Tag: Soccer

  • Euro Cup 2024 – A Casual Fan’s Impressions – Round of 16 Day 1 and Day 2

    The Group Stage was fun, but the Knock Out Rounds is why were all here. The best players step up, and the drama! So much drama!

    Day 1

    Switzerland v Italy

    I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that Italy would play so flat. The Italians played like a team that snuck into this round, while Switzerland behaved like they expect to make a deep run.

    Germany v Denmark

    I do have a soft spot for Denmark, but there was no way Germany was going to lose this match. Yeah, Germany clearly thinks this is their tournament.

    Day 2

    England v Slovakia

    Now, here was your drama match. Won’t lie, I was pulling for England, and for 80 minutes, they were playing to lose. England may have better players, but Slovakia was the better team. And yet, when England needed them, the better players showed up and have four amazing minutes. Bellingham and Kane are two dangerous players, and you can never count them out, or forget about them on the pitch. A goal in the last thirty seconds in stoppage time. A goal in the first few minutes of extra time. Slovakia played a better match, but games like this are why international tournaments are so much fun. Drama, drama, drama!

    Spain v Georgia

    For a few minutes, it looked like this might be a huge upset, and then Spain started playing. There really wasn’t much Georgia could do to stop Spain. Yeah, Spain is planning on winning this whole thing.

    Thoughts:

    Well, the England win was tons of fun, but I don’t think they will get by Switzerland. England has a couple days to figure out how to play like a team, and if they don’t Switzerland will pick them apart

    And Spain against Germany might just well be the match of the tournament; who wins this one will most likely win in all. I’m clearing my calendar for this one.

  • UPDATED: Euro Cup 2024 – Day 1 to Day 4 – A Casual Fan’s Impressions

    We are now pretty much through the first round of Group Stage matches, and the Euro Cup is playing out pretty much the way I thought it would go. No huge surprises, or stunning upsets, but it is still early. As such, in my very casual fan way, here are my impressions of what has gone on:

    Day 1:

    Germany v Scotland

    There were two surprises in this match. First was the Red Card, which was deserved, but shocking that in the first game of the whole tournament a red card was handed out. The second surprise was the own goal by Germany, as it looked like they were about to complete a rout of Scotland with a clean sheet, but oops! In the end, Germany played like the home team, expecting to win the Cup.

    Day 2:

    Hungary v Switzerland

    Sorry everybody, I had errands that I had to run, so I missed it. I had a feeling Switzerland would win though.

    Spain v Croatia

    So, Spain has a chip on its shoulder and went out there to make a statement with their win. The story everyone wants to talk about is Spain’s 17-year-old starter Lamine Yamal, who got an assist in the match, and though he looks like a baby out there, he certainly knows how to play like a pro. What I saw was a squad that, like Germany, is expecting to win the Cup.

    Italy v Albania

    I was excited to see this Italian team, as they did win the last Euro Cup, for on the whole, it’s a completely different team. I think I read that only seven players remain from the 2021 team. I wasn’t very impressed with them, even though they did win. Now, either Italy isn’t as good as people say, or Albania is better than what most think.

    Day 3:

    Poland v Netherlands

    Thanks for nothing FS1! Sure, I would love to watch Euro 2024, but I don’t have FS1 so that didn’t happen. But, I was expecting the Dutch to win.

    Slovenia v Denmark

    Again, FS1 sucks. But, I was excited that Christian Eriksen got Denmark’s first goal of the tournament. (Eriksen was a Tottenham player, so I have a soft spot for the guy, and also, he had a cardiac arrest during the Euro Cup in 2021, which was shocking and scary as shit to watch happen live. Eriksen’s a fighter – recovered, returned to professional football, and earned a spot-on Denmark’s 2024 team.) But Slovenia tied the match. I would love to tell you more… but I don’t get FS1…

    Serbia v England

    This was the match I was looking forward to. I’m pulling for England, which might also mean that my support has doomed this team. I believe in the hype, and if you do that, then you left that match feeling a tad let down by the Three Lions. Sure, they won, but it wasn’t a rock-solid performance. Defense was shaky, and it looked like England had a hard time getting the ball to Harry Kane. Thankfully, Bellingham is there.

    Day 4:

    Romania v Ukraine

    Don’t know… As the match was on some channel that I don’t get… Romania won.

    Belgium v Slovakia

    Also, on a channel I don’t get. But was surprised that Belgium was shut out.

    Austria v France

    Looking forward to this. France has a good shot at taking the Cup, as they are always competitive. It’s starts in a few minutes, so I might update in a bit.

    UPDATE:

    Austria and France was the Euro Cup match I had been waiting for. That was fun and dramatic, heartbreaking for the Austria own goal, and then there was Mbappe getting a broken nose. If I was Austria, I would feel pretty good about myself, or as good as I could feel by losing to France because of an own goal. Austria played well against one of the best teams in the world, and they had several chances to score. As for France, I am sure they are holding their breath to find out had bad Mbappe’s nose is. I’m sure he’ll be back for the knockout stage, but then that means France needs to get to the knockout stage without him. Either way, Group D will be very exciting to follow.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Euro Cup, Summer Playlist, and Driving Up the West Side Highway at 8am

    (Don’t break the spell…)

    Today is the first day of the Euro Cup. Germany is playing Scotland, and I know nothing about the Scottish squad, so I’m putting my money on Germany. And if this is your first time following me through an international sports tournament, then I need to let you know from the beginning that I have a cursory understanding of these teams, but I make up for it with blind enthusiasm! Also, there’s only so much baseball I can watch during the summer, so I need another sporting competition. But most annoyingly, I will be supporting England, which might be a tad pedestrian for an American football fan, but I really want to see Harry Kane win a cup; Any cup at this point.

    As per my family tradition for summer, the wife and I make Summer Playlists for all the traveling we’ll be doing, especially in the car. This year, the kid is adding her own playlist to the mix. She’s graduated beyond suggesting songs, and actually has some eclectic picks of her own. I have yet to start creating my playlist, but I have a feeling it will be Beatle heavy, with some grunge slipped in there.

    It was a cool morning today, and I needed to pick our car up from shop after it got its annual tuneup. The shop is in that weird area of Manhattan that’s not Hell’s Kitchen, nor is it Midtown West, but what it does afford me is easy access to getting on the West Side Highway to head home to Harlem. And on a Friday morning, there’s no one heading north, so I could put the windows down, blast my music, and have a few moments of enjoying driving; Manhattan to my right, and the Hudson, New Jersey and the rest of America to my left.

  • I’m a Soccer Dad, Now

    This past weekend, the wife and I reached a huge milestone in our parenting adventure; we attended our daughter’s first soccer match. Actually, it was a mini soccer tournament between different elementary schools, which meant that we sat through seven, ten-minute matches. (It was co-ed teams that played five on five.) Though the day was colder than we expected, we had a good time watching, and the kid’s team came in second place.

    But getting back to the point – the kid is now at the age where she is playing sports that have games. This isn’t like the sports classes we put her in when she was little, where the kids learn how to dribble a basketball, or pass a soccer ball. Nope, she’s on a team that plays games, therefore these kids will experience winning and losing, and all the emotions that come with that. It is a bit of a rite of passage.

    And that passage has begun for some of the families there. When the tournament started, and teams began to be eliminated, kids started crying. By my observation; all the crying was coming from the boys. Even on my daughter’s team, when they lost the final by one goal, everyone was disappointed, but only the boys sat down and cried.

    My kid, and she is very competitive, wasn’t happy at first, but once the sting of losing wore off, she started getting more philosophical about the whole thing. She told us that second place was better than how the four other teams did, and getting to the final is pretty impressive. It also helped that she went home with a medal, which was her first, and is hanging up on her wall.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Project Management, Love for Bill Withers, and Watching Soccer

    (When I wake up in the morning…)

    We are going to try running our family’s schedule and tasks by using a project management app. ( And in a related story; The robots are winning the war against humanity… or I should stop worrying and learn to love the efficiency that our new robot overlords provide.) There is so much going on right now that the wife and I are having a hard time wrapping our arms, and minds, around it all. We started out joking about using a PM app to help us, but then it started to settle in that maybe this wasn’t so terrible of an idea. I’m not totally comfortable with running our family like a project/business as that sounds lifeless and bland. Yet, the other side of it is that I keep running behind on everything, or feel like events or holidays sneak up on me, and then feel overwhelmed with trying to get it all done, but it just feels half-assed. Our hope is that we can get ahead of things, which in the end, will allow us more time to do… nothing. Just sit on our ass.

    The Simpsons Lisa Floreda Sticker - Sticker Mania

    And this is my personal nightmare – That I will forget that I promised the kid I would help her with a project, have to half-ass it the night before, and then I end up sending her to school like this – Lisa’s “Floreda” Costume

    Just felt like today was a good day to remind us all of how great Bill Withers is.

    We are going to watch so much soccer this weekend. No Tottenham this weekend, but the kid wants to watch NJ/NY Gotham, and she’s got a school soccer tournament to play in. I think I am slowly making the kid a soccer fan.