The new season in good ol’ Engerlund has kicked off and for the first time in a few years I didn’t signup for the manger game as someone (you know who you are) either didn’t start a league this year or forgot to invite me. Oh well…I’m mostly busy with my diploma thesis anyway…so maybe it’s best that way.

Speaking of footie…I just came across this site and I gotta say I love the idea of buying a footie team with the help of some thousand ppl…although I’m a little bit sceptical about the whole thing. Is it really a good idea to have that many “voting members”? Maybe, maybe not…I’m going to keep an eye on the site and see how it’ll go…

Fifteen years of waiting for the next german bundesliga championship…no more waiting…with a 2-1 in the last match VfB Stuttgart claimed the first championship in 15 years (last championship was 1992)….yes, yes, yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! We did it! Handball World Champion 2007!

Nothing better than to win it, well, there is, winning it in your own country!!!

…well, what can I say. I’m madly busy these days. Why? Because I started my internship in early september and so I’m mostly “at work” most of the weekdays (leaving early in the morning, coming home, knackered, in the late evening)…so nothing too spectacular to report, apart from the fact that I’m missing some sleep.

Missed the chance to get some extra sleep on saturday, when I scheduled a business meeting at 9am - what did I think ?! But at least I got some extra sleep and some chillin in today. Missed our footie match (we won 3-2 and are back in the hunt for the championship), but watched another good game.

My father had some VIP tickets to the german first league basketball match Ludwigsburg (10min from where I live) vs Trier. Ludwigsburg was unbeaten so far in the championship race (4 Ws in 4 matches). So we drove there early and met up with my aunt and her son and had a really good time - it’s always nice to watch a game in Ludwigsburg’s “Rundsporthalle” as it’s a rather small building and the vibes are just there. It’s awesome. In the end Ludwigsburg held on to win the match 84-81. So now they’re still unbeaten (5Ws in 5 matches) and are on top of the table. Nice.

Now it’s almost midnight again, so it’s time for me to log off…better catch some sleep before the week begins in less than 7 hours

Man of the match…Bastian “Schweini” Schweinsteiger…

We can all be proud of our team, nuff said!

The dream of yet another World Cup final was so close and yet so far tonight. After holding our own for 119 minutes, Italy finally scored their goal to go up 0:1 and scored the second one minutes after that. So final result Germany 0:2 Italy, we all hoped to get to the penalty kicks, but it wasn’t to be. A deserved victory after two kicks hitting the bar and the crossbar and our chances: 0.

Really sad that our series had to end today instead of the other one (we didn’t lose a match in Dortmund prior to this match and we didn’t win a match against Italy in the WC yet)…nontheless it was fascinating to see all the people still cheering for our national team and keeping their head up - even in defeat. So it’ll be Stuttgart on saturday (against either France or Portugal) instead of sunday in Berlin…

Side note: I’ll try to put up another post with some pics about “my world cup” so far in the next few days…

Well, we’ve got the Fifa World Cup over here in Germany and everyone sure is excited. Footie is everywhere and you almost can’t escape - not that I wanted to anyway

I was actually in the middle of it last friday. I was in the stadium watching the match Netherlands vs Ivory Coast. What a great match and I can’t even begin to explain the spirit in and around the stadium, unbelievable. Here are some photos taken by my (not so high resolution) mobile phone cam, showing me (in the Eat, Sleep, Code SitePoint Shirt), the stadium and the Premiere broadcasting box which was right there a couple of meters away from us (Premiere is the only PayPerView channel over here in Germany, their expert in the box was Christoph Daum, who is one of our better known coaches - he almost became our national coach a few years back…:

In related footie notes: After the lost championship, some of us played footie again for the first time. It was supposed to be a fun “hobby tourney”, but it turned out to be a ankle-busting slugfest…so not much joy, but at least a little time with the ball and some time in the sun with mates…could have been worse

Apart from the whole World Cup thing there are the NBA Finals, which I follow closely - after all Dirk Nowitzki and his Dallas Mavericks are in it. Too bad that they slipped in the third game and failed to take that game down. Instead of a 3-0 lead going into game 4, they were only ahead 2-1 and now the Heat have built up there momentum pretty good. Last night they pulled out yet another tight tight win in overtime to take the series lead 3-2. Now it’s up to Dallas to protect their homecourt to take it down in 7. Goooooooooooo Mavs!

I don’t even know how to start this post, I’m so excited. It’s after 3am and I’m still awake. Why? The NBA Finals are about to start with Game 1 from Dallas, featuring the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. Why am I that excited? Two words: Dirk Nowitzki

The second time a german player has made it to the NBA Finals - if you don’t remember, Detlef Schrempf was in the Finals with the Sonics, but Michael Jordan’s Bulls denied their quest for the championship. This time it’s a different thing though. Dirk is the leader of the Mavericks and they got a real shot at the title. Let’s see if they can play their game and get Shaq, Wade and the rest off their game.

Jam packed? Yup, as the FIFA Football World Cup 2006 starts tonight - right here in Germany. We’re opening the Footie WC (or Soccer WC for the Americans) against Costa Rica. I’m really looking forward to the whole Cup, not only because it’s here in Germany, but because the Fifa World Cup is one of the most important cups there is, period. What adds to it, is that it is indeed in Germany and I was lucky enough to get some tickets - not for a germany game, but Netherlands vs. Ivory Coast should be a great match too :-)

Now I’m out of here…the Mavs starting lineup is presented now…goooooooo Dirk!

Update: Yes! Mavs 90-80 Heat! Not a particular good game, but tension right down to the wire. Not a good game by Dirk, but Jason Terry took over and that was enough to wrestle down the Heat. So the Mavs take the series lead 1-0, let’s see what sunday’s game two will bring…

Woohoo! 50 days to go until the start of the Fifa World Cup 2006 and today my tickets arrived :-)

Thoughts on the All-Star Saturday:

3 Point Shootout: Yes! Dirk did it! Finally a NBA Allstar Trophy for Dirkules. Very much deserved, although he sneaked his way into the final (his last shot in the first round probably was still in his hand as the horn sounded?!)

Shooting Stars: The only thing that pwned San Antonio’s performance was Kobe’s nothing but net shot from midcourt (alright, Tony Parker’s bank shot was sweet, too…but not as good as that shot).

Dunking Contest: Sorry Mr. Iguodala, but you’ve been owned. I guess there’s no question that his dunk from behind the backboard was THE best single dunk in the competition (!), but that was the first round and his dunks in the finals just weren’t all that creative…unlike Nate Robinson’s dunks which weren’t working on the first try, or the second or the tenth for that matter, but at least he did something new (can you say double cross-leg in mid-air pass to the backboard + slam!)…so don’t whine. Maybe that’ll teach you a lesson: don’t use your best dunk in the first round…I guess there’s no question that he would have won it, if he had done the behind the backboard dunk in the finals…
Skills Challenge: Congrats Flash! A nice performance, although I would have loved to see LeBron take it, sorry ;-)

Congratulations Pittsburgh Steelers!!!

(Final result: Steelers 21-10 Seahawks)

Fantastic stuff today. After finishing playing the indoor footie tournament I switched on the telly and found the good stuff on Eurosport. First they were showing the Africa Cup of Nations (Football, or soccer for the americans) live from Egypt - Guinea beat South Africa 2-0 - and now they showed the Snooker Masters Final between Ronny O’Sullivan and John Higgins…and to my surprise Ronny couldn’t win it, yet again. He lead the best of 19 frames match 9-8 and had a break of 60 points at the start of the 19th and final frame, but John Higgins came back and cleared the table to capture the title…

As described in my earlier post I was really looking forward to the draw and to the match that I was about to see next year (C4-C2). So, the match is Netherlands vs Cote d’Ivoire :-)

Groovy…one of europe’s top teams against one of Africa’s top teams…really really nice!

On another note: I’m even more excited to see the german group which is a rather “easy” one:

Group A:
Germany
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Poland

:tup: :tup: :tup:

Oooh am I looking forward to it, or what? Sure thing and I’ll keep a close eye on group C as I’ve got tickets to that group, to be precise for match: #22 C4-C2. So, that means that it can’t be germany (group A) or Brazil (group F) and not the other group heads (Argentina, England, France, Italy, Mexico and Spain). The excitement! Although I hope it’s not going to be “nobody” vs. “nobody” - but even in that case I will enjoy the World Cup experience, especially due to the fact that it’s probably the last World Cup in germany for the next 30-50 years… :-)

Germany 62-78 Greece :-(

Still the second greatest achievement in german Basketball history (after the upset European Championship in 1993). One Nowitzki, who was forced into bad shots all night and still managed to get 23points, just wasn’t enough to defeat a well-rounded greek team effort.

Congrats to them…and see you in Japan for the World Championship 2006!