Tag Archives: Soccer

Why Real Madrid will continue struggle against Barcelona

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In the time that Jose Mourinho’s been at Real Madrid, he’s won only once versus Barcelona, that being the Copa del Rey final where they won 1-0 off a Cristiano Ronaldo header. That might not seem bad, except that they’ve eight times now. Three times in the Copa Del Rey, three times in La Liga, and the two legs of the Champions League last season. Now that’s a problem if you’re a Real Madrid supporter. But what is to explain for their struggles against Barca? Continue reading →

Barcelona/Manchester United Passing Graph

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Now here’s something interesting to look at. It’s a passing and touches graph for the Barcelona/Manchester United game on Saturday.

If you’re curious to what this is… The bigger the circle, the more times the individual touched the ball. The bigger the arrow, the more passes made from the origin of the arrow to the direction of the arrow. Note that the two people that touched the ball the most in the game are Iniesta and Xavi and the passing circle between Xavi, Iniesta and Messi.

As for the most passes made by Manchester United, it’s a close call between Van Der Sar and Rooney (long balls anyone?) and Rio Ferdinand and Vidic. Little passing made between the Man United midfielders, which shows the dominance of Barcelona pressing plus their midfield dominance.

Arsenal’s Woes

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As I was working on my second step for my sociolinguistics paper about UK English, I thought I would take a break and write about something else that’s along the lines of the U.K.: Arsenal. If you’re an Arsenal fan, you probably know the ups and downs that comes with being one. This season was definitely one of the more unusual seasons though in that we actually were in it for all four competitions that we were eligible for: League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League, and UEFA Champions League. Yet in a matter of weeks, it’s pretty promising that we’ll go away without silverware yet again. So what went wrong this season? A few things come to mind: Continue reading →

Playing Against an Old Team

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So I’ve played in the city soccer recreational leagues for about four years now. And in those four years, I’ve played against two of my old teams. It’s been pretty mixed in terms of experiences.

When I first started playing in the leagues, I had joined up with one team as a keeper with a few friends. However, we eventually left to start our own team since we’d be interested in doing so for quite a while. That summer we jumped up divisions after dominating in our first season and I played that old team. I made a number of friends on that team, so despite the competitiveness and ferocity during the games, it was relatively friendly (minus the drama in one game after I kicked off a player from the team and them joining that old team). It was overall fun during that rivalry. Heck, even some of them are on the current team today. Continue reading →

Final Thoughts on the 2010 World Cup

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I managed to watch 105 out of the 120 minutes of the World Cup final live at a pub out in Bellevue on Sunday. The Spain/Netherlands game was definitely what I expected it to be. Grind-it-out, nerve-wracking final. I feel it was much better than the 2006 final, partly because (1) the team that I absolutely hate almost as much as the L*kers, Italy, won it in 2006 and (2) because it went to a penalty shootout, which I hate to see especially for a final since it’s so gut-wrenching.

But here’s just some of my  thoughts on the game itself… Continue reading →

The Suarez Play (And Other WC Thoughts)

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So if you haven’t heard already, Uruguay made it into the semifinals, where they’re playing in less than 8 hours from now. However, how they got there is considered by some as “controversial”, others “unethical”, and few  as “what just happened, but absolutely genius and awesome”. I’ll explain exactly what happened, as well as other thoughts (in a different format than what I usually do).

Continue reading →

The Harsh Reality of the World Cup

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World Cup is something I look forward to whenever it comes around. But at the same time, I hate it too. It’s by far one of the most heartbreaking events out there. I came into the tournament rooting for the French (who was one of the most underachieving teams of the finals), the U.S. (one of the most overachieving teams thus far), and the Spanish (who are just fun to watch). But more on this later… But just how hard is it to watch these games? And how hard is it to really win the World Cup?

Continue reading →

Nike’s Write the Future Commercial

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I think this commercial is both awesome… and horrible:

Awesome: The first segment with Didier Drogba and all of the Ivory Coast cheering as he’s about to score…

Horrible: … except for the fact that Cannavaro (well, more of Italy) not being scored on.

Awesome: The part with Rooney being the scapegoat one moment and then hero the next. Oh, and hugging the Queen of England and schooling Federer in table tennis.

Horrible: Kobe Bryant in a commercial about the World Cup. Obviously, Lakers in such commercials is an automatic lame.

Double horrible: Ronaldinho isn’t going to be playing in the World Cup, yet Nike publicize him as playing. Way to get the soccer newbies’ hopes up.

Awesome: Cristiano Ronaldo megging Homer Simpson… And Homer actually realizing what just happened.

Horrible: Cristiano Ronaldo in a Nike commercial.

But yeah, in the words of Aaron Cohen (guest writer on Kottke.org) on the commercial: “If this doesn’t make you feel a little tingly, you’re probably going to want to go on vacation from June 11 – July 11.” So true.