EPL Kickoff! Big D Custom Soccer

I thought I'd kickoff the soccer season with some fresh customs. Since my man Guy has no team playing to root for today, I'll start with his Everton squad.


First up is USA goalkeeper extraordinaire, Tim Howard.



Next, is pretty boy Mikel Arteta. I think Guy is gonna name his son after this fella if he gets the chance.



For those of you who don't like pretty boys, here is his hot wife instead.



One of Guy's other favorite players is Marouane Fellaini. Whoops, I got my photos mixed up...



here we go, this is the right one.



Captain Canuck is also an avid EPL fan. His favorite team is ManUre. Oops, sorry just a little typo there. ManUtd is his favorite. My bad.


Rio seems like he's been around forever. I miss his braids.



Maybe once Rooney's hair transplant is all grown in, he'll get braids instead.



Nani likes to go by one name and pretend he's from Brazil. He's really from Portugal.


Last buy certainly not least are my Magpies of Newcastle!


Ben Arfa missed almost all of last season due to a double fracture in his leg. I expect great things from him this season.



Even though the back of his jersey says Jonas, he is not the fourth Jonas brother. Jonas is actually his first name as in Jonas Gutierrez.


The final Toon player here is Joey Barton who has done his darndest to get himself shipped out of Newcastle lately, but for now he'll remain on Tyneside.

So, there you go. Are you in the mood for a little association football now? Later.

One More Day!

Tomorrow is opening day for the EPL. Newcastle will open the season home at St. James Park against Arsenal. These two team met in a classic game last season in which Arsenal jumped out to the lead early and lead at halftime 4-0. I don't know what went down at halftime, but the second half of the game was all Newcastle. The game ended in a 4-4 tie capped off with this goal by Cheik Tiote.



Hopefully tomorrow's game will be just as exciting but end up with a Newcastle win. The Magpies have changed out quite a few players during the offseason and while they didn't really add a superstar with the money from selling Andy Carroll, they did pick up several players that will hopefully fit in nicely. I guess we'll see starting tomorrow! Good luck to you and whoever you root for. Later.

EPL Followers, Let Me Hear From You! State Your Affiliation

Just kinda curious how many soccer fans are out there amongst us bloggers. Of course, this will only tell me how many there are who also happen to check out my blog, and therefore, won't be all that many, but oh well. In case you can't tell, I'm a Newcastle fan and I'm anxiously awaiting Saturday's game vs. Arsenal. What about you? Later.

Season Kickoff Up In Flames?

The 2011-12 English Premier League is set to kickoff this Saturday, but at least some of the games could be in jeopardy. Why, you ask? Well, because of a bunch of punk assholes is why.


If you've been up with the recent news in London at all, then you've seen images like this. The town is a mess. All hell has broken loose and the police are having trouble getting it contained. I still can never believe it when I see people treating their own neighborhoods this way. I just don't get it. The riots seem to have started in Tottenham due to the killing of a man by the police last week, but there seem to be plenty of other issues that have the people pissed off. I doubt very seriously that the majority of them even know why they're doing it. They just want to be part of the mob.


I feel bad for all the innocent people who are having their lives torn apart. Hopefully the authorities can get everything under control soon and keep the damage and injuries to a minimum. The EPL is monitoring the situation to decide the safest way to proceed with this weekend's games. Let's hope the thugs decide they'd rather watch a little football than tear up their own neighborhoods some more. Seeing as how Everton is set to begin their season at Tottenham near where the riots started, I know at least one Guy who has his fingers crossed! Later.

Blog Makeover

I was messing around with the look of my blog the other day and completely lost my old look. I can't figure out how to get it back. I think it was a discontinued template or something. Anyway, I figured it was a good time for an overhaul, so I decided to get ready for the new English Premier League season by going with a Newcastle United theme. What do you think? Later.

I've Got Mine, Do You?

I just love how that looks! Dallas Mavericks 2011 NBA Champions! Panini put out this nice box set for the Mavs, so I had to get one. I'm not sure if they've done this before, or did they just do it for the hometown Mavs. (Panini's headquarters are down the road in Irving.)


Mavs Big 3, Nowitzki, Kidd & Terry. The set has the same layout for all 18 player and 1 coach card.


Most of the backs show the player posing with their championship trophy. Some of them just show a repeat of the front photo.


All 4 of these guys started at some point during the season and were major factors for the Mavs this season.


These guys were the invaluable role players. Caron of course, was a starte, but missed the second half of the season and the playoffs. Bummer.


This is the Mavs "future". These guys saw very little action for various reasons, but they are the young guys on an old team.


These are the guys you forget were on the team at some time during the year, but they were, so they get a card. Oh yeah, they also managed to squeeze Coach Carlisle into his own card as well. Barely.


Each win in the playoffs also gets it's own card. Here is the first round vs. Portland...


The Round 2 sweep vs. the Lakers...


The Western Conference Finals vs. OKC...


and of course, the Finals win against Miami Thrice.


Rounding out the set is this nice MVP card of the one and only Dirk! Man, I really hope the lockout doesn't ruin the season. I'm gonna miss my Mavs. Later.

Pack Rip - 2011 Score Football

Score's football release actually came a couple weeks before Topps' did, but I've got them out of order. Oh, Well.


Score's wrappers are better because they've got Tony Romo of America's Team on them and they red, white and blue. What could be more patriotic than that? Let's see what's inside shall we?


These are what the base cards look like. Nice use of team colors and I like that they players are not cut out of the backgrounds this year. The Score logo at the top could be a little smaller, it seems like there is too much white space up there. Overall, though I give the design a thumbs up.


Here are the backs. Not bad, but not great either. Same photo as the front, but we get more than one line of stats, so that's good. Acceptable.


We got 2 rookie cards, one base with a dude in his training gear and one Hot Rookie insert with a player in full uniform. The insert is much better as a result, plus it's got flames! Neat! 7 cards for $.99 is a decent deal for these so Score yourself some packs of Score. Or, try a rack pack. 52 cards for 5 bucks, can't beat that. Later.