Happy Birthday Alessandro Del Piero!!!!

To the player who drew me to the sport of soccer all those years ago: Happy birthday Alessandro Del Piero! The 37 year old has inspired the world with his play - and hair - for many fruitful years. Tanti auguri!

Check out this compilation video Juventus made in honor of their capitan:



Though I would like to applaud Juve for their efforts, I can't help but be fed up with the Old Lady. Happy birthday Del Piero...enjoy the bench. And oh yeah, you're done after this year. Juve let their most important player in history know they are not re-signing him at a Board of Directors meeting. Not man to man. Not anything out of the ordinary for an extraordinary player. Shameful and classless.

But you know what, Del Piero pushes on. All the while, he has displayed the most professional attitude possible, fortifying the belief that he is one of the classiest footballers in the game. For his humble attitude, uplifting spirit, and goal against Germany in the semis, I wish this special, special player a buon compleanno!

Messi's World...?

Messi has officially made my Monday. Upon browsing the Barcelona man's Facebook page this afternoon, I noticed a series of videos in his news feed that seemed interesting. Interesting immediately turned into hilarious upon viewing.

The fact that all the videos are 11 seconds long, contain similar five word professions of love spoken by Messi himself, and are branded with the above Transformer/Batman hybrid logo, made these videos a riot.

For your pleasure:

"I love every goal."



"I'll always play like that boy from Rosario."



"I love to help children dream."


"I love to team up for my country."


Though I respect Messi's strength as a player and humble character, these videos have left me puzzled. What do they say about you Messi? That you can only explain yourself in vague one-liners in 11 second video clips? Am I the only one who thinks these are hilarious (and weird)?!

Perhaps there are fuller versions of each to come.

Get Well Soon Antonio Cassano...

...you wild son of a b*tch.

Sad news from the AC Milan camp today regarding Antonio Cassano's mystery illness after the Rossoneri's match with Roma on Saturday.

The player has suffered a stroke and will need heart surgery to correct an existing problem. Though the procedure is said to be relatively safe, it's still scary as hell, especially for such an exuberant man like Cassano. He is slated to miss a few months.

See this article from Football Italia for full details of the dilemma.

Get well soon Antonio.

Landon Donovan: Love - Hate Relationship

Love Landon in red, white and blue.
Nothing made me prouder as an American soccer fan when Landon Donovan slotted home the injury-time winner against Algeria that heroically sent the USMNT through to the knockout stages of the World Cup in 2010. It was a moment, that's for sure. A big moment, if not the biggest in US Soccer history (see above photo). I am forever grateful and a fan of Landon Donovan for his devotion and accomplishments for this country.

"Stop being meanies NYRBs"

Hate Landon in the MLS.
Landon Donovan the MLS player infuriates me. His cocky, over confident attitude just comes off as petulant to me. He is a real competitor - I'll give him that - but sometimes his do-no-wrong disposition is grating. Donovan's a great player, but he's sort of prone to complaining and whining. Just play hard like you do for the USMNT, dude!

Recent hate Full disclosure: I am a New York Red Bulls fan.
Landon's recent comments following a scrappy semi-final first leg with the New York Red Bulls, I thought, were unprofessional:

“There a few plays where they took some cheap shots at us. In all my years in this league, I’ve not played against a cheaper team, and they’ve been doing it all year. We saw it a few weeks ago with [Thierry] Henry kneeing someone in the back. We’ve seen that stuff all year. You just deal with it, and at the end of it, the cream rose to the top, and the better team won.”

"What a d*ck." First thoughts that come to mind after reading that. Talk about attitude. The game was heated, there were tackles on both ends, and frankly, I believe LA embellished more than a few fouls (DAVID BECKHAM *ahem). Even if Rafa Marquez (the biggest baby/waste of space in the league) threw a ball at you at the end of the match, there's really no reason to denounce the whole team like a sad clown in public. As far as I can see, the Red Bulls are just as competitive and hard-nosed as any other team in the league. Forget about the little tidbits you're griping about and be happy you won!

When did footballers start getting soft? Cheap shots, Landon...really? You know how you counteract cheap shots (other than b*tching to the media after the match)? You win. You play hard and you win. You did that on Sunday...so why drone on and complain? Just shut up and play.

Tune in to leg two of this semi-final on Thursday at 11pm ET.

And one other thing: WE'RE RED, WE'RE BULLS, WE'RE REDDDDD BULLS. GO RED BULLS.

Marco Borriello: Complaining in Video Games Too

News flash - Marco Borriello is never happy with his playing time, not even in the virtual world. Maybe try scoring more? See this little gem that popped up in my FIFA '12 Career Mode with Roma:

My reaction? "God, shut up Borriello." This is the guy who lip readers quoted as saying "I'm on the bench and I've scored 25,000 goals" when passed up for selection. Dude...shut up!

Anyone else have funny player gripes pop up on the new FIFA?

The Blur of a Brazilian: Pato

Did everyone see the ridiculous fashion in which Pato scored last night a mere 25 seconds into Milan's Champions League clash with Barcelona at Camp Nou? Well if you didn't, you must watch this video:



Truly amazing. Pato made the Barcelona midfield and defense look like school children! Why doesn't he do that all the time?!

I know there are some Pato haters out there who believe he will not live up to his potential, but after seeing a piece of magic like that I would reserve room for hope that he can produce magic like this consistently. Imagine Milan with a healthy, in form Pato? They hardly had him last year and took the title.

Keep your eyes on this young man and the Italian champs, people.

Side note: during this blog post I kept erroneously writing Pato as Patio, which lead me to wonder if Pato would be as awesome on the field if his name was actually Patio. After thinking it through, a Brazilian named Patio would probably just draw laughs, not first team call ups. Alexandre Patio. Haha.

HOT RUMORS on deadline day PART ONE

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the inactivity but shut up for a minute. I am writing this as fast as humanly possible because of the amount of rumors I have been tracking on this extraordinary deadline day. Here they are:

Better late than never

Giuseppe Rossi to Tottenham
Rumors are swirling all over Twitter and even Wikipedia seems to think the deal was done. Not sure if that holds true, but Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone exclaimed via Twitter that he could not believe who snuck into training today. Rossi or maybe...

Kaka to Tottenham
What?! Surely it can't be...but maybe. I've heard some things.

Gary Cahill to Tottenham for either Bassong or Bently
Not sure about this but I've heard murmurs.

Scott Parker signs for Tottenham
Now official.

Wesley Sneijder to Manchester United
Have not heard too much about this move, but I believe it will happen. Forlan has signed with Inter, opening the door for a possible exit for Sneijder. We shall see!

Luka Modric to Chelsea
I think this deal will happen today, given Tottenham's need to fortify the rest of their squad. Good luck getting playing time, jerk!

Raul Meireles to Chelsea for cash and Yossi Benayoun
This would be a ridiculous deal in my opinion. Liverpool look great with Meireles in the lineup...why would they do this DON'T DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF JEBUS.

Mauro Zarate on loan to Inter
I guess this deal is done, but who cares because he sucks anyway. Lazio merda.

Arsenal sign Santos, Mertesacker, and Park Chu-Young
Hard to believe, right? Wenger power!

Roma continue to own the transfer market
They will be putting pen to paper with Simon Kjaer and Miralem Pjanic today...as well as possibly Fernando Gago. Great mercato.