Erin is getting married!

My friend Erin is getting married in September to her longtime boyfriend!

Congratulations, you two!

Our mutual friend Tom has been selected by Erin and her fiance to officiate the wedding (I didn't even know you can do that). Apparently Tom has been ordained through the Universal Life Church since 2008 and has performed another ceremony for a friend from high school.

 Thank you for making Erin Thorpe's wedding possible!

Tom told me yesterday that you can become legally ordained online for life for free. I may or may not do that.

Obligatory section on soccer stuff
WAAAMMMBAAACCCHHH! Go US Women's National Team! On to the finals we go!

Blog viewership, congrats to US national women's team, Spurs' stadium

Before I start my usual driveling soccer nonsense I would like to congratulate the US women's national team on their impressive 2-0 victory against North Korea! Not a bad way to start the Women's World Cup. While I'm sure the atmosphere is nothing compared to the male version, I wish I was in Germany to see the tournament. If nothing else it's nice to see women from around the world competing on the global stage. You go girls!

Rachel Buehler, seconds before she scores team USA's second goal

Transfer Talk
De Gea has joined Manchester United for around 18 million pounds! De Gea has massive, massive shoes (or should I say cleats?) to fill... I'm glad to have been around to see Van der Saar play.

To add further convolution to the Alexis Sanchez race, Manchester City has dropped their interest for the Udinese winger. Gaaaaah. Welcome to the transfer window, folks.

To briefly touch on something I addressed in yesterday's post - Barcelona FC signed a lengthy contract extension to highly-rated 20 year old Thiago Alcantara with a buyout clause of a whopping 90 million Euros! I hope for the sake of some poor team's checkbook that no one ever tries to pony up that much cash.

Increasing blog viewership
I've been trying to find ways to increase this blog's viewership. Does anyone have any ideas?

So far I've looked into blog directories like Technorati and I'm trying to figure out how to follow other blogs.

Any tips are greatly appreciated! I'd like to increase overall viewership to more than three views!

Tottenham Olympic Stadium bid rejected
Tottenham Hotspurs, the greatest club on Earth, have had their bid for the right to inherit London's Olympic Stadium after the 2012 Olympics. While the Spurs have the opportunity to have an oral hearing in London's High Court to plead their case, Justice Davis' decision to reject their bid makes the chances of Tottenham finally moving on from White Hart Lane look slim.
It appears as if the stadium is to go to West Ham at the moment, an unfortunate decision given that they were relegated and the end of last season and their supporters are, in general, a bunch of thugs.

Boise is beautiful
I've found that many people who have never been to Boise think that it is a pretty boring and ugly place. This picture should at least refute the latter of those two claims.

Thanks for reading, folks!


Keep kickin'!

Cristiano Ronaldo was recently christened 2011's "Mr. Perfect"

While some (justifiably) claim that he is a baby, it's hard to care

when you have two X chromosomes. Here he celebrates a goal

while playing for Portugal.

More transfer gossip, German soccer, and listing

Transfer Talk
The 45 million Euro buyout fee for 19 year old Brazilian starlet and international player Neymar has been agreed to FIVE teams. You can probably already guess who some of them are.

 Like it or not, that haircut is probably worth more than everything you own.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Anzhi Makhachkal (a Russian first division team... who would have thunk it?) have all approached Neymar's Brazilian club team Santos and independently agreed to fork over the massive sum just to sign the player to what I'm sure will be an equally ludicrous contract.
Figures like these are disgusting, even for a young person like myself. It's preposterous how much money can be thrown away for a single player, and I can't help but wonder when the first 100 million euro - then pound - transfer will be. But hey, that's free market capitalism for you.
Santos, interestingly, has recently made claims that Neymar wants to pull a Pele and remain in Brazil for the crux of his career. We'll see how well these statement holds up when the giant European clubs and their massive pocketbooks come calling; Pele and people who make decisions like him are a long-gone breed thanks to today's big-spending soccer mentality.

Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast international, 2010 Premier League Golden Boot winner, and all-around beast, is rumored to be on the way out of Chelsea. His departure will signal the beginning of an end of an era of Chelsea dominance, especially when Terry and Lampard also leave Stamford Bridge.

German Soccer
As promised, I will briefly share my thoughts on German soccer with you.

The 2010 World Cup proved a number of things:

• The need for goal-line and replay technology for refs to review controversial plays
• The inability of dominant teams from previous tournaments to repeat their dominance, a la Italy and France
• America's coming-of-age... that ultimately didn't get us far in the tournament
• ...And last but not least, the bright future of German soccer thanks to their young squad

The youngest team in the tournament propelled their country to their second straight third place finish. The same squad demolished mature and highly skilled opponents like England and Argentina. Spain's current dominance may soon be threatened by this strong German side thanks to players like Sami Khedira, Thomas Muller, Marko Marin, and Mesut Ozil.

Mesut Ozil, the somewhat un-hailed German wunderkind

The unsurprising post-World Cup swoop for Ozil and Khedira by Real Madrid, and those two players' subsequent success in La Liga, demonstrates just how high-quality young German players are. I am looking forward to Euro 2012 to see if these players can repeat their spectacular performance!

Also, Mesut Ozil can juggle his gum.

Anyway, see you next time with more marginally insightful soccer talk! ANNIE OUT.

Keep kickin'!

Blumer Elano taking a penalty kick for Manchester City.

I was reminded by this whole Neymar affair that Elano, a Brazilian international and

reminder of how multiracial of a place Brazil is, now plays club soccer in his home

county with Santos. Under-rated player, if you ask me.

More transfer talk, Peter Crouch is a goof, thank you German viewer

At the risk of being mundanely repetitive, I hope to discuss summer transfer window gossip with every post I make. So, without further ado...

Transfer Talk

It seems like long-time Manchester United target De Gea is finally heading toward Old Trafford. The Red Devils' recent keeper transfer drama (which is somewhat understandable given the difficulty of replacing a keeper like Van der Saar) is hopefully now at an end.

David De Gea, finally Manchester-bound

Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez appears to be no closer to a big summer move to the Premier League - or anywhere, for that matter - as the ever-shifting spectrum of club interest now puts Manchester City in the lead in the race to acquire his services.

Karim Benzema, Real Madrid striker and French international, has issued a warning to fierce rivals FC Barcelona that their time as kings of La Liga - and Europe - is coming to a class. Best of luck with that, Benzema... as much as I would like to see the Catalans dethroned, Barca's current squad is probably the best I've ever seen and, absent a financial crisis, they will probably retain their dominant position for at least another season.

Peter Crouch

I briefly touched on the goofiness of Peter Crouch, the lanky Tottenham forward and England international. He is giant by both conventional and soccer standards - he stands at whopping 6'7" and has the tendency to do awkward things like do the "robot" as a goal celebration. Crouch once responded to the question "What would you be if you weren't a soccer player?" with "A virgin".

Peter Crouch, in all his skinny, goofy, giant gloriness

Crouch is a fairly decent player and has been known to produce some pretty amazing goals. He had a particularly successful season in the UEFA Champions League this year for Tottenham and helped them advance farther in the tournament than they had ever gone before. Crouch's overall career with the Spurs has been less than productive; he has scored around once every four appearances.

Thank you, German viewer

This blog has been viewed a grand total of one time since I started it on Friday. So, while I didn't create this blog to get people to read about me and my thoughts, it does feel a little like I'm muttering to myself in a gloomy corner of the internet. This, in turn, feels like a step or two closer to insanity than I would like to be thank you very much.

The one mystery viewer this blog has had came from Germany. So, while I will never know about or meet you, mystery viewer, I will devote my next post to my thoughts on your country's soccer (and boy, do I have things to say on that subject).

Other random stuff
There are only around two months left of my summer break! This means:

• school is fast approaching (FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-)
• BSU football is just around the corner! Can't wait.

ALSO - my dear friend and former classmate Erin is now engaged! Her long-time boyfriend proposed to her yesterday at the end of a weekend-long backpacking trip. Congratulations Erin and Matt!

I realized this morning that I forgot to include the name and information of the player whose picture I posted at the end of my last post. It was Diego Forlan, the Uruguay international and Atletico Madrid goal-scoring machine who won the Golden Boot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

See you next time, folks.

Keep kickin'!

Portuguese soccer great Luis Figo warming up at Camp Nou after transferring from

FC Barcelona to Real Madrid FC. "More than a club" indeed. Later, this

was thrown at Figo as he attempted to take a corner kick:

No, seriously. Rabid Barca fans threw a pig head at Figo.

Tottenham transfer talk, summer in Boise

So word on the street (aka ESPN's Soccernet) is that Harry Redknapp won't be able to make any summer purchases without selling four to five players first. Dire news for the Spurs faithful, I'm afraid. As much as I hate to admit it, it may be necessary to sell the Croatian wunderkind Luka Modric in order to gather up the funds necessary for big summer transfer window deals. Either that or we can sell wastes-of-space players like Pavlyuchenko and scratch up bargain-bin deals like Pienaar from the January window (thank you, Everton, for not offering him the wages he demand). And while we undoubtedly need the attacking options up front - lord knows Peter "The Goof" Crouch can't score more than a handful a season - I don't see the logic in the Spurs' management's decision to go after high profile and equally high priced players like Aguero and Rossi.

 

Luka Modric, diminutive soccer Jesus.

In other news, check out this goal celebration by Seattle Sounders FC forward Roger Levesque. It appears as if the boys in rave green had a field day against the NY Red Bulls on Thursday night, and this celebration topped it off. Good stuff.

In other, non-soccer news, the weather is really heating up here in Boise. I took a dip with some friends in Lucky Peak Lake yesterday (@Ashley @Almeera @Stacy) and it felt grrrrreeeat. Bring on the heat, I'm ready for it! (though I suppose it doesn't hurt I spend close to 40 hours a week in an air conditioned office during the summer)

I've been thinking about ways to sign off at the end of every blog post and I've settled on the following: "Keep kickin'!" I also hope to leave you with a picture of a favorite player being all soccer-y at the end of every post as well. 

So, for the inaugural sign-off:

Keep kickin'!

Hello, world!

Hello, everyone!

A professor in a Communications class I took last semester suggested I create a blog because "it's the next big thing for digital communications." So, here we are - Annie's World: a collection of random thoughts, ideas, and writing experiments to be enjoyed by all.

I'll be honest - this could easily turn into an outlet for me to rave about the greatest football club in the world - Tottenham Hotspurs FC. How did someone from Idaho become a die-hard fan of an English soccer club? My dad was born and raised in the heart of North London and practically has the motto "To Dare is to Do" etched onto his heart; this passion has been passed onto me.

For those who don't know about the Spurs, I'll leave you with this video. It's a highlight from a UEFA Champions League clash between the Spurs and the previous year's champions (Inter Milan - wusses). The guy who (spoiler alert) scores the goal is Gareth Bale, a Welsh dreamboat who could very well be the next big thing in English soccer. If you'd like to see really cool version of the above video, click here.

Anyway, thanks for reading this. I hope to post once or twice a week, so if you're looking for frequent insights into the wonderful world of English soccer this blog will provide fulfillment.