I know some of you won’t be traveling with us to Germany in a few weeks so I thought this article might provide some hope for those still on the fence whether they should hop on board the party train. Several decent ideas come up in the article, and that whole pesky “your passport number needs to match your ticket stub” stuff is slightly annoying, but there are always ways around that kind of stuff.

Travel options to the Land of Beer and Futbol[Link]

World Cup hype is starting to build. We’ve all seen Nike’s Joga Bonito campaign featuring Wayne Rooney, Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry. Gatorade has taken a decidely different and refreshing approach to World Cup marketing — featuring the U.S. Men’s National Team in what is hopefully the first of many new ad spots:

I haven’t seen a more beautiful 30-seconds on TV in a long time. It almost brings a tear to the eye. Give us more Gatorade, please!!!

Given that U.S. Soccer is for the most part spared a hostile domestic press, it’s quite a thing to find an actual hatchet job on an American player or coach (screeds on Big Soccer or blogs don’t count). So you can imagine my delight when I found this gem on Landycakes in the British papers from over the weekend.

Did we just say that Landycakes “failed to impress” while with Leverkusen last year? NO! He came back ’cause he didn’t like the weather and missed his pretty girlfriend, right? Right? Did we also just see his quote to support the statement, “He admits the quality of MLS falls a long way short of the European game”? (”‘The gap has closed but there’s still a big difference,’ he says.”)

Also, he vows revenge against the German team. Ummm. Right.

(But I’ll admit a little grin at the writer’s begrudging compliments for the U.S. squad at the end.)

Links:
Donovan has a point to prove. [Telegraph UK]
An awesome site about Landon Donovan. Awesome.

Though certainly modest by the standards of typical U.S. athlete scandals (No indictment? No sexual assualt? No 1,600 pounds of marijuana?), young DaMarcus Beasley has gotten himself into trouble with the Dutch cops. Beasley’s been charged with drunken driving for an incident back in January. He’ll probably be fined, though there’s a chance he could lose his license. His Dutch license.

The irony here is, of course, that in the country with the most liberal drug policy in the world, the cops didn’t find any mind-bending intoxicants tucked into the ashtray, while you can’t pull over a pro athlete in the U.S. without finding narcotics and at least two (2) handguns (”The Glock? That isn’t mine. I have no idea why it’s here.”) Still, shame on you, DMB. You can afford the cab.

Link:
Beasley To Face Drunken Driving Charges [ESPN Soccernet]

Opening leg results from the Champions League semifinals are looking good. It was lovely to see the Gooners hold serve at home, but positively delightful to see Barca snag the away goal at the San Siro, making Milan’s elimination all the more likely upon return to the Nou Camp (fingers crossed, knock on wood). Tough week for Don Berlusconi!

I don’t know why I’ve decided that Milan desperately need to lose, but they do. Were it not for the cowardice of Lyon in the last fifteen minutes of their quarterfinal second leg at the San Siro a couple weeks back, we wouldn’t even need to have this conversation. But since Milan poached a couple in the waning minutes (a TV show I’ve seen before), they’re through to the semis. For the love of all that is good and right with the footy, please don’t let them into the final! We’ve gotten rid of Juve; please, spare us any more Milan!

(Also, this is all a long way of saying that the best possible final involves Ronaldinho against Thierry Henry. Just like Nike likes it!)

Hopefully the first of many trailers to come out of the FC Camena Media Center. Expect more to come in the coming weeks…

Red Bulls midfileder Mark Lisi flew to Germany this week to have noted sports hernia specialist Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck repair his busted tummy. Lisi played briefly in the Red Bulls’ opener against D.C., but the sports hernia has since kept him off the field. He is expected to return to action in 1-2 weeks.

Contrast this with, AHEM, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who suffered a similar sports hernia injury that caused him to play crappily for most of the year and then miss the season’s final six games. While Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck has performed this surgery over 1,500 times (and can boast some pretty famous footy stars in her client list), apparently the Eagles think that they’re too good to trust some downmarket soccer doctor. Uh huh. Blowing the entire season was definitely worth it. And soccer doesn’t really count as a real sport. Uh huh.

(Forgive these moments when we allow our other football passions to cross-polinate on F.C. Camena.)

Link:
Lisi Undergoes Successful Surgery [Soccernet]
McNabb To Skip German Surgery [Some random blog]
Wizards’ Conrad Is Back Following Revolutionary Surgery [Kansas City Star]

According to a report on the Asian Football Confederation’s official website, Barcelona star striker Samuel Eto’o is set to leave European football in his prime (he’s 29) and move to Saudi club Al Ittihad.

The reigning African Footballer of the Year, Eto’o has endured numerous episodes of racist abuse during his time with Barca, in both Spanish League and UEFA Champions League play, culminating in Eto’o walking off the field in the middle of a match against Racing Santander a few weeks ago. It’s only logical to presume Eto’o is making the move to Asia to escape the pervasive racism in European football, sacrificing money and the highest level of competition for happiness and a higher quality of life.

Racism in European Football has (thankfully and finally) come to the forefront as the #1 issue for FIFA and Sepp Blatter in the last few years. It’s been a problem for years, from National Teams to Clubs to Sponsors to Fans. FIFA has enacted rules to stop the European-African youth labor trade, where scores of young African footballing teens would be brought to European clubs to train (cheaply), with the best being promoted to the first team while the rest were cut loose to fend for themselves in a foreign country with no job and no support. But still problems with fans persist.

Superstars like Eto’o and Thierry Henry have been outspoken about the problem, and Nike has backed them with the “Stand Up, Speak Up” campaign. But what can be done to reach the level of the average fan?

The Eto’o decision to leave it all behind will hopefully be the Tipping Point. The racist fans and their supporting clubs and federations are the true a**holes in all of this. But we as football fans are the losers, as we’ll be deprived of regularly watching the genius of a great player in the midst of his prime footballing years compete at the highest levels of competition.

The great winner in all of this is Eto’o. Despite the constant abuse, he has handled all situations with grace and dignity. And he will hopefully be remembered as the man who initiated the final movement to stamp racism from the Beautiful Game.

Thoughts? Please post them here:

So can Ronaldinho really juggle the ball off the crossbar from 20 yards out?

Apparently, the magic of digital effects means that any fuzzy purple monster from a children’s show could pull this off:

YouTube. And here I just meant to post the Ibrahimovic goal from Euro 2004. Happy Birthday Hotdog PJDinho!

Not an impresive showing from the US MNT last night in Cary, NC against Jamaica last night. With a team comprised exclusively of domestic based players who were, by all accounts, playing in their final audition for Bruce Arena’s World Cup squad, the U.S. looked confused and lethargic. I know that they all play in MLS, but that doesn’t mean that they should have treated this as an April match against a non-conference opponent (not that intra-conference matches are so much more competitive).

At the very least, this match afforded certain guys the freedom to invest in a plasma so they can enjoy all 64 games in HD this summer. Despite the goal (which was cheap, poorly defended, and not particularly deserved), Ben Olsen did not impress. I also don’t need to see Chris Albright anymore. Of the New England midfielders, the only one who’ll make a difference in Germany is Dempsey (who seems to be getting better every match). And I really didn’t think any of the forwards looked sharp (though Ching at least gets an A for effort). Especially not longtime nemesis Josh Wolff and his exquisitely plucked eyebrows.

On the plus side, it was great to see JOB out there (though ‘Cello needed to towel off with the praise a bit) and Landycakes hit some lovely free kicks.

All in all, it was a pretty lame performance in what should have been a gimme game. If guys can’t show up for their final tryout, then they’re probably not going to show up when it’s the real thing.

Link:
US Soccer Report [USSoccer.com]