Attention iCal users: great site for soccer schedules

http://offsite.thismonkey.com/fixtures/football/calendars/

Great site for one click additions of virtually every soccer league, including UEFA 2012 qualifiers, to your iCal calendar for Mac computers.

Looks like Ecuador is the new Nigeria

Steve Kindel and I got this email (about 10 times each) today:

ATTENTION
We are Imbabura Sporting Club located in Quito,Ecuador. This club was founded in January 3 1993. The club play in Estadio Olímpico an 18,600 capacity stadium. The club participate in Serie B competitions and inter-tournaments.

CONTRACT DURATION: Full Time Contract, 12-24  Months Position.

Thank you Iceland

When there’s not much going on in the summer, you need someone to come through with a little fix to get you through those long summer days. To that end, the latest in a line of increasingly elaborate (and funny) goal celebrations from a top flight game in Iceland. I think my daughter’s team will roll this one out at some point next season:

It’s at 95000 views on YouTube now. I’m thinking it will hit the front of Yahoo in a day or two and come close to a million page views within a week.

UPDATE: The video was indeed featured on the front of Yahoo and now, the next morning, has over 1500000 views.

The Sedins…no? LeBron…maybe? Riera…of course!

Try to imagine any athlete in a major North American sport eliciting this sort of reaction by signing with what is in effect a sort of Columbus Blue Jackets of European football.

Albert Riera (that’s all right, I’ll wait while you scratch your head and try to remember exactly who he is and who he just played for) just signed for Olympiakos in Greece. Here’s the reaction in Athens:

Thierry Henry meets the New York TV media

In fairness, it’s a morning talk show but really…

“We like blowouts! What was the biggest lop-sided victory you ever had?”
“David Beckham took off his clothes to make soccer famous in America. What are you prepared to do!”
“You’ve just joined the New York Red Bulls, that’s our soccer team here, are you psyched?”
“So you just won the World Cup…right? So now you’re here playing for our team. Is there the same kind of excitement?”

Puyol and Fab have a beer on the field after the game

Somehow I doubt they’ll be asked to apologize like the Canadian women’s ice hockey team were ridiculously made to after winning Olympic gold…

Iniesta is class incarnate

Here’s the winning goal (it won’t embed):

I wish the clip started ten seconds earlier. I’d already expressed shock at the introduction of Navas for Pedro but it was true that Spain were really lacking width due to the natural tendencies of all the midfielders to play fairly central and Ramos sudden resistance to going forward. The move proved wise though as Navas collected the ball tight to the line and found a way through three defenders before bundling the ball to Iniesta once he got into the Dutch half.

Iniesta’s part in the goal is three fold; each showing how great he is. The first is the backheel to Cesc Fabregas when the ball ricochets to him after Navas’ run. He hits it blind, probably relying on a shout from Fabregas, and puts it right in his path.

Every single goal from 2010 World Cup

Enjoy.

The Final: keys for both teams

Quick post before the kickoff…

For Holland:

1. Test Casillas. People keep insisting Casillas is still one of the best. I haven’t seen that. He’s rarely been tested and I blame him for the goal against the Swiss. You can’t slide feet first. He chose to slide fee first so he wouldn’t get hurt. He also turned a routine save into a juicy rebound against Paraguay, gifting them their best chance. Yes, he came out and made a decent save on that rebound but a top goalie does not create that chance to start.

2. Robben has got to dominate Capdevila. We already know much of the Dutch attack goes through Robben but quick outlets to Robben to run at Capdevila will be crucial to getting into the Spanish box.

Muller v Pique: tale of two yellows

It’s undeniable that referee calls heading into the Spain v Germany semi-final had a huge effect. Thomas Muller, Germany’s leading scorer, was given his second yellow card against Argentina. For this:

Definitely one of the weakest yellow cards of the tournament and it denies Germany one its top scorer and fans of seeing one of the most dynamic attacking players in the tournament.