Here’s the snazzy info for you:

***BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!!!***

My son, Mat, has to sell raffle tickets on behalf of his team and club.
Let’s be honest. It’s the whole family (ok, the PARENTS) that have to sell these tickets.

To help out the ticket sales effort, I’ve decided to do my own RAFFLE IN A RAFFLE!
If you buy a ticket from me, you’ll be entered to win all of that cool stuff from Albion.
You’ll also be entered in my own private raffle, open only to people who buy tickets from ME!
I’m going to give away a BRAND NEW Jill-e sailcloth camera bag ($80 value!), a custom photo tempered glass cutting board (gorgeous!), and a custom photo mouse pad (FUN!!).

When I mail you your ticket (I’ll pay for that stamp), I’ll throw in a FREE myFUNcamera POCKET GUIDE, too! These things are FUN, and they’ve been redesigned recently, so they’re even better than before!

Buy a ticket (or 2 or 3 or 4!) by SEPTEMBER 30th, I’ll get the ticket(s) & your Pocket Guide in the mail to you, and I’ll draw three random winners on October 1st for my three prizes.

Albion will have their BIG drawing on November 12th, and they’ll put the winning ticket numbers on their website.

***BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!!!***

This is a great profile of Xavi (Spain’s #8 midfielder) from SoccerAmerica.com by Mike Woitalla:

Xavi, Spain’s 30-year-old midfield maestro, has played with just one club, Barcelona, since age 11. His memory of one youth coach helps explain the smooth passing style of Spain’s World Cup team, which is stocked with products of Barca’s youth program.

Coach Carles Rexach stood with his back to the field and applauded the young Barca boys. They yelled back, “Sir, you can’t even see us!”

“But I hear the ball, and that’s why I know that it’s moving well,” Rexach responded.

Xavi leads Spain’s group of highly skillful midfield passers who came out of the Barcelona youth academy: Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Pedro. (Central defenders Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique also came out of la cantera.)

Their swift combination play kept the Germans chasing shadows in Spain’s 1-0 semifinal win. Xavi, despite being on the ball more than any other player, is so quick and clever, he can’t even be stopped by foul play. Only 10 times has an opponent taken him down in six games at the World Cup.

“I don’t get fouled much,” said the 5-foot-7 Xavi, who despite doing a fair amount of defensive work has committed only one foul in this World Cup.

“I’m always thinking about how we can play, which teammate is open, and if I should play a ball to his feet or send it into his path.”

In six games at this World Cup, Xavi has passed the ball 570 times – a tournament high — and has completed 81 percent of those passes. Some of his passes are first-touch deliveries. But he often spins away from or dodges opponents when the pressure’s on, and uses every part of his foot to strike accurately.

His corner kick set up Puyol’s game-winning goal against Germany.

Xavi still lives in his hometown of Terrassa, a city of 200,000 that lies 15 miles from Barcelona, with a his dog, named “Tiro,” which means “shot.” He reportedly owns no computer nor has an e-mail address. His focus is always on soccer.

At age 18, he debuted for Barcelona’s first team. He subbed in for injured Pep Guardiola during the 1999-2000 season, and he proved himself a worthy successor for the stylish playmaker, who is Barcelona’s current coach. Xavi also succeeded Guardiola as Barcelona and Spain captain.

Xavi has played more than 500 games for Barcelona and has celebrated five La Liga titles and two UEFA Champion League crowns. In 2009, Barcelona won a record six titles: La Liga, Spanish Cup, Spanish Super Cup, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

In 2008, Xavi was the Golden Ball MVP of Euro 2008, Spain’s only major title since winning the 1964 European Championship.

On Sunday, he aims to lead Spain to its first World Cup title.

Ronaldo: moving on to his next Armani shoot
Rooney: chillin’ at home
Drogba: nursing his broken arm back to health
Anelka: pouting back in France
Robinho: who’s that again? did you mean ronaldinho?
Messi: did he even play in South Africa? didn’t see him.

The world (especially America) is so focused on individual star power that we’re told we need to be stunned and shocked when excellent teams like Netherlands and Germany eliminate the likes of Robinho and Messi from the World Cup.

Now that the USA’s soccer team is out of the World Cup, what’s been dominating headlines on ESPN and Sportcenter?

“Where will Lebron play next season??” One man. One player. Wherever he and his newly enlarged bank account land, according to the media at least, will be the power of the NBA.

In my humble soccermom opinion, this is a big part of why soccer will never be a mainstream sport in America. And, frankly, I don’t mind.

The “mainstream” sports here in America are riddled with individual over-hyped materialist egomaniacs. The soccer “greats” in other countries are spoiled rotten multi-millionaires who have returned home from South Africa much earlier than anticipated.

To the rest of America: You can stop watching soccer now and resume obsessing over Lebron’s future contract and your fantasy football draft. We soccer folks will get stronger, faster, more fit, and we’ll keep enjoying our (superior) sport without you.

Don’t worry. We’ll warmly welcome you back four years from now, when we’re all watching the action in Brazil.

My favorite part: “Thank you for NOT DIVING!!!” Awesome!

Here’s the world’s reaction:

My favorite is the dude on his webcam about 3½ minutes into the movie … his facial expressions are awesome, then he BOLTS up the stairs yelling “THANK YOU DOVOVAN!!!”

Epic

USA! USA! USA!

As far as I know, there still hasn’t been any official word on WHY the center referee disallowed Maurice Edu’s game-winning goal in the 85th minute against Slovenia. The ref sure did seem eager to blow that whistle, though! He had his breath inhaled & his whistle in his mouth before Landon Donovan sent his perfect free kick into the box. He failed to have such eager whistle blowing when Slovenia was getting away with foul after foul after foul throughout the first 60 minutes of play.

True, USA played a sub-par first half, and Slovenia’s two goals were legitimate strikes — both keen and swift, taking advantage of poor USA defending.

But USA was robbed of their game-winning goal after a Hollywood-esque 2nd half comeback.

Landon Donovan said, of his goal in the 47th minute, after he got past his defender he was initially looking for a pass into the box. He didn’t see a good option, so he said, “I just went at the goalie and aimed for his head.” Good plan! I sure wouldn’t want Landon Donovan aiming at my head from 7 feet away! I’d duck just like that goalie did!

Back to the robbery in the 85th minute…
When Donovan sent his free kick into the box, no less than three Slovenian players had USA men in bear hugs, head locks, or both.

A foul on USA? As Mat would say, “That’s total BULL-BEEP!”

(ESPN article & video HERE)

We’ll keep that on our car until Wednesday, when USA plays (and BEATS!) the Desert Foxes of Algeria!

USA! USA! USA!

This is the best re-cap of the USA v England World Cup match I’ve seen:

GO USA!!!!