Running another Marathon

Before Sonja and I had children I ran a few marathons. I had done the Silicon Valley marathon in San Jose, the Rock'n Roll in San Diego, Big Sur and the San Francisco marathon. Then our two boys came, work somehow got more busy and the time to train for a marathon wasn't quite there anymore. And to be honest, I sort of lacked the drive to go out 4-6 times a week and run a lot of miles. I have decided to change that now and run again. Other people can do it, so I should be able to do it as well. It's just really good to be in a good shape and just be able to go out and run 10 or 15 miles without suffering. I signed up for my second Silicon Valley Marathon in San Jose which will be held November 4th.

I bought a new pair of running shoes and have already started running again. And I started planning/searching for routes to run. There is now a handful of web sites that let users draw routes on maps (Google Earth let's you do it as well). I have tried the USATF web site and walkjogrun.net and they work reasonably well. I already planned a 15 and an 18 mile run for later in my training plan. Let's see how that goes. Anyone interested in joining?

Go Sharks!

The guy in the picture is my buddy Chris at the Shark Tank, home of the San Jose Sharks. We have been enjoying a 10-game plan and it was the last regular season game. Although it was fan appreciation day and they were handing out prizes left and right, we didn't win anything. The game was pretty exciting, although the Sharks lost in overtime. But the good thing is, they qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Can't wait to go to the next game.

Super Bowl XLI, the Inverted TiVo Experience

Everyone always talks about the Superbowl ads and how great they are. So I programmed my TiVo (it's really a Comcast DVR but everyone knows what TiVo is) to tape (oh excuse me, record) the Superbowl, all 4 hours and 5 minutes of the broadcast. And as I was watching the Superbowl yesterday it dawned on me that A Superbowl TiVo recording is probably one of the only shows, if not hte only, that people fast-forward through, just to get to the commercials. In a way, it's inverted TiVo. Kind of odd, isn't it. Oh and by the way, most ads were rather boring, except for the Bud commercials. They are mostly funny or cute but the beer still sucks. With that, congrats to the Colts and too bad for the Bears. At least Rex Grossmann lived up to the very low expectations that compared him to one of the worst quarterbacks in SuperBowl history, even before the game had started.

He did it again!

Do you remember Marco Materazzi? He was the cheesy, Italian defender that got head-butted by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 Soccer World Cup Final. And oh well, it happened again. In a Serie A game in Italy, he got head-butted again by a guy named Delvecchio after allegedly provoking him. Makes you wonder what on earth he always tells the other players. I started playing soccer when I was 5 years old and kept playing on teams until I was 27. I never played professionally but games were still competitive and occasionally tempers flare. Unfortunately, provoking others is part of the game but in 20 years of playing I have never wanted to head-butt someone. And I have been called many things in games. For instance, when I was 14, my team was participating in a youth tournament in Denmark. We were well on our way in beating a norwegian team when things got a little nasty. Many fouls, yellow cards but we scored another goal. It was then, that the other team got frustrated and started calling us Nazis just because we were a German team. That didn't sit too well with us but we didn't head-butt or beat up the other players even though we wanted too. Having said that, it's unfortunate that Zidane and Delvecchio didn't keep their emotions in check. But I can't help to dislike Materazzi. Instead of standing up to others like a man he does it behind the referees back and when the other player touches him, he goes down as if shot with an AK 47. I think Materazzi is the epidemy of soccer. Instead of focusing on skill and being physical within the limits of the rules he chooses provocation to unsettle his opponents. One of these days he will get head-butted again and maybe then, getting up won't be as easy for him. I for one won't feel any sympathy for him.

The most popular sport in the world ... ? Definitely not American Football.

I am a big sports fan and I like to watch sports, especially team sports that involve a ball. I have never been a big fan of American Football but I do like to watch the highlights. However, there is a few things that simply rub me the wrong way about American Football. First of all, things can't get more artificial than in the NFL. Reviewable, non-reviewable play, eligible and ineligible receivers, two minute warning, taking a knee. All bullshit. But what always bothered me the most actually has nothing to do with the rules or any team and it's really not any team's fault. It's the NFL's fault. They call the Super Bowl winner the "World champs". But hey they are not alone, the NBA champion often refes to itself as the World champ and so does the "World Series" winner in baseball. I know, I know, many Americans believe the world revolves around their three big sports and there probably isn't a better American Football team in the entire world than those that play in NFL. But that's certainly not true anymore for the NBA and baseball. Or do I need to remind everyone of how the basketball dream team came up short repeatedly in the last few years. My problem with this is, that you should only call yourself the world champ if you even gave the rest of the world a chance to participate. Either by qualifying or by inviting teams from abroad to play. And I mean to qualify by playing the sport not by buying yourself into the league through means of an expansion team.
Anyway, as I was reading some sports news today, I came across a quote from the San Diedo Chargers coach, Marty Schottenheimer: ""It took me back to the old AFL days where you just try to find a way to have one more point than they do," Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "It was the kind of game that makes the NFL the most popular sport in the world. If you couldn't enjoy this -- other than coach Lewis and his crowd -- then you might not enjoy football."
He said this after a remarkable comeback of his team which in itself was probably very exciting and one of the better moments in the NFL. But it truly shows how the three big American sports (NFL, MLB and NBA) have a self-perception problem. Yes, they are not the center of the world and there is many people in the rest of the world that don't even care about any of them. But one thing for sure, American Football is far from being the most popular sport. If you search around a little on the web you will find many top 10 of most popular sports and I have yet to find a list on which you can find American Football. The so-called big three should watch the NHL a bit. They are playing for the Stanley Cup and the winner is the Stanley CUp champ. Nothing more and nothing less. The NFL, MLB and the NBA should do the same.

So Marty, the Super Bowl may be one of the most watched sporting events in the world but to me it's not clear whether it's for the actual game or the halftime show. But football is definitely not the most popular sport in the world. Just count the number of people on a given weekend that participate in a soccer game versus an American football game.

World Cup 2006 - Bottom 10

Ok, let's move on to the not so pleasant things about the past World Cup. And let's not confuse this with anything else, these are my bottom 10, feel free to disagree. ;-)

1. Italy winning it all. Well, what can I say. I am German and was hoping for Germany to capture their fourth titel.
2. Diving. Too much diving, play the game and only fall down if someone makes you. The worst teams: Italy, Portugal, Argentina. The worst individual offender: Christiano Ronaldo from Portugal.
3. Brazil has to be the biggest disappointment of the tournament. No team chemistry, lackluster performances. I didn't mind at all seeing them leave the tournament early. Most overrated team.
   
4. Overrated and overhyped players: David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney. None of them showed that the hype about them was justified. Beckham had one goal, so what? Seemed out of shape to me. Wayne Rooney should have stayed home.
   
5. England sucked (Most overrated team after Brazil). Not one of the games they played left you with an impression that they are one of the stronger teams. Thank god the English fans behaved.
   
6. Zinedine Zidane's red card. I love Zidane as a player and what he can do with the ball and I always liked that he wasn't a diver. But his behavior in the final was wrong, regardless of what the Italian player (Materazzi) said to him.
7. Materazzi, the Italian defender who provoked Zidane. First he claimed he didn't do anything and then he admits he provoked him. What they really said to each other we probably will never find out. But when Materazzi's soccer carreer is over, he will make a fine actor, as most Italian and Argentinian players will.
8. The scenes after the PK shootout between Germany and Argentina. I am sure some German players weren't innocent in this but Argentina came across as poor losers.
   
9. FIFA suspensions. What are they thinking and what footage were they watching? The Italian defender De Rossi gets 4 games after elbowing the American McBride who required stitches in this face. He could play again in the final. The Argentinian third goal keeper kicks a German player into the midsection after Argentina's loss to Germany and gets 3 or 4 games. They suspend the German player Frings after reviewing fishy footage. In that same incidence, teh Argentinian Maxi Rodrigues leaps in teh air to punch a German player from behind gets the two games. Wayne Rooney gets a two game suspension as well. They apprently don't compare and go by the book. De Rossi should have been suspended for the rest of the tournament.
10. Players demanding yellow or red cards for their opponent. I say, any player who does that should be given a yellow card. Play the game, stop complaining and try to score honest goals not by diving and whining. Overall, it was amazing to see how many players returned from the dead in too many games after being barely fouled.
    

World Cup 2006 - Top 10

Damn, the soccer world cup is over, what am I going to do during lunch breaks now for the next 4 years? Good thing that the Euro 2008 is only 2 years away. Time to reflect, here are my personal top 10:

1. The fans and the atmosphere. Being from Germany and seeing the enthusiasm and excitement in Germany. Made me wish I could be there. It was also great to see how Germans finally waved their flag without having to feel bad about what happened in the past. At times there were more than a million people watching and celebrating on the fan mile in Berlin.
   
2. Germany's performance. There weren't a lot of people in Germany or elsewhere that believed in the team and Juergen Klinsmann. But the young group played well and made it far. Too bad we fell 2 minutes short in the semifinals.
3. Fabio Cannavaro, the Italian team captain. Superb defender and clean player. Only likeable guy on an Italian team full of actors.
4. Miroslav Klose, the German forward. Scored 5 goals himself and assisted on another one. Won the Golden Show award for best goal scorer in the tournament.
5. Germany winning on PKs against Argentina. Jens Lehman, the German goalie was awesome.
6. Ricardo, the Portuguese goalie, saving 3 PKs against England. Admittedly, the English PKs were weak but Riccardo didn't just jump into a corner hoping he would get lucky.
7. The Italian defense. Say whatever you want, it's often not pretty but very effective. And even though I hated to seem win it all they played the most consistent soccer through the entire tournament and they were always dangerous up front.
   
8. Maxi Rodriguez game-winning goal against Mexico in overtime. Clearly a lucky shot but nonetheless spectacular. Goal of the tournament.
9. Zinedine Zidane's ball handling. Fun to watch. His action that led to a red card in the final was not but rather makes it onto the bottom 10 of this world cup (see next post).
10. Phillip Lahm, the young German defender who lit up the left side with his runs and dangerous crosses. Scored the first goal of the tournament which was a beauty. Got Germany rolling, which was very important.

Yeah, I know, the list is a little biased towards German achievements but hey, it's ok to take a side here. I am German after all. Now let's move on to the bottom 10 of the World Cup, watch this blog for a post on that.