Dwayne Gareau (ROI) is the next in line in my series of guest writers. His post is a little lovey-dovey for my liking so Nathan Reis and I will follow up with the much more cynical 5 Things We Hate about WCP tomorrow.
1) Rumors - There is no shortage of rumors leading up to the tournament and even throughout the tournament. The who will be playing for who rumor or will the out of town players make it down for that game rumor. The who is carrying an injury rumor. The who posted as an anonymous poster rumor. The endless amount of rumors are always entertaining.
2) The Voice/Music/Fans/Volunteers - I love walking into the center and hearing the music and energy and of course the gooooooaaaalllll announced over the loud speaker. Although drastically over used throughout the soccer world hearing it adds to the atmosphere and of course adds to the tournament. The tournament only works and has success due to the commitment and cotribution of these people. Last year for instance walking off the pitch to our drunken ROI fans giving us high fives and having them be actually happier than us after winning a match. Of course it was probably due to being so intoxicated that they were just in that happy drunk phase but none the less they were there supporting us.
3) Players Actually Feeling Like Somebody's/Celebrations - 95% of the people in this tournament have not had the chance to play in front of crowds this size and actually feeling like a somebody. It is a highlight for all types of players including the "no goods" who are just there to take in the atmosphere and enjoy feeling like a somebody in the game of soccer. Watching a "no good" score a big goal is actually something I enjoy seeing. Their celebrations are usually quite animated and usually lame but still you have to love how good they must be feeling in that moment. The chest pumping or running over to their supporters to say "ya I did".
4) Players/Teams Surprising Me - I have been an active player in Saskatchewan since I was a kid (now 31 years of age). This team allows some players to step up and surprise me. I usually already know the very good players in Saskatchewan, both young and old, but sometimes someone will come out of no where who I have not seen and I take notice. I was a strong advocate for my Huskie Alumni team to pick up Jarvis after seeing his work rate and ability to defend Korthius in the Canada vs Jamaica game last year. Jarvis did a very good job in that match and made me a believer and in turn a good addition. Also, guys like Lee Mooney stepped onto the scene potting a couple great goals while gracing everyone with his first taste of action is Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch any of the Sudan games, but apparently their physical and come out of nowhere competitiveness made them a surprise and supported by the neutral fans as everyone loves a good underdog story. (See Jeremy Lin)
5)Camaraderie - People can bicker and hate on each other as much as they like but this tournament brings a soccer community together. Sure not everyone is going to get along and be friends, but mostly everything is left on the field as it should be. For those guys/gals that allow things to carry over off the field shame on you as that is not the intentions of an event like this. It is wonderful to see after a game teams and fans gathering together upstairs or in the stands to watch another match and have some beverages as they discuss what went right or wrong and how they plan on making adjustments and such as they move forward. This tournament is unique to Regina and Saskatchewan and it is a wonderful event that continues to grow and bring together the soccer community.
6) Bahia - Kash has a new haircut and his flow will no longer be with us. He is in Edmonton but he is hopefully going to be back for a few games. I also room at the Bahia household while I am in Regina so they deserve special thanks.
7) Refs - Love them or hate them, they deserve a mention as this is easily one of the most underappreciated positions in the whole sporting world!
Good luck to everyone and enjoy the tournament.
38 comments:
DG sounds softer then a puppy wrapped in silk.
DB
Wow... DG thought he was writing a 1900's romance novel! There was no sugar or spice in that one! No Zing to go with Zang.
It's ok DG... your still a newcomer to the promise land!
Sorry Mike, I stepped on the scale this morning and it actually sky rocked to 271... the excitement I had of seeing my feet for the first time in years has now gone.
I think you should talk to Bart about writing a little blurb as he is become FAMOUS on this blog.
Julio
DB, I have to admit a puppy wrapped in silk is more manly than your bbm pic of you feeding that little rat of a dog an apple as your BBM pic :)
I sent Bart a message. We will see if he's up for it.
Julio,
1900's romance... Go back 400 years earlier to the 1500's and you get the most well documentend writer of all time: Shakespeare. I have to admit I thought it was Shakespeare esque. Every now and then you need a positive blog post in your life.
If I keep posting on this blog it will blow up faster than Kony 2012.
Any ideas for him?
Hahah Brilliant Mike I'd like to hear what The Polish Playboi has to say... maybe Polish Playboi's Top 5 Surprises for WCP 2012?
Does anyone know who this NR fellow is? Anyone? I was referring to something like Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray"... controversial as Wilde claimed to be straight and later on was found to be gay... yet their were subtle hints of homosexuality in his writing... I should have made my reference a little less abstract and a little bit more specific... yet I was worried that any harsh criticism would spoil DG's day and cause him to tear up... as his thread was sensitive and soo heartfelt.
Julio
Anyone know the result in the Portugal vs. Afghan friendly last night at 11 p.m.?
Afghanistan 7-0 Portgual
Well I guess Portugal sucks. That's a bad loss even if it is a friendly. This Afghan team could be for real this year.
Mike just so you know. Riley blog actually the official wcp cup blog. It can't be that bad, if the guy got the official one and your the official 2. Just thought I'd comment cause you have that remark on the left side of the page!
Team Greece are proud to announce that after all the greek teams victories they will be serving free drinks at the diplomat!
Why not come in and celebrate as Greece begins another storybook year at the wcp cup!
while you are receiving your free drink, try some of our world famous souvlaki or baklava!
Thanks for your continued support!
- jimi, nick, yanni and george
The one thing I was looking forward in the future of this amazing event was last yr, some ppl were talking about how there was going to be a Co Ed tourney, I was disappointed that there is not one this yr, but I hope in the near future there will be one, I talked to some ppl (all time goal scorer David Brown and Julio aka Alvi campos and Allan Houg) and they all thought it was a great idea, I tried to talk to Kevin holness but he was always busy. Anyways me and my b/f (Jordan lupastin) thought it would be awesome for this tournament/event to have a co ed category, what do u guys think?
Team Afghanistan is got some pretty special new players this year. We have great strategy, skill, and dedication. I am a great coach. We watch what every team does and adapt. Our unique set of skills help our team win games by a large margin. Our outlook is very simple... crush the other team. I expect my players to score no less than 5 goals a game. With that said, this year we are going to win this tournament and no one is going to stand in our way.
-Summers
Wow surprising result for Afghan. Does the fact they have a goalie make them a contender in that group?
That's a terrible idea.
It's unfortunate the last poster identified herself only as Jordan's gf... does anyone actually know her name?? Aside from a few brutal typos she sounds awesome - I'm sure she's full of interesting opinions that she would be very willing to share with her name attached... if anyone knew it. I would also like to ask her if she thinks she could actually compete in a coed tourney but I imagine her answer might be hells no. Anyway, if anyone could tell me her name I would really appreciate it!
Karlen
i think NO! nobody would go, quality would be awful, it would just be other couples supporting other couples and be very boring, this tourny is all about excitement and this would surely destroy that theme sorry to say
I don't think a co-ed tourney at this event is a good idea. I don't know where that came from?
I do enjoy JFK and Barnstone for co-ed but thats enough co-ed for the year!
DB
To be honest, I would rather see a Co-ed competition than a Youth/u18 competition.
I would think so that there isn't a overload of teams entering, that there should be a rule stated that you play either Womens/Mens or Co-Ed. Co-Ed is extremely popular at tournaments, but teams should limited to a small number, or else it would be overwhelming for the organizers. At the same time, I think most Co-ed games would be more exicting than the Youth games, but you also have to look at the fact that the youth games would most likely generate better crowds than a Co-ed game. Parents who drive their kids, and the kids that are involved in the youth games usually stick around for more games throughout the game... and that does alot to contribute to the atmopshere of the event.
Julio
So I was bored and decided to scope out of the other blogs.
I came across a guy paying $100 for anyone that breaks Julio's leg.
He also has created an email account for me, and soon he'll prolly create a website. He posts about me on every blog, and he posts often... even when I don't reply (I only post on Mike's blog as the other two are pretty lame)
If this guy doesn't have a huge man crush on me... I don't what else... this guy is obsessed... Your like a little boy in gr. 1 trying to make fun of the girl he likes... I know Bart was also subtley hitting on me, but to clear it up once away... I don't swing that way, so try hitting on the Polish Playboi... he may be down.
As for being famous for breaking my leg, and asking me to bite on your apple sized balls (also filled with homosexual love indications)... I rather not bite your balls... like what is wrong with you... and to be famous you need to post with your name so people know who you are? And by apple sized balls you prolly mean tiny raisins, or most likely ovaries as it doesn't seem you have much balls as I don't see you putting your name beside your posts to back up what you say.
I am little concerned that your a little too obsessed with me.. your defining what a stage 5 clinger would be like... not cool bud, not cool. At the end of the day, I don't know you... and don't care to know you... yet your way to caught up with Julio, that you need to really sort yourself out... as your obsession and fantasizes will only lead to heart break.
Julio.
This tournament already sports some watered down teams and games. A co-ed division would be awful for this tournament from a spectator point of view. There are already enough games that are not overly entertaining and co-ed is not fun to watch at all.
I am not against co-ed tournaments as I have played in them and have had fun, but this event is not co-ed worthy.
I say a hard no to the ideal of co-ed.
DG
Haha I am fairly certain that post is not serious but on the off chance that it is I see one major flaw in the idea of coed division. If they were to make one then they would have to make a U-18 coed division for the players who weren't good enough to play in the adult coed division and no one wants that.
ya ok DG your just not good enough to play in it, no one would want you on a team
On the topic of whether Afghanistan is a contender or not with a keeper I would have to say no. They definitely are a threat to make it out of their group and could make a run but doubt they can win it all. They have a couple nice pieces in place (Keeper, Chico, Gerald, Mitch and a few others who's names I am not familiar with) but they are lacking depth i think will lead to their downfall. You can't rely on players playing the whole game.
I don't usually read or comment on the blogs but a couple of my buddies have told me i'm being talked about on here so I decided to come check it out. Now I understand that these blogs exist for the sole of purpose of hyping up the tournament and all that good stuff but I gotta clear up a couple of misconceptions.
1) Team Afghanistan does not pay players to play. I know there's rumors going around that were paying chico big bucks to play but that simply isn't true. We haven't offered money to anyone on our team. The only things we have done is cover expenses such as gas/plane tickets/hotels/insurance/player fees so that no player has to pay to play.
2) I don't comment on these blogs and neither does team Afghanistan. This year we've made a decision together as a team that we will do our talking on the pitch and not on the blogs. What was said above is not from me or any member of team Afghanistan.
3) I haven't commented on any blogs since my last post in which we advertised our website. The comments above were not written by me or any member of team Afghanistan and the statements stated are simply not true. I don't personally care if people want to waste their time trying to impersonate me, but I will say this: I have no intention of blogging at all before/during or after this tournament and anyone commenting impersonating me or saying I've said this or done that is full of shit.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Regards,
Soheil Summers
i play on team serbia and we should have beat poland yesterday. we tied them 3-3 and we were missing our 2 best players from winnipeg. why does everyone say poland is so good? we havent practiced much and are just guys having fun and we almost took down powerhouse poland. their ego is clearly larger then there skill level and they are going to be a big dissapointment in this tournament if they keep playing like that. or maybe we are better than we think and are actually top contenders in this tournament too.
- Serg
Jordan Lupastin's GF is chelsea anderson
Poland is going to hammer everyone in their group these ex games mean nothing they haven't had their best players who are all in Stoon so if those guys came and played no team will have a chance except ROI, so Serbia good for u for getting a draw but don't get your egos up
For the record I don't know a Chelsea Anderson, nor have I had a conversation about CO-ED with anyone.
I am not sure why that was included in the argument.
Julio
It appears poland's ego's are already up. We all know that you guys are sweating bullets right now because of the hype you've created for yourselves. Im sure inside your team people are getting a bit nervous because you can't beat a mediocre team without your 2 star players. What would you guys do if one of them gets hurt? people are going to be gunning for you, be ready to face the critics when it all come tumbling down.
I can already hear the excuses.... - the ref lost it for us.... - we didn't need to win that game, we still have 3 left.... - We didn't have all of our saskatoon guys....
good luck poland, lets see how you guys do when you aren't considered the underdog
Edward Nigma
Haha I thoroughly enjoyed that last post
serg did u notice they had a little kid in net?
Edward... now that's how you make a post.... and he adds his name... MUCH RESPECT for that.
I said it from day 1, Poland isn't that skilled except for their Saskatoon guys... and then I was getting hated on for saying something that was very realistic.
Thankfully atleast someone agrees with me.
As for 2 superstars from Saskatoon... I'd go out and say that Poland has 4, and Michal may be the most crucial to their success. I am surprised the Polish Playboi didn't dangle his way around everyone and snipe a few goals as he was claiming he would do against ES.
Julio
It's a funny thing that you bring that up julio. The POLISH STALLION actually did score 2 of poland's 3 goals, 1 of which was a ripper of a free kick right into the top corner. Without Bart, Poland most likely would have sufferred a loss to a dramatically weaker serbian team. He came through in the clutch once, maybe he's the unsung hero that is going to carry the polish team on his back, just like any real stallion could.
Edward Nigma
ahhh Edward Nigma, you old son of a gun, I can't wait for you Polaks to lose and then once you'll lose the Joker will come laughing down at you, no one can stop me! I am the Joker!
serg did you also realize that poland played down to your level. your younger players this year aint no good dude.
Joker, although I have posted about the polish team, in no way shape or form am I part of their apparent run to the cup. We all love cheering for an underdog, but as of right now poland has definitely shaken their underdog status and moved their way up to being a favorite. They will now be treated as a favorite, and let me tell you, I will be the first to come on here and post about their shortcomings!
Edward Nigma
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