Showing posts with label How to:. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to:. Show all posts

Monday, July 6, 2009

A Brief How To: Spotting the Soccer Douche


I'm pleased to present my first guest post, and it's by my brother David. He's been playing pickup soccer every night so far this summer and developed the following survival mechanism.

When picking sides in the neighborhood pick up game, spotting the player that will end up hogging the ball, talking inordinate amounts of trash, and eventually storming off the field can be a great advantage. However, in the beginning stages it can be hard to pinpoint this player. In this short How To guide I will outline several basic tenants that most, if not all, soccer douches follow.

Gelled Hair

douche1
I am not talking about that you had gel in your hair this morning. I am talking about gelling your hair before the game, styling it in the mirror, and then constantly checking yourself out in any reflective surface that happens to be near the pitch. Oh extra shiny soccer ball, I think I will admire my beautiful hair in you.

Under Armor

2 18
Now there is a time and place for under armor, if you are a girl that time is when it is chilly out. However, if you are a man, under armor is only permitted to be worn when it is snowing out. If you happen to spot a player who shows up in 80 degree weather wearing skin tight spandex than you can be 70% sure he takes himself too seriously.

Neon Colored Cleats

evisu_soccer_004
This should be taken as a bright flashing warning that says, “This player craves attention!” He will always be open. He will always demand the ball by screaming. He will take shots every chance he gets. He will not pass, because he is, of course, the best player on his team. And you can be damn sure that he is too good for defense.

Now once in your lifetime you will stumble onto a player who walks onto the pitch with a freshly gelled fohawk, neon green Nike’s and skin tight under armor. Run for your life, and do not look back.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How To: Watch Soccer Online


There comes a time in everyone’s life who is either in college, doesn’t have the money to pay for multiple TV packages, or is just too damn lazy, that they want to watch some soccer online. Yes this may mean that you have to watch a game in quality so low the ball disappears into the certain parts of the grass and you have to guess where it is by where the pixilated players are perusing.

But that’s soccer on the internet. Sometimes there is no option but to go online to a place that combines the joy of information with the fun of typing (thanks Jon Stewart). As a former poor college student and now as a young professional still too poor to afford a nice TV and some expensive extended cable there is only one choice: the internet.

Here are the four primary methods of watching games.

MLS Direct Kick
MLSDirectKick
There really isn’t a better deal than MLS Direct Kick. 20 dollars for a full season pass gets you hundreds of games. I love being able to spend a whole Saturday parked on my couch switching from game to game. Sure there are downsides. At times, Direct Kick is incredibly frustrating and annoying. Your team is about to play and for no reason and with no notice the game isn’t there.

Instead of communicating, Direct Kick just takes down the “Watch Live” links and laughs inside their Major League Baseball dugout as Big Soccer goes crazy and fans try to enjoy a game by reading match trackers.

Take advantage of Big Soccer going crazy when the game doesn’t work. Visit both teams in game thread. There is a 90% chance someone will post a link where you can watch it.

Justin.tv
justintv
Justin TV really is the bomb. If you can’t find a game or it is blacked out on MLS Direct Kick go to Justin TV and search for a team name. Sure you’ll have to listen to the game in Spanish in grainy vision but most of the time that’s waaay better than the American announcers.

Veetle
Now here is a high quality option. Veetle.com is a high quality streaming service that uses very little bandwidth. I am amazed by how good these games look. There is usually a 24/7 stream of Fox Soccer Channel available as well as spotty coverage of Sentanta sports. Warning: some of these stream seem to have been taken down recently. Keep watching the space though.

Myp2p.eu

myp2p
I used to visit Myp2p.eu all the time to get live game schedules. They have great links to pretty much every live sport and live game ever. These links almost all use 3rd party streaming tools. You will have varied luck. It’s free of viruses though, and great for international and rare soccer. Oh and if you like rugby they have 24/7 rugby channel.

Mininova
mininova
I don't have the time to watch English Premier League games but I still like to follow along with the rest of the world. That's why every weekend I take two hours to watch Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2. Match of the Day summarizes all the EPL play in just an hour. They do a great job of being droll and still serving up a great review show. Follow my tweets and I'll send you the mininova links every Saturday and Sunday if I'm not too drunk.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

How To: Get Your Own Soccer News


CUT COPY - "HEARTS ON FIRE" from Diaspro on Vimeo.
Surviving On Our Own
With the loss of Bruce over at du Nord to burnout all us Major League Soccer fans are suddenly without our regular daily news. We have gone from having all the news that’s fit and not fit to print organized and delivered daily to our computer screens to a random updates on all the blogs. It’s disorienting I know. Well today I’m going to share my small method of reaping the riches of MLS news using Google Alerts.

G’ It Up: Step One

Get yourself a new Gmail account: Setting up a new account is a vital step as you will flood your old email if you don’t. Plus you can curse at me on Google Talk.

G’ It Up: Step Two

Head to the Google Alerts page: This is your command station to set up personalized news alerts. Sign on in to that puppy with your new email account information.

G’ It Up: Step Three
Add New Alerts: Click that not shiny New Alert button on the bottom right of your screen. Add 14 different alerts as follows. Select “comprehensive” and “once a day”:
  • "D.C. United" soccer
  • "New England Revolution" soccer
  • "Red Bulls" soccer
  • "San Jose" soccer
  • Chicago Fire soccer
  • Chivas USA
  • Colorado Rapids soccer
  • Columbus Crew
  • FC Dallas
  • Houston Dynamo
  • KC wizards
  • LA Galaxy soccer
  • Seattle Sounders
  • Toronto FC
googel alerts
I formulated and tested these for the best results. Them quotation marks are important unless you want a lot of random crap about the discovery of new galaxies, politics, and earthquake magnitudes.

G’ It Up: Step Four

Check once a day to get a comprehensive look at everything happening in the league. I tested a couple other alert setups but found just sticking with the different teams yielded everything I needed to know. Want to follow a specific coach, team, supporters group or player? Throw up an alert to receive just about everything printed.