Kits! Shiny!

After most major disasters, it's always interesting to see the different ways that people show their support. My favorite gesture was made by Valencia, who printed all the players names in Japanese for their game against Sevilla.

Source: Uni Watch, Yahoo Sports

Also, check out Brasil's all black kit. They will be like ninjas! The Beautiful Gear blog (which is a beautiful, beautiful blog) has me really excited about all the new national kits. I might actually buy the new USMNT third kit. The red base is really striking, I can't wait to see them in action against Argentina on Saturday.

Wait, he's doing what?

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco will undergo a four-day trial with Sporting Kansas City.


Best line: 

"Due to the NFL lockout, I'm excited to be able to follow my childhood dream of playing for a Major League Soccer team," Ochocinco said."

I know that MLS teams are doing all kinds of things (NSFW) to get attention, but this seems either really silly or really smart. Plus it looks like his number is available. 


Source: Avoiding The Drop blog

I'm nine months late on sharing this...

...but I really enjoy these World Cup beer designs: Cheers! for the 2010 World Cup. The USMNT beer even has a pleasent micro-brew feel about it.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the MLS fantasy league. I've already awarded a beer to Patrick Barker for best team name: Clever 25 Character Name. Should be a good season, there will be other random prizes handed out as they develop (best trade of the segment? most injured players in one week?). I haven't read the rules yet, hopefully they aren't too different from EPL...

Fantasy football: where new fans are born

Do you like the idea of professional soccer in the US but just can't seem to commit to it?

Here is your chance: create a fantasy team on ESPN for the quickly approaching 2011 season. It's a great excuse to follow the sport, or at least learn a bit about the exciting players. Entries are due by March 15th (only 5 days!) and the top two finishers in the league will get prizes from me (likely a six pack of beer of the winners' choosing, but could also be something sweet like a gift card or a hammock).  It's free to play, I'm throwing in prizes so I have some people to compete with.

To enter:
1. Create or log in to your ESPN.com account
2. Create a team at the FC Manager game page. Have fun with the team name.
3. Join our group: Football and Ail    Password: baseball  (You can join other leagues too. For example I'm in the group "IDK Any MLS Players")
4. Update your team every week or so to try to win.

Hopefully by the end of the season we'll know a little more about soccer that's within driving distance.

Football Championship of minor importance: Shirts.

When choosing a sports team, uniforms matter. I've always been fascinated by sports uniforms: the colors, the logos, etc. I've long been a fan of the blog Uni Watch and can't wait to share pointless tidbits about my teams' fashion.

Over at Avoiding the Drop, they are having an excellent tournament of football shirts that you can participate in. Each head to head competition includes a picture and description of the jerseys with just enough snark. Personally, I don't think there is a more elegant shirt than the 1960s Ireland national team shirt (though the current Man City shirt is going to be a strong contender).

What's your favorite? Leave a comment.

Update: They're onto the Round of 16!


Thanks to Brian for the link, even if he is a jerk about baseball.

Ahhh. Spring.

I'm getting a hang of this soccer thing, college basketball is great, the NBA might be incorporating more defense than I remember, and hockey is in full swing, but man, I love baseball.

Source

I can almost smell the fresh-cut grass from here...

Who to cheer for: USA or Brasil?

I've been asking my friends recently who they would choose to cheer for if their favorite teams (usually from different leagues) played each other.  If the USMNT  played Arsenal, who would Brewster choose?  If Tottenham played Barcelona, who would Diego choose?  When the US plays Brazil, who do I choose?

To most Americans, this would be an easy question to answer: support your home country.  But for me it wasn't so clear cut.  I didn't really start watching soccer until the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.  It was perfectly timed because I could sleep most the day and watch the games live during the wee small hours. But then Germany knocked USA out and Brazil went on to win it all.  They were a beautiful, unstoppable team; Ronaldo won the Golden Boot and Ronaldinho was just beginning to shine.

Then I went to college, and other than a few Notre Dame games (our women's team won the NCAA championship while I was there), I really didn't have much exposure to the sport.  That all changed when I started learning Portuguese. As it would happen, the only thing that some Brazilians talk about is futebol.  Still, I might have remained a USMNT supporter if not for my stay Maceió, Brazil occuring at the same time as the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.  Brazil beat arch-rivals Argentina to win it, and the whole country seemed to celebrate go nuts.

After that trip I began to follow soccer a bit closer, attempting to keep track of where the Brazilians were scattered and how they fared in club play.  Robinho was my favorite, but I expected big things from Kaká too.  I was at a wedding during the 2006 World Cup game when they lost to France in the quarterfinals, and I think it ruined the reception for me.  I let soccer slip back to being slightly less important than hockey and enjoyed the Detroit Tigers' World Series run.

Outside the odd international friendly, I haven't watched my two favorite national teams play each other since I became a fan.  Though they could've potentially met in the semifinals at the 2010 World Cup, both US and Brazil were eliminated earlier in the knockout stage.

So I'm left asking: who will I cheer for when it matters?

Fortunately for the Yanks, the United States Mens National Team has this guy:

No, not that guy, and not the one on the left either.  In 2010, Brazilian-born Benny Feilhaber made his first World Cup appearance. And that, as they say, has made all the difference.