Category: Sports

M1 1:1 Spiny Norman a.e.t. 5:3 PSO
I haven’t really felt like talking about it until now, but So1oSC founder, and non-soccer fan Mike Durso (aka “M1”) won the 2strokebuzz Cup. (Here’s Mike and his Italian flag smallframe Vespa). At least some good came of it: Lu$ sent a game allowing us to relive the final seconds of Zizou’s career. After the game in our mostly-Italian neighborhood, people were driving around waving their flags and honking, and I just wanted to put on some mime makeup and a beret and slowly drive around in a Citröen, listening to Jacques Brel and looking sad. Maybe that should be Mike’s prize; a beret and a Jacques Brel CD.

• M1 (ITA) 2:0 Brooke (GER)
  vs.
  Spiny Norman (FRA) 1:0 Kilotravis (POR)

M1, who doesn’t even “get” soccer, finds himself in the finals after beating Brooke’s favored World Cup hosts in the semis. Surely this is not the same Italy team who drew against the USA. Spiny Norman’s Bleus won a beautiful, evenly-matched game against Portugal. Surely this is not the same French team that drew against Switzerland and Korea. Who will maintain the charade and take home the 2sb Cup this Sunday? France! (Just kidding, we don’t actually know yet.)

Rather than posting every day, I’ll update this post as the matches happen. The 16 will be narrowed down to eight teams by Tuesday, here’s how it stands for 2SB readers and their chosen teams:

• Brooke (GER) def. Kathy The Great (SWE)
  vs.
  Alfredom1972 (ARG) def. Lucash (MEX)

Lucash almost pulled off a huge upset, but it’ll be Alfredom1972 (ARG) vs. Brooke (GER) in the quarters. Too bad they meet so early, because either team could have won this tournament. This should be the best game of the quarterfinals.

• Cy (ENG) def. Nancy (ECU)
  vs.
  Kilotravis (POR) def. Matty (NED)

Cy (ENG) is looking a little better, but still not what you would call “red-hot.” They’ll face Kilotravis (POR), a mighty side, but down a few key players. If Cy’s men continue their incremental improvement each match, they might actually pull it off. Remember, even the U.S. beat Portugal once.

• M1 (ITA) def. Race Roberts (AUS)
  vs.
  Penny (UKR) def. Matt Siegel (SUI)

Two tight matches, but M1 gets a questionable penalty and breaks Bob’s ‘Roos hearts with just seconds left. Penny and Matt battled it out for 120 minutes with no score, and Matt missed three penalties and blew it, so Penny progresses to the round of 8.

• Becky (BRA) def. Silent Ron (GHA)
  vs.
  Spiny Norman (FRA) def. Professor Matthew (ESP)

It was a World Cup ’98 kinda day as Ronaldo and Zidane dusted themselves off and got busy. France surprised Spain 3-2 while Ronaldo topped Gerd Mueller’s record with his 15th World Cup Goal. It also occurred to me today that Brazil was given the original World Cup trophy permanently after winning their third World Cup at Mexico’70, If they win again this year, it would be their sixth, would they get to keep the Cup again? And why didn’t Germany or Italy get to keep a trophy with their three victories? Gyp!

Remember that time the U.S. beat Portugal? Or that year Croatia didn’t nearly forfeit a game on red cards?

Four more teams advance to the round of 16:

• M1 (ITA) vs. Race Roberts (AUS) on June 26
• Becky (BRA) vs. Silent Ron (GHA) on June 27

Props to Australia and Ghana, they both worked very hard and deserved to progress. No one claimed Ghana, so I’m assigning it to Silent Ron, because he was silent. The last two matches will be decided Friday.

And the last batch:

• Matt Siegel (SUI) vs. Penny (UKR) on June 26
• Professor Matthew (ESP) vs. Spiny Norman (FRA) on June 27

1998 (and Euro2000 winners) France were crap in the group stage, allowing the Swiss to take the top spot. So the marginally impressive Switzerland faces the Ukraine in the least-big-name match of the 16. Ukraine looked better in their last game, so it could be a tight match. Eh-Spain is going to pound France unless some sort of World Cup Fairy beats Thierry Henry into shape Monday night.

The first two 2sb Cup matchups are set:

• Brooke (GER) vs. Kathy The Great (SWE) on June 24
• Cy (ENG) vs. Nancy (ECU) on June 25

Both should be interesting as the boys are both kinda wussy and the girls are both pretty tough. Note that Nancy is the only entrant with the same name as an actual soccer team.

Two more to add:

• Alfredom1972 (ARG) vs. Lucash (MEX) on June 24
• Kilotravis (POR) vs. Matty (NED) on June 25

Alfredo, a huge Argentina fan, is actually Mexican, and Lucash is half Mexican, half-Czech, so their secret loyalties might lie outside their picks. In any case, it should be a fun match to watch. Kilotravis’ Portugal is a popular dark-horse, is playing very well, but Matty’s Holland still has some fight left, it’ll be fun to watch the creative Portugal take on the technical Holland.
If you haven’t entered the 2sb Cup Contest, Ghana’s still available!

No. Stop talking about it. We suck. More World Cup coverage later.

I have a love/hate relationship with Nike. On one hand, they’re a huge, indie-culture-stealing empire that pays chinese infants one cent a week to make $80 soccer jerseys that don’t fit me. On the other hand, they made the coolest hoodie ever and they’ve somehow turned self-centered pompous miscreant Eric Cantona into the Wayne Coyne of soccer. (Thierry Henry is so freaking awesome in that clip). It’s happening. I’m starting to get excited about the World Cup.

For those two or three of you that come to 2strokebuzz for soccer coverage, I apologize, I’ve totally lost track of soccer in the last couple weeks. Yesterday, Matt, of all people, informed me that the US national team, with the World Cup a mere seven weeks away, was ranked fourth in the FIFA rankings, an all-time high. (I don’t know about that, I’ll be surprised–but ecstatic–if they make it through the group round of the World Cup.) Then today my boss, of all people, told me Arsenal beat Villareal in the first leg of the Champions League. I’d totally forgotten about the match. If Arsenal can beat or tie Villareal in Spain next week, they’ play in the Champions League Final against AC Milan or Barcelona (Barcelona won the first leg, in Italy, 1-0). On top of all that, the MLS season has started and I haven’t even mentioned it, I’ll post about the Fire and their new stadium soon.