TRAVEL LIGHT

World Cup 2006 Squads

Finally the list of National squads for World Cup 2006 is out.

Here’s the list of my favorite National teams with their respective squads including each player’s current professional Clubs:

Brazil squad:

Goalkeepers: Dida (AC Milan), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo)

Defenders: Cafu (AC Milan), Cicinho (Real Madrid), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Juan (Bayer Leverkusen), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid), Gilberto (Hertha Berlin), Cris (Olympique Lyon), Luisao (Benfica)

Midfielders: Edmilson (Barcelona), Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon), Emerson (Juventus), Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Kaka (AC Milan), Ricardinho (Corinthians)

Forwards: Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Adriano (Inter Milan), Fred (Olympique Lyon).

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Germany squad:

Goalkeepers: Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG), Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich), Timo Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart)

Defenders: Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Robert Huth (Chelsea/ENG), Marcell Jansen (Borussia Monchengladbach), Per Mertesacker (Hannover), Christoph Metzelder (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Jens Nowotny (Bayer Leverkusen)

Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen), Sebastian Kehl (Borussia Dortmund), Bernd Schneider (Bayer Leverkusen), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), David Odonkor (Borussia Dortmund)

Fowards: Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen), Lukas Podolski (FC Cologne), Mike Hanke (VfL Wolfsburg), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Monchengladbach), Gerald Asamoah (Schalke 04)

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Argentina squad:

Goalkeepers: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Boca Juniors), Leonardo Franco (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Oscar Ustari (Independiente)

Defenders: Nicolas Burdisso (Inter Milan/ITA), Gabriel Milito (Zaragoza/ESP), Juan Pablo Sorin (Villarreal/ESP), Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruna/ESP), Leandro Cufre (Roma/ITA), Roberto Ayala (Valencia/ESP), Gabriel Heinze (Manchester United/ENG)

Midfielders: Maximiliano Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter Milan/ITA), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal/ESP), Lionel Scaloni (West Ham/ENG), Luis Gonzalez (Porto/POR), Javier Mascherano (Corinthians/BRA), Pablo Aimar (Valencia/ESP)

Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona/ESP), Hernan Crespo (Chelsea/ENG), Carlos Tevez (Corinthians/BRA), Javier Saviola (Sevilla/ESP), Julio Cruz (Inter Milan/ITA), Rodrigo Palacio (Boca Juniors)

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England squad:

Goalkeepers: Paul Robinson (Tottenham Hotspur), David James (Manchester City), Robert Green (Norwich City)

Defenders: Gary Neville (Manchester United), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Wayne Bridge (Chelsea)

Midfielders: David Beckham (Real Madrid), Michael Carrick (Tottenham Hotspur), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur)

Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Michael Owen (Newcastle United), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

On stand-by: Scott Carson (Liverpool), Luke Young (Charlton Athletic), Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur) Andrew Johnson (Crystal Palace).

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Italy squad:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio), Marco Amelia (Livorno)

Defenders: Massimo Oddo (Lazio), Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Palermo)

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Simone Barone (Palermo), Francesco Totti (Roma)

Forwards: Luca Toni (Fiorentina), Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan), Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese)

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For the list of squads of other National teams, visit the Fifa World Cup website.

A Bed Weather Treat

Last Saturday evening while typhoon Caloy was pouring rain and blowing gusty winds over Metro Manila, I was glued on the TV set watching, what else - Football. But it was not any ordinary Football match, it was a live telecast of the FA Cup Final match between Liverpool FC and West Ham United. A match that will go down as one of the greatest in the competition’s 134-year history. Liverpool FC repeated the drama it played during last year’s UEFA Champions League Finals by winning the match via a penalty shoot-out.

The match started with West Ham United getting the first score courtesy of a Liverpool own goal and then earning its second score by a shot on goal. Liverpool managed to tag along by scoring their first goal before the first half ended. Liverpool started the second half with an equalizer by Steven Gerrard. But West Ham United immediately got the lead again by shooting another goal making the score 3-2. As the second half comes to a close and while West Ham United fans were already celebrating their imminent victory, the miracle of the match happened. Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard suddenly scored a goal equalizing the score to 3-3 as the clock marked exactly 90 minutes with an added 1 minute injury time - just a whistle away to full time. A 30 minute extra-time was played still resulting to a 3-3 standstill. The rest is already history. Liverpool lifted the FA Cup after defeating West Ham United in a sudden death penalty shoot out.

This FA Cup finals had shown that England is already warming up for the World Cup next month. BBC has recorded a peak of 11 million viewers who watched the FA Cup finals on BBC. According to BBC these figures are only for viewers who watched the match at home, and do not include those who saw it in pubs or clubs or from other channels. I wonder how many in the Philippines were able to watch the match? Perhaps a thousand, I wish.

Vive la difference!

My take on the issue about the Filipino boy in Canada punished by his school’s director and berated for eating like a pig by using spoon and fork, is that it is a case of racial discrimination. Plain and simple. I don’t see any justifiable reason about the director’s action and reprehensible comments. I find it even stupid to use the adage “when in Rome do what the Romans do” to justify the wrongdoing and cover up the racial slur over the issue. Pigs don’t eat with spoon and fork. By using Pig to describe people who doesn’t eat the continental way smacks of racism in its most despicable form. Although I believe that not all Canadians are racists. Canada is known to be a country far more tolerant to immigrants than the US, but ironically Quebec is known to be a place where Racism is socially acceptable and where everybody assumes you’re an asshole.

A lot has already been said about the issue. I would like to share my thoughts against racism through this song by one of my favorite folk music group, the trio of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers, otherwise known as PPM. I thought all along that PPM has already faded into history. I never heard of them for a long time. But thanks to the internet and of course the You Tube, I found out that they are still singing their songs and even making new ones like this song entitled All Mixed Up which they made in 1990’s. Watching this video transported me back to the past when I used to jam with my old buddies singing PPM songs. Though they obviously looked like Lolos and Lola already but their music hasn’t changed a bit, their songs remain upbeat, cheerful and very meaningful.

So to all of you Racists out there better sing along and learn.

All Mixed Up
Peter, Paul & Mary

You know this language that we speak,
Is part german , latin and part greek
Celtic and arabic all in a heap,
Well amended by the people in the street
The choctaw gave us the word okay;
Vamose is a word from mexico way.
And all of this is a hint I suspect of what comes next.

Chorus:
I think that this whole world
Soon mama my whole wide world
Soon mama my whole world
Soon gonna be get mixed up.
Soon mama my whole world
Soon mama my whole wide world
Soon mama my whole world
Soon gonna be get mixed up.

I like polish sausage, I like spanish rice,
And pizza pie is also nice
Corn and beans from the indians here
Washed down by german beer
Marco polo traveled by camel and pony,
He brought to italy, the first macaroni
And you and I as well we’re able,
We put it all on the table

(chorus)

There were no red-headed irishmen
Before the vikings landed in ireland
How many romans had dark curly hair
Before they brought slaves from africa?
No race of man is completely pure,
Nor is anyone’s mind, that’s for sure
The winds mix the dust of every land,
And so will woman and man.

(chorus)

This doesn’t mean we will all be the same,
We’ll have different faces and different names
Long live many different kinds of races
It’s a difference of opinion that makes horse races
Just remember the rule about rules, brother
What could be right for one could be wrong for the other
And take a tip from la belle france: Vive la difference!

(chorus)

Best Way to Spend a Weekend

I consider every weekend as special family days. I don’t schedule meetings during these days except for some very important matters that really needs my attendance. Except for occasional family outing, we don’t usually go out during weekends. We spend our weekends more at home by doing together just about anything, like cleaning our aquariums, cooking, watching football on TV or some DVD movies and sitting in front of the computer coaching Maia playing the interactive Nickelodeon online games. Nothing really beats the joy of spending time with your loved ones.

Here’s Bambit, Maia and myself enjoying our weekend playing with a Logitech Video Camera Bambit installed in my laptop computer. Here’s our latest family protrait.

World Cup Fever

As the anticipation and preparations for World Cup 2006 goes fever pitch, football fans around the world are now preparing their list of teams to root for and players to watch. Here’s mine:

My teams: (The usual favorites. Most likely to reach the semi-finals and finals)

Brazil
Germany
Argentina
Italy
England

But of course, I will still be cheering for:

Japan
Korea
Australia - With Guus Hinddink as Coach, Australia is a team to reckon.

My list of players to watch (A partial list of mostly my favorite old stars. Although this year’s World Cup will set the stage for the debut of a new generation of promising players.):

1. Ronaldinho (Bra)
2. Ronaldo (Bra)
3. Robinho (Bra)
4. Adriano (Bra)
5. Oliver Khan (Ger)
6. Michael Ballack (Ger)
8. Hernan Crespo (Arg)
9. Javier Saviola (Arg)
10. David Beckham (Eng)
11. Michael Owen (Eng)
12. Francesco Totti (Ita)
13. Gianluca Zambrotta (Ita)

PS: I would like to drumbeat the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2006 by dedicating my sidebar for news and updates about events and happenings leading to Germany. All news are RSS feeds from the news and features content of the official FIFA World Cup website. Read the news and updates and feel the heat rising as the World Cup 2006 drama unfolds.