football -palooza

lest some of you think that i'm swinging to the dark side, i wanted to make a quick post about the various football-related events julie & i went to over this past weekend.


i'm sure you've seen julie's recent post about our trip to watch the AZ Cardinals place the smack-down on the MN Vikings on sunday.  i will say it was a great introduction to live NFL matches.  the crowd was crazy-loud from the moment we walked in the stadium, and watching the Cards upset the Vikes was frosting on the cake.  mmm....cake.


but, that wasn't the only football event we took part in.  friday night we joined my fellow CMU alums at buffalo wild wings to watch the CMU Chippewas defeat the Univ. of OH Bobcats.  thanks to that win, CMU now owns their 3rd MAC championship in 4 years.  not bad.  i just wish they had been that good when i was a student there.


saturday was more my style.  as you may be aware, i've become involved with a grassroots group here in PHX called MLS Phoenix Rising.  it's a group that is working to bring a pro soccer team to phoenix.  oh, you know i'm geeked about that potential.  we met with chris from phoenix pro soccer, which is working with some investors to accomplish the same goal.  after that little meet & greet with him, i joined   the group to head to Reach 11 Sports Complex to watch the US Under-17 national team play Brazil.  it was fun hanging out with them & getting to know some of them a little better.  the final score was 1-1.  the US made a good showing against Brazil.


since you already know what happened sunday, i'll skip to last night (monday).  i drove back to Reach 11 to watch another soccer match.   for this one, i had an early christmas present.  the US U17s played the Netherlands!  i couldn't pass it up, even in 40-degree rainy weather.  i was pulling for the Netherlands the entire way.  i even wore my Netherlands jersey.  the Netherlands won, 3-0.  I met a  family from the Netherlands.   their son/grandson (i met the grandpa & mom) is a midfielder for the Dutch side, and plays in the youth division for AZ Alkmaar.  that was awesome.


needless to say, it was a lot of both types of football for 1 weekend, but it was great all the way around.

Cardinals vs. Vikings

We went to our first NFL game last night and it was great!  We had fabulous seats (thanks Dad!) in the north end zone and enjoyed the University of Phoenix stadium.  It was extra nice that they beat Brett Favre and the Vikings and are one step closer to securing a wildcard!!!  Go Cards!

the saturday adventure

as it turned out, saturday turned out to be another one of those days that prove you never know what's going to happen. oh, please click on this --> pic. it's brilliant.

julie & i woke up early saturday morning to drive to buffalo wild wings (bww) to catch the cmu vs. emu game. we were hoping the cmu alumni group that would be there would be a decent amount of people. as it turned out, it wasn't. thanks to bww being a bit of a distance from anywhere and it being 9 a.m., the total that showed up were 4...including julie & i. doug and his son davis were there. doug graduated from cmu in '67. he was there before the malt shoppe. if you know cmu, you know the malt shoppe. i thought it had been there since the beginning of time. it's one of those places. the game turned out to be great. at half-time, the chippewas were up 35-0. we decided to leave, since cmu had the game decided by that point. i later found out they won 56-8. that's not a typo. it's nice to see the football program at cmu finally having some success. it's just sad that it's happening after i graduated. they were horrible then. i think they won a total of 4 games in the 4 years i was there.

as for the u.s. vs. honduras match...that was a different story. i rode the light rail into downtown phoenix to the george & dragon. met a few fellow soccer supporters there, along with the folks involved with phoenix rising. the surprising thing was the george & dragon never showed the game. what? you say. here's why. most bars that were showing it were asking a $20.00 cover to pay for the cost of piping the game in from honduras, because it cost them $1500 to do it. it's a copyright thing. the george & dragon asked for no cover and was going to show it via an underground internet stream. but, as it happened, the stream gave their computer a virus...which prevented us from viewing the game and killed the computer at the george & dragon. yes. sad and tragic. but, the u.s. won 3-2, which means they've qualified for the world cup next year! go yanks!

even though the plans called for seeing 2 football games, and i only saw half of one, it still was a good day. both my teams won. the u.s. has another match on wednesday, this one against costa rica. i plan on actually watching that one with the phoenix rising group, who seem to be a good batch of folks.

football (both kinds)

i heart the interwebs. thanks to the wonderful connectivity it creates, this saturday looks to be pretty sweet.

i did a bit of cybersphere research and found out about the phoenix chapter of the central michigan university alumni group. occasionally, they have events. as alumni groups like to do. turns out, they organize places to watch cmu football games. that is, of course, the american meaning of "football". so, saturday morning julie & i are heading to buffalo wild wings to watch cmu take on eastern michigan university...and to hang out with fellow cmu alums. sweet. :)

then, that night, we're headed to a wonderful british pub downtown phoenix called the george & dragon to watch my favorite kind of football. the united states takes on honduras in a world cup qualifying match! woohoo! the game starts at 10pm eastern, so grab your mates & join the rest of us in watching this one. this shin-dig is being organized by phoenix rising, a group that is trying to bring a usl division 1 team to phoenix. usl (united soccer leagues) is a cool league that is set up much like the soccer leagues in other countries, with relegation and promotion models. if you don't know what i mean by that, ask me. i'm a fan of that way of doing professional sports. this, of course, will be a great way to meet fellow soccer fans here in the valley (a nickname for phoenix). since the game won't be shown on network tv or cable (a sarcastic "thanks" to the u.s. soccer federation for that one), here's a website that lists bars across the country that will be showing it

fire up chips! go usa!

heartbreaking

sunday was a momentous day for the US men's national team. they faced Brazil in the Confederation's Cup Final. why was this big? because it was the 1st ever time the US made it to a FIFA sanctioned final. FIFA is the international governing body of world football. they also organize the World Cup. it was also big because at the end of the 1st half, the US was beating Brazil 2-0. 2-0! do you know how crazy that is? the US, which is ranked #14 in the world, leading the #5 ranked Brazil. not to mention a few days earlier the US defeated Spain 3-0 in the same competition. Spain is ranked #1.

back to the game. at the end of the 1st half, the US had everything in their favor. they were controlling the game, they had momentum, they were shutting down the Brazilian offense, not to mention penetrating the Brazilian defense. the US defense was working beautifully as a unit. it was amazing to see. but then, the 2nd half happened. Brazil quickly scored their 1st goal, followed by a 2nd. then, with less than 10 minutes to play, they scored their 3rd.

what happened? the US has a lot of growing up to do. they lack consistency, stamina, and the ability to hold their own against the world powers of football for 90 minutes.

if you missed the game, you missed history. hopefully the US will take the lessons they learned from this match and use them as they gear up for the World Cup next year.

WCQ!!

today is the big day. i've been looking forward to this for awhile. tonight, at 6:45 pm CST, the u.s. men's national team takes on the men's national team from trinidad & tobago. this is a big deal, since it it part of the series of world cup qualifying matches that determine which nations will ultimately be represented in the world cup in south africa in 2010. if you can't make it to the game tonight, either because you can't make the trip to nashville or in these cash-strapped times you can't get a ticket, watch it on espn2.

as for me, i will be in the stands at l.p. field watching the action. and taking pictures. l.p. field is the stadium where the tennessee titans play their home matches. the funny thing is, this will make the 4th or 5th time i've seen a game there, and none of them have involved american football or the titans at all. they have all been for soccer games. a couple involving mexican soccer teams tecos and atlas, as well as a friendly between the under-21 teams of the u.s. and honduras last year.

ga oranje!

if you're not aware of this, then you're probably not a world football fan, but world cup qualifiers continued this past weekend. the 2 countries i am pulling for are, of course, the u.s. and netherlands. mainly the netherlands. i was disappointed with the way the u.s. played. by all accounts, they should have defeated el salvador, but they tied instead. the netherlands, on the other hand, soundly defeated scotland 3-0. catch highlights from both matches below. and yes, the highlights from the netherlands match are in dutch.

Netherlands vs. Scotland in Amsterdam




U.S. vs. El Salvador in San Salvador

Super Bowl 43

Now I realize that this post is about 22 days past due... But I wanted to celebrate the achievement of the AZ Cardinals on getting to the Super Bowl 43 in Tampa, FL.

Here are some great moments from the homecoming festivities in AZ after the Superbowl. There were reports that the players were taking photos of the crowd upon return because it too was a special moment for them. They felt that they let AZ down and certainly played their hearts out. Also, is a before and after photo of Brian and I when we courageously viewed the game at a house full of Pittsburg fans.

Photos courtesy of The Arizona Republic's Tom Tingle and Nick Oza.