, Holland, Portugal, et. al that they didn't have to play the Czechs in the first game. I would have much rather gotten Mexico's draw and we probably should have considering we led in qualifying.

Thing is, if you want to be the best you've got to come out against a team like this and play like you want it. They wanted the game... we looked scared... kinda lucky it wasn't worse.

I have to agree US looked awful. I am a dual citizen, so I'll be mostly rooting for my other country, England. They didn't look great but seem like when they really put it together they will be hard to beat. I'm not a big Beckham fan but he did have some great through balls. It will be fun to watch them play next.

Now if I could just teleport myself to Copacabana beach in Rio and watch the game on the huge screen while taking in the thongs. I'm already trying to figure out who else to root for now that Our US lads have stubbed. It would be great if they could make me believe that FIFA should have rated them ahead of Germany, England, Italy and a slew of others who could probably whip our butts.

Australia??? Play a whole game like the last 8 minutes and they'd be unbeatable (plus I love it down there).

Portugal??? Another great country to travel to... really fun people.

Or should I maybe try to go make some money this month?

Rholand, when he is not paying speeding tickets, earns more than his clients. Which is why he can take off and watch the games. I have to watch rebroadcasts on ch68 spainish language UHF stations I did not know existed but are on D*'s locals. Which is why I had no idea why the Argintine 3rd goal was disallowed. I understand the rules but my Spainish, while acceptable, is not up to TV standards. ( Pedro, had you sold a few more systems I might come down to your neck of the woods and, assuming I could avoid the allegators, improve my Spainish. Last time I was in Miami I had one hell of a time explaining to the Cuban --Spainish only--electricians what a clock outlet was ).

The little of the seond half of the US-Chezk game I viewed last night --before the TV was watching me-- the US looked good. Their passing was crisp and they created chances. I had already heard on the radio that they had lost 3-nill and the game was not even that close. Unfortunately, I only saw about 5 minutes of the game before I began dreaming of Jeanie. I did see the entire Mexico-Iran match --in Spainish-- and thought Mexico looked horrid. Given that the US and Mexico split their two matches I figured we would be in for one hell of a time given that both Italy and the Chezks are vastly superior sides.

So interesting to note that now England's tactics do not even include the long pass down the wing and cross. Now it's do nothing and hope Beckham's foot can create something from a set peice. How can the country that invented football play such a boring game. Games in the Premiere League are more interesting. I guess it's all of the foreign players that make the difference. Can no one find a way to get the ball to Michael Owen?

Alan

My pride almost got me killed yesterday...Bolted out of the office for the last 20 minutes of play....at a czech bar here in Denver...to meet up with my czech fiance...proudly displaying my colors with all the moxie of an 800 pound gorilla...I walked into a sea of piss-drunk rowdy czechs right at the moment we got our third goal scored on us. 'nuff said.
except.....Did we show up expecting CZ to play as if it were a friendly?! i didn't see the drive...okay now i'm done.

I think ESPN got it right... we got a reality "Czech". I would have expected more effort out of a friendly... however, one must realize that the Czechs are rated #2 for a reason... the team I saw yesterday should give Brazil a run for it's money. Speaking of Brazil... anybody remember the 98 final? 3-0 France... that day even the mightiest team in the world looked like crap against an opponent that was ready to go. Maybe they were just that good instead of us being bad... but... f--k it... we were really BAD!

One of my employees reminded me that it is more fun to watch the broadcasts in Spanish simply because of Andres Cantor.... GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! (for like two minutes... how this guy still has vocal chords I'll never know).

For those of you who think soccer is boring you should check out QQQ's latest thread and see what he's been watching.

I'm not sure that the Czech's were that good, we just played poorly. We couldn't string together more than 2 or 3 passes, and that's if we could even get the first one to connect. The Czech's were very good at getting behind the ball and smothering any opportunities that we did have. Eddie Johnson looked pretty good when he came in, but most of the other players were lackluster.

CJ

I just finished watching Brazil and Croata in the World Cup on ESPN2.

The very next program was the Domino tag team tournament along with play by play and color commentating.

Yeah Baby!

Any of ya soccer fans comming to Denver for CEDIA? I live downtown, right across the street from a little place called the Bulldog...you bet your ass you can talk soccer all night long over the pints of your poison! Let me know and I'll hook ya up!

Umbabarauma, homen gol!

I saw all the games so far...we have alot to talk about.

However, get me a room from 9/13 - 9/17 in the convention center area and all your drinks are on me.

Go USA! Go Italia! (OK so they're in the same division)

Ridenour,

Perhaps you have selected the place for our Beer Swilling get together on Thursday Night... it might be nice to somehow reserve some kind of place. The bar I used to work at had this outdoor beer garden that we'd reserve for Rugby Teams and other groups... capacity was around 100... had the bbcue and everything. If theres a place like that in Denver (or something even better) you'd probably know about it. The guys over at IP had a get together last year and sadly (well... not too sadly as Indy ain't my favorite city) I missed last year's CEDIA.

CJ did you see the interesting stat that the US won the possession game? Didn't look like it to me because I saw what you saw... 1 maybe 2 passes in a row. I'm screaming at the TV wishing they can hear me a couple of times to say "TAKE THE BLOODY SHOT FROM 30 YARDS OUT... DIDN'T ANY OF YOU WATCH GERMANY? THIS NEW BALL IS A KEEPER KILLER... USE IT!

I can't wait to buy one and check it out... problem is it'll be mega bucks and really pretty so I won't want to kick it.

Alan, believe me I can't AFFORD to take ANY time off... thats my conundrum... fun times watching what I love or broke? I had a client who knows me well call me today and say "hey... when you pry your fat ass away from the Brazil game will you maybe grace me with a callback?"

I had to work last night to 9pm. I arrived home at 10pm in time to see the 2/3s of the Spainish language rebroadcast of Brazil-Croatia. That was an interesting game and Croatia played damned well. Hopefully Brazil will play equally lackluster the rest of the way so mass depression will hit the Brazilian community here in NY that will tolerate nothing save winning the turnament. Imagine a year where Boston, the Yankees and Brazil all lose. Such sweet dreams.

I also heard a facinating bit of cultural information on the news. Football is considered working class in Europe and no educated person in any country pays any attention to it. No idea if true but still a facinating tid-bit to the remnents of class bias in Europe.

Alan