By John Ekdahl
As the World Cup final kicks off today, one player has an interesting decision to make afterwards. Hope Solo has emerged as the star of the tournament, and as result, she’s set to cash in on numerous endorsement deals. So far, she hasn’t been able to decide whether or not she wants to be a media star.
“Whatever situations come up after the World Cup is over is for me to deal with then, but money is not the most important thing to me and it never will be. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate money and respect the value of it, but I don’t make every decision based just on that.”
Our male readers might be rooting for her to cash in. According to this Yahoo! Sports article GoDaddy.com is considering making her an offer to become the next “Go Daddy Girl”. Well, we know she looks good in black.
I’ve finally settled my computer issues this morning, so expect more content from me next weekend. Coverage of the game starts at 2PM Eastern over at ESPN.
Benchies
by Rick Pearson
Well, at least we know he isn’t juicing…
And, as always, the full-size.
Not to mention it’s hard to imagine many better names for a goal keeper than “Hope Solo”.
Especially during a shoot out.
You can’t have goal keepers shooting first.
I’d rather have an Annie Skywalker, I think.
“Annie Skywalker”
No wonder he went on to become the Dark Lord of the Sith.
A boy name Annie is like link
Or Ashley: link …right?
Or
Shirleylink“a kickin’ and a gougin’,
in the mud and the blood and the beer.”
One of the truly great lyric lines ever penned.
Kudos to Shel Silverstein.
Yes, the same guy who wrote “The Giving Tree.”
One of my favorite bad football player names is the great Marion Shirley.
link
that is totally a great name. sounds like a Bond Girl name.
Technically, John, she doesn’t wear the black–that’s for the field players. This edition of the US uniforms has Solo in purple or grey, depending on whether it’s a home or away match.
But I see what you were going for there. :)
Looks to me, like she is in black in the main pic..
Practice uni.
Yeah, she’s wearing a practice uniform. I was just trying to tweak John a little bit and poke fun at what he wrote; nothing serious.
Either way, here’s hoping the US pulls out another great win today and lifts the World Cup. I’m nervous but excited and can’t wait to watch it.
or apparently yellow, today. (Or do some of you think that’s gold?)
Nope, upon closer inspection that might be one of the actual catalog Yellows, as in the color worn by Oregon, Michigan, the WHA Cincinnati Stingers and Mariners of the early Junior era.
And don’t be arguing that last one; those Mariners did NOT wear they same color as the Yount Brewers…put the actual hats side by side, in person right in front of you, and the difference is clearly obvious. :)
She looks damn good in Yellow too.
John and Phil: Short posts like this are fine. Really.
By uni catalog definition, it probably is a shade of gold.
But why would we go by that, here of all places.
On a different note, that was a pretty good-looking game link.
Mind you, I’m not even a Cooflo hater, but the helmets really do kind of link the link of those great uniforms.
The red star has symbolized a lot of things through the years.
The Detroit Stars.
Then the Communist Red Army.
Now Macy’s.
And of course…
link
“but the helmets really do kind of detract from the overall look of those great uniforms.”
So does modern catcher’s gear, I suppose, and maybe batting gloves, too, but they still have to play a game that counts. Bottom line is, it’s one of 162 games, not a historic tableau.
Just sayin’, sometimes we gotta shrug our shoulders and go with it.
Exactly.
I tell you what, even if they wore pajama bottoms, link would be several kinds of awesome. If the Sox ever do a major overhaul, that would be a look to seriously consider.
agreed rick. heck helmets themselves are inaccurate. from the pixtures i’ll say i was happy the uni’s were baggy, and cuffed nicely. it was a pretty good representation, and i always love those american giants unis. i personally cut uni’s/player looks in these games a little more slack then i do the day to day. that being said batting gloveless plays like jason kendal, and players that like to accurately represent the players of the past like pokey reese did always give me the nudge when they play in these games.
For once, I agree with you, Jim. That would be a fantastic look for an alt, either home (yes, I said home) or road.
I know that last year or the year before, they wore a version of that uniform with pinstriped caps (can’t find a good photo now). I thought that was a little too much because even the brims were striped. But maybe, just maybe, if they had pinstripes only on the crowns, it could be a look that works.
Hey, don’t put words into my mouth (er, uh, onto my fingers?), Rick. I wasn’t saying that they disrupted what would otherwise be a perfect representation of a bygone era.
I’m just saying that the Coolfos look slightly bizarre with those uniforms. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t have a problem with the coolflo look in general (except for those ridiculous two-tones the Mets & Rockies wear).
Perhaps I should have linked to link, like these that clearly show the contrast between the link.
Agreed. I was hoping for a write-up on Uni Watch today but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow? It appears that everyone was going high-cuffed too. I love the color of those Chicago unis, in my mind I call them “inky blue” or even indigo.
There will be one tomorrow.
Couldn’t they have had the Coolflo helmets with the Stars hat logo? The Padres had throwback helmets the other night.
Solo is wearing her practice/warmup shirt in the main pic.
Predictions: Brazil to win the Copa, Chelsea to win the Premier and Barca to win La Liga. What do you think?
I’ll take Uruguay, Manchester United, and Barca. But I’ll take United to win the UCL.
Not sure about the Copa (I haven’t been following it very closely) but as for your other two predictions, Barca is a no-brainer for La Liga (again) and it’s going to come down to Chelsea and ManU for the Prem (again). If Wesley Sneijder signs with ManU and DeGea is as good between the sticks as I think he is, it might just be a one-horse race. I’m picking ManU to win (even though I don’t like them), but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chelsea make a good run at it.
Uruguay just knocked out the hosts Argentina on penalties last night. Have to admit, the referee was the MOST card happy I’ve seen in a while. 7 or 8 yellows, plus 2 sendings-off.
The play Peru next, who I have not been impressed with at all. That should get them into the final (against Brasil probably). I just feel like Uruguay with Forlan, Suarez, and Diego Perez, has the firepower to keep up with Brasil, plus they seem to be in better form. Brasil has stuttered offensively all tournament (and as I write this, Brasil 0-0 Paraguay at the half).
I think losing Essien for 6 months hurts Chelsea bad enough at the start that United might run off to a big enough lead and won’t be caught.
I’d like to see WBA or Wigan make a deep cup run. Always thought highly of Roberto Martinez and enjoyed his analysis at the World Cup in South Africa.
And Brasil is eliminated as well in penalties.
I have to say, as someone who has watched, played, coached, or refereed the beautiful game for 35 years, the two games on so far today (USA-Japan and Brasil-Paraguay) were the worst displays of taking penalties I can remember seeing. Between the two games, 8 out of 15 penalties were missed (usually badly over) or saved.
Just awful.
Roberto Martinez is an absolutely really nice guy.
I’ve met him a good number of times and he always has time for everybody.
West Brom for the Premier League.
Hey, a guy can dream, huh?
You can dream Jim, but if I said “Wigan for the Premier League” they’d start increasing my medication :)
I’m gonna be at the the Portland Timbers v West Brom friendly on Wednesday. I’ll be in the Timbers Army rooting for my boys.
Shouldn’t the Timbers Army be the “Forest” or something?
(Enjoy, regardless.)
Does Mick *ever* try to hit a chopper through the hole?
Only on the golf course.
But even then he’s not trying to do it.
Darren Clarke sure hit a nice chopper over a trap today.
Indeed.
Probably will generate a number of tales of how a good boink has led to a championship.
(sigh) If only The Stilt were still around, huh.
At A’s game. It’s 80’s turn back the clock game. There just in warmups but Casey Chavez the bullpen catcher has pinstripes on side of pants. So looks like it will be the early 80’s uniforms today.
Last night Angels were in red and A’s in forest.
Looked like a Christmas game. Kept expecting Buddy the Elf (with an armload of snowballs) to be the closer.
Perhaps they were honoring the Oakland Oaks.
Hope Solo wearing bright yellow neon snot green nike puke color.
Not really. More just a pure yellow.
yeah, gotta agree with Ricko, goalies wear that color all the time, nike or not link
Plus, it just flat-out does NOT have the neon quality of the color Oregon wore to end its football season or that Syracuse wore in the NCAA lacrosse tournment.
Been meaning to ask this for a couple days.
When did the Royals go back to blue cleats?
I know they wore black for a few seasons.
HOORAY for the red, white and black!!!
They got another “stroke of midnight” goal in them, I wonder? Keep ’em out of a shootout?
AMERICA!!!
turn it up…
fck
Well, they had plenty of chances in the first half, that’s for sure.
I suppose soccer devotees think sudden death is “unfair,” but aren’t the penalty kicks even worse? Seems a lot of 50/50 luck involved. Keeper guesses either left or right. Most of the time, anyway.
This is the MAIN problem with soccer. One team is clearly better, dominates the game, and loses on something so chancy like that. Bah!
I like everything else about it, but that just sucks. Seems so wrong. Good for the country of Japan though. Glad it was them.
No no no traxel.
That’s what makes it so interesting.
Just being the better team doesn’t mean you’ll win – you still have to get round thing in square wooden thing. It’s frustrating if you’re the ones that are pounding away at the goal, but great if you’re holding on like the Spartans at whatever battle it was.
Great entertainment.
I dislike rugby league because it’s just one team steamrollering the other.
Let’s just flip a coin then. I just can’t agree with that theory.
Konichiwa!!!
Watching Angels/A’s.
Y’know, the sansabelt look isn’t all that bad.
Of course, with the baggy jerseys can hardly see it on most players (so far, anyway).
And havne’t seen anyone wearing ankle length yet (although if we remember Clemson in that look, we’ve seen it).
Is it OK for me to say that the link kinda detracted from the overall look or do I just have to shrug my shoulders and go with it?
Well, at least the red helmets matched their socks nicely.
Oops. Bad link. Meant to go to the link.
Yeah, that one kinda sucked. They just looked like they always do. I was speaking more of unis from an era when helmets weren’t worn. Sorry if I sounded like a crank. :)
Ah, there’s no need to apologize.
Shit, if you had to do that every time you sounded like a crank, you’d spend half your waking hours writing apologies here.
I just got back from this game. Very depressing for an Angel’s fan, but I was pretty happy to see most guys with high socks. Most if not all of the A’s had ’em cuffed, and most of the Angel’s did as well, minus the coaches and I think Jeff Mathis, who only was in to PH once.
Realzing, of course, that makes 1980s unis look like 1940s unis. The 70s and 80s just don’t make for good throwbacks because tapered pants and ribbon stirrups aren’t part of the deal these days.
Even with their flaws, games like yesterday’s White Sox/Tigers are always far more satisfying. To me, anyway.
Yeah, an A’s throwback without gold sanis seems to fall just a bit short. Doesn’t help that they were using the most boring uniform style of the Oakland era, either, though it was the best choice for an 80’s theme promotion. That was how they looked in the early 80’s. Late 80’s was pretty close to the current set.
Actually, at least one of the players had stirrups on over gold sanis.
And whoever was pitching in the 9th inning had on what I believe were gold two-in-ones with green stripes.
now we’ll never know if my “Pressure makes US Diamonds” theory was in fact correct: Black Jerseys supposed to be Coal which under the right amount of pressure and heat can become Diamond, so Nike would come up with some kind of Diamond kit for the US to wear in celebration of their win.
So disappointed with how that game finished (in regulation with that freak accident that left the goal wide open, in OT when the deflection prevented Hope from making a play, and the fact that we missed 3 kicks in PKs). Now I can’t talk about soccer for 3 years, because general sports fans don’t want to talk about soccer unless its during the world cup…sigh.
I was at the Coliseum this entire weekend and I took pictures today of their 80s celebration. They’re not that clear but you can see the A’s playing around with 80s style hair on the players and so forth
link
the caption on the second picture gave me a good laugh. the wives/girlfriends posing with the player’s balls. maybe it’s just my 21 year old mind though that made me go there immediately.
I knew someone would get a kick outta that one
Have the Rays worn their striped ‘rups with any jersey other than their powder blues?
let me edit that: Non-alt jersey
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