The Wop Picks a Winner!

Let it be recognized that Johnny the Wop picked a winner in the DLI. As Scotty would say....."AAAAAAaaaaa Wiiiinnnnnnaaaaaaaaah"!

Thanks for building my confidence Direwolf, it had begun to wane. Women always have a way of building my confidence.......or breaking it down. Depends on the day!!

Ciao!
The Wop

You can't be away a day or two...can you?

First of all, what a great initiative to post all the beautiful pic's of your home towns.
Secondly, Oh! how fun was it not to watch some of my brooky cup friends smiling faces, although not comparable with or as pretty as East Anglia..of course! ;-)

I will immediately grab hold of my digital camera and try to do something artistic around my own immediate surroundings...

Thirdly, this planned and now confirmed Brooky Cup member meeting in NY in April..!!!
What a fantastic party with all of you US 'bon vivant's'...and a Swedish Tiger!
Sorry to say I will not be able to make it this time. April/May almost fully booked. But Jeff and I talked about getting together soon , and so we will some time this spring.
A kind of mini-mini Brooky Cup member meeting...you could say! :D

Finally, congratz to Maria and her wolfs who won the not so arousing but nevertheless existing DLI final! Great match and seen over 2 matches a fair winner!

Now, off to work...and no, I won't forget to bring my camera! :)
Cheers

Reserved Welsh?

Come on Dan, quit holding back. Tell us how you really feel.

I guess you are also the lucky winner of my support. At least for a while. If you want to keep it, you'll have to win the Cup again. ;)

And that leaves me as the bestest of the losers. Thanks Bajan, for the exciting match. :)

Cup Winners Speech

We won the cup, we won the cup, e i diddly i we won the cup.

Repeat the above 50 times please.

Can i have my name up in sparkly lights please...can i, oh go on!!

We won the cup, we won the cup, e i diddly i we won the cup

Repeat the above another 50 times please.

Yippeeeee.

Liberty Spreader

All I need are Kings and Direwolf and I'm a Worldbeater/Globetrotter. How about "Liberty Spreader" in the vain of Monkey Boy George?

Anyway.......congrats to Ellwood for pulling off a stunning win in this year's b-cup. You guys deserve it. Nice to see it go to one other that Ratz or Le Tigre.

Also, while I thought I could be a Brooklyn Babe, my application was denied as jeff thinks I am a dude. Fair enough. He provided me with the esteemed title of "Official Totemaster". Thank you, Jeff. I won't let you down.

Lastly, thanks to Brett for designing my new logo which I have now unveiled publicly in anticipation of Season 25. Have a great offseason everyone and good luck in your national cups.

Cheers, Sic

the great NYC Hattrick Meet-up

Well, Peter, now that you've forced our hand by flying 5,000 miles, it looks like we have to get off our collective Arse and finally have that NYC meetup we've been talking about for ages.

According to my calendar, April 20th is a Wednesday, which means Friday the 22nd could end up a very good time to hold this thing. Best of my knowledge, we have BFC, Wind, Bonafide, KC United, Freaks and maybe Presidents as resident New Yorkers; how does that date work for you? We will, of course, hold this at the world-famous Last Exit (unless we decide to change our minds). Any and all of the rest of you are invited as well.

If the date doesn't work, publish one that will and we can work it out that way.

SJS

world beater/globetrotter, BAH!

If I knew it mattered that much, I would have scheduled myself to be the first.

Actually, I'm pretty sure like Jay I've played everyone in the B-Cup, just not under the auspices of the Cup itself.

...goes back to check....



FC Bonafide B-Cup Season 19
system 3loc B-Cup playoffs, season 19
Dirty Ratz The poundings began in season 19
Chocolate Thunder FC Season 24
Ellwood Season 20
Saltopus Season 22
The Brooklyn Wind Season 23
Bajen Avalanche Season 19
Kings County United Season 21
Brooklyn Tigers Season 21
Presidents Season 21
Rasaritul Delta Season 23
The Genetic Freaks Season 21
Maidstone Reunited Season 21
Direwolf Athletic The lone exception--yet I've probably faced Maria in more matches than anyone but Ratz or Bonerfried, since we were series-mates for 3 seasons.

Funny how that works. Rio, expect the "random choice" to put you in my series the upcoming
season.

WorldBeater

WorldBeater status requires playing official games as scheduled by the B-Cup. Apparently off-season friendlies don't count. The 'Pus has faced everyone except my matches vs. G-Freaks were not sanctioned....even though we were consciously playing for the title "Loser of The Losers" after exiting TLI in the first round.

For me this rule is fair enough -- gives me something to shoot for next season(s). And look for the next final four to be: Genetic Freaks, Bonafide, Maidstone and The 'Pus.

Globetrotter

My team is in England today to play against Stones. After this match, I will have played against every B-Cup team at least once, which may make Bonafide the first Globetrotter. Has anyone else already done the feat? Not all of those matches were in formal B-Cup play though -- the ones against KCU and Stones were both just friendlies.

For the record: snow sucks.

Peter: that's great news. We will definitely get together while you are here. We will plan beers as we get closer to your arrival.

Im coming to New York

Yes, It is now official

The flight is booked and payed for, Im arriving at Newark Arpt on the 20th of April approx. 2 o'clock. And I'm staying for two weeks so I get the chance to visit the brooklyn boys and perhaps drink some beers.

Watch out ya all

PS. I did not like the last cup game result. DS

Snow

New York is covered, they are saying 1-2 feet!!!!

What a pain in the ass!

How Snow Can Be Your Friend and Worst Enemy.

I'm going to talk about snow. Why? Because I don't have anything better to do. Why? Because I was supposed to be somewhere else today. But I'll get to that later.

Minneapolis got a nice pretty blanket of snow yesterday. It was timed perfectly: it came at such a time that I didn't have to go to work, lingered enough I got to skip the company party and stopped in time for the airport to clean itself up by morning. It was 6 inches, which is enough to tangle the city up for a bit, but... "Who cares?" I said to myself. "I'm moving my car before the plows get to that side anyway, and parking it at mom's." None of this moving it from one side of the road to another and then back again in a complicated dance of drivers and snowplows. So far, it's been my friend.

But wait! The east coast just had to have a storm of thier very own. So flight cancelled; back to the fierce parking competition that arises in densely populated urban areas and....not much to do but tell you guys about it. Sigh.

Great photos

Nice photos Jay......thats one hell of a property you got there!!!! I will have to show you my castle one day. When Brett is back from Canada we will do a photo shoot for you guys of the Holy land(Wales) and the other place we dont like to talk about(England).

And yes Tom, it is 2 legs.

I second

Maria's motion.

B-Cup Roundup

If we ever decide to have a B-Cup Party, we should hold it at Jay's house. He clearly has room, not to mention three pools!

Hey Jay

Nice "house". I love "your" pool.

That was hilarious.

Be it ever so humble...

In the "soccer mom/dad" suburbs of northern california, it's of course mostly houses and yards. Plus a 7-11 half a mile down the road, and mall closer to the freeway.

There have been no famous movies, or people, shot where I live. Creedence Clearwater Revival and Metallica did both get started here in El Cerrito, however.

Here's some pictures where I live, plus some vacation photos from last fall. ;-)

http://homepage.mac.com/jaygonzales/PhotoAlbum7.html

Second leg?

ok, I've never been to this side of the finals before, I'm usually in the other group. :-) I can't remember, do we play a second leg now??



I think I just answered my own question.

It works

It works, Jimmy. thanks.

Great pics everyone! It is great to see some of the famed landmarks etched into the lore of our little tournament here. I'm going to have to drive around and take pictures of some of the local flare here.

Congratulations to Dan on a great match. At least from his perspective. One more to go.

I fixed the link

it works now, i hope

Cup Final

Could not watch the game as i was stuck in a hotel with some damn customers till 11 pm. When i logged on this morning to see how much i lost by i could not believe it.......this is a dream yer guys?

Some Brooklyn Pics

http://photos.yahoo.com/jamesmastoros

check these out, they were on my machine.

"Bobby Lupo"---My wife is a big Steven Segal fan, (dont ask) that market is in the movie(out for justice). When she moved back to brooklyn, we drove by it on our way to Coney Island and she made me take a picture.

The third ave festival is an annual parade/festival around holloween, that's my block where i live, bay ridge brooklyn (not as shiek as Henry St ;>). The last photo is of 86th Street and 20th ave, long view of where ritchie did bobby lupo.

The last one is of me and my wife on our honeymoon in Aruba.

I'll take some more and post them.

A Minneapolis Tour

To my surprise, I found a photo tour of my neighborhood. This will have to do for now.

http://minneapolis.about.com/library/bl/bl_lyndalephoto.htm

The early pictures are within a block or two of my house. When you get to La Societe du The Tea Shop, look closely at the shop on the left. It's Planet Soccer. So sad the photographer didn't include one of it.

The boydette is an adorable little pixie.

Jeff: Just because it's boring and familar to you does not mean we'll find it as so. ;)

Just helping Jeff out...

I am not even making this up. But look, Jeff, almost all the work's been done for you!

http://www.view-east-anglia.com/index.htm

Nothing to see?? Pah! How about that "House in the Clouds" at Thorpeness, opposite the windmill?

Looks to me like the only thing missing is Jeff Beck, Master of His Domain.

Tour of Brooklyn

Great photos! The link should be on the 'special interest' section right now.

Two reasons why you probably won't be seeing an East Anglian tour....

1) There is nothing much to photograph
2) You guys are FAR too good looking... I would hate to spoil it with my ugly mug ;)

Great pix though... so who will be next with a tour of their town?

Nice!!

Great job, Boyd. As you all can tell, we tend to have a pretty good time here in Brooklyn. I recommend moving here.

(PS: Ratz are going to paste me today. It's gonna be BAD. On the other hand I got my first Div IV win Sunday AND posted my best hattrick rating ever on Sunday.)

Brooklyn Photo Tour

In celebration of the Brooklyn Cup Final today, following is a link to a brief photo tour of some of the B-Cup-relevant places and people. (Clicking on a thumbnail will reveal the full photo and narrative caption.) Think of it as the halftime show. I thought it might provide an amusing glimpse. Many of us are now approaching two calendar years of competition in this glorious Cup.

Perhaps this will inspire others of you to share glimpses of your own exotic locales that we've heard so much about: Gwent, East Anglia (and the famous hill), Stockholm, um....Minneapolis.

Jeff, perhaps you could add an entry under the "Special Interest" section?

At any rate, enjoy (or not): http://photobucket.com/albums/v111/mboydnyc/

Tonights the night.......

Hopefully History books can be re-written, songs can be sung and many a beer sunk as Ellwood aim to beat the much fancied Brooklyn Tigers. I have to be honest and say i dont hold much hope but has Peter ever experienced a stadium full of mad Welsh women, bare breasted, drinking Steins of lager and singing..."Com on av a go if ya phink yer ard inuff". Beware Peter.....beware......many have fallen at the gates of "the wood arena".

Sweden?

Anyone EVER seen a hot Swedish chick? I mean 'come on!!!'.

Good luck Ellwood!!!

It's a very sad thing....

...when one must go to Sweden to get warm.

Never fear, Claus... JEFF IS HERE! :)

Semifinal results and finals fixtures updated

Stats to follow asap :)

Congratz Danny! :)

My own reasons for not being so exited over the forthcoming Brooky Cup final is mainly because I feel that I have to show some respect for the guys on the other side of the pond. Think about it, they have cheered each other since start and I truly believe that they themselves really believed that the cup was "coming home" this season. Unbelievable? Yes, but nevertheless a tragic insight for our mates in US. So, I will show them some respect for another day or two...

Secondly, I'm a Swede...and you know what that means in terms of my own favourite pick of team in the final. Go Tigers Go! :)
You must anyway be more than happy with what you've already achieved this far. I'm as surprised as anyone else (perhaps excluding you?!) to see your proud and wild Ellwood in the final. So once again, congratz mate for a great Brooky Cup campaign. Really!
Now, may the best team win!

I'm also very satisfied with the European teams performance this season...especially when my own team was underperforming due to a surprising top place in my league with a late chance to win it all. This confused me so much that my focus on Brooky Cup suffered greatly with known result. I'm playing in DLI with all the other losers!!? :DX
Will not happen again though...and I do apologize for this! ;-)

Maria "crushed" the Bonafides and deprived me the joy to do the exactly the same.
But you don't withhold me from having fun without getting some sort of punishment, so I figured that it can be equally fun to beat the Wolf-Queen of Twin Cities in US instead.

So, welcome to Stockholm Maria...for a fun day! he-he

P.S. The wheather is fine and much warmer than in your home town, right now only - 7 C degr.

P.S2. Anyone seen or heard of Jeff lately? ;-)

Apathy

I'm too cold to get excited. :(

Minneapolis
Friday, Jan 14
Sunny
High0°FLow-13°F
Precip:

Bitterly cold. Sunny skies. Dangerous wind chills may approach -30F. High around 0F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.

Cup Final

There's not to much hype regarding the cup final.....cmon, where's your spirit?? Surely you dont want Peter to win so please everyone sign my guestbook wishing me luck!!

posting pics

here's how I learned how to do it John.

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=324&topic=17


I don't think I ever had a chance against Scott yesterday. I think my team really sucks! Scott was saying that the team he was fielding could be beat by any team in the tournement. Well Scott, that was a goddamn lie! Not only did I loose, I got my arse whoooped!! Thanks for the shellacking. Good luck in your next match.

John, it really is amazing how are teams mirror one another.

The dream has died.

The dream has died. Congrats to Ellwood for a fine match. I too, thought I wouls have a shot, but the Welsh squad was too much for my young team. And now I get to go to the Rat Hole...

Hey, I was going to insert a pic of us (me and scotty and friends) at my new years party but can't figure it out on this thing....

How does one do that?

my New Years Eve

This is how I spent my New Years Eve. Well, actually, New Years Eve day. How am I suppose to remember to accept a Hattrick challenge when I need to clean that up.

Before


After

Gutted!

Nuff sed!

However, gRatz to Peter for a superb win... I really thought I was going to claw it back for a second there ;)

Good luck to all in next week's finals matches :)

Quarterfinals Update

Completed

Welsh babes

I will do my best to get the stadium full of top totty for you John. Maybe i can distract your players enough to sneak a win hey?? Looking forward to the game and hopefully the chance to meet one of the big guns in the final. An England Wales final will have the fans talking.......and fighting!!

Great Match

Thanks to Scotty for the great match. I'm a little shocked but after studying up a bit yesterday it occurred to me I might have a shot at it. And as you all know, I have nothing to save anything for in Series play and he does, so I got lucky with that, having him hold out a couple star players - Heroux, in particular. Good luck in getting that Series win Scott. Would be a great accomplishment. Winger training anyone?

Hey Ellwood, am I going to meet some fine Welsh ladies finally?! They better not have annoying accents!

Cheers Everyone!!!
Sic

Swan Dive

Congratulations to the Wind for coming through when it counted; my guess is that this match will likely go down as one of the top 5 matches ever to be played in the Brooklyn Cup. The match goes to prove that Wind has now established themselves as a serious force to be dealt with in the B-Cup; I threw just about everything I had at them and still couldn't come away with the win. As Jeff so eloquently put it in his press clip: Gutting.

The most interesting side-effect of this, however, takes place across the pond as Ratz and Tigers will face each other for what I think is the first time ever outside of the finals. Ratz looked close to unstoppable in their QF match but Tigers quite clearly hasn't put their best foot forward yet. If there's any silver lining in the loss--besides the fact that I can now MOTS my last 2 league games as I make a run for a series crown--it would be that I get to watch these two teams duke it out at the Rat Hole next Tuesday in a one-and-done match.

More later...

my, my, my

That was a real midfield Dirty Ratz dirtily pulled - more than amazing, not to say impressive...

Damn it,

None of my picks are coming to fruition - I'm SO upset. My two finalists are already gone.....shit.

Suffering the humiliation of one point in series play is all worth this win......

Geez

How bad is it that you hate Bonafied more than the 49ers and Redskins combined...and you STILL pick them over my team. What the heck does a guy have to do to earn some irrational favoritism around here?!?!

On the other hand, I agree with your pick of Brooklyn Fried Chicken (BFC) to take home the Cup trophy. It's Scott's year...and sounds like he could use some new hardware.

Good luck everyone!

A total tool

In an effort to make Johnny the Wop's pick come to fruition I have decided to forgo my match with Ellwood this week and just schedule a friendly with another team. I figured what the hell. I wasn't going to win anyway. I mean, it couldn't possibly be the fact that I'm a total tool and never even gave Hattrick a second thought this last weekend. Which consequently resulted in Dan's challenge going unaccepted until he was forced to withdraw it and find a match elsewhere. That couldn't possibly be it, could it? That would never happen, would it?? Nahhhhhhhhhhhhh

This sucks! I was soooo looking forward to checking out some of those hot Welsh chicks and putting to rest this debate about whether there are hot Welsh babes or not. I guess the debate will go on.

Wow!

Now that was impressive multi-posting! ;) I made a few adjustments to the blog and deleted a couple of dozen posts from the Wop... I shall transfer the info to the Wop's page asap. Sadly back to work today... christmas is finally over for another year :(

Maria if your post doesn't seem to appear after you post it try hitting F5 (refresh)... that usually works for me :)

DLI and Whoops!

Man, put a little pressure on me why doncha? I have to both win and restore your faith in womankind? Hint: always expect the unexpected from me whether for good or bad. It's my knack and I don't even have to try. It just happens.

I occassionally post more than once too. The blog is mischievous and likes to fake you out. It acts like it hasn't posted but really has.

Whoops.

Whoops.....I have no idea how that happened. Let me know if you'd like me to post them again for the hell of it.

Das Losers Odds - Courtesy of Johnny the WOP

Well well well........Zeta-Jones. She is a rather attractive woman. Like I said, lady and gentlemen, I have yet to meet a hot Welsh woman. I also have never met any Welsh women in general either. So there you have it. The gig is up.

This year's Das Losers Invitational is really an intriguing little tournament. There are some high-powered teams that didn't make the cut this year and by all accounts most of these teams want to actually win this thing, and most of them have a shot. All this being said, I love to see the HATED Bonerfried in the DLI. Remember, these odds are made for illegal wagering purposes only.

Bajen Avalanche (3-1)
It's always embarassing to a Chick Magnet when he doesn't qualify in the B-Cup. Avs have a HUGE league match next Sunday for what amounts to a series title match. Fotunately they open against the hapless Presidents. But if it truly is a Match of the Season, the Avs may be looking at a DLI very difficult Semi against the HATED Bonerfried.

The HATED Bonerfried. (4-1)
Jesus, I hate this team more than anything on the planet. I'm not sure why exactly. Is it the fact that my team is a combined 2-8-1 against them? Nah. Series position fairly secure. Loaded for DLI bear. By the way, I may hate this team, but I got to hang out with the little Lily of the HATED Bonerfried's Boyd's making yesterday. I'm here to report that she's looking more and more like mother Kristin Boyd than father Michael. Thank God.

Maidstone Reunited (4-1)
Stones is a funny team. Do they have what it takes in the front office to advance in the DLI? Maybe. If they play their players in positions best suited to their skill they have a shot but they've been known to switch up backs and mids. Dangerous team, but probably not enough. Could make the finals.

Direwolf Athletic (4-1)
This team had everything going for it after beating Le Tigre and it just plain limped out of the qualifying round. If you'll recall, this is the only team that I picked to advance that didn't. I put so much faith in the team's ownership that I'm a little bit hesitant to let her win back my trust again. Hey, does this sound like an REO Speedwagon song? See what women do to me? Hey, um, seroiusly, Direwolf is going to make noise in this thing. Believe you me. (See, I'm so damn easy.)

Kings County United (7-1)
This Reunited - United first round matchup could be very very interesting from the sounds of it but United has too much at stake in the final two weeks of this season in his series. He wins his last two matches and he's on to IV. Can't risk his series play for the DLI. Just not worth it.

Saltopus (7-1)
What are you going to do 'Pus? Are you going to give the HATED Bonerfriend a run for his money in the Quarters of this thing? I don't think you've got it at the moment but I'm going to be pulling for you anyway. Ein Loser in Das Losers Jay. Es tut mir leid.

The BELOVED Genetic Freaks (12-1)
Whenever I refer to this team I want to scream in a very low voice "THE GENETIC FRRRREEEEEEEEEEAKS!!!!!". I'm a huge supporter of this club, especially since they beat the HATED Bonerfried at Henry Street in qualifying. Unfortunately, they aren't goinig to get past Direwolf in the quarters of this thing. Better luck next year Freaks!

Presidents (200-1)
Go President's!!

Match Picks:
Avs over Presidents, 6-0
Maidstone over Kings, 3-0
Direwolf over Freaks, 3-1
HATED Bonerfried over The 'Pus, 3-2

Semifinals
HATED BONERFRIED over Avs, 1-2
Direwolf over Stones, 1-2

Final
Direwolf over HATED Bonerfried, in Kicks

Babe Accents

Presumably, Mrs. Rat has a nice accent? ;)


I have a macunian friend and I can't understand a word he says on the phone. He's fine in person, though.

Welsh Babes and Zeta Jones

Indeed Mr Boyd, Catherine Zeta Jones is still Welsh even though she married Grandpa Douglas. In fact, just before they wed she took Michael Douglas to meet her family in Swansea on the West coast, not sure what he would have made of that but there we go.

Thanks for backing me up Jeff, much appreciated. I do have to agree with you about accents. Luckily i am from South Wales and therefore do not have to put up with that North Walian screeching! Funny how a man likes a Scottish or soft Irish accent, I hate the West Country accent but guess i have to watch what i am saying seeing as you are living in Norwich which also has an ooo-errr sought of tone!!

Z-J

What about Zeta-Jones? Isn't she Welsh? Or is she actually a Tax American now? Does that count?

Welsh Babes

I cannot speak for Brett but I lived in Bangor, Gwynedd (Wales) for a year when I was a young (fit, virile, studmuffin etc etc etc) man and can honestly say that there were lots of very fine young ladies there. I even slep... er... courted a few whilst I was there ;)

The only problem I had with the luscious young ladies was their accent... I find the North Welsh screechings (sorry Dan) to be particularly horrific first thing in the morning (Read: rude awakenings af a lovely warm dream-state) and this factor probably contributed (in no small way) to the short-lived nature of our assignations.

To be fair to the Welsh women though, there are many accents in the UK that I find an equally big turn-off (Essex, Liverpool, Newcastle for just three). In fact, I am very choosy about my accents when it comes to women... I like west coast Scottish accents and... well that's about it really ;)

So in summary: Welsh ladies are fine... as long as you can keep their mouths shut ;P

Lovin it

Great reading John, I loved every bit of it..............apart from the bit about Welsh ladies!! I am working on ways to prove it to you all that Welsh ladies are as pretty as they come. I think the first step is to put Wales on the map by winning the Brooklyn Cup and breaking that American dream. Secondly, once we have won the cup we will broadcast the celebrations live to the USA and maybe, just maybe you will get a glimpse of some babes. Failing that i will just have to fly you over here to this beautiful country and let you see for yourself.(hmmm....*checks bank balance*)ok, so that aint gonna happen just yet so unless i get my English pals in Brett and/or Jeff to back me up here( more chance of the Pope smoking dope) then i guess you will just have to take my word for it!!

Happy New Year to all of you and your families.