Do or Die wtih Acronyms

It's Do or Die time. Moving out of the Round-Robin style Group Stage and into the Round of 16.  No more math or tiebreakers! It's simple from here on out. Win and move on, Lose and go home.



It's Official: The United States as a Nation Has Gone World Cup Crazy

The Germans may have bested Team USA in the World Cup group stage, but it turns out the real winner of Thursday's thrilling USA-Germany match is ESPN. Despite the noon Eastern start time, the match drew in enough viewers to score a 6.7 U.S. household rating -- the second-highest rating and third-most viewed ever for a men’s World Cup match on ESPN, according to the press release issued by the network.    Online, ESPN was even more popular. The release says 1.7 million concurrent viewers were logged on to WatchESPN. That's more than the number that signed in to watch the most recent Super Bowl, Forbes reports.

Muisca do Dia
Samba Funk tunes rocking my balcony this morning- Jorge Ben Jor. oh yeah!
https://play.spotify.com/artist/5JYtpnUKxAzXfHEYpOeeit?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

Sausage Chronicles.
they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's my 2000 word essay about work here.

Copyright 2014 T-Smith Photo Enterprises.

ACS - Acronym Overload Syndrome-          you've progressed nicely in your world football education. Your homework has consistently garnered a star or smiley face.  Time to move on the next level.  Today's lesson- CONCACAF and CONMEBOL.  what?  Well FIFA was easy, most can assume it's some sort of International Football Association. close. It's actually Fédération Internationale de Football Association.  You'll need to commit these to memory, there will be a pop quiz soon. Plus, you'll be able to understand what the fuzz the announcers are talking about and talk shop over coffee the next day.

CONCACAF-  Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is the continental governing body for soccer in North America, Central Amercian and the Caribbean.  Three South American entities, the independent nations of Guyana andSuriname and the French department of French Guiana, are also members. US, Mexico and Costa Rica are the teams that fought through two years of qualifying to beat out the other 41 member nations.

CONMEBOL- South American Football Confederation is not really an acronym. More of blended word. Like a blended family, not unlike the Brady Bunch. They take a few letters from each word CONfederacîon sudaMEricana de FütBOL. Those clever SudAmericanos.  Five teams qualified.

Ha hahahahah. go home CR7...and take your hair style with you!

From The Quote Board

The US progression to the WC round of 16 was a historic achievement not only for the US (who made consecutive knockout stages for the first time), but for CONCACAF as well.   Why, you ask?  It is the first time in World Cup history that the North American region has sent three teams to the round of 16 (Mexico and Costa Rica being the others), which fits right in with the notion that this is, indeed, the World Cup of The Americas.  

Day Off =  mucho necessário.

Met my buddy Sean from SF and friends at the beach yesterday and just sat in the sun exchanging stories, reminiscing about past World Cups and making plans for the next. Sean is a travel/soccer nut.  He is the guy who declines working the World Cup in order to go enjoy it as a fan. Smart guy.  In 2010, we were able to meet up for a few minutes after one of the games. This time, it was beach, sun and a nice meal. I have been jones'in for some grilled fish and real veggies. I was not disappointed.

ON TAP Today- here's a taste of those Sudamericanos in action. Great match-ups today.

One hour before Brazil kicks off.  Getting loud here in Barra around the apartments- blaring Horns, fireworks exploding and even a few vuvuzelas,
making whatever sound vuvuzelas make.

Well, back to The Sausage Factory.


Happy Saturday, amigos.

~El Rüss