Shortly after – and I’m talking moments after – the 2022 announcement came down, US National team striker Jozy Altidore tweeted, simply – I’m heated.

His teammate and cohort in spearheading the USMNT Twitter spokesman duties, Landon Donovan got a little more descriptive in disclosing his frustrations:

As a matter fact, Qatar does have a team. A bad one, of course – they’re ranked 113. However, before Landon or any other player’s vexations earns them a date with Qatar bid ambassador Zinedine Zidane, I advise that they tone it down – perhaps, stop worrying and start loving the wife of Qatar’s Emir, her highness Sheikha Mozah.

World Cup Bids: Russia 2018, Qatar 2022, USA 2034…maybe? (The Big Lead)

It’s been confirmed, by the next viable chance for the US to host the World Cup (2030 they’re saying), I’ll be damn near 50 years old.

Beckham here will be like 90 by the time the Brits get one, I imagine.

Going to write a post about the conversation spike around the World Cup today, possible search term include: oil, bribe, corruption.

Paul, the oracle octopus who made such mythical predictions as Serbia over Germany while correctly calling the result of every German game at the 2010 World Cup has died. He was 2 1/2 years old, had nine brains, three hearts and feared no Argentine chef.

According to Bloomberg, he will be cremated.

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

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)

Yes, I realize he just scored.

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.

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.

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

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