First Taste: Sneijder!

This is a great goal from Wesley Sneijder from Holland's national team. It's a cheeky give and go then he nails it in the goal. Not to mention, we do not have enough soccer on this site, which hurts our pageviews big time. Things to be discussed today: My Top 5 models, Jerry Sloan, and maybe UW-OSU from a casual observer.

-Charlie.

Just Classic.....

Soccer Officially Announces It's Gay.....

From the Onion Sports Network on Comedy Central. It's on Tuesday nights at 9:30 immediately after Tosh.O. Finally, I have something awesome to watch on a Tuesday night. Enjoy......

Sports Hotties You Don't Know...Yet

If you ask me, I think that the world of sports ladies needs an infusion of new talent. I am personally a little tired of hearing about Natalie Gulbis, Danica Patrick, and Maria Sharapova all of the time. So today is the day to diversify the sports hottie portfolio a little bit, and continue the work that was started with the recent inclusion of Allison Stokke and Taryne Mowatt in the sports babe canon. For your consideration, here are my nominees, sorted by sport;

Golf: Erica Blasberg
You've Heard Of: Natalie Gulbis, Michelle Wie
Erica plays on the LPGA Tour, and before going pro she tore up the college scene at the University of Arizona. This year is her first season with full exempt status on the LPGA Tour. Besides being one of the most accurate drivers on tour, 23 year old Erica is also the face of Puma's golf line.



Basketball: Ilona Korstin
You've Heard Of: Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson
Ilona is one of Russia's top players, and she played an integral role on Russia's bronze medal winning Olympic team in 2004. The 27 year old Korstin is a 6 foot tall forward. So does anyone have any complaints about a tall, pretty, Russian blonde? I didn't think so.



Soccer: Milene Domingues
You've Heard Of: Brandi Chastain, Heather Mitts
The rest of the world already knows all about Milene Domingues. That is mainly because in addition to being a model and one of the best female soccer players in the world, she also happens to be the first ex-wife of Ronaldo. Milene isn't just a pretty face. She also holds the world record for soccer juggling by a female, having juggled a ball 55,187 over nine hours when she was 17. Forget Beckham, I'd be more of a soccer fan if Milene came over here to play.



Softball: Whitney Baker
You've Heard Of: Jenny Finch, Taryne Mowatt
According to Baker's bio at UCLA's website she was the 2006 Washington Gatorade Player of the Year and also holds the Washington state high school record for strikeouts in a career with 949. In her freshman year at UCLA she started six games and threw two shutouts while posting a 2.65 ERA. As well as being an extremely talented softball player, she also happens to be quite attractive. In case you hadn't noticed from the picture. Though I'm sure you did.



Gymnastics: Jamie, Janelle, and Jalynne Dantzscher
You've Heard Of: Dominique Moceanu
Now, I have a confession to make. Jamie Dantzsher is my favorite female athlete ever. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but there is just something about her that puts her above everyone else in my book. So when I found out she had two twin sisters that were also gymnasts...wow. Both of Jamie's sisters followed in her footsteps to UCLA, though sadly her sister Jalynne has retired from the sport due to injuries.



Tennis: Sania Mirza
You've Heard Of: Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams
Women's tennis is the most babe centric of all women's sports, so it is somewhat difficult to find a true unknown hottie. So I decided to go the route of "non-Russian, non-blonde" and see where it took me. It led me right to Sania Mirza. Sania is the most prominent female athlete in all of India, and her court clothing has caused quite a stir among some Islamists. I say, keep it up Sania.

*As always, feel free to leave more suggestions in the comments, and I will update as needed.




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David Beckham Means Nothing

OMG OMG OMG! David Beckham is here to make the United States care about soccer! Yay!

...

Too bad that isn't going to happen...at all. David Beckham coming to the LA Galaxy will do three things; it will sell lots of Galaxy swag, it will sell lots of Galaxy tickets for a season or two, and it will cause ESPN to show you features on Beckham and Posh until your eyes bleed and puss starts coming out of your ears. That will be pretty much all that happens.

Here is the truth of the matter; American sports fans have a scoring mentality. They like home runs more than nice double plays. They like scorers like Kobe more than defensive stars like Bruce Bowen. They like TD scorers like Reggie Bush more than a field position assassin like Shane Lechler. And they surely are not going to get excited by a 32 year old midfielder that has not been a real goal scoring threat in five years. For those of you who are not familiar with soccer in general or Beckham in particular, here is a crash course. Beckham plays midfield, and even though his skills have declined in the past few years he is still extremely good on crosses, corners, and direct kicks. Translation; he is very good at setting other people up to score and on rare occasions he scores a goal on free kicks. He is not the kind of scoring talent that will finally wake America up to the world's most popular sport. Grief, at this point he is not even one of the top ten players in the world. To make matters even worse, he is on the second worst team in the MLS.

So remind me again how getting an aging, non-scoring, pretty boy and putting him on a terrible team was going to make Bud, Mike, and Dave down at the corner bar turn off NFL training camp coverage and turn on the MLS?

Look at it this way. Thinking that Beckham will save the MLS is about as dumb as sending John Stockton to Europe to stir up interest in basketball. Is he good? Yes. Is he an entertaining scorer? No. Would you send a cannon armed catcher to Japan to stir up interest in baseball by throwing out baserunners? No, of course not. The entire Beckham experiment is based upon one simple assumption; the Galaxy, MLS, and ESPN think you are dumb. They think that they can throw out a celeb name, do a bunch of interviews, and it won't matter whether or not the results on the field ever come. Here is a newsflash; American sports fans do like substance with their style. They turned on Anna Kournikova, they turned on Freddy Adu, they are turning on Michele Wie and Danica Patrick, and in a years time they will have turned on David Beckham once it becomes glaringly obvious that he is not the supreme superstar everyone had been hyping him up to be.

And you can expect an ESPN special all about it.

Venezuela Is My New Favorite

I wasn't really a big fan of Venezuela's soccer team...until now that is. This camera guy deserves a big raise.

By the way, the video response to this on YouTube is quite hysterical.

The $panish Premiere League

I'm sure we have all seen the scenario at one point or another. Two teams are coming down to the wire for a playoff spot, and then one of them ends up playing a team at the end of the season that has nothing to play for, trounces them, and wins the playoff berth.

So what if you were a fan of that other team? Wouldn't you want the team with nothing to play for to have, you know, something to play for?

Well, that is exactly what is going on right now in La Liga, Spain's top soccer league. Perrenial powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona are currently tied going into the final game of the season, and Real Madrid holds the head to head tiebreaker between the two teams. Both Real and Barca face very easy opponents and Real's opponent, Real Mallorca, has nothing to play for bu pride since they are already safe from relagation to a lower league. In other words, both Barcelona and Real Madrid should win, meaning Real would be the champions of La Liga. Which leads us to the allegations that Barcelona is going to, and already has earlier in the season, give incentives to Real's opponents if they defeat them:

Sports daily Marca has reported that Real Mallorca have been promised two million euros (2.7 million US dollars) if they defeat or draw against Real Madrid on Sunday.

Real Madrid, which is tied with arch rivals Barcelona on 73 points with one round left, need to beat Real Mallorca to win La Liga for a record 30th time.

The newspaper said each Real Zaragoza player received 50,000 euros following their side’s 2-2 draw against Real Madrid on Saturday. The players would have received double that amount had they defeated Real Madrid, it added.

To answer the obvious question, yes, this is indeed against the rules of the Spanish Football Federation. Even so, some of the prominent players on Barcelona have decided that such rules are not too terribly stringent:

Officially, Barcelona president Joan Laoprta has said nothing about a "motivational payment," but Barca players Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi are quoted in all the newspapers on Monday as saying that their club should offer money to Mallorca.

So is the Spanish Football Federation going to step in and stop this? Probably not, as according to various media reports these kinds of practices have been going on for years, and it is only coming to light at present because the media has decided to make an issue of it for once. In fact, another mini scandal erupted earlier this week when former Real Madrid player Davor Suker admitted to recieving payments from other clubs in 1996. And you thought American sports leagues had problems? Imagine if the Bears started paying the Lions $5 million every time they beat the Packers. American sports fans would be outraged. Evidently the same standard does not apply to the "other" football across the pond.