mexico vs brasil

so, the other night i actually caught a replay of mexico vs brasil from the '99 copa america. it was interesting to see the much of the same brasilian team, but oh so much younger. ronaldinho had a shaved head, but the same jacked up teeth. ronaldo was young and fit. it was also cool to see some of the mexican players that i remember, but had forgotten about. guys like luis hernandez and jorge campos. blanco was on the team then, and he still is now, although he's lost a step. still very good, but he's aged. brasil won that game 2-0, and it put them in the finals where they beat uruguay.

(the game i'm watching right now was actually played yesterday. but, i'm watching a replay of it, so who cares? but, as i was looking around stuff, i stumbled on the final results. so, at half time of this game i knew the final. but i'm still watching.)
early on (not sure minute) brasil scores, but it's called back on a terrible offsides call. replays show that brasil was clearly onside.

24th minute - nery castillo scores for mexico.

holy crap, i'm writing about the '99 game, looking up rosters, not really paying attention and all of a sudden...goooooooooooooooooooooooooollll! mexico 2-0. off a nice set piece ramon morales buries it in the back of the net in the 29th minute. sick bend from outside the box, over the wall. positively nasty stuff.

so, it's 2-0 mexico @ medio tiempo.

54th minute - nice shot from brasil, but also a nice save by the mexican keeper. this is the 2nd good shot of the half, although neither has found net.

55th minute, mexico almost finds net again. but, it was a great save on what turned out to be an offsides shot.

61st minute - brasil has an amazing chance in the run of play. great shot and an amazing save. ochoa is really showing some skills here. he's turned back several really good attempts, but this one was awesome.

74th minute - brasil cornerkick, perfect header down, foot save by mexican defender. wow.

92nd minute - mexico has wide open breakaway and misses badly. but, this turns out to be the final play of the game. mexico wins 2-0.

a good day for football

the copa america started earlier this week. i'm excited because:
a) the u.s. is playing, and has been playing very well as of late. it'll be good to see how we do outside of our region (gold cup champs!)
b) i have cable and a good work schedule.

so, we got cable last summer basically because i wanted to watch as much world cup as i could. we kept it because we liked it, and it wasn't too expensive. this has greatly enhanced the amount of soccer that i've been able to watch, from champions league, to the premiership, to mls, to our national side. i already loved the game, but being able to see so much has deepened my appreciation.

anyway, today's a good day to watch. mexico vs brasil just started. brasil was already denied a goal on a terrible offsides call. when it played live, i thought the call was fine, but on the replay, the brasilian was clearly onsides. oh well, i'm sure this won't be brasil's only chance.
parguay & colombia play @ 3:30 - not a match that i must see, but probably will just to see how other teams in the tourney are looking.
and then, at 5:30, the u.s. is playing argentina. this will be a straight into the frying pan situation for the u.s. as i mentioned earlier, we're looking good, but how good? and, will we capitalize on our chances? can't wait to see.


(this reminds me, i need to go to a game soon. we haven't been to a fuego game since they cut our friend nick. there's a game this friday evening, i think i might go. after i get my new phone, that is. ooooh, and fresno is playing bakos on saturday july 14 @ 7:30. maybe our bakos friends should come up for that.)

finally, real madrid fired their coach. wha? winning the spanish title for the first time in like 4 years wasn't good enough?

england snatches draw from the jaws of victory

so, i watched the game today, on tape as i mentioned earlier. england vs brazil. overall, it wasn't a bad match. bit of back and forth action, some exciting moments, some bland. beckham played well, but i don't think he should be knighted.

owens, despite his insisting that he would, failed to score. although, he did have a nice header off of beck's foot. (these vids are rather low tech)


england got on the board later off of another beckham freekick. former england captain to current one (john terry).


but, alas, england let brazil hang around. and, just into stoppage time they equalized.


in other soccer news, the scotish side i follow beat the u.s. side i follow.

some friday random goodness

so, i wanted to post about a couple of things that aren't really all that important.

first, i'm listening to the radio (jim rome - the jungle) and i hear this commercial. no, it's not the one advertising my time share. it's one of these onstar ads. now, you may not know this, but now the offer a turn by turn direction service so you don't need a gps or whatever. anyway, the commercial that i just heard annoys me. and it annoys me every time i hear it. essentially, this guy calls in and asks for directions to some place. as they start to give him directions, he interrupts to tell the operator that he actually knows the directions, he just wanted to use the service. the operator is like, "i know, it's great. call us any time. we're idiots here with nothing to do." well, i may have added that last line. but, really, if you're that operator, wouldn't you be thinking, "hey guy, we're not your monkeys, just sitting around waiting for you to boss us around. we could be unlocking doors, or calling emergency services for people who have crashed into a ditch." really, this is the real phone call that they picked to advertise their service? some guy bothering your operator with an unnecessary call. sign me up, i've got plenty o' free time to annoy people. would i get labeled and then have a boy that called wolf situation?

second, england is playing brazil today. or, as they have it on the spanish channel i'll be watching, inglaterra vs brasil. alas, i'll be watching via tape delay, as i have something to do from about 12-2 when the game is on. but i'll catch my tape after that. michael owen insists that he'll score today. we'll see. we will see. i'm also interested to see how beckham plays. he set up a really nice goal for real madrid the other day.

finally, i saw this cat sleeping in our gutter this morning.



wha? he's not sleeping? anyone know who you call to get that taken care of? city? spca?