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…

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 -ÂÂ 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… :-)