Brazil 2 - USA 0

Another disappointment for the US National team. A few changes were made to the starting line-up since the World Cup by coach Bob Bradley, including the addition of a few new players, but overall their line-up was like any other they would dress for a world-class match.

And surprise, surprise... There were 2 more goals called back by the referees. Brazil's was when Pato scored and ran through Tim Howard, and the USA's was when Michael Bradley was, you guessed it, offsides.

Brazil had a generally inexperienced team, but were still able to run circles around the US. Defenders were split, USA attacks were short, and the only thing more disappointing was the 77,000-plus crowd that showed up to watch the home team get nothing.

Welcome to August

It's officially August, the baseball trade deadline has passed, and it's still hot as hell everywhere. You're probably wondering, 'what do I have to look forward to for the month of August?' Truth is, sports fans, not much.

If you live in Arizona, drive out to Chase Field on August 7th for Luis Gonzalez bobblehead night, where the Diamondbacks will retire his number 20 before the game.

If you're a Zac Brown fan, he'll be touring pretty heavily in the month on August, with shows the 14th and 15th in Mansfield, MA and Hartford, CT respectively.

For you dairy fans, August is National Goat Cheese Month in the good ol' US of A.

Happy Swiss National Day for all our readers in Switzerland!

And don't forget, August 5th is International Beer Day!

So whoever said August was for just back-to-school savings and broken dreams? Get out there and live it up.

Kenny Buck Says

Okay Ken Buck, I think you may have just tallied one more vote towards you in the polls. Can you really blame this guy, though? I mean, a woman did try and ask a very complex question, basically calling out his manhood. How else would he have responded? The beautiful bullshit analogy was sheer genius, as well as when the member of the audience tried to take it even further with the whole, 'but you ain't got bullshit on the inside of yer' shoes!' Brilliant! If this man doesn't make it to office stomping around in his shitty cowboy boots all over Capitol Hill, I don't know who will.

USA, USA, USA!

U.S.A. Is O-U-T

Stunning loss for the Yanks today. They went down early in regulation, down early in extra time, and down early in the chase for the Cup, losing 2-1 to Ghana. Ghana will face Uruguay in the quarterfinals match-up.

It took only 5 minutes for the Black Stars to get on the scoresheet. Kevin-Prince Boateng was practically given a goal by the still cold defense. Ricardo Clark misplayed the ball, and could not catch up to Boateng as he shot a low roller by Howard to the near post. 2 minutes later, Clark was booked for a reckless challenge, receiving a yellow card. A poor decision by US manager Bob Bradley to even start Clark in the match today, Bradley then chose to use their first of three subs on replacing him with Maurice Edu 31 minutes in.

The Stars and Stripes were dying a slow death, with the Ghanaians running the show for practically all of the first half. Benny Feilhaber came in to replace a lackluster Robbie Findley at the start of the half. I don't know what it was Coach Bradley said during the break, but USA came out firing. They put pressure on the defenders, and didn't give the Ghana forwards any breathing room.

Ghana seemed to start panicking, and in the 61st minute, finally, the US' chance to shine. Clint Dempsey was caught from the back to the right side of the box, and the US was awarded a penalty kick. Landon Donovan lined it up, and struck it perfectly off the right post and in. Tie game, 1-1.

Going into extra time, the US looked flat out tired. Herculez Gomes was subbed in for an uncharacteristically lazy Jozy Altidore. Unfortunately, the tired US legs just couldn't keep up with the Black Stars. The final nail in the coffin was smashed in by Asamoah Gyan 3 minutes into extra time. Again, a slip-up on defense led to the easy goal. At that point, the cord had been pulled clean out of the Americans.

The clock struck midnight on the US, as for the second World Cup in a row, their last game was a 2-1 lost to the Ghanaians.

Round of 16

All the first round group stage games are complete. Now its time for the real World Cup action, the knockout stages. The field of 16 is set, and the match-ups range from two unlikely opponents, to old rivalries, to expected finals meetings.

I'll obviously be looking forward to the matches tomorrow, first to see who will be the USA's potential next competition, then to see if they can get past Ghana to play another round.

Picks: Uruguay to face USA. I don't think South Korea can keep up any longer, and Uruguay seemed to have no trouble in their group play. As for the USA, I know Ghana will have the support of an entire continent as their 12th man, but I think the US has too much momentum, and are too ready to move on.

On Sunday, perhaps the four biggest names in the greatest sporting event on earth will square off. England, the dark horse of the tournament, up against Germany, 2006's third place finisher, and Argentina, my personal favorite to win, against Mexico, who looked uncharacteristically shaky in group play.

Picks: Germany to face Argentina. Some big names have already fallen from the tournament, and England's performance in Group C doesn't give me any confidence in them. And many people have had their shots to take at Diego Maradona, but I think his knowledge of the game has rubbed off on La Albiceleste and will give them yet another reason for the upper hand against Mexico.

To start your Monday off right, the powerhouse Netherlands team, winning all three group stage games, will take on Slovakia, capitalizing on Italy's early exit from Group F. Then perennial favorite, Brazil will take on fellow South Americans, Chile.

Picks: Netherlands to face Brazil. The Netherlands have just rolled over their competition, and seem too strong to be stopped by the Slovaks. While Chile battled valiantly against La Furia, I don't think that Brazil will go down easy. They know what is at stake, and have not played fewer than 5 matches since 1990. They are experienced, and I have no doubt they want to establish themselves as the top South American team.

And the final day of the Round of 16 on Tuesday, features Paraguay and the surprise nation of Japan. The later match will be another pre-Cup potential Finals match-up. A hungry Portugal squad will face the favorites, star-studded Spain.

Picks: Paraguay to face Spain. South American is harvested respect from the entire world, and I don't think that Japan's style of play will hold up for 90 minutes against Paraguay. Brazil-Portugal will probably be the most exciting game of this round. The two teams are heavily favorited, but since flopping doesn't appear anywhere on the stat sheet, the Portuguese will be headed home at night's end.

USA - Ghana, Tomorrow 2pm

The final group stage games were played out today, with the final 2 in the second half right now. (Spain 2 - Chile 1, Switzerland 0 - Honduras 0). The Brazil-Portugal 0-0 tie was extremely disappointing. Neither team really had to do anything, but I can imagine the 64,000 that packed in to see the action were quite dejected after the lackluster performance.

Tomorrow begins the knockout stages, starting with the USA-Ghana game at 2pm on ABC. Even if you didn't care about the World Cup before now, you should start caring. In 2006, the US lost their final group stage match against Ghana 2-1, and now have a perfect shot at revenge. Riding the momentum from Landon Donovan's goal in the 91st minute against Algeria, the US will look to keep their attacking game sharp against a newly defensive-minded Black Stars squad.

The game will be as tense as any match, with the US knowing that they have one of the best shots at a potential semi-finals appearance. The winner of this next game will go on to face the winner of Uruguay-South Korea, a match that the US would be favored in. Find some friends, tune in to ABC tomorrow, and get crazy.

Go USA.

USA! USA! USA!

IN THE 91ST MINUTE OF THE MATCH, JOZY ALTIDORE CROSSES A BALL IN FROM THE RIGHT SIDE, CLINT DEMPSEY'S SHOT IS DENIED, REBOUNDED BEAUTIFULLY BY LANDON DONOVAN WHO NETS THE GAME'S ONLY GOAL TO THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER PUTTING THE STARS AND STRIPES ON TOP OF POOL C!!!

Honestly, that was the most painful match to watch for the full 90 minutes. Time and time again, corners and free kicks were wasted. Headers flew yards over the net, rebounds were spoiled wide, Dempsey was wrongly called offsides then denied himself of another 2 goals. Just agonizing to watch. It looked like the referees were going to take the top of Pool C. The US team just outplayed and out-hustled Algeria in every fashion.

Decent shots were put on goal for the Desert Foxes, but easily handled by keeper Tim Howard. The US had 20 shots, 8 on goal, but seemed like they were attacking every other minute, holding the ball 54% of the match. Personally, I gave up on the US in about the 87th minute, but once I saw the extra four minutes, I knew they still had a spark. Hell of a game, hell of a finish.

The Yanks will wait to see who their opponents from Pool D will be later this afternoon.

USA vs Algeria - First Half

In case anyone didn't see what happened in the USA-Slovenia match, this was milliseconds before Maurice Edu put away USA's third unanswered goal to take a 3-2 lead. Only problem is, the goal was disallowed, and the US took a 2-2 draw.

Today's match against Algeria is in the 37th minute right now, and it's deja vu all over again. Another goal disallowed citing Dempsey offsides. The US just had 3 excellent scoring chances in a row, and they seem to be hot on the trail of a goal. Algeria is using an extra striker today, and without Oguchi Onyewu, the Yanks will have to be wary of the counterattack.

Go USA.

South Africa: Pool C

I'm probably the most excited to see how this pool plays out. Got out countrymen going out against the darkhorse of the tournament in England, and two countries that I don't really see playing any sort of factor.

England
United States
Algeria
Slovenia

England has not won the Cup since 1966, but have advanced to the quarterfinals in 2002 and 2006. They will be lead by not only their captain DF Rio Ferdinand (78 caps, 3 goals) and their vice-captain MF Steven Gerrard (80, 16), but with several other strong players in their 23-man roster. World-renown striker Wayne Rooney (60, 25) has received much speculation on the health of his ankle, his knee and his groin, but assures the world he will be 100% in South Africa. He will lead the offense alongside Tottenham teammates Peter Crouch (38, 21) and Jermain Defoe (39, 11). At midfield behind Gerrard are Chelsea teammates Frank Lampard (78, 20) and Joe Cole (54, 10), as well as Manchester United standout Michael Carrick (22, 0).

The England defensive unit is led by some of the biggest names in the Premier League: Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Jamie Carragher, and Stephen Warnock.

For the United States, they're looking to make this a big year. Captained by Carlos Bocanegra (78, 12), they're a team with a lot of talent and even more heart. GK Tim Howard is one of the biggest team leaders. He has admitted that he is understandably nervous but assures his teammates and his country that his knowledge of the Premier League will come in handy.

20-year-old Jozy Altidore (25, 9) will leader the fowards for USA, and behind him will be the team's second and third leading international goal scorers in Clint Dempsey (61, 18) and DaMarcus Beasley (91, 17). Defensive powerhouse Oguchi Onyewu (53, 5) will look to shut down not only England's immense scoring threat, but will look to secure solid wins against Algeria and Slovenia.


Whenever I play FIFA, and I'm picking an International team, it's either Argentina or England. England is just such a strong team, they're hard to not pick. Early in the year, when I heard that England was playing the US, I initially told my friends I was rooting for England, because I thought the US was going to just roll over and die. I think they have the drive and the talent to be extremely successful. They do have a huge hurdle to jump over, but even if they lose, all they have to do is keep the game close, and it will give them invaluable confidence. I just hope Wayne Rooney isn't out to stomp on anyone's nuts this time around...

Go USA. Go World.

Best and Worst US Performances at the Games

BEST:

Bode Miller - Will have to probably pay for his luggage being a little heavier after he won himself 3 medals in skiing events at the Games.

US Men's Hockey Team - Forced OT against powerhouse Team Canada, and won the silver medal (3 days AFTER the higher-ups for the team had booked flights for the team to head back to the US...there's some confidence) Good job to those guys for battling every minute of those games.

Evan Lysacek - Hell yeah. Beating the self-proclaimed God-King of the Ice, Evgeni Plushenko in Men's figure skating. I bet that Gold looks a lot better than platinum, huh Evan?

Shaun White - There's not really a lot I need to say. Humans don't do that, Shaun. They just can't.

Shani Davis - The 27-year old, 6'3" speed skater from Chicago, who's hobbies include Taekwondo and fishkeeping. Oh, and he's black. Take THAT, world.

WORST:

Lindsey Jacobellis - If I had to see one more Vick's commercial with this girl in it... Busted right through a gate in Snowboard Cross. She better be booking a flight to Russia four years from now if she knows what she's doing with her life.

John Shuster - Not only embarrassed himself, but embarrassed my home nation in front of the world in one of the greatest sports to ever be played...Curling. 4 games in a row, Shuster. Not okay.

Apolo Ohno - Won a bronze and a silver in 2 other speed skating events, and he's only on the 'worst' list because of the doucher Canadian judge that DQ'd him in the 500m.

Johnny Weir - I don't even care, just know there are multiple reasons for his appearance on the 'worst' side.

Every country but America - For being silly and thinking they could get more medals than us.

Olympic Medals

So I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from blogging for a few reasons, but I figure the best way to come back would be to recap some things that happened at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The final medal count, and some best and worst performances mostly from the US team.



Hey, I don't care what color it is, America should be damn proud they brought back that many medals. The host nation of Canada set a new Olympic record in these 21st games with 14 gold medals, but who really cares? I'll take 37 medals as a country to be on top any day of the week. Or any 4 years out of the rotation...

It's Official...

Curling is underway at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

GBR vs SWE
NOR vs CAN
USA vs GER
SWI vs DEN
CAN vs GER
CHN vs FRA
USA vs NOR

All these match-ups are slated for action today. I'm watching the US take on Germany right now, and it's pretty much stopped time for the seven of us in the room. If you've never seen curling before, here's a little breakdown of how it works.

The game is played down a lane of ice, and the point is to get your curling stone the closest to the center of the target at the end. Each team gets 8 alternating throws, over 10 ends (or frames). Once the stone is thrown by one team member, the other 3 may use their brooms to smooth out the ice to further the stone along. The teams go back and forth, and have 73 minutes to complete all their throws in the 10 frames.

Pretty weak explanation of the sport, but that's basically curling in a nutshell. So enjoy the Games.