SOCCER!!

For anyone's who's never met me... I love soccer. And when the world cup gets near... I just get really really really really really really really really really excited. It sends me into this frenzied state when that's all I can think about. I just wanna work out all the angles and look at all the rosters and such.

So anyway, today I appeased my soccer yearning and went to the fifa world cup 2010 website - http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html . For anyone who's completely soccer oblivious, the month of amazing soccer will take place in South Africa this year (fubuzela haters beware). This adds a nice african flair to the cup, as the home side does their "diski dance". There are six african teams, including South Africa with their automatic bid. Many of these teams will be great spoilers and remote contendors, like the Ghana of four years ago.

I believe the two bet\st teams in contention are Italy and Germany. If both sides can maintain or improve on the kind of game they played in Germany four years ago, soccer fans are in for a treat.

Now a shameless plug for my favorite Serie A team - Juventus. I just want to note that there are nine of them on Italia's preliminary world cup squad. In total, eleven Juve players will be taking part in the world cup. They include GianLuigi Buffon (best goalkeeper in the world, and a heck of a name... just say that a couple of times... GianLuigi, GianLuigi...), Felipe Melo, Martin Caceres, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chellini (love him!) Fabio Grosso, Mauro Camoranesi, Antonio Candreva, Claudio Marchisio, Vicenzo Iaquinta (also love him), and Christien Poulson. One of my most favoritest defenders, Nicola Legrottaglie, was left out so that another striker, Guiseppe Rossi, could be added (I hope this is not a sign of a change of mentality on the Italian side - they are wonderful defensive team and should not sacrifice that).

Finally, a few observations...
 - No czechs? :( No Nedved. :(
 - A whole damn ton of the players for all of the international teams play their club soccer in Italy. Point proven, Italy is the soccer capital of the world.
 - Do I sense some animosity? There are no french (club team) players on the Italian squad (thank god, french players suck and are whiney crybabies) and no Italian (club team) players on the french squad. And yes, I do refuse to capitalize "french". They don't deserve it. Damn sore loser crybabies. Dont worry french team, Matterazzi wont be there to tease you and make you all angry inside. Babies.
- Diego "hand of God" Maradona is the Argentina coach. Interesting.
- Only one player on Italy's squad plays club soccer outside Italy. Really, why go anywhere else?
- Many squads are remarkably similar to their 2006 versions. Maybe we'll have the same result. :)
- No Ruud van Nistelrooy? Guess we'll have to laugh at someone else's name. :)

And yes, I want Italy to win. Go Azzuri!!!

ITALIA, ITALIA, ITALIA...!!!