World Cup Balls

World Cup Balls

   1974

   1978

   1982

   1986

   1990

   1994

   1998

   2002

   2006

   2010

I saw these balls displayed at Sport Check, west Edmonton mall location.  

Enjoy, 

Ben

Champagne and Campania

Champagne and Campania

I wanted to know why the 'sparkling white wine' is called Champagne; and did some research and found the following interesting information. 

   Champagne, France

The name 'Champagne' comes from the Latin word 'Campania'.  It is referred to the similarities between the rolling hills of the province of Champagne, located in northeast France and the Italian countryside of Campania located south of Rome.

   Champagne, France

Both Champagne and Campania are historic provinces and locations in both France and Italy, respectively.  

   Campania, Italy

However, now Champagne is best known for the 'sparkling white wine' that bears its name; instead of history packed locations.  

   Campania, Italy

I have included a few pictures of both Champagne and Campania; beautiful places to visit/live.  

   Campania, Italy

Thank you for reading, 

Ben

The Brilliant Sergio Leone

The Brilliant Sergio Leone

The 'Briliant' man, who created his own movie-making brand of epic films, with rich characters, plus who went on to create a hand full of films in the 1960's, so very exceptional, that the films earned their own generic moniker;

'Spaghetti Westerns'

         Brilliant man directing the legend

The films listed below were initially deemed as nihilistic and violent; 

A Fistful of Dollars 

For a Few Dollars More

and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 

However, they galvanized the genre of 'Spaghetti Westerns', turning Mr Leone into an international directorial star, and earning the films religious following by viewers from every corner of our universe. 

Films by Mr Leone

        Beautiful picture 

1959, The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard is the credited director; Sergio Leone served as assistant director and reportedly, however took over completion of the film when Mr Bonnard became severely ill during production)

1961, The Colossus of Rhodes (Mr Leone's first film)

1964, A Fistful of Dollars (1st part of the Dollars Trilogy)

1965, For a Few Dollars More (2nd part of the Dollars Trilogy)

1966, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Final part of the Dollars Trilogy)

      Another graet picture

1968, Once Upon a Time in the West

1971, Duck, You Sucker!

1973, My Name is Nobody (Producer, uncredited co-director)

1975, A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (Uncredited producer, co-director)

1984, Once Upon a Time in America

My sincere respect goes out to this man. 

Thank you for visiting,

Ben 

Last 32, including Trabzonspor

Last 32, including Trabzonspor

Last 32 teams to make it this far in the 'UEFA Europa League Cup' has been decided.  

The matchup, which I will look forward to watching is the one between Juventus of Turin, Italy and Trabzonspor of Trabzon, Turkey. 

The final of the 'UEFA Cup' will be played on May 14, 2014 in Juventus Stadium, therefore Juventus will be very motivated to make it to the finals, and eliminate the Turkish side.  

Trabzonspor, on the other hand, will be 'focused' since the team just replaced their head coach of Mustafa R Akcay with assistant coach Hami Mandirali, who will want to prove himself to management, for a longterm contract.  

This will be a very good head-to-head matchup, to be played on the following dates of:

February 20, 2014 &

February 27, 2014. 

The winner of this match-up, will face the winner of: 

Esbjerg of Denmark versus Fiorentina of Italy for the 'Round of 16'.  

I am hoping for an exciting game and may the better team make it to the last 16 of this difficult competition. 

Thank you. 

Renzo Russo and Diesel

Renzo Russo and Diesel

Renzo Rosso, the founder of Diesel Jeans, opened his first Diesel store in New York in1996.  He picked the location directly opposite Levi’s Jeans.  He wanted to compete against the number 1 jean seller of America, and show New Yorkers and the World, that his product is superior compared to the competition.  

That was then, and now, Diesel Jeans is the trend setter in not only jeans, but clothing as well.  

Today, Renzo Rosso is 57 years old, a father of six children, and a billionaire.  He owns 100% of Diesel, by way of a holding company called 'Only the Brave'.  

This 'farmers son' has his office now, an hours drive, located along 'Vine-yard-country', outside of the beautiful city of Venice.  

Amazing accomplishment since the companies inception 35 years ago.  

My hat goes off for you, my favorite jean-maker.  

Sincerely. 

2014 World Cup Draw

2014 World Cup Draw

The FIFA 2014 World Cup, will be played in Brazil in June of 2014.  The Final Draw for setting up of the 'Groups' for this tournament will take place at the city of Costa do Sauipe, which is near the city of Salvador, in Brazil. 

The 'Draw' will be completed on December 6, 2013.  

The 'Pots' are listed below, and the way it works is like this.  

There will be 1 country picked per pot, to form 8 groups of 4 teams.  A look at the Pots, shows that there will be interesting and difficult match-ups  lurking for us viewers.  

Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland.

Pot 2: USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Japan, Iran, South Korea and Australia.

Pot 3: Chile, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, France

Pot 4: Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Russia.

I'm looking forward to the draw and finally, the World Cup. 

Happy viewing to everyone in the World. 

Group B of UEFA Champions League

Group B of this seasons UEFA Champions League

Group B of this seasons UEFA Champions League, looks like this, after 4 games have been played.  

Clubs.            G.     W.      T.       L.   P. 

Real Madrid    4.     3.      1.       0. 14.     

Galatasaray    4.     1.      1.       2.   4.   

Kobenhavn     4.     1.      1.       2.   4.  

Juventus         4.     0.      3.       1.   3. 

I am a 'Gala' supporter, and my second favorite team is 'Real'.  I do believe that Real Madrid has guaranteed to make it to the 'Last 16' of the competition, congratulations to that organization. 

          Galatasaray FC

However, the second place spot, and the qualifier for that coveted 'Last 16' is still up-for-grabs.  The remainder games in this group are:

27 November 2013

Real Madrid 20.45 Galatasaray

Stadium: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid

27 November 2013

Juventus 20.45 Kobenhavn

Stadium: Juventus Stadium, Turin

10 December 2013

Galatasaray 20.45 Juventus

Stadium: Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi, Istanbul (TUR)

10 December 2013

Kobenhavn 20.45 Real Madrid

Stadium: Kobenhavn 

For Galatasaray to make it to the 'Last 16', they will need to finish ahead of Juventus and Kobenhavn, therefore they will need to 'hopefully' not loose at Madrid, a tie would be a good result.  The last game will be against Juventus, and I do believe the winner of this game, will make it to the 'Last 16", which is the next round of the Champions League.  

          Real Madrid FC

I am sorry to say that, I do not give Kobenhavn has any chance of making it to the next round, therefore the last game against 'Gala' and 'Juve' will be a 'do or die' game.   The winner, surely will finish second in the group and proceed to the next round, and the looser will finish in third place.  

My prediction for 'Gala's' next two games are:

Real Madrid 0 - 0 Galatasaray

Galatasaray 1 - 0 Juventus

What is your prediction?

Thank you for visiting,