The Beautiful Game #7

Germany's soccer players stretching during practice
All photos from fifa.com

A few things I like about the Beautiful Game during the World Cup:

• I like to see everyone -- men, women, children -- get together and cheer for their favorite team.

• I like to see the fans' enthusiasm.

• I like that there's always the opportunity for something unexpected and fantastic to happen -- like the team from Ghana making and unpredictable and upsetting win over a favored and more experienced team.

• I like to watch before the start of the game, when the children lead the players out to the field. They come out hand-in-hand. The players are nervous and it's interesting to see how they react with the children. Some pay attention to the kids, while others ignore them till it's time to grab their hands and march out into the stadium.

Children and German team

• I like to see some of the traditions the players perform on the field. For example, some kiss the ground when they step on the field for the first time. Others kiss the ground after their team has scored a goal...

• I like to see how excited both players become after they score a goal. All these men hugging and kissing on each other.

• I love to watch how hard each team plays to win.

• I love to watch the opposing teams show good sportmanship when they hug, congratulate each other, and trade team shirts after a game.

Legends Zidane (France team) and Figo (Portugal team)
show mutual respect at the end of game, in which France won

What I hate about the Beautiful Game:

• I hate to see the players spit. Do they have to spit? It's so disgusting and unsightly! And I don't know why the cameraman feels the necessity to focus on this gross behavior. Uggh! :-(

• Agressive fans who fight and do and say horrid things. Not cool at all. Very sad! :-(
  

Paz

Ukraine's goalkeeper makes a save



Italy fans



French team mate Patrick Viera happy after scoring goal



France vs. Spain fans playing table football

The Beautiful Game #6

I guess they really are serious about access to the soccer area. Even a dog needs a pass with I.D. LOL!

Look at those muscled thighs in the second photo. Wow!

Yes, I'm a little... Okay, 'a lot' caught up in the World Cup, but I have been writing. So, Shebab, you can put away Mr. Whipey. ;-)

Paz

UOL Esporte - Copa do Mundo 2006



UOL Esporte - Copa do Mundo206

The Beautiful Game #5

Sweden vs. Paraguay

The Beautiful Game #4

I'm loving those soccer shoes! They look so cool!

Paz

Czech (left) vs. Ghana (right)



Ghana vs. Czech



Ghana vs. Czech -- John Mensah (Ghana)
All photos from Fifa.com

The Beautiful Game #3

About to kick the ball. David Beckham's feet. Very interesting soccer shoes -- almost remind me of ballet slippers, ballet dancer's feet.

Paz

Fifa.com

The Beautiful Game #2

Food Photography from Minimiam

Top 10 World Cup 2006 Soccer Players

Brazil's Ronaldinho -- #1 World Cup 2006 recognized player

According to a Yahoo! report, during the World Cup 2002, the most popular soccer player was England's David Beckham.

This World Cup 2006, it's Brazil's Ronaldinho. He is placed as the top three internet search.


Here are the top 10 footballer searches on Yahoo! I googled them, too -- all interesting backgrounds!




1- Ronaldinho




2- David Beckham




3- Kaka




4- Cristiano Ronaldo




5-Thierry Henry




6- Roberto Carlos




7- Adriano




8- Michael Owen




9- Wayne Rooney




10- Michael Ballack


As I'm typing, this Saturday afternoon, I'm watcing the game between Ghana and the Czech Republic. It was exciting to see Ghana score its very first World Cup goal ever in the beginning of the game. The Ghanaian team is one of the youngest participating in the even. The Czech team is a older and more experienced but they haven't scored yet. So far, Ghana:1 Czech: 0. I like thatboth teams are playing in a very sportsmanship manner with each other. Good for them!

Later in the day, I'll be watching U.S.A. vs. Italy. Should be another interesting game.

Paz

The Beautiful Game

Brazil goali - Dida
FIFAworldcup.com

I’m not a big sports fan or even participant, but I make sure not to miss events like the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

As a young girl, I played all types of sports – soccer being one of them. I have to say I wasn’t bad at all. At the time, I lived in Africa. One day, as I practiced alone out front in the garden, one of the neighborhood boys saw me and decided to challenge me to a one-on-one game.

We moved back and forth between our designated goalie spots and I managed to get the ball away from him several times. Best of all, I scored goal after goal after goal.

After 30 minutes, the boy decided he’d had enough. He hadn’t expected me to beat him. Hurrying away as if he were relieved no one witnessed his game, he left me with a parting shot. “You won because you don’t know how to play. You’re a girl.”

At that point, I wanted to kick him instead of the ball.

I’ve always enjoyed watching ‘the Beautiful Game.’ This is the description sometimes used for soccer, which is mostly known as football or association football in many other places. According to Wikipedia, the name came from soccer megastar Pelé's 1977 autobiography entitled Pelé, My Life and the Beautiful Game.

It’s fun to watch all the different teams play. It’s entertaining to see the pride of their supporters (Click here to see the celebration in Brazil). There are a number of different teams that I like to cheer. I know it sounds crazy. LOL! Don’t ask. I also like to root for the underdogs.

My World Cup reading list for this 2006 season is:

Pele, My Life and the Beautiful Game – Pele with Robert L. Fish
Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona, Soccer’s Fallen Star – Jimmy Burns
Futebol: Soccer: The Brazilian Way – Alex Bellos

I think I have some good reading ahead of me to do! All those watching ‘the Beautiful Game,’ enjoy!

Paz

Strictly Seductive Interview

Anisa Damien put me on the 'hot seat' for an interview at The Mahogany Lounge. I had fun answering her questions.

You can read the interview here.

Thanks, Anisa!

Paz

The Love Affair Not Meant To Be

Running away from me

I've found a new love but he's playing hard to get and keeps running away from me.

After seeing the Big Bird last week, I didn't think I'd see it again. Yet the opportunity arose once more, this week. I'd finished exercising and headed home, when I saw an unexpected sight -- the Big Bird at the entrance to the park! Imagine my surprise!

I've since learned from a friend that Big Bird (Until I come up with a better name, I've decided to call him Big Bird.) is a male turkey.

Amazed, I watched him for a while. I found it incredible that this beautiful brown feathered turkey (my photos don't do it justice) is living in the park. Maybe it's not an incredible occurence to others, but as I wrote earlier, the park is not the place one expects to see a turkey.

He busily pecked at the ground for food with the other pigeons and birds, as the squirrels did their own thing, too. When he noticed me, he moved away.

A few people passed by, but no one seemed to notice Big Bird. They were all in their own world. I wanted to call it to their attention -- Hey, look, a turkey! What's he doing in the park!? However, none of the joggers looked like they wanted to be bothered. So, I said nothing and returned my attention to the turkey.

I pulled out my camera and walked towards him to try and get a closeup. My photos are bad because of the turkey's movement and far distance from me. *sigh* The faster and closer I tried to get to him, the faster and further away he moved. Boy, was he fast. Big Bird kept moving till he disappeared into the park bushes.

I could only stand there and watch. Big Bird, come back! Stop running away from me! Where are you going?

I'm told that turkeys are timid and not very intelligent. So, unlike some other birds, they won't recognize that I mean no harm. Oh well, I guess our love affair wasn't meant to be. In the meantime, I'll take some birdseed for him, the next time I go to the park.

Paz

Still running away from me

What Literature Classic am I?

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a mystery novel dealing with theology, especially with catholic vs liberal issues. You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that learning is essential in life.

Which literary classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

VACATION SOUVENIR gets a 4 star rating from Ecataromance SENSUAL Review!

My first official review is in from Ecataromance SENSUAL. I'm happy to announce that it's a positive one. Yay!

Reviewer Elise Lyn writes: "Vacation Souvenir was a wonderful story combin[in]g several elements that are great to see in a story."

You can read the entire review here.

Thanks, Elise Lyn, for your review.

If you haven't done so, you can read an excerpt of Vacation Souvenir here.

Paz

The Bird

The Bird suspicious of me
Click on photo for larger image

I mentioned my unusual sighting of books in the park the other day. That wasn't the only interesting thing to see in the park. Another day, as I returned from exercising, I stopped short when I saw a really large bird picking at food on the ground.

With it's size, larger than the usual pigeon or sparrow-like bird in the park, it clearly looked like it did not belong there. Call me a wuss but I was scared to walk past it. I didn't know what its reaction towards me would be.

It stopped eating to looked at me. I suppose, when it determined I wouldn't approach it, it continued to peck at the ground. The bird was very skittish and kept raising it's head to watch what I was doing. It was nervous and so was I.

However, I wasn't too nervous to pull out my camera and take some photos. I would have liked to get some close ups but I was too scared. As a result, I clicked away from a safe distance.

I took a few more moments to watch the bird and then I moved on. Of course, the bird was nowhere to be found the next day when I passed by.

I wonder what happened to it.

Can anyone tell me what kind of bird this is? Sort of looks like a turkey? What do you think?

Paz

The Bird eating
Click on photo for larger image



The Bird walking away from me
Click on the photo for larger image




These are the normal type birds in the park -- pigeons!
Click on the photo for larger image