Football season is here!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again. Football season is here! SuperBowl champions Saints host the Vikings tonight, in a really awesome matchup, before all hell breaks loose this Sunday.
I’ll be supporting the Giants, as usual. Here’s to a fun, successful season.
The Saints, football’s World Champions
Last night, the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl XLIV, defeating the Indianapolis Colts and becoming the World Champions for the first time in their history. Here’s the story, in pictures.
This is why soccer should use instant replays
France qualified for World Cup 2010 after scoring the equalizer following a blatant handball from Thierry Henry, in the extratime of the playoff game against Ireland. This is the reason why instant replays should be used in soccer. This huge mistake by the refs shattered the Irish World Cup dreams, and France goes through in a disgusting, undeserved fashion. Of course, in a normal season, a game lost because of the refs isn’t the end of the world – there are 37 other games to right the wrong. But in the extratime of a playoff game? This shouldn’t happen.
Soccer is the last of the major sports that is still surprisingly reluctant to the idea of using video replays for big decisions. America paved the way – all their major leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) use video replays for certain game moments, and, well, champions are champions because they deserve to be, not because they cheated their way to winning. Why soccer doesn’t to so, is beyond me. It’s like they don’t want to get rid of referee mistakes.
Needless to say, France quickly climbed my shitlist all the way to top three – alongside historical fellow cheaters Italy and Portugal. Hopefully they’ll have a miserable World Cup. It’s not like they deserve to be there, anyway.
Enough is enough
I have always been against the Romanian way of dealing with soccer coaches: a couple of bad results, and the coach is fired. That’s stupid and irresponsible, because no new coach can impose his style on a team in less than at least a year. Whenever a new coach is hired, he should have enough time to change things, bring new players, new tactics. But Romanian owners are too eager for immediate results to understand it’s pretty much impossible for any coach out there to turn a messy team around in such short time.
However, Rafa Benitez has had plenty of time. 5 years, lots of money, (almost) all the transfers he wanted. He turned FC Liverpool from a British club into a semi-Spanish team by bringing in his favorite Latin players, won a Champions League trophy on the way, but failed miserably at exactly the job he was hired for, in the first place: bring the title back. Heck, at least contend for the title. In 5 seasons, the Reds were real contenders only once (last year).
This season seems the worst of all. The team lies mid-table in the Premier League – already 11 points behind leaders Chelsea, needs a miracle to go through the Champions League, and, worst of all, plays like crap. Sure, we won against the Scum (aka Manchester United), but lately we did that on a consistent basis anyway. Sure, there have been plenty of injuries. And plenty of bad luck. But this is no excuse for this miserable season.
Considering it’s highly unlikely for Rafa to do the right thing – quit -, hopefully the owners will realize sooner rather than later that there’s no light at the end of this tunnel. If Rafa hasn’t been able to do the job for the last 5 years, it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to do it.
I say, get rid of him, bring a new coach and give him enough time to impose his style, so that maybe, just maybe, next season we’ll be contenders.
Football season is here!
After too many, too long months of staring at the walls and watching baseball, Football Season is here! The World Champions Steelers meet the Titans, tonight @ 3.30 AM (Romanian time) in the first game of the season.
And, to add to the excitement of the next amazing 5 months, here’s a bunch of pics from last year’s Superbowl.
Kobe, dredg and Rishloo
Aimless web surfing can make you find amazing things. First, I just noticed that Kobe Bryant (yes, the Kobe Bryant) recently added to his official MySpace page the song “Mourning this Morning” from Dredg’s new album. Now that’s some funky shit. Then, I just stumbled upon a new, unsigned band that blew me away. They’re named Rishloo, they have 2 self-released albums, they sound a bit like A Perfect Circle (not too much tho), and their music is simply amazing. You should really check’em out. Also, don’t forget about “The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion”. It’s still the best music I’ve heard in a long time. Oh, and Mars Volta’s new album is just around the corner. Busy summer for cool music.
How to waste 93 million euros
It’s official: I hate Real Madrid. They just bought the most overrated cheating prick in football, and they paid 93 million euros for him. Now that’s stupid. They could have used the money for Messi – an obviously better player who, incidentally, doesn’t cheat and has traces of common sense. They could have used the money for anyone in the world – hell, they could have gotten two – three top players. Nope. They bring in an arrogant cheater who, despite flashes of brilliance, is not the best player in the world, and is not worth that much money. Now they have Ronaldo and Kaka stepping on each others toes – clearly not a recipe for success.
On the good side of things: the Premier League suddenly became a cleaner league.
My RG Experience
Printr-o bafta incredibila, am reusit sa fac rost de un bilet pentru ziua de luni la Roland Garros – eveniment sold-out de citeva luni bune. Am avut astfel ocazia sa iau parte la unul din cele mai mari 4 turnee de tenis din lume, si sa-i vad, printre altii, pe Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Gael Monfils, Sorana Cirstea, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova si Tommy Robredo. A fost o zi minunata, intr-o locatie minunata. Here are some pics.
Pe una din aleile de la intrare…
Arena Lenglen de afara…
Niste terase…
Intrarea de pe Chatrier…
Intrarea de la muzeul RG…
Directii si distante 
Vederea de la locul meu…
Me & Sorana
Andy Roddick la antrenament…
Andy Roddick plecind de la antrenament…
Andy Murray la antrenament…
O zi incheiata cu victoria Soranei in fata locului 5 WTA, Jelena Jankovic, dupa un meci absolut memorabil – considerat unul din cele mai frumoase ale anului, un meci la care inca nu imi vine sa cred ca am asistat pe viu.
Jelena Dokic vine la Bucuresti!
Tenismena mea favorita, Jelena Dokic, va participa la turneul challenger ce va avea loc la Bucuresti, intre 4-10 mai. Needless to say, I’m gonna be there
Anul asta e pentru prima oara cind Bucurestiul gazduieste un turneu WTA cit de cit decent. Chiar daca e doar challenger, premiile destul de mari (100.000 USD) au atras mai multe tenismene de valoare, pe linga Dokic mai participand Sania Mirza, Emilie Loit, Stephanie Foretz sau Marta Domachowska.
