giggle pop

How I became a Serie A fan. Towards the end of the summer I decided I was going to start following the Serie A. I have followed the EPL and La Liga for years, and had my alliances very set in stone for both leagues for a while, but I had never followed the Italian league closely. While my alliances in the other two leagues formed fairly organically (stories for another day) I started thinking, hmm I need a team if I am going to follow this league, right? It is pretty impossible for me to watch any sort of competition and not get behind a team, I mean I cannot even watch a game show without picking a favorite and screaming at the tv. I decided to give the impossible a try and not pick a team until the end of season…and I succeeded. I spent the season as a happy neutral spectator learning and enjoying the intricacies of the league. I saw a lot of beautiful football and a lot of beautiful men.

As the season progressed I began to sort out teams I could see myself as a potential fan of and ones I just could not get behind. I decided quickly that AC Milan just was not for me, they were just to polished, smug, or something…can’t put my finger on it. There are a lot of great players on the team and not really hateable, but just not for me. The three teams that started to stand out to me as possible candidates were Roma, Juventus, and Inter. After a few Roma games I realized that while they were ripe with hotties there just was not that spark there, and with that Roma got an honorable discharge. There I was trying to decide between Juve and Inter and it was a tough tough choice.

Juve had a little something I loved, not to mention my near obsession with Iaquinta’s head and Gigi’s hair. On the other hand Inter had The Special One, how could I NOT cheer for The Special One? The more I watched Inter the more I loved them…it was going to be so tough to choose. I made a pro list for each team…I managed to lose this list but it was full of quality reasons to cheer for teams such as: Pupi’s right thigh, Pupi’s left thigh, the pure awesomeness of Gigi, Nedved’s hair, etc. (btw the was I was choosing on more than just hotness, but that is just how my lists always turn out). After some time Inter was pulling away into a lead and I was inches away from declaring them the winner.

Then all of a sudden Juve hit hard with a three-pronged attack of firing Ranieri, signing Cannavaro (again), and Gigi Buffon wore bobby pins in a game I never thought I could want a man in berets so badly. Inter needed to step up their game…and step it up they did.

I think it was a few days after the clinched the title I was spending one of my usual awesome weekends sitting on the couch with the dogs, watching sappy movies, drinking lots of wine, and chatting on twitter with my lovely kickette ladies. All of a sudden I get a set of tweets I have only been able to describe as “drunken pictorial persuasion” TB was making a last ditch effort to sway me to become an Interista. It was a series of pictures of Mr. Stankovic in most of these pictures he was about 85% naked and one of which was on a waterslide. It not only provided material for fun dirty jokes, it involved something awesome…a waterslide! Also there were pictures like this…of the boys drunk and in festive wigs from the night before a game after they clinched the title. I LOVE FESTIVE HEAD GEAR!

I was drunk, TB was drunk, the nerazzurri boys were drunk it was like fate…I knew then and there that Inter HAD to be my team. And lets not forget the one of Julio Cesar in a crazy hat, no shirt, and a flag…too bad I can’t find it now.

I had been waiting for my magical a-ha moment, and that was it. So here I am an Internazionale fan. I cannot wait for next season when I can really watch the Serie A with my very own team to support. I loved watching the league this year, but without a team I did not have deep deep emotional attachment I have to La Liga and EPL. I know it is going to come and will develop more with another season or two. So there it is, how I became a fan of the Serie A and a fan of Inter.

I have been making an effort to feature non-athlete manmeat for the past few weeks (since I write about hot athletes enough on this blog) but I figured I would bring it back to my footie world this Monday, with the one and only Jose Mourinho. He is the self proclaimed “special one,” and deserves that title for sure.

Mr. Jose is Portuguese, fantastic, and a champion. The former boss of FC Porto where he won the champions league. The former boss of Chelsea, and perhaps the future boss of the blues as well *fingers crossed* where he won back to back league titles and a handful of other trophies before Big Boss sacked him.

The special one is now doing his special thing at Inter in Italy where he pretty much has the Serie A locked up. There is no other manager like him, and he is the best in the world.


Shut up haters! Be Champions!

I just watched the reply of Barca-Atletico game in another failed attempt to finally see this weeks Real Madrid game. After seeing Kun Aguero’s goals once again, he is quickly jumping onto my list of Argentine footballers I just cannot get enough of. He is in good company with the likes of Fernando Gago, Gonzalo Higuain, and Lionel Messi. I know they are a tad young, but I just am weak for the ridiculous talent mixed with adorableness.

Also Pep Guardiola is starting to nip on the heels (just a little bit) of the special one (Jose Mourinho) as hottest manager on the planet.

Not to worry this is a slight fascination with barca right now, coming out as love of Pep and Messi and by no means a fanship. I can say with confidence you will not see me running around in the blaugrana anytime soon.

I am sitting here with a perma-smile on my face after an absolutely fabulous weekend in sports for my teams. I enjoy sports a lot, mainly football (soccer), ncaa basketball, tennis, and am getting into golf as well. I just kind of write what I think, and it will often have more to do with the hottness of the athletes as opposed to anything really insightful into the games.

NCAA Basketball

Yay the Zags once again went undefeated in the WCC conference (which we had already clinched a week or so ago). I have been a die hard Gonzaga fan for about 10 years now, which is making me feel quite old. Even with some questionable performances this season I am still remaining optimistic for a good tourney performance by the boys this year, and yes I am aware it is more often than not a futile task. But hey it is March and the begininngs of March Madness are sweeping through me...counting down the days until the tourney!!!

On a related note…I just cannot get enough of Matt Bouldin and his arms. Mmmmmm.

Football

Yes I watch far too much football, it is a bit of an obsession for me. My teams are Chelsea for the EPL and Real Madrid in La Liga.

Let’s start off with the Chelsea game, which I sadly could not watch, but that did not stop me from yelling out in excitement in the bar I was in at 11am (long story) while checking the score on my phone. First off our fearless captain John Terry gets his first goal in a long time, then other team equalizes, and then in true dramatic fashion Super Frankie Lampard scores a last minute goal to win. This puts the blues back at #2 in the league still trailing the ever pestilent Manchester United. Oh I was a happy happy girl. I still have not been able to watch a game since Guus (who I like to call “Goose” because it reminds me of Top Gun) took over a few weeks ago. This win coupled with a win in the first leg of the Champions League game against Juventus and Liverpool losing to Middlesbrough HAHAHAHAHA (sorry ‘pool fans) including an own goal it was a good day in the Premier League.

Moving on over to espana for some La Liga fun. My beloved Real Madrid won 2-0 over Espanyol on Saturday, another game I had to miss but was yelling with excitement upon seeing scores come up. That is about a million league wins in a row for the boys in white and Captain Raul scored his bazilionth goal or something like that. Then today Barcelona lost in an absolutely wonderful game against Atletico. I spend about 90+ minutes a week being an avid fan for whatever team is playing Barca. Now, I have respect for Barca and a bit of a crush on Little Leo Messi and Xavi, but I want nothing more than to see Los Blancos win the league yet again, and that involves the once invincible looking Barcelona loooosing, which they are doing a wonderful job of doing lately. A few weeks ago, all you would hear about is how Barca had La Liga locked up, but now that Real Madrid is only FOUR yes FOUR points off the lead things are getting exciting.

Last but not least, watched a great draw between Inter Milan and Roma over in Italy. I still can’t decide what team I am going to support in Serie A. Right now I am cheering for Inter, but pretty much only because Jose Mourinho is the manager. I am still telling myself everyday that once he takes the trophy in Italy the special one will be packing his bags and coming back to Chelsea where he belongs!!! However, this still leaves me with a need of a team in Serie A to cheer for, maybe I will stick with Inter maybe not….any suggestions?

Ray Hudsonism
Anyone who watches games on gol tv in the states gets to experience the colorful commentary of Ray Hudson. I would give just about anything to have this man narrate everything because he cracks me up. Today he had a particularly great line about his man crush Little Lionel Messi. “He’s got the swivel hips, like a Turkish stripper.” BTW the goal that prompted that comment was beautiful.