US Soccer lands in South Africa

As an avid soccer fan and player for over 25 years, I am down right gitty about the start of WC 2010. I cant remember the last time there was so much expectation around the US national team. Bob Bradley has assembled a diverse team of both experience and talent and I love the late additions of Torres and Findley. People will underestimate the loss of Charlie Davies, who in my opinion was the best striker we had on the team, especially playing next to his close friend Josie Altidore. Having Onyewu healthy would also give me much more optimism in this years tournament, but his presence and experience should still help the back line stand just strong enough to help them get out of the group. Tim Howard is an absolute beast in net and his leadership and experience in the EPL will go a long way. Dempsey also had a strong year in the EPL and Donavon's 2 month loan at Everton worked out much better than anyone could of dreamed of. Could this team build off their strong confederations cup and make another run to the quarterfinals ala the 2002 bunch, only time will tell. What I do know is, I will be tuned into every minute of every game, one game can change everything.

Ah, to be a professional soccer player..

Adidas recently revealed its new soccer ball name "Jabulani" meaning "to celebrate" just in time for WC 2010 in South Africa. Initial reaction to the ball from many of the worlds top international players has been very negative, citing the ball as a disaster and something that would be sold at your local supermarket. Now I don't know about any of you, but if I was coming home to something like this every night
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1004/soccer.wags/content.1.html, I wouldn't give a shit if the soccer ball I was playing with was made out of cement or a frigging ball of glue. Boy, these professional footballers sure have it rough!! So with that being said, you can find me working on my juggling in the back yard daydreaming of my future supermodel wife.

Scherzer slings a Gemmm

Just weeks after getting demoted to the minors, the 25 year old Max Scherzer returnes with a vengeance to retire 14 batters in just 5 and 2/3's innings, becomming the first Tigers pitcher with at least 14K's since Jeremy Bonderman did it in 2004. Welcome back mad Max, we all know the Tigers rotation could use it. Now if you could just get the rest of the staff (verlander withstanding) to pull their heads out of their asses, we might have a real shot this year.