I *heart* soccer...

Our intramural soccer team won their first playoff game today...yay! The field was a disaster - just a huge mud puddle basically, but the other team was short players, and we had a good game overall. I did not play because my knee is still not quite right (it still hurts when I go up and down stairs), but I came out to watch. We play again tomorrow (I'll be a spectator again), and then on Wednesday if we keep winning. I think I might be able to play in the Wednesday game, so fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I actually ended up watching a lot of soccer today. On Saturday mornings, Rogers Sportnet broadcasts British Premier League soccer. I watched most of the Everton (0)/Ashton Villa (1) game, and the first half of the Manchester United (1)/Blackburn game (0). If I had to choose a favorite team in the Premiership, I would probably say Manchester United. This is partly because they are a good team, and partly because they have a very high profile, so by default they are the team I know most about. They are the team that David Beckham used to play for, and currently both Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo play for them. Now I know that most of you are not the soccer lovers I am, but I suspect that you may have heard those three names before. During the 2006 World Cup, there was an incident involving Ronaldo and Rooney. While they play together at the club level, Ronaldo is Portugese and Rooney is British. In the England/Portugual game, Rooney apparently stomped on one of the Portugese players and was sent off (he got a red card). But Ronaldo was doing a lot of talking to the ref during this incident, basically making sure that was the final outcome (read more here). There was a lot of speculation about a rift between the two of them. During today's game they seemed to be getting along just fine, but the British crowds continue to boo poor Ronaldo everytime he gets the ball. Everytime! Now I am not Ronaldo's biggest fan, but you have to feel for the guy. He is a skilled player and definitely an asset to the team, and so I have to say it doesn't make so much sense to boo him anymore.

While I am on the topic of soccer, here is one of the saddest pictures from this summer's World Cup. (Yeah, yeah, I should have started a blog when this was actually happening - you'll just have to bear with me).

That is French soccer player Zinedine Zidane, and that is the World Cup that he did not win because he lost his temper and headbutted an Italian player (you can watch the video here). Silly, silly Zizou. Doesn't matter what he said to you, you should have walked away. Zidane got the red card...

...and France lost the game :-( We have some people on our intramural team who have been that worked up before, and who have cost us the game in some cases. It is so frustrating. But today, one of our players actually got pushed in a puddle and he managed to just walk away. So proud of him!

All this soccer watching got me thinking about my humble soccer beginnings. I started playing when I was 6 years old in my hometown house league. My Dad was my coach until I was about 12 years old, and then I started playing in the Inter City league. We had a Dutch coach who spoke English badly, and who spoke French even worse. He was not someone who sugar coated things, but I liked him anyway. If you click on this link, and scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see some of the girls I used to play with when I was a kid. Read all the names...do any seem familiar? Maybe Kim St. Pierre? Yup, that's right, I used to play soccer with one of the goalies for the Canadian women's hockey team. She wasn't a goalie when we played soccer, she typically played forward or midfield. She is such a nice person, her whole family is great actually. It's so strange to think that she has been to the Olympics!

Alright, that's enough about soccer. I am off to bed. I made some good progress on my poster tonight, but I still have a stupid amount of work to do tomorrow. I am both looking forward to, and dreading this Thursday. Looking forward to it because going to Houston should be an awesome time, but dreading it because there is way too much to get done before then.

'Night!

me and julio

P.S. As you can see, Julio is also very stressed right now...

P.P.S. I STILL cannot find the issue of Rolling Stone with Jon and Stephen on the cover. If anyone sees it, please let me know...

P.P.P.S. I updated some of the link over on the right...added more knitting blogs...and blogs of friends as well...