Soccer news, technology, and commentary.
David Beckham will leave Real Madrid and join the Los Angeles Galaxy in July. Beyond the pure salary and bonus structure, the United States provides lucrative corporate sponsorship opportunities. The world does not only want to bend it like Beckham, they want to shave like him, use his cell phone, and have the entire Beckham lifestyle. The David Beckham Academy will also take advantage of one of the world's largest youth soccer programs.
The World Cup Final match between France and Italy will be shown this Sunday in Dolores Park starting at 11 a.m. If you live in San Francisco it should be a pretty fun place to watch the game with a good crowd. Food and drink proceeds will help fund science field trips for Bay Area inner city kids to places such as Slide Ranch.
I recommend a trip to Phil's Coffee on 18th and Sanchez to wake yourself up before the game.
Germany plays Argentina this Friday, June 30, at 8 a.m. Pacific time. If you're at Gnomedex I'll have a viewing party in my room at the Edgewater. I'm rooting for Argentina.
I'll be missing Chris Pirillo's opening statements and Mike Arrington's discussion, but no way they can't compete with Germany playing Argentina in Berlin. Sorry Om, I might miss the beginning of your session too.
Given the possible matchups on Saturday such as England vs. Portugal or Brazil vs. Spain/France these will be tough choices for morning sessions.
I'll be looking at World Cup schedules every day for the next month, but a few people at Microsoft put together a small application named Soccer Scoreboard to track your favorite team, group, and results from your Windows desktop. It even has a RSS aggregator built-in so you can follow along with the latest news about Rooney's foot or whatever you're into. Game times are displayed in your local time and the application is localized to close to 20 languages.
Here's a short list of soccer feeds from around the world if you'd like to add them to Soccer Scoreboard or a more general-purpose aggregator.
Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. home team Germany will take the field against Costa Rica to kick off The World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world. I am a total soccer nut and I'll be distracted for the next month as I watch from afar as the U.S. lives up to its #5 ranking and Ronaldinho weaves through the defense with his golden boot and a smile. The world's attention will be on Germany for the next month watching blades of grass fly and a thermal-bonded ball hit the back of a specially woven net.
This is my first World Cup watching from the technology industry instead of from the world of soccer. In 1994 I was at Santa Clara University watching Brazil train. In 1998 I was working for the San Jose Clash and the coaching staff got together to watch the big games on satellite TV. In 2002 I ran an online sporting goods business scrambling to get high end Adidas soccer balls out of Pakistan while the country tested its latest missiles and the longshoreman's union was on strike here in the U.S.
I've added the major games to my work calendar with various levels of importance. Netherlands versus Argentina? Definitely watching that one live. United States vs. Czech Republic? I'll be on the edge of my seat. I've warned my coworkers to not be alarmed by the screams of joy and agony coming from my office over the next month.
Let the games begin! Ole!
I just noticed MSN's Road to the World Cup site in the UK. Soccer stars such as Michael Owen, Edgar Davids, and Gianluigi Buffon are now representing their national soccer teams with individual blogs. It looks like the players are just well-known front-men who contribute quotes to a team staff member each day.
I wanted to have player or team blogs for the San Jose Clash and Los Angeles Galaxy six years ago but the tools were nowhere as advanced as they are now. Many more teams now have access to a variety of software for fan marketing.
The new site also includes the top soccer queries from MSN Search.
Tags: germany06, worldcup, worldcup06
Huge news from Ulster! Northern Ireland defeated England 1-0 in a World Cup qualifying soccer match. England is currently ranked #7 in the world and Northern Ireland is ranked 116. England did play their full squad.
Tags: northernireland, england, ulster
FIFA announced an insurance fund to compensate clubs for injuries sustained by their players at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Each national association will contribute 5% of its prize money to the insurance fund for a total of $13 million. The surplus will be reimbursed after the tournament.
it's good to see assurances to the companies sponsoring these athletes and their long-term development. The World Cup would be very different without club soccer and the two need to learn to get along.
Niall Kennedy is a web technologist in San Francisco, California in the United States. I am very interested in the world of... MORE »