Christ, they made us wait long enough with the teaser. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is finally out and just as we expected, USWNT star forward Alex Morgan looks pretty damn incredible. Just so everyone’s aware, if you start perusing the site at work, you won’t get anything done. Fair warning.
There’s really little else to say. Lots of good looking girls and one of them happens to score a lot of goals. Do we need any more reason to care? I think not.
Alex Morgan in bodypaint. It doesn’t get much better than this folks.
This is just a sneak peak of what we will see in the latest SI Swimsuit Issue that drops Tuesday, Feb. 14th. And I have to say, I’m digging the goods. There isn’t much to add. Why say anything, really. Just sit back and soak in the visual beauty.
[via Sports Illustrated Hot Clicks - interview with Alex Morgan regarding the shoot... and a probable Ryan Gosling crush... damn it Gosling, why do you have to be such a stud?]
Landon Donovan set up both goals for Everton as the Toffees came from behind to drop Duece’s Fulham out of the FA Cup.
Donovan, my man, I don’t know how to put this so I’m just gonna come out and sa-JUST F**KING STAY IN ENGLAND AND MAKE THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CAREER!! YOU’RE 29, IN YOUR PRIME, AND LOTS OF SCOUSE WOMEN WOULD ABSOLUTELY DO YOU!! NOT TO MENTION, THERE ARE MILLIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO PLAY IN THE ENGLISH F**KING PREMIER LEAGUE. AND YOU ARE! SO F**KING DO IT!!
If there’s any time for Dempsey to go chase that Champions League dream, it’s now or, more likely, this summer. As romantic as staying with Fulham is, Dempsey can only stretch his britches at Craven Cottage so long. It’s about time he flew the coup and I can hear Harry Redknapp scratching his gobble with temptation right now.
Excuse my bad manners if I start a rumor, but if Modric is out, is Dempsey a replacement?
Who’s this tiny kid who may or may not have braces staring up at you all like he’s Puss In Boots or something? It’s Villyan Bijev. Probably when he was about 15.
Bijev, now 18, not so tiny, braces free, just finished his first training camp with the US U-20 National Team in Florida and Brian Sciaretta of Yanks Abroad gives him a damn good pat down in this New York Times piece.
Read up and you’ll discover, Bijev is not just another Yank starlet. This summer, after scoring five goals in two matches while trialing with Liverpool’s U-18 team, he signed a three-year contract with the Merseyside club. Now, he’s currently serving a season-long loan at Fortuna Düsseldorf in 2. Bundesliga. He’s Bulgarian born, but California raised. So he’s ours. (Here’s a clip of him coming on and scoring twice for Düsseldorf in a reserve match and getting some face time.) Anyway, I’ll leave the rest for Sciaretta to explain.
Bijev also did a Q&A with his hometown paper last week. In which, he’s asked about how easy it was for him to make friends when he got to Europe. His answer explains why the kid’s going places.
Off the field, everyone was extremely friendly. But, to an extent it’s hard to be friends with someone whose job you are trying to take.
Clint Dempsey scored a hat trick against mighty Charlton in the FA Cup this weekend.
In equally unsurprising news, @Clint_Dempsey has quickly becoming my most favoritist person on the Twitter. I, for one, never thought the guy got as much stick for his weird looking eyes as he really does, judging by the whole of American soccer’s cybersphere welcoming him to tweetland by referring to his peepers as ojos de cebollas (onion eyes/rings). But you know Clint’s so damn cool that he just dishes it back the same way he plays. Crafty .
In his young tweeting life, he’s called Hercules Gomez ’super dork’, Heath Pearce ‘Zoolander’, Brek Shea ‘Rembrandt’, Carlos Bocanegra ‘ankles’, Ale Bedoya ‘toucan’, and Brad Guzan ‘polar bear’. He even called Stu Holden ‘baby billy goat jaws’…Whatever the frug that means. Oh and apparently, Jose Torres is his ‘ninja’.
So in about 100 tweets, Dempsey unleashed over half a dozen nicknames on USMNT fans. And frankly, we don’t have enough alt-monikers for our national team stars. So we, the people, need to make sure some of these stick, ya heard? We can start by referring to Landon Donovan as ‘5 head‘ for the rest of his loan stint at Everton.
Speaking of 5-head, there’s a USMNT flavored FA Cup clash on the horizon, if you didn’t know. While Manchester United and Liverpool are devouring each other in there 4th round matchup, American fans will be treated to the first ever 5-head v onion eyes showdown. That’s right. Donovan (and Howard’s!) Everton v Duece’s Fulham. Saturday, January 28th at Goodison Park. Be on your couch. Or you’re a slouch.
(PS- Clint’s so rad he even tweets little deuce hands that look like this: ✌. So cool. I don’t know how to make them on my own yet, so until I do, I’m just going to copy and paste them little hands from Clint’s timeline. And you should too.)
Some celebration Timmy throws after beccoming just the 4th goalie to score a goal from open play in the EPL, huh? Well, Timmy, in all his modesty, explained after the game his sympathy for Bolton goalie Adam Bogdan caused him to refrain from doing cartwheels.
“I spoke to him just then and I let him know that I was feeling for him…It’s not a nice place to be. I’ve been there before, a long, long time ago and that was why I didn’t celebrate.”
Class act, that Timmy.
And indeed, Wigan’s Floyd Croll did score on Howard in a 2005 reserves match. Croll, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate to go bonkers. Jerk. What’s more, Croll tweeted right after Howard’s goal!:
@FloydCroll: I have scored to haven’t I Mr Howard#iownyoustill
Here’s video of that embarrassing moment for Howard:
O’Goochi bagged a big header in Portugal this weekend in Sporting’s 1-0 win over Nacional. It was the big man’s 2nd of the season.
It seems like anytime Gooch starts to find his form, one of the main trinkets that makes his beastness operate gives out on him. Here’s to hoping Onyewu’s injury woes are behind him. And here’s to farfetched hopes he discovers a fountain of youth (Kombucha?), returns to his younger self, and we find his USMNT days are far from over. I still have faith in the guy.
If there’s one in-depth football thing you read today, make it this.
For ESPN the Magazine’s upcoming ‘Interview Issue‘, Luke Cyphers has a sit-down with the Fürher himself, Jürgen Klinsmann. The U.S. coach touches on everything from German-Americans, to Agudelo and Bunbury, to meeting Coach K, Pete Carroll, and Zen Master Phil Jackson. And no, he doesn’t understand the rules to American football.
After reading this, and now that we’re three months into the Klinsmann Era, it seems we’re really starting to see the fruit bear from Klinsy’s deeply-rooted European tree. The ability to have a manager who picks up the phone, speed dials Arsene Wenger and says, “This Brek Shea kid…Yes, the one who looks like Big Bird…Will you adopt him for a while?” is a luxury not many national teams have.
Over the past month, Klinsmann has scattered US youngsters around Germany and England for one-week and 10-day training stints. And frankly, I think it’s awesome.
Here’s where we’re at now:
In Germany Juan Agudelo (Stuttgart – Nov.) Kyle Beckerman (Kaiserslautern) Perry Kitchen (Freiburg) Zach Pfeffer (Hoffenheim) Robbie Rogers (Kaiserslautern)
In England Juan Agudelo (Liverpool – Dec.) Bill Hamid (West Bromwich Albion) Sean Johnson (Everton) Jeff Larentowicz (Bolton Wanderers) Omar Salgado (Fulham) Brek Shea (Arsenal) Tim Ream (West Brom & Bolton)
