A Father's Love For The World Cup

The World Cup is down to the Semifinals with tomorrow’s Brazil-Germany match and Wednesdays Netherlands-Argentina match with the winners moving on to the Final on Sunday July 13^th. At this point, with the way that the final four teams are playing, it could go any way. If Silva wasn’t out with his second yellow card and Neymar out with a back injury I would have picked Brazil to take it all but with those loses any of the four teams can win the title.

 

To celebrate the final leg of the World Cup I am going to post up some of my recent soccer pick ups. As I have said before the 2014 Prizm World Cup release is one of my favorite releases of the year so I am targeting these cards to build a set. One of the things that bothers me about this set is the flood of parallels but that doesn’t mean I don’t mind picking some up from time to time and here are the three Father’s Day parallels that I picked up this past week. The cards were inserted in to Panini’s Father’s Day packs and are #/7 each. The cards are exactly the same as the base cards except for the "Panini Limited Edition" on the front and the #/7 on the back.

 

While the top named players Father’s Day parallels are selling for well over $150 there are plenty that are selling for less than $5 with shipping. Together these cards cost me a total of $9.05, including the shipping.

 

First up is Alexandre Song

 

 If it were not for Suarez biting Italy’s Chiellini on the shoulder during a match Song would have taken the “A-Hole of the World Cup” award. He was beyond physical, hitting and punching other players during his two games. He received a red card against Croatia and was banned for 3 games by FIFA. He is currently at the center of an investigation, along with 6 other Cameroon players, by Cameroon‘s football federation for fixing World Cup matches. It was no surprise that I was the only bidder of this card and it cost me .99 cents and $2.50 shipping.

 

Next up is Joao Moutinho

 

Moutinho is a solid player but no goals, no assists and being overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo on a Portuguese team that did not advance past group play kept his card prices very reasonable. I was happy to pick up this card for $2.25 shipped.

 

Finally is Igor Akinfeev

 

Akinfeev is by no means the best goalie at the World Cup but in the first two games he gave up only 2 goals and with Russia needing a win over South Korea to move along he had to become a brick wall. If you want to surmise Akinfeev’s World Cup experience just watch Korea’s Keun-Ho Lee’s long distance goal in the 69^th minute. Just plain ugly goalkeeping but it worked out in my favor, .99 cents plus $2.32 shipped and I was able to catch and keep the card in my hand.

Panini Goes Dancing For The World Cup

Building on the opening matches of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil Panini has released an unannounced parallel to their insanely popular 2014 FIFA World Cup Prizm release. The “El Samba” (The Dance) parallel are all 1/1 and use a green and yellow printing pattern that was not used in the Prizm release. They will also be releasing an autograph El Samba parallel over the next couple of weeks.

 

The cards are only available on Panini’s eBay store beginning with a 99 cent opening bid and each day a new set of 10 cards will be available for 3-day auctions. The releases will correspond with World Cup games, which run through July 13^th.  I would expect players like Neymar, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Arjen Robben and Landon Donovan to demand a premium.

 

I think this is a pretty cool idea, it has worked well for Leaf and so far the first couple of rounds are doing well. The only negative mark in my book is the shipping charges, because Panini is using Fed Ex Ground they are charging $10.77 on shipping alone., the first couple of days they were actually charging $15 for shipping so I guess it has gotten better. If the shipping wasn't so high I would definitely bid on some of the cards.

The U.S. National Team Is Set

With the recent announcement of the 23 players who will make up the U.S. National Soccer team that will appear in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil next month there were a couple of names surprisingly left off.

 

In early May the 30-man roster was announced and ex-Seattle Sounder Eddie Johnson was left off.  Over the past two seasons in Seattle, Johnson scored 23 goals and last year scored 5 goals in 15 appearances for the US team. I am bummed by this because Johnson has been a part of the National team since U-17 in 2000.

I think the biggest surprise though was the snub of Landon Donovan off of the final 23-player team heading to Brazil. This has caused an outrage in the soccer community, yes Donovan is getting a little long in the tooth (32-years old) but he also has 57 goals in 164 appearances making him #1 All-Time US scorer which includes 8 goals last year in 11 appearances.

The only reason that could have led to his being left off of the team, besides age, could be the perception that he has a lack of heart. In 2012 he announced that he wasn’t planning on going to Brazil for the World Cup and last year during the qualifying stages he took time off from the team.

Either way most people are surprised by the decision by coach Jurgen Klinsmann but we will see if his selection of youth over experience works out.

Pele In My Pocket

Edison Arantes do Nascimento is among the pantheon of football gods. Before names like Neymar, Ronaldo and Messi, before even Beckham and Maradona there was Pele. The name strikes awe among players and fans alike. Over a twenty year career playing for the Brazilian National Team, Santos Futebol Clube and the New York Cosmos he won awards, trophies and even three World Cup titles.

 

Pele is known the world over for his skills, in 1967 there was a ceasefire during the Nigerian Civil War so the soldiers could watch him play a game in Lagos. He even took on the dreaded Nazis and won (not really) when he stared in the 1981 film Escape to Victory along with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.

 

I was a little kid in New York during his time with the Cosmos and every kid on my soccer teams tried his bicycle kick, usually to humorous results and very little scoring. I have been a Pele fan since. When 2013 A&G was released his relics were readily available to all fans and I was able to pick one up, along with a regular base card and missing text variation, for a great price.

 

On a side note, this 2013 Topps Tier One Pele autograph is about the most badass autograph card available. Topps designers nailed it, they used Brazil’s green and yellow national colors, which also happen to be two of the three colors of the Cosmos logo too. The card is well outside of my budget but I do appreciate its beauty.

 

Early Preview: 2013-14 Topps Premier Gold Soccer

In December Topps will be bringing us football from across the pond, which would be soccer to us kooky Americans. The high-end 2013-2014 Topps Premier Gold Soccer, which promises a hit per pack, will contain ten packs and you will pull 5 autographs and 5 relic cards.

 

The base set has a 100-card checklist with 19 of the 20 English Premier League teams being represented; poor Norwich City was left to pout alone. Each base card will have 5 parallels; Green (#/99), Orange (#/11), Platinum (1/1), Premier Gold (1/1) and Printing Plates (1/1).

 

There will be five insert sets with each insert card having five parallels (the same set up as the base card inserts). The inserts will be: Future Stars (Young footballers), Hot Shots (Top scorers), Midfield Maestros (Top midfielders), Shot-Stoppers (Top goalies) and Tough Tacklers (Top defenders).

There will be a couple of different autograph sets, essentially sub sets, which will all have five parallels. Memorabilia sets will be broken up with Single Relics, Jumbo Relics (#/99), Dual Relics (#/49), Triple Relics (#/20) and Quad Relics (#/11). The Single, Jumbo and Dual relics will have three parallels; Orange (#/11), Gold (#/5) and Platinum (1/1).

 

Some of the players who are confirmed to be on either the autograph or relic checklist are Pele, Tim Howard and Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Lionel Messi Lights Up The UEFA Champions League

Last night Lionel Messi, currently one of the best footballers (soccer to us Americans) in the world, scored 5 goals in a UEFA Champions League match leading FC Barcelona to a 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Now take in to consideration that Bayer Leverkusen is not a crappy team, they are in the Top 5 of the German Bundesliga (Germany's top soccer league) and is the #2 team in Group E of the UEFA Champions League (The top teams in Europe). This was by no means a bully beat down by Barcelona but a serious match of decent teams.

Messi is a world-class athlete whose cards sell for some insane numbers, though not as common in the U.S. Only a handful of Messi’s cards have been released in the U.S. in Panini World Cup sets (and the 2010 Sticker set) and Panini’s Adrenalyn XL card game, none of which sell from much. His Futera cards, a Dubai-based card company known for upper end product, go for a significantly higher amount with his relics selling over $50 and autographs for hundreds.

For Messi collectors his 2012 Futera Unique 1/1 Framed Auto card is the current card to find. This 1/1 on-card autograph with a 24-ct gold plated frame is going to go for an insane price when found. For comparison, a 2011 Futera Unique Cristiano Ronaldo autograph #/25 is selling for $1,200 BIN price.

Follow Up On Chad's MLS Dreams

Last week I wrote about Chad Ochocinco trying out for Sporting Kansas City of the MLS. After a 5 day try out he was awarded a spot on the Sporting KC reserve team. The reserve team is like the Minor Leagues in baseball, players are assigned to the minor league to work on their skills and each team plays a 10-game schedule. With MLS though, players on the reserve team are not signed to a contract and they are not paid.

After watching videos of his try out I have to say that this has to be a publicity stunt by KC. While he is fast and has the strength, stamina and quick feet he lacks the basic skills of soccer let alone the skills of a professional. He cannot trap while moving, cut or cross the ball. In one video he even had trouble dribbling and shooting. If I was a young player trying to make it in to professional soccer and I lost out on a spot because of this stunt I would be pissed. I can understand Ochocinco’s side, he loves soccer and wanted to really try and make the team plus this will keep him in great shape during the lockout but his skills do not warrant a position.

Team USA Pulls A Minor Upset

I think I heard the groans coming from thousands of English hooligans over my screams of "GOOOOAAALLLLL!!!!"

My favorite English player is now officially Robert Green.

Seattle Sounders FC

I know that soccer matches are not something that you normally would find on a sports cards blog, but I have been a Seattle Sounders fan for a number of years now and even though I can not attend the games anymore I still keep up with the team in their inaugural MLS season (prior to 2008 the Seattle Sounders were a USL First Division team until the MLS offered an expansion to Seattle).

Anyway, the Sounders FC played in a Friendly against Chelsea FC this afternoon at Qwest Field. For those who do not know, Chelsea is one of the elite teams of the world. Since 2004 the Blues have been Premier League First Division Champions twice and Runner-up twice. They won the FA Cup twice (and are currently the FA Cup Champions) and the League Cup Champions twice with 1 Runner-up. They were also European Cup Runner-up in 2008. So, to play against Chelsea FC is an honor for a first year MLS expansion team.

While the match ended as a 2-0 loss, Seattle walked away with their head held high. Chelsea scored their first goal in the 12th minute and their second goal in the 35th minute, the remainder of the game saw two balanced teams controlling the ball well including some awesome defense by D Zach Scott in the last 10 minutes of the game. An exciting match overall and while a loss is a loss, it was still a great game to watch.