Procrastination Musings

I have to write a communications plan and I REALLY don't want to, especially since I've been at work since 7 AM and am excited about going to the Rockettes show tonight. So...

Barca 4-0 Club America. That said...I was up at 5:45 AM this morning and was able to have the second half of the Barca-Club America game, which Barca won 4-0, with four different players scoring. I only listened, but it sounded like a good game for Barca fans (like me). Messi wasn't playing, but my favorite still-playing midfielder Deco was on form, as was Ronaldinho, and all in the pouring down rain. Nice job. Hope this augurs well for Champions League play.

FIFA World Player of the Year. In other Ronaldinho news, he is lined up to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award for the third year in a row. Truly perplexing. Again, WHERE'S HENRY??? Let's review -- Henry gets to the Champions League final, fine he loses to Ronaldinho's team, but come on, it's the final. Next, World Cup -- the Brazil team, including Ronaldinho, pretty much suck, particularly in the France game, where Henry scores the only goal. They play so poorly that Ronaldinho apologizes to Brazilian fans. Henry reaches the final, scoring I think eight goals, making him one of the Cup's top scorers. And then in Euro 2008 play he scores more, making him France's second-leading score of all time, after Platini. Even the Fox Football Fone-In guys said that Henry is the best player (not foreign player -- just player) to ever play in the Premiership. Ever. So don't get me wrong -- I love Ronaldinho. But Jesus -- who do you (or Henry) have to sleep with to get some recognition around here? What is UP with these people?

Liverpool. Read this. Having traveled to the Middle East, I have seen first-hand many Gulf Arabs' treatment of their labor force, which is composed mostly of Bangadeshis, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Palestinans, Filipinos and Indians. And camel racing there with young boys lifted from these countries is a huge problem. When I was there, the accusation was that these royal families were basically starving these kids so the camels' load would be lighter. I'm not being xenaphobic here, it's just the truth. The Middle East is a whole different world, and I don't mean that in a good way. Even if this guy is enlightened by Middle Eastern standards, that's not saying much.

West Ham. Sucks that Pardew was sacked, and sucks that yet another team has to answer to some random billionaire, instead of its fans. Big money really is destroying the game. But I guess that is endemic to sports in general, not just soccer. In other Pardew news, Arsene Wenger was fined for losing his temper and scuffling with Pardew after the Arsenal loss to West Ham earlier this year.

Beckham...scored a beautiful, beautiful goal (watch the whole thing) off a free kick in the game against Sevilla (which Real lost). There is some anti-Beckham bias in the soccer media, so he didn't get nearly enough credit for it. But man, some goal. I wonder if McClaren was watching. Also, DB looks pretty good in blue. : )

Higuain Comes to Europe. Real Madrid are set to sign this Argentine-erstwhile-French player from River Plate, for €13 million. Now that he's in Europe, maybe he'll agree to play for France.

PSG Finally Wins...without incident at Parc des Princes. PSG 4-0 Panathinaikos. On to the UEFA round of thirty two.

Zizou...picks up yet another honor. Nice.