Happy Olympics!

Today is 8/8/08, which means it's time for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.


Sorry, everyone. I'm not super into these games, minus the soccer. In fact, I don't think I've really cared about the Olympics since the 1996 U.S. gymnastics team (you remember Kerri Strug, right?).

But don't let me get you down. Enjoy your shirtless Michael Phelps, USA's "Redeem Team" of basketball, smog-covered Beijing and 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage.

[click here to view a complete schedule of events] Yay America!

Actually, I'm much more interested in the bestial alternative to the Olympics: Animal Planet's 2008 Puppy Games. It's the most incredible show I've ever seen. Click here for a quick preview!

"Your balls are showing"

Spencer Tunick, a New York photographer famous for large-scale nude projects, has created some 'balls-out' shots to celebrate The Beautiful Game.

Tunick shot 1,840 nude volunteers yesterday in Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium--the site of the EURO 2008 — the European soccer championship — which will be played next month.

The photographer had hoped to get 2,008 people out for the shoot, but no go. The shoot took place over a several hours, and the models posed in various positions throughout the stadium. [click here to view the gallery]

The goal, according to an ad for volunteers, was "to capture and combine the spirit of sports, the grand sweeping waves of stadium architecture and the abstract relation of the human form to modern structures."

The force is strong with this one...

I guess I wasn't the only one who thought Coach Greg Ryan made a mistake:

"It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it's not 2004 anymore. It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past. It doesn't matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game in the Olympics three years ago. Now is what matters, and that's what I think." - Hope Solo.

The "greatest" team you've never heard of

Not sure if this will be the post to win me the most frequent visitors, but I just have to ask...

Did anyone even realize the World Cup was going????

The Women's World Cup, that is.

And if you did, was it because of those Nike commercials with the weird PR manager, poking fun at the well-known fact that though there are a few people in this country that even care about soccer, there are even less who care about women's soccer?


The #1 ranked U.S. women's team had a shot to make people care about them this morning when they took on Brazil in the semifinals. They went into the game with a 51-game unbeaten streak and a wonderful all-time record against the #8 ranked team. If they won, the girls would face Germany in the finals, a game they were favored to win.

But could they grab underrated soccer glory and at least have people think, "Our men's team sucks, but at least our women can win something"?

NOPE.

Instead, the team lost its momentum after an own-goal in the 20th minute. They were completely outplayed and the best female player in the world (no, not Mia Hamm), Brazil's Marta, made them look like spectators.

And Coach Greg Ryan...nice managing calls, idiot. Not only did he start a goalie that had started less than 10 games since he took over the team, but when they needed goals, he wasted his subs on defensive players. Hope Solo deserved to start that game; terrible, terrible coaching job.

There was a really bad call by one of the referees that led to Shannon Boxx being ejected (which left the already outplayed US playing a man down), but anyone who uses that as an excuse is as dumb as Miss Teen South Carolina.

What a huge disappointment. But then again...if you don't get up at 4:55 a.m. when the games are on, the Women's World Cup is probably news to you. So then...carry on.