It’s been a little over week since World Cup 2010 came to a close, and there are precisely 1,418 days until the next World Cup. Here are just a few of the things I’m doing in the short term to keep the momentum going:

• For starters, I’m planning on watching the MLS All-Stars vs. Manchester United match next Wednesday. Hope to see something reminiscent of the fan activity that I saw during the World Cup at whatever bar I end up at (MLS vs. Manchester United, July 28th, 7:30 EST)

• I’m going to read Soccernomics. Been told that it’s perfect for fans of Moneyball

• Going to attend my first MLS game, and it should be a good one I’m told – LA Galaxy vs. NY Red Bulls, August 14th; Henry vs. Donovan

From there, hopefully I’ll find myself at a few choice NYC bars – Central Bar, you’re a fantastic soccer bar – for some EPL games, which I’m told mostly happen in the early morning EST. I’m not opposed to starting off my Saturday (or my Wednesday) in this manner.

It’s no exaggeration, thanks to the World Cup I became a newly co-opted soccer fan. Special thanks is deserved to the folks at Verizon who hooked me up with a Droid Incredible to go around and take pictures of World Cup as it was happening in New York City.

Check out the full digest of pictures on Flickr, and some of the real time updates I was making on Tumblr at: 8000MilesAway.com.

Here’s the best of the best of the 15 games, at 12 different locations, that I took in during the World Cup…

Enjoy, and as my buddy Dave, who’s taking me to that Red Bulls game, told me: If you save $3 a day, you could go to Brazil in 2014.

8000 Miles Away: Best of World Cup: Part One

8000 Miles Away: Best of World Cup: Part Two

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The AP reported this morning that French striker Thierry Henry joined the New York Red Bulls today, and is scheduled to see his first action with the team on June 22 when the Red Bulls face the English Premiership squad from Tottenham Hottspur FC.

Naturally, the Red Bulls website is lousy with all things Henry at the moment. I’m going to act like a real fanboy and link you to some of the items, like this pretty stylish t-shirt.

I’d say Henry’s arrival is a pretty good opportunity for the newly co-opted soccer fans in the metro-NY area to keep the World Cup fervor going. I have tickets for the August 14th match between the Red Bulls and Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy.

Check out this behind-the-scenes video from the team’s site of Henry’s recent Red Bulls photo shoot.

(Screenshot via NewYorkRedBulls.com)

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Yes, I realize he just scored.

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Purdue University senior Robby Donoho compiled an array of celebrations from all over the country, and beyond (Lyon, Durban), following Landon Donovan’s goal on Wednesday. This will get you maybe half as pumped up as that Spanish commentator from yesterday.

Well done, Robby. I’ve reached out to Donoho to see where he was when it all went down. Until he gets back to me, I’m assuming he’s that kid in the basement who fell down his stairs in merriment.

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I’m still pondering what I witnessed this morning. I’ve been racking my brain to equate it to any other sporting event that I’ve ever seen. In the interest of not reacting too abruptly, I’m going to refrain from saying anything else about it right now, other than that is was just a remarkable thing to watch.

Oh, speaking of reacting abruptly, did you hear one of the Algerians slapped a reporter after the match?

Yahoo broke the story about Algerian forward Rafik Saifi’s postgame tirade, and Sporting News gets a link for including this photo:

Between his actions today, whenever this scene pictured above happened this photo (above) of Saifi celebrating Algeria’s victory over Egypt in a neutral ground victory in the Sudan earlier this year to make the World Cup (thanks, Dave), and (just for good measure) the guys on the team with haircuts from the mid-90s film Hackers, it’s like the douchiness just comes full circle.

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What’s going on here? I think augmented reality fans know exactly what’s going on here.

Here’s the video demo for 1 GOAL / KICKBALL AR APP for Samsung Bada OS.

In case you missed the headlines (there weren’t many), Bada OS is Samsung’s proprietary operating system that they launched late last month to directly compete with Android – while at the same claiming that most of their new phones would run Android application. It’s a mishmash.

However, I sure can’t find anything in the DROID market that let’s me kick anything. In fact, the only game that even features a soccer ball is a labyrinth. DROID and Iphone developers take note: I think I would enjoy this (waste $.99 on this).

Source: UberGizmo

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Check out my thoughts on the first week of the 8KMA: World Cup 2010 /// NYC /// In Photos project

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Koman Coulibaly, the hapless ref of that U.S. -Slovenia match that ended in a 2-2 tie on his watch, gets what most people get when they make an unpopular decision on the National stage: a defaced Wikipedia page.

It currently (12:41 pm EST) reads: Coulibaly is a blind clown who makes poor decisions during crucial World Cup matches.

This will be corrected soon, let’s move on. GO ALGERIA GO!

UPDATE (1:05 pm EST):

Now reads…

“Coulibaly took charge of the Group C match between the United States and Slovenia. After conceding two first half goals, the United States fought back to equalize and had scored an apparent third goal to take the lead; however, Coulibaly disallowed the goal, drawing criticism from ESPN commentator (and former US national team player) Alexi Lalas, who described the call as “a disgrace” and “ridiculous,” adding, “It should have been a goal.”Star American midfielder Landon Donovan also expressed his displeasure, stating, “I don’t know how they stole that last goal from us. I’m not sure what the call was. He (the referee) wouldn’t tell us what the call was.”

Preach, Lalas.

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We’re in the process of finalizing a plan to watch the South Korea/Argentina game tomorrow morning at 7:30 at Boka on St. Mark’s in NYC. If you’re in the area, and like Korean fried chicken and watching wizardry (Messi) in the a.m. come on down!

From a spectator’s perspective, no slouch in providing on-screen entertainment is Argentine coach, Diego Maradona – he once was a wizard himself, now, it’s more about sideline antics. As good as Messi looks, he hasn’t scored in his last eight International contests, so we don’t know if that’s going to happen. However, you can count on Diego to: A.) look shiny, from mullet to toe B.) pester, badger, annoy and be a general thorn in the side of the refs. (= high comedy)

The Telegraph has posted Diego’s 10 best quotes through the years. They feature his take on Pele (go back to the museum), the 1998 World Cup (The players have all got square feet. They are like Robocops), American politics (I think Bush is a murderer), but one quote just seemed to rise to the forefront…

Diego Maradona on proving the doubters wrong…


“To those who did not believe: now suck my d**k – I’m sorry ladies for my words – and keep on sucking it. I am either white or black. I will never be grey in my life. You treated me as you did. Now keep on sucking d**ks. I am grateful to my players and to the Argentinian people. I thank no one but them. The rest, keep on sucking d**ks.”

Diego, allow me to apologize on behalf of all nerds for Twitter not existing during your trash talking hey-day. However, it’s not too late, see this guy for inspiration: @the_ironsheik.

Photo via SMH.com.au

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London-based, English bred mando-rock quartet Mumford & Sons took the stage this past Saturday evening at Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN before a crowd of more than 75,000. After two songs off their absolutely excellent debut album Sigh No More, bandleader Marcus Mumford addressed the crowd:

Congrats on your draw.

It fell in stark contrast to say an ACDC-like Are You Ready?! greeting (source: Jim Breuer), and presumably most of the crowd had not even seen the ENG/USA World Cup game that day that ended in 1-1 tie (a tie is the new win in 2010). Still, it sounded like the crowd liked it.*

*I wasn’t at Bonnaroo, but I got to check out this set thanks to NPR, who archived lots and lots of performances from the festival. So far, based on what I’ve heard Mumford & Sons’ show falls a close second to The Dead Weather.

Photo via Nashville Scene

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