Esteban Ochocinco

Chad Ochocinco is currently trying out for Sporting Kansas City. Some have questioned his motivation for doing so, citing publicity as his fuel. I think the guy is an athlete, entertainer and a business man. Therefore I think that he has several motivations for doing so but I don't question his love for the game.


Being a kicker does not equate to playing soccer, but he has proven time after time his love for playing. He took a trip to Spain this winter to hang out with players from Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Ochocinco with Messy the shrimp.

Iniesta the baldy

Xabi Alonso, what a beast.

RAMOS!

Visit to Spain


Below is a press conference in Kansas City


I think that in general, this is a good thing for the sum total of the sport of soccer.

El Clásico 2012

Real Madrid is staying classic for the 2011-2012 season with these Adidas jerseys.


Barcelona has sold their souls to the Qatar Foundation and Nike has rewarded them with matching nasty jerseys.


The official position of this blog is that the new Barça kits are atrocious. I can't wait to see what the alternates look like.

6 Geese A Laying... 5! Match Ban!

Fergie can take another vacation because he won't be allowed on the touchline for 5 full games. 5 GOLDEN GAMES! In case anyone forgot (You may have forgotten though since it took a full two weeks for the FA to hand down a decision. I forgive you) , Sir Alex is receiving this present from the FA for openly criticizing (berating) Martin Atkinson in post match commentary at the Bridge. This is an unprecedented fine from UEFA. To me it means a couple things. 1) Sir Alex is out of control and 2) I guarantee the next thing we hear about of Sir Alex's mouth is that we need... robots... refereeing...football matches... (sigh) Sir Alex is never going to give up on that one. Oh well. He will have lots of time to think about it now with his ban.

In all seriousness he deserved it though. The referees in football (especially in English football) are not being respected and losing their control of the game. Hopefully this ban will set a precedent and give the men in stripes the confidence and security to referee games impartially.

Last comment. Everyone laugh at Bayern Munich. They just got ARSENAL'D!

Buy or Sell: Goran Pandev

You're looking at the class of the Nerazzurri attacking consisting of Samuel Eto'o and Wesley Sneijder. Inter managed to come back from a 2-1 deficit to pass Bayern Munich in the Champions League round of 16 this afternoon.

They were able to win dispite Goran Pandev. While Pandev scored in '88 to put Inter ahead, I am still very skeptical of his contributions to the team. Last week he squandered several chances against Brescia in Serie A league play, ultimately helping to cost them a win.

In my humble opinion: Sell, Sell, Sell!

Arsenal - Batting 1.000

Arsenal is batting 1.000 in not winning trophies in major competitions again this year. And I am also 3 for 3 in bets against Arsenal in the big game. In the span of two weeks a trophy STARVED Arsenal club managed to lose against Birmingham in the Carling Cup final, at Camp Nou in the Champions League, and at Old Trafford in the FA Cup semis! All that is left now for the poor GOONARS is the league. I doubt that is going to happen. Highly doubtful. I don't even like ManUre. In fact I despise the devils, but I can't help but laugh at Arsenal. Again.

Arsenal'D!

Under Armour gaining ground, Nike swapping

Starting with the 2012-2013 season, Under Armour will be the brand that outfits The Tottenham Hotspur. The deal is for five years and worth $81 million.

In other news, after losing the Russia contract to Adidas 2 years ago, Nike recently picked up France (from Adidas) as shown below in the friendly game against Brazil.
I must say that Nike's new take is more tasteful than the Adidas options from the past.

One thing is for certain

Pato is freaking ripped. Is that why he sucked today and the Spurs beat the once mighty mighty AC Milanense(?) Bosstones?

Pato and Ibra were invisible all day. They were probably too distracted from checking each other out. Peter Crouch played for a few minutes. No robot dances. That about sums up the game.

Spurs advance! Spurs advance!

Arsene Agrees: Need Robot Referees

See I told you so.

1) Arsenal was going to lose to Barca. It was inevitable. Deal with it.

2) We need ROBOT Referees! Now Arsene thinks so too! At least based on his comments after his recent match at the Camp Nou he does... To put it in his own words, the HUMAN referee KILLED the match! Cost his team with CHEAP goals! No way a robot would do that. In fact a robot would get all the calls right! That's right! Flawless! A flawless victory for Arsenal! We were watching perfection from the GOONARS right there. Perfection, but we couldn't see it because we are human just like the referee that KILLED the game. Right Arsene? Oh and RvP agress too.. and Nasri... and the whole Arsenal fan base. So I must be right. Robot Refs. First Fergie. Now Arsene. Robocop statues for all (but not Detroit)!

Arsenal still sucks. Liverpool doesn't!

Over the weekend, BIG moves happened.

1) Arsenal drew 0-0 to Sunderland.

2) Liverpool thrashed United 3-1.

This would have been the PERFECT opportunity for Arsenal to gain ground, but they didn't. They dropped points to a Sunderland squad who didn't know what points looked like. I'm sure young stud Jack Wilshere will still talk some trash, spark some verbal abuse on the pitch, or call out Pep midweek. In other news, Pep and his boys will thrash Arsenal at Camp Nou. It is inevitable. Then Arsenal can concentrate on the league and not use "all the competitions" excuse for dropping points...

Oh and Liverpool's re-invigoration continues under the King. Suarez looks like the REAL deal. For the second week in a row He made something out of nothing, giving Kuyt a tap in to go ahead 1-0. KUYT gets the hat trick which was a just reward for his tireless workman-like pace on and off the ball. Suarez should get man of the match though. The kid is a total footballer and I LOVE it. Now if Liverpool can only get Andy Carroll to contribute...

Buy or Sell: Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema has scored 4 goals in his last two La Liga appearances. Before then, he had 3 goals in 22 apps. He quickly fell out of favor with narcissistic manager José Mourinho and has been benched since locker room lawyer Emanuel Adebayor was added during the January transfer window.

However, Benzema has proven to be the teams' best striker in Champions League competition. Winning Champions League is one of the major reasons Mourihno was brought on as Real Madrid's manager and Benzema seems like an integral tool in doing so. He had a hat-trick in one game and scored the only goal against dark horse Lyon.

As long as Gonzalo Higuaín is unavailable, my humble advice is to keep Benzema in. He's finally warmed up.

Word on the Street: Atlético Madrid

There is an alleged rumor going around in Madrid that winger José Antonio Reyes and second fiddle striker Sergio Agüero have a pact to not pass the ball to star striker Diego Forlán. To what can this turmoil be attributed: envy, lack of chemistry?
More info. to come

The Time is Now...

For Robot Referees.



Above is a perfect example of NEW AGE refereeing in sports. The ref above happens to have an AmEx black card he is showing off because he is so well paid. He actually has a yellow and red one too... for the game of course.

In all seriousness though, I am tired of hearing managers complain about games or tired of having referees not have the St. Ones to card a Chelsea player at the bridge. David Luiz should have been sent off for maybe half a dozen tackles prior to the PK granted to Chelsea. But he wasn't. Instead he scored the leveler and remained on the pitch while Chris Smalling got called for one of the softest penalties I have seen. A robot referee would have had the guts... ahem... circuitry to card Luiz earlier in the game and ignore that BS foul on Smalling. Instead we have Chelsea with a HUGE comeback win (granted it is slightly funny that Blues fans think they still have a shot at the league) and Fergie criticizing a refereee likely resulting in some sort of FA punishment on the knight. How can you punish a knight?!?!?! He must be right. He has good judgment!

Regardless, this is getting tiresome. We either need some refs with some serious St. Ones (like maybe a lesser version of Howard Webb minus the United kit underneath his ref gear) or some cyborg refs. I am up for the latter. Robocop on the pitch would be pretty awesome.

Bayern Loses. Who really cares?

Bayern Munich got crushed at home by Borussia Dortmund. This Dortmund squad is running away with the Bundesliga, while Bayern has all the talented players and highest payroll in the league. What a crock. Bayern Munich is overrated. It will be only a few days now before Robben/Ribery peacin' rumors start. I don't care if Bastian S(can't spell his name) signed a new contract. It will only take the end of the season before he hands in a transfer request to head to Chelsea.

Bottom line here: 1) Bayern Munich sucks (they lucked their way into the CL Final last year... directly referencing their anomaly of a win at OT) and 2) German football sucks (when compared to England and Spain). The best teams in Europe are in Spain and England. Sorry Italy. Same goes for Italian football. At least Italy can put together a couple CL winning squads though and compete on the European level.

Bayern is going to get ripped apart this summer if they don't qualify for CL play next season. Van Gaal will be fired and the Bundesliga will lose all credibility unless Dortmund can make a run in next year's CL.