Raul and the 2012 Football Against Hunger Campaign

It has been quite awhile since I have updated my blog. But this is one issue that I know needs to be posted.  

Friends know how much I adore Raul Gonzales Blanco that I even learned to follow and love FC Schalke04 despite my being a Madridista. 

Since his transfer to the Royal Blues, which I blogged about in Raul Says Adios to Real Madrid he has managed to work well with the Blues and continues to contribute goals to the team, and very recently even won 2011 Goal of the Year in Bundesliga. In many of Schalke’s matches, one can see how easily he has been accepted and how great the respect his team has for him, and most importantly how truly well-loved he is by the fans. He has even earned the moniker Señor Raul from fans and he himself is amazed with the acceptance, support, affection and respect that has been given to him by the Germans. 

In fact, he said in an interview that people would come up the street to him and thank him for coming to Germany and he is grateful for that. We all know that leaving Real Madrid was not easy for him after having spent half of his life with them. But FC Schalke 04 and the fans I guess know how lucky they are to have him, and continue to show Raul this. He is amazed by the support and respect fans for him. Unlike other soccer players Raul has remained grounded, a true gentleman on and off the field. Up until now, he is one veteran who has played professionally for 19 years and still has not received a red card. One can only respect such an icon and thus the issue of hunger and the campaign against it spearheaded by Raul should more or less get the attention it needs and deserves.

FAO Goodwill Ambassador Raúl Gonzalez Blanco with young footballers in Dakar, after visiting an FAO urban gardening project.

In 2004, he was appointed FAO Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations and since then has been active in the campaigns. This year, the European Commission together with FAO and the European Professional Football Leagues has a campaign against hunger and poverty. It aims to raise awareness of the plight of hunger and the efforts to solve it. The focus of this year’s campaign is on the Sahel region in Africa. 

European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva, left, poses with Spain's soccer player Raul Gonzalez during the launch of the campaign "Football against Hunger", at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. Photo: Yves Logghe / AP

The symbolic launch of the campaign took place today at Brussels where Raul as FAO Goodwill Ambassador and as part of the EPFL. It is expected that players from top football clubs including Real Madrid, Schalke, Manchester Utd, AC Milan, Barcelona and others will wear “Sahel Emergency” T-shirts ahead of their matches 31 March - 1 April 2012 to alert millions of fans in stadiums and on television about the life-threatening situation in Africa.

In the words of EU Commissioner Kristinalina Georgieva: 

We will focus the campaign on the Sahel region in Africa. I told Raúl about my recent trip to Niger and Chad, where 300,000 kids die from hunger-related diseases each year. Hunger will kill even more children in 2012 as a new food crisis looms. This is why we are acting now to prevent a bigger disaster. In this effort, the help of ambassadors like Raúl, like Hristo Stoichkov, like Roberto Baggio, is indispensable.

Why? Because in the fight against hunger, humanity must win. And who would be better to help us win this fight than the people who live day after day, week after week, winning in football? Raúl has just scored his 400th goal in professional football, so we clearly have a winner on our side. But equally importantly, he is also a fair player, who has never been penalised with a red card in his entire career!

When it comes down to hunger, the world still falls 945 million people short of fair play – this is how many today will go to bed hungry. Sadly, over the last years their numbers have been going up. Raúl and our other ambassadors can help to raise attention to hunger, so we change the game and win the fight against it.

Djokovic Wins The 2011 US Open

US Open 2011: Novak Djokovic outguns Rafael Nadal in epic contest at Flushing Meadows

In a city that has come to understand the value of endurance, tennis’s new emperor Novak Djokovic gave a glimpse here of the power of the human spirit.

Rapture: Novak Djokovic lets out a cry of joy after defeating Rafael Nadal in an epic final 

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Since the players started arriving for this US Open, New York has survived an earthquake, a hurricane and a tropical storm, as well as the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Centre disaster.

When placed alongside such real-world disasters, tennis might seem trivial, but the people of this city appreciate courage when they see it, and they revelled in Djokovic’s superhuman resilience on Monday night.

Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in four sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 but it was more like a five-setter in its intensity. The match lasted fully 4 hours and 10 minutes and just about every point felt like a fist-fight to the death.

In each of the three sets, Nadal broke Djokovic’s serve early on and gave himself the chance of taking control. On each occasion, Djokovic broke straight back again, wrestling the mighty Spaniard back with a focus that can only stem from absolute self-belief.

There were so many extraordinary moments in this final, so many apparently unreturnable shots that were sent back with interest. One of the early highlights came at the start of the second set, in a Nadal service game that lasted 17 minutes and contained eight deuces.

Tennis anoraks still talk about the John McEnroe-Bjorn Borg tie-break of 1980 as the greatest passage of play in the sport’s history. But this sequence ran it close. Nadal, serving for 3-0, had game point three times.

He saved break point five times. And then, in a rally that just kept giving, Djokovic retrieved three lost causes until a disbelieving Nadal finally dumped a smash into the net.

Djokovic’s style will never be quite as mellifluous as Roger Federer’s, and neither does he have the pugilistic quality of Nadal.

At the moment, though, he is a more complete player than either. He has become unbreakable – an agile and beautifully balanced athlete who has developed a near-mystical faith in his own ability.

The certainty of his vision is uncanny. We saw it in the semi-final, where he faced match point on Federer’s serve and whipped an untouchable return crosscourt. And we saw it again yesterday.

As the points grew longer – and the average for the match was close to seven strokes per rally, which is virtually unheard of - it was usually Djokovic who outlasted his rival. He bent with the wind, in the face of Nadal’s ferocious forehand, yet he never fell.

Nadal will go away listed as the loser of this match yet he was almost as immovable as Djokovic. He did perhaps start a little slowly, making only 58 per cent of his first serves in the first set and struggling to find the necessary depth with his backhand.

But after absorbing a huge amount of punishment in the first two sets, Nadal still managed to take the initiative early in the third. He broke serve twice and must have felt that he was gaining ground when Djokovic began to stretch his back and show a little weariness in his serve and movement.

Could that shoulder injury which afflicted Djokovic in the final of the Cincinnati Masters be returning to plague him again?

Apparently not. Djokovic was clearly breathless for a couple of games, and his cannon-like groundstrokes lost their customary bite, but then he also regrouped and the set went to a tie-break.

Nadal’s Wimbledon final against Federer in 2009 is widely considered to be the greatest match ever played, and the fact that it went to sudden death in the final set still makes it the benchmark. But this was almost as notable, simply because each point had to be won so many times over.

As it stretched past the three-hour mark, one might have expected the players to become weary and erratic. Instead they achieved a zen-like focus, entering that glassy-eyed place that athletes call “the zone”.

In some of their exchanges, you wondered whether we would we would have to wait until dawn for one of them to miss.

At the peaks of the performance, points were constructed with a skill and ingenuity that made any normal tennis match look crude, like a wooden shack alongside a cathedral.

Openings were hard to find with a single brute-force winner; they had to be carved out, little by little. And even then, if the player with the advantage missed his killing thrust, the other would wipe him out with a whip-smart riposte.

Nadal has never lost a grand slam final in straight sets, and he was not about to start now. He took the tie-break 7-3, and then Djokovic called the trainer onto the court to attend to his back.

But Nadal was now starting to suffer even more. He could not maintain the intensity he had found in the third set as his own body weakened.

This final was a magnificent conclusion to what has been a flawed yet never less than fascinating tournament.

The only thing that took a touch of gloss away was the crass behaviour of a handful of idiots in the crowd, who kept on shouting out when the players were preparing to serve, or even when they were in the middle of a point.

Gasps and murmurs of astonishment were impossible to suppress, such was the jaw-dropping, mind-boggling, spirit-lifting quality of the tennis.

But these players were performing at the very peak of their ability, and they deserved better than to be interrupted by a few moronic narcissists.

The rest of the crowd made their feelings known by shushing loudly at every interruption.

They knew they were in the presence of greatness.

Re-posted from The Telegraph

Hockey World Mourns Loss of Russian Team Lokomotiv

The ice hockey world is in mourning after a passenger plane carrying a Russian ice hockey team to a season-opening match crashed after takeoff from a provincial airport yesterday, killing 43 people, including former NHLers former Kings forward Pavol Demitra and Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei,  and plunging the Russian and international sports world into grief.

The Yak-42 aircraft crashed into a river bank near Yaroslavl, home city of the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv, whose Russian and foreign stars were on board flying to a match in Minsk, Belarus.

Among international victims were three Czech world champions Jan Marek, Karel Rachunek and Josef Vasicek, Swedish goalkeeper Stefan Liv, a renowned Slovak forward and a Canadian coach. Lokomotiv's head coach, Canadian former Detroit Red Wings assistant Brad McCrimmon, was also on the passenger list. Many had played around the world, including in North America's National Hockey League.

“This is the darkest day in the history of our sport. This is not only a Russian tragedy, the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations. This is a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community with so many nationalities involved. Our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of the victims. Despite the substantial air travel of professional hockey teams, our sport has been spared from tragic traffic accidents. But only until now.”
— International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel

“I think it's a huge loss for the hockey world, something like this happens. A tragedy for the hockey world.”
— Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom

Ten Real Madrid players are playing Euro 2012 qualifiers or friendlies this week

Realmadrid.com / Translation by Michael J. O'Donnell

Fourteen Real Madrid players were called-up for international duty last week in order to participate in either friendlies or qualifiers for the 2012 Euro.

SPAIN
The current World Cup champions defeated Chile 3-2 in Switzerland and are set to face Liechtenstein in a Euro 2012 qualifier on Tuesday. Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Iker Casillas and Raul Albiol were starters in Spain's 6-0 victory over Liechtenstein. Sergio Ramos scored one of the goals. The victory qualified Spain for the 2012 Euro.

Match	Venue	Score / Date & Time*
Chile-Spain	AFG Arena (St.Gallen, Switzerland)	2-3
Spain-Liechtenstein	Las Gaunas (Logroño, Spain)	6-0

PORTUGAL
Cristiano Ronaldo, Coentrao and Pepe were starters against Cyprus in Nicosia and gave solid performances. Cristiano scored Portugal's first two goals.

Match	Venue	Score
Cyprus-Portugal	GSP Nicosia (Cyprus)	0-4

GERMANY
Mesut Ozil scored three goals against Austria. Coach Joachim Low has decided to let Ozil, Schweinsteiger and Neuer go for Tuesday's friendly against Poland.

Match	Venue	Score
Germany-Austria	Arena Schalke (Gelsenkirchen, Germany)	6-2

FRANCE
Benzema scored the opener against Albania and played the entire match. The French currently lead Group D and are sett to face Romania on Tuesday. Benzema played the entire match against Romania.

Match	Venue	Score / Date & Time*
Albania-France	Stadiumi Kombëtar Qemal Stafa (Tirana, Albania)	1-2
Romania-France	National Arena (Bucarest, Romania)	0-0

ARGENTINA
Di Maria and Higuain defeated Venezuela 1-0 with Argentina in India. Both Real Madrid players scored against Nigeria. Higuain netted a brace. They were both starters and came off on the 75-minute mark.

Match	Venue	Score
Argentina-Venezuela	Salt Lake (Kolkata, India)	1-0
Nigeria - Argentina	Bangabandhu Nationa Stadium (Dhaka, Bangladesh)	1-3

BRAZIL
Marcelo was a starter and played the entire match against Ghana, which the Canarinha won 1-0.

Match	Venue	Score
Brazil-Ghana	Craven Cottage (London, UK)	1-0

FRANCE UNDER-21
The French side defeated Latvia 3-0 in their first qualifier for the Under-21 European Championship, but lost against Portugal on Monday. Varane was a starter in both games.

Match	Venue	Score
Latvia-France	Skonto Stadions (Riga, Latvia)	0-3
Portugal-France	Rio Maior (Portugal)	1-0

*Local dates and times

SOURCE: REALMADRID.COM

Venus Williams and Robin Soderling Withdraws from 2011 US Open

The women’s side lost Venus Williams while the men’s side lost Robin Soderling as these two big names in tennis as they were forced out of action at the 2011 U.S. Open due to illness. Venus withdraw citing in her statement that she has been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, a condition that causes fatigue and joint pain which has in fact limited her to only three previous tournaments this year. In her statement she said:

I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon.

The diagnosis ended months of worry for Venus for a condition that has been affecting her play for quite some time now. In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” she said "I think I've had issues with Sjogren's for a while. It just wasn't diagnosed," Williams said. "The good news for me is now I know what's happening." She also added:

I would miss shots by feet," she said. "I couldn't feel my hands and my hands would hurt while I was playing. I'd have swelling and numbness and then fatigue, which was really debilitating.

Seems to me that both the Williams sisters have been having some health problems this year. Let's just hope they are able to fully recover...Serena has been doing good so far but she also had a scare a few months back. With Venus it's a question of whether she will get well and be back soon or are we talking retirement?


Sweden’s Robin Soderling hadn’d played a match yet but was scheduled to see action on Wednesday against Louk Sorensen of Ireland. Unfortunately, six-seeded Soderling was complaining about headaches and stomachache and his doctor recommended to him not to play. He has been struggling with a wrist injury and he also pulled out of the Master’s tournament in Cincinnati with throat problems.

London Riots and How It Affects the 2012 Olympics

A few days ago, I posted again a video that was in celebration of the 2012 London Olympics. It was the start of the final countdown - 365 days to go before the start of the much-awaited Olympics.

When I first blogged about the London Olympics in July 26 I kept saying 2 years from now...and discussing how LOndon was preparing for the event, the construction of the Olympic venue, what Stella McCartney was planning for the Team GB's kit and many more.

While these people are getting busier with the coming event where the whole world will be watching how they will fare after the Beijing Olympics, they are thrown into problems that we pray will not affect how the world anticipates the Games. But still it raises the question on how it will affect the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is confident that the 2012 London Olympics will be secure despite the riots that have wreaked havoc in the city. But the timing could not have been worse because nearly 200 officials are actually in London for meetings about the Summer Games. And at the same time, some test events including beach volleyball, badminton and cycling are also being held . The international football at Wembley between Holland and England has already been postponed.

A spokesman for the IOC Mark Adams said that they were not worried for the next year's Olympics because they have confidence in the Games' organizers. Even as Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson promised to do so since they made a commitment to deliver a safe and secure Games. He added that: “All the evidence shows this trouble is low-level criminality driven by messages on social networks and not some new, emerging security threat.”

Because of the riot, a "revised" 2012 logo is going around and it really doesn't feel right:

These kids in plain t-shirts and hoodies with their faces covered to hide their looks are doing a lot of cowardly things like looting and killing. I have always believed that doing something bad and harmful is not an answer to an already tensed situation. Even an Olympic ambassador was picked up by the police when her parents turned her in after seeing her on the television news report. The promising athlete is said to have allegedly thrown bricks at a police car and even bragging about it. Yes, she might hate her parents for reporting her to the police but I also ask, when people have died, when plenty have been hurt, lost their homes and businesses...what else can you do but the RIGHT thing? In the long run, that's what all parents can do...see to it that their children are being productive citizens of our country.

2012 London Olympics: 365 days to go

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

It has been almost a year ago when I blogged about the 2012 London Olympics and then this.