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The Bobcats

N's soccer team, The Bobcats, also had their last game of the season today. Although they weren't playing to maintain an undefeated record, they brought much intensity to the game.

Last night at practice, the dads played the kids in order to teach them to be more aggressive and not allow others to intimidate them. Our tactic seemed to work because The Bobcats controlled the game from the opening whistle.

N has not played very well in his previous games. Today, he came out with all pistons firing. He had two clear shots on goal, but was denied by the goalie each time.

Our team managed managed to score two goals and that was enough to seal the victory and a season record of 5-2

After the game, the referee invited the kids to play a game. Both coaches were confused as the ref lined up the kids from each team in front of one of the goals. He knelt in the goal and had the kids take a shot on him. He allowed each kid to score a goal. KayEm and I thought it was a wonderful gesture and a fantastic way to end the season.

Mocha Dad

The Steelers Are Undefeated

Nee's soccer team, The Steelers, played their last game today. If they won today's game, they would finish the season undefeated. The pressure was high and you could sense the urgency in the players.

Unfortunately, the Steelers didn't bring that urgency on the field. When the game started, they were all very tentative and didn't attack the ball as they usually did. They eventually picked up the pace, but only after the opposing team gave them a wake up call by scoring a goal.

That kick in the pants didn't seem to be enough for Nee. She remained pretty lackadaisical on the field. Although, she managed to touch the ball a few times, she never followed through on her kicks.

"At least she kicked the ball," said Nee's grandmother, G-Mom. "That's better than nothing."

"No, it's not better than nothing," I said. "She can play better than that."

"She's doing her best," said G-Mom.

"No, she's not," replied KayEm and I in unison.

I thought things would get better when Nee moved to defense, but they only got worse.

At one point, Nee had a clear defensive stop. All she had to do was kick the ball. Instead, she ran away from the ball and the other team scored a goal. In frustration, I buried my face in my hands. Nee's coach walked by and patted me on the back.

"It's okay man," he said. "It's okay."

It was not okay to her teammates. One of the girls got into Nee's face and yelled, "What is your problem? Why didn't you get the ball?"

When the quarter ended, Nee tentatively walked over to where I was and sat down. By then, I had managed to contain my frustration and was able talk to her rationally.

I kneeled next to her and placed my arm around the back of the chair.

"I know what you're going to say," said Nee.

"What am I going to say?" I asked.

"You're going to say, 'Why didn't I kick the ball?'" she said.

"You're right," I said. "So tell me why you didn't kick it."

"Because the girl running towards me was scary," she said.

"WHAT?" I asked.

"She was scary so I moved out of the way," said Nee.

"Nee," I said calmly. "Never let anyone intimidate you."

"But..." she said.

"No buts," I interrupted. "NEVER let anyone intimidate you."

"Okay," she said.

I wanted to talk more about giving your all and helping the team, but I decided that it would be best to just give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead. Besides, the Steelers won the game and celebrated an undefeated season.

Mocha Dad

Pele

As a kid, I was really into soccer. I remember it was either soccer or music. I remember the day that I chose music and gave my soccer up. I played as a full back and I loved it. Perhaps someday I will return to my soccer roots. . . I wrote an album about it.

Practicing for Fifa 2010

Naming Rights - This Time It's Stamford Bridge

It seems the naming rights saga has caught fire among the English FA Premier League . On the back of Newcastle United's announcement that St. James' Park is to be known as the "sportsdirect.com @ St. James' Park", Chelsea's Chief Executive Ron Gourlay has now revealed that Chelsea are preparing to follow the lead by selling the naming rights for Stamford Bridge. Like Ashley and Co. at Newcastle, Gourlay is insisting that the associated brand will only be able to add to the name, rather than actually change the name of the stadium altogether. 'Stamford Bridge' would therefore be retained in the name along with the assocation with "a suitable blue-chip company."

"Retaining the heritage of the stadium is paramount to considering such a move but we think that is achievable and on that basis we would enter into discussions over naming rights with the right partner for Chelsea", Gourlay told Chelsea TV.

"We understand that this is a sensitive issue for our fans and that is why we would keep the name Stamford Bridge in any deal".

Could it be that scenes like the below are soon to be a thing of the past within the giants of the game? Surely Abramovich doesn't need the money as much as Chelsea need the identity of their stadium?

A sensitive issue indeed, but Gouray feels that the financial advantage of selling the rights is essential.

"What we are not prepared to happen, and I am sure our fans will appreciate this, is allow our rival clubs in England and Europe to gain a competitive advantage over us in terms of the revenue they can generate through either expanding the capacity of their existing stadia or moving to a new stadium and then invest that upside in their team or the club. Those possibilities are not open to Chelsea for the foreseeable future because of the restrictions in expanding our stadium and the issues around finding a new site, so that means we have to be creative and look at our sponsorship architecture and see if we can create new value and new opportunities that keeps us competitive".

In 2004, Emirates paid Arsenal £50million to acquire naming rights on their new Ashburton Grove stadium for 15 years, and Allianz is charged £4m every twelve months for Bayern Munich's ground to bear its name. In the USA, Citigroup pay £10m so for the new New York Mets baseball arena, now called Citi Field.

Check out http://chelseafc.com for more information.

Best Soccer Goal Celebration Ever

Rubin Kazan 0-0 Barcelona: The Dickey

We're talking about Barca, for God's sakes -- when you see kits like tonight's, you know something's wrong. Yes, last year's yellow is back instead of the puke orange, and thank God for it -- let's play red-shirted teams all the time if this is what it means. But you can't have Puyol in shirt sleeves, Alves in a dickey (which he then changed to a headband in the second half -- maybe it was the same piece of cloth), and Pique looking like a huge, swaddled snowman that's been doused in urine. They complained about the cold, they complained about the grass, and then they dressed like homeless people. For the team from the home of Etnia spectacles, it was shocking.

A dickey is a kind of Potemkin Village piece of clothing, for those of you who don't know -- the neck of a turtleneck stitched to a square of cloth with a hole for your head, meant to warm the neck but not heat up the entire top half of your body. I was forced to wear them in my youth, and they slide and ride up and generally suck, not to mention the indiginity of wearing something whose leading attribute is its fakeness. Whether this makes metaphor concerning the larger Barca situation, I leave to others.

There's a string of unfortunate coincidences, and then there's failure. The frustration of watching Barca this year has been illusionistically tempered by the idea that this year's problem always seems to be changing -- first Ibra was a mistake, then Iniesta was hurt, then Henry was hurt, then Maradona ruined Messi, then everyone's parking the bus like Chelsea did, then Rafa Marquez sucks (oops, that one's perennial). So (Ibra aside) everybody assumed the problems were like a bout of acne that would clear up -- just a series of speed bumps, only a matter of time before the Maserati would rev up to 105 again. Instead, this season is starting to look like an episode of "House," in which a lot of little symptoms are just distracting us from a huge underlying issue that will kill the patient unless there's a genius diagnostician on staff who has too much contempt for us to actually pay us a visit.

For that issue, I'm looking hard at Guardiola. Which is not yet fashionable, but I can't be that far ahead of the curve -- because nobody has confidence now that this team can beat Dynamo Kiev and Inter, not when they can't put away Osasuna and Messi keeps giving the ball away. The one constant this year has been Guardiola's incessant tinkering with the lineup -- fine in theory, but they clearly don't yet know how to play with each other under pressure. Instead of Dani Alves making his pinpoint crosses you see Abidal loping up, imitating an attacking back and trying to remember what a cross looks like, and you suddenly realize your grip is so tight it's indenting the arms of your chair.

There has always been a fragile gestalt about this team, even at their best -- their success has relied on a high degree of concatenated micro-artistry, and while Ibrahimovic now kicks off the chain of passes brilliantly, the rest of the production is still in previews, and everybody else looks like they need line prompts. The little pleasures of last year -- Xavi's seductive quarterbacking, Iniesta's tough little runs from the wing to open everything up, or Alves dropping it in from way out for a perfect little Keita volley -- are gone, vanished in just six months, and there doesn't seem to be a plan B. If you're honest, you admit there's no way they could have won by two goals tonight, and you further admit that that means something.

(Image credit: pietroizzo/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

"sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium" - What do you make of the change?

"With the renaming it was always going to be whatever brand it was, at St James' Park. For the remainder of this season, we already have sportsdirect.com on the Gallowgate so we'd like to take that branding through the rest of the stadium."
Derek Llambias, Manging Director

Tampering with brand equity is risky business, particularly when the equity is built by generations of sports fanatics.

How do you think it's going to be received by the Newcastle United faithful? In changing the Official Name of Newcastle United's home ground, are they changing the very essence of the club itself?

Post your comments below and read more on the debate on BBC Sport's 606 debate

Sky Blue Speed

via flickr.com

 

In case you don't know it yet. I am a complete Football tragic... This is a Photo of Brendan Gan of Sydney FC, taken last Sunday at the A-League Match between Sydney and Wellington Phoenix. By the way, we won and are still top of the table.

 

When I don't have my Photographer & Barista hat on I also Tweet as @SFCNews and have a Sydney FC Photo Site on Posterous, where you can check out all the Photos I take at the games. So make sure you follow me there.

 

You can also find me on redbubble and twitter.

 

Cheers,

 

Alex (alexkess.com)

 

Sky Blue Pano

via flickr.com

In case you don't know it yet. I am a complete Football tragic... This pano of the Sydney Football Stadium was taken last Sunday at the A-League Match between Sydney and Wellington Phoenix. By the way, we won and are still top of the table. When I don't have my Photographer & Barista hat on I also Tweet as @SFCNews and have a Sydney FC Photo Site on Posterous, where you can check out all the Photos I take at the games. So make sure you follow me there. You can also find me on redbubble and twitter. Cheers, Alex (alexkess.com)