World Cup

Spain Wins World Cup 2010!

By in Furry Friends, In the Headlines Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This past month has been intense with all the excitement of the World Cup — I know it’s been keeping me glued to ESPN and on the edge of my seat for many a game — but it all came to an end today with the World Cup Final, as Spain emerged as the victors over the Netherlands to become the World Cup 2010 Champions!

Congratulations to Spain! Holland did really well this World Cup too, but this time it just wasn’t in the cards….  (Although they did win for getting the most yellow cards in any game I’ve ever seen.) Congratulations to Paul the Octopus as well, the cephalopod who has gotten 8 out of 8 of his predictions this tournament right! He has become an international sensation of sorts. 🙂

Seeing this little octopus making “Breaking News” on CNN and causing such a stir this World Cup got me wondering if either of our very own pet chinchillas had any psychic abilities of his own. Here we are putting Diesel to the test this morning, shortly before the game:

Unfortunately, the only thing Diesel ended up proving was that he is not cut out to be a psychic chinchilla. 🙁 His quest for fame will have to be rewarded by some other means….

Japan Falls to Paraguay on Penalties

By in In the Headlines Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

It was a sad day for the Samurai Blue and the motherland today, as they lost to Paraguay after the score remained a sterile stalemate at 0-0 throughout the match and through the extra time, leading to a penalty kick shootout to determine who would advance to the Final 8.

The world stood still as they watched this World Cup’s first shootout. Japan lost in the PKs, as they missed a goal while Paraguay nailed all five of theirs.

It was definitely a difficult loss to swallow, both for the Japanese national teams and all of their fans, since it is such a frustrating way to get taken out of the World Cup.

Ultimately, though, I think that Japan performed much better than what the world had expected of them, and they were able to show other countries that they are a force to be reckoned with. They seem to have won a lot of  non-Japanese fans over in the course of the past couple weeks as well! 🙂

Four years is a long wait, but I can’t wait to see the Samurai Blue take on the field on the world stage once again in 2014 in Brazil.

In the meantime, it’ll be fun to sit back and watch which team will rise up to become the champions this year.

Japan Advances to Round of 16 in the World Cup!

By in In the Headlines Tags: , , , , , , , ,

So proud of Team Japan today! They won in their match against Denmark earlier today, 3-1, and won their ticket to advance to the next round of the Final 16 in the World Cup!!!

These are the moments I wait (im)patiently every four years for…


Everyone knows that expectations for Japan were pretty low going into this year’s World Cup — mine were, too, and I was just going to sit back and enjoy the games. But it’s upsets like this that make the world of soccer exciting! This is Japan’s first time scoring three goals in a World Cup game, and this year is the first time they have won a match on foreign soil. (They did well in 2002, but it was on home soil.) So proud of the Samurai Blue!

It’s been an exciting couple weeks in World Cup, and I have high hopes that the best is yet to come. It’s great to see some of the underdogs making it into the Final 16, like the U.S. and Japan.

頑張れ、日本代表！
日本、おめでとう！！！

Viva la FIFA!!!