U.S. Women's National Team Takes Home The Cup

The final whistle has blown on the Women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan and what began with the U.S. on June 8^th ends today with the U.S.W.N.T. winning the World Cup by a 5-2 score.

The U.S. came on strong scoring 4 goals in the first 16 minutes, 3 by Carli Lloyd alone including one from the midline. Japan came back with a goal and an “Own Goal” Julie Johnson to make the score 4-2 before Tobin Heath knocked in a shot in the 54^th minute to cement the win with the teams trading control until the final whistle.

 Time to add a third star to the U.S. team’s crest.

 

One thing that has gotten lost in to the background of the U.S.’s amazing run to the Cup win was Germany’s epic failure. Germany, the #1 ranked women’s team, was expected to stroll through the rounds to the final but seemed to get tripped up along the way. They tied Norway (#11) in group play, then went on to be outscored 4-1 in their final three games in the Quarter-Final (Vs. France #3), Semi-Final (Vs. US #2) and Third Place games (Vs. England #6).

Congratulations U.S. Women’s National Team

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.

Hand of God II

Being of Irish decent I support the Emerald Isle when it comes to sports. In yesterday’s World Cup qualifier between France and Ireland an injustice prevailed and directly affected the outcome the game when France’s Thierry Henry palmed the before it could go out then controlled the ball before passing it to William Gallas who headed the ball in for the winning goal.

Now I do have to say that Henry has class because he has since come out and admitted the handball, but unfortunately this is considered a done deal. There most likely will not be a re-play of the game and the score will go down in the record books as a 2-1 win for France. This is a situation where we need to accept it as it is and commend Henry for being honest about the situation. I think this will go down in infamy along with Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup against England.