World Cup Soccer Lists (4 of 4): The Names We Will Remember

Wow! We didn't realize that Arjen Robben of The Netherlands and Tim Howard of the United States look like twin brothers! For more info on world soccer, we recommend a true expert Ahmet Bob Turgut:

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

And, kudos to Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for calling an excellent game yesterday in Argentina's penalty shoot-out win over The Netherlands, but I suspect we will see much more of Robben, who plays for Bayern Munich.

Here is our list:

1) Joel Campbell. 22. Costa Rica. Olympiacos (Greece; pictured top)

2) Arjen Robben. 30. Netherlands. Bayern Munich (pictured center)

3) Tim Howard. 35. USA. Everton (England, pictured bottom,)

4) Marouane Fellaini. 26. Belgium. Manchester U.

5) Thomas Muller. 24. Germany, Bayern Munich

6) Rais Mbolhi. 28. Algeria. CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria, where he plays goal-keeper)

7) Luis Suarze. 27. Uruguay. Liverpool (I guess we can objectively say he is the most scandalous futboler on the planet)

8) Faryd Mondgram. 43. Colombia. (no club team, he is the oldest player ever to play in a World Cup)

9) Xherdan Shaqiri. 22. Switzerland. Bayern Munich.

10) Mathieu Valbuena. 29. France. Marseilles.

11) Angel di Mira. 26. Argentina. Real Madrid.

World Cup Lists (3 of 4): Turkish League Players

Wow! We are still recovering from the Belgium-USA World Cup game that was won 2-1 in extra time by the Land of Tintin, though Team America saw goal-keeper Tim Howard save a World Cup record 16 saves.

Amazingly enough, there is one player_Jermain Jones_ on the American roster who plays for Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash whereas there are no American players from the current World Cup team from D.C. United.

There is also a Greek player in Theofanis Gekas who plays for the Turkish team Konyaspor.

Two of the players on this list are from the Cameroon national team which is embroiled in a match-fixing scandal regarding their 4-1 loss to Croatia, but neither of the two players listed here have been cited.

Here is our list of international players who played pro soccer in Turkey as of the 2013-14 season:

1). Pierre Webo. 32. Fenerbahce. Cameroon.

2) Jermaine Jones. 32. Besiktash. USA. (pictured top)

3) Wesley Sneijder. 30. Galatasaray. Netherlands.

4) Didier Drogba. 36, Galatasaray. Ivory Coast

5) Aurelien Chedjov. 33. Galatasaray. Cameroon.

6) Dirk Kuyt. 33. Fenerbahce. Netherlands. (pictured midle)

7) Sol Bamba. 29. Ivory Coast. Trabzonspor.

8) Fernando Muslera. 28. Uruguay. Galatasaray (plays goal-keeper)

9) Theofanis Gekas. 34. Greece. Konyaspor (pictured bottom)

10) Emmanuel Emenike. 27. Nigeria. Fenerbahce.

11) Izet Hajrovic. 22. Bosnia. Galatasaray.

World Cup Lists (2 of 4): Players with Long Names

It looked like the Greek national team had a profound advantage in yesterday's knock-out round game with Costa Rica, until the game ended in a 1-1 tie, even after two extra 15 minute sessions, and was determined by penalty kicks.

But, Greece leaves us with plenty of long difficult names to play with, as does Russia, Iran and Bosnia.

Here are 11 of them:

1. Sokratis Papastathopoulous. 26.  Greece (scored the tying goal versus Costa Rica yesterday,pict. center). Club team: Borussia Dortmund (Germany)

2. Giannis Fetafatzidis. 27. Greece. Bologna (Italy)

3. Maksim Kannunnikov. 22. Russia. Rubin Kazan (Russia)

4. Sergei Igmanashevich. 34. Russia. CSKA Moscow (Russia)

5. Liassine Cadamurco-Bentaiba. 26. Algeria. Mallorca (Spain)

6. Haris Mendunjanin. 29. Bosnia (pict. bottom). Gaziantepspor (Turkey)

7. Reza Ghoochannejhad. 26. Iran. Charlton Athletic (England, second div.)

8. Andranik Teymourian. 31. Iran. Esteghal (Iran). An ethnic Armenian, he is the first Christian to ever captain an Iranian national team.

9. Mario Gauranovic. 24. Switzerland. (pictured top) Zurich.

10. Benjamin Moukandjo. 25. Cameroon. Nancy (France)

11. Cesar Azpilicueta. 24. Spain. Chelsea.

http://www.worldcup.usatoday.com

The World Cup Lists (1 of 4): The Captains

Greetings to our readers in Bangladesh, Turkey and Peru, where assuredly folks are still depressed because their respective nations are not competing in the World Cup, but we are here to cheer you up.

Well, actually, this list may not help_may not help at all in fact.

We begin our long overdue World Cup coverage with a list of 11 players who are captains of their team. Of course, just because one is a captain does not he is the best player. The disgraced soccer version of Bela Lugosi, Uruguay's Luis Suarez, one of the best players in the world, was not the captain for Team Uruguay which will try to defeat Colombia today without him.

Here is our list, good luck to everyone in Brazil:

1) Thiago Silva. Brazil. Age 29. Paris Saint-Germaine (France; pictured top).

2) Giorgis Karagounis. Greece. Age 37. Fulham (England; pictured center)

3) Clint Dempsey. USA. Age 31. Seattle Sounders (MLS/USA; pictured bottom)

4) Robin van Persie. Netherlands. Age 30. Manchester United (England)

5) Hugo Lloris. France. 27. Tottenham Hotspur (England, he plays goal-keeper)

6) Lionel Messi. Argentina. 27. Barcelona (Spain)

7) Vincent Kompany. Belgium. 28. Manchester City (England)

8) Gokhan Inler. Switzerland. 29. Napoli (Italy; he is the son of immigrants from Turkey)

9) Claudio Bravo. Chile. 31. Barcelona (Spain, the player is a goal-keeper)

10) Philipp Lahm. Germany. 30. Bayern Munich (Germany)

11) Mario Yepes. Colombia. 38. Atalanta (Italy)

http://espn.go.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Top Sunday Comics from the Sunday, June 22nd Washington Post

We suggested to political reporter Chris Cillizza of "The Washington Post" who runs a weekly column of Sunday called Worst Week in Washington that the dubious honor should go Ambassador Ramon Gil-Casares of Spain his country performed very badly at the World Cup in Brazil though they went out with a win over Australia. Cillizza chose President Barack Obama instead.

But, in the comics section, there was very little politics except for "Doonesbury,"which poked fun of global warming denialists, and surprisingly only comic strip "Knight Life" from Keith Knight, who is a great and wonderful person (yeah, I am partially saying that so he will base a character on me) mentioned the World Cup.

"The Argyle Sweater" was our overall top choice as the comic strip did a take on what the Three Bears would think if Goldilocks had come into the family bathroom. "Lio" was our second favorite strip of the week as the title character gave a map of the stars to an alien visiting his home. And, "Rhymes with Orange" was our third favorite strip as a woman is horrified to learn that the whole class will be using Twister yoga mats.

We also enjoyed "Dustin," which illustrated what can happen if a senior citizen mixes up the words tweeting and twerking; yes, we thought about Miley Cyrus too!

Here is our survey, our top ten comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" can be seen on our sister blog http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/


1. "The Argyle Sweater"

2. "Lio"

3. "Rhymes with Orange"

4. "Sherman's Lagoon"

5. "Pearls Before Swine"

6. "Dustin"

7. "Doonesbury"

8. "Speed Bump"

9. "Knight Life"

10. "Prickly City"

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.gocomics.com/knightlife

http://www.dcbikramyoga.com/

http://www.bikramyogahampden.com/

http://bikramyogarichmond.com/

Sunday Comics Gran Slam (4 of 4): Bleeker Wins the Overall Sweepstakes

Greetings from Charlotte, NC, where we have been hanging out at Heroes Con with Mark Hamill, ok, that is not where we have been this weekend, and we have no idea if the actor who once portrayed Luke Skywalker was in the Queen City, but nonetheless, we needed to get your attention.

Similarly, Shawn Johnson, the American gold medalist gymnast from Iowa, Cuneyt Cakir, the Turkish soccer referee who worked the Brazil-Mexico match at the World Cup, and Yogi Bear, really have nothing to do with his blog entry, but we are competing with thousands of other blogs to win over teenagers in South Korea who are taking a break from playing Donkey Kong (or whatever kids play these days) for 72 straight hours (we hope with bathroom breaks).

So, here are our top 20 comic strips from last Sunday's funny papers. Alas, we are posting them as the world gets to see the latest installment of "Garfield," our apologies to Jim Davis, but his strip about a 38-year-old house cat, did not make the grade.

Here is the list:
 

1) Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog 8.6

2) The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee 8.5

3) WUMO 8.4

4) Pardon the Planet 8.3

5) Tundra 8.3

6) Retail 8.3

7) The Argyle Sweater 8.3

8) Speed Bump 8.2

9) Arctic Circle 8.2

10) Tom Tomorrow 8.1

11) Dustin 8.1

12) Zippy the Pinhead 8.0

13) Reply All 8.0

14) Tina's Groove 8.0

15) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy 8.0

16) Knight Life 8.0

17) Mother Goose and Grimm 8.0

18) Sherman's Lagoon 7.9

19) Lio 7.8

20) Doonesbury 7.8


http://bleekercomics.com/

http://edisonleecomic.com/

http://www.gocomics/wumo

http://www.twitter.com/shawnjohnson

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/