The Audacity of Dope

While I’m strictly an Adidas wearer when I’m on the pitch (conversely, no pun, Nike’s only on the court), I must say, the new Nike ad in preparation for the World Cup is incredible.  Peep the release:

BEAVERTON, Ore.– NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) today unveils an action-packed film that brings together some of the world’s greatest players to inspire football lovers and sports fans around the world. The epic three-minute “Write the Future” film takes people on a journey that dramatically captures that one moment when headlines are written from a single pass, or one strike can bring a nation eternal happiness, while bringing others to their knees.

Some of the world’s best players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Patrice Evra, Gerard Pique, Ronaldinho, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Thiago Silva, are featured. Special guest cameos are made by tennis legend Roger Federer and basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. Homer Simpson completes the star-studded cast of appearances. The film will be shown on TV for the first time on May 22nd during the European Club Final.

Directed by renowned Hollywood director and producer Alejandro G. Iñarritu (21 Grams, Babel), this epic football journey unfolds through a match of goal line clearances, game-winning tackles and lightning footwork that literally send a ripple effect across the world.

Football fans around the world will be able to experience the full three-minute film online at nikefootball.com from May 20th at 6pm GMT before it rolls out through global partnerships with Facebook, YouTube and QQ.com on Saturday the 22nd. The spot will then air across 32 countries, sharing the campaign with millions of fans around the world on May 22nd.

This marks the first stage of a journey that will ultimately see fans around the world write their own future through experiences that put them at the center of the action. In June, fans will be able to live like their heroes through a unique experience on nikefootball.com that generates ripple videos and visuals from their own photos and information, placing them at the center stage.

Footballers can then use this creative to build their own Facebook campaign to get noticed and selected for “The Chance” – an elite Nike Academy football camp in partnership with the Barclays Premier League in England that allows players to get scouted and get noticed at the highest level of the game.

“This epic campaign really captures the scale, emotion and impact that one single moment in a football game can have on a player, fan or nation,” said Davide Grasso, NIKE, Vice President of Global Football Marketing. “This is just the beginning of the journey. The next stage allows everyone who loves football to engage and interact in an incredible way.”

The story starts when the viewer is drawn into the heat of battle on the pitch as a ball drops from the air into the path of Didier Drogba. As the world holds its collective breath, Drogba picks his way through sliding defenders and expertly chips the goalkeeper – wild celebrations commence across Africa. But they are curtailed at the last second as Fabio Cannavaro makes a stunning overhead goal line clearance. This game-changing moment propels Cannavaro to pop culture icon complete with television chat show appearances and a song dedicated to his moment of brilliance.

Other global football stars including Wayne Rooney experience how a moment on the pitch can last forever. In one scene, the England striker sees an intercepted pass picked up by midfielder Franck Ribery. The ensuing impact brings a nation to its knees and leaves us to imagine Rooney’s destroyed career and his life as a groundsman, living in a caravan, with Ribery’s image looming large above him on a giant billboard. Fast forward, and Rooney relives the moment, sprints after Ribery and wins the ball back. Personal and national pride restored, we see him receiving a knighthood, with headline-grabbing plaudits, a maternity room full of little Waynes and an effortless table-tennis defeat of Roger Federer. The Rooney ripple effect comes full circle.

Similarly, Cristiano Ronaldo is fouled in a game, and as he prepares to take a vital free-kick for Portugal, we flash forward to see the ripple effect if he scores; a stadium named in his honour and a Film Premiere for a movie of his life.

“Every touch you have in a game has the ability to change the entire course of not just those 90 minutes, but your entire tournament or season,” said Cristiano Ronaldo. “One touch of the ball can be an opportunity to leave your mark on the game and write your own future, or equally a moment missed, that creates a legacy for your opponent with their fans.”

Also unveiled is Nike’s supercharged Elite Series football boots providing new levels of performance for players during the tournament. Nike’s Mercurial Vapor SuperFly II, CTR360 Maestri, Total90 Laser III and Tiempo Legend III all feature a new performance upper to improve on-field visibility and a reengineered outsole to deliver lightweight performance for every style of player. The Elite Series is available to players at all levels and also incorporates Nike Football+, which features exclusive insider access to the world’s best coaches, players and teams for total game improvement.

The official song of the 2010 World Cup gets a more universal remix and a dope video from Nabil Elderkin.  I wish I was headed to South Africa, but I’m already scheming on Brazil 2014…

Fresh off the Winter Olympics, ESPN.com has jump started my anticipation for the world’s next big sporting event (March Madness isn’t quite international) by posting up their Top 50 Players of the 2010 World Cup.  Peep the article for a breakdown of each player, but here’s the list:

NO.     PLAYER
1     Lionel Messi, Argentina
2     Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
3     Wayne Rooney, England
4     Kaka, Brazil
5     Xavi, Spain
6     Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast
7     Andres Iniesta, Spain
8     Fernando Torres, Spain
9     Steven Gerrard, England
10     Michael Essien, Ghana
11     David Villa, Spain
12     Franck Ribery, France
13     Samuel Eto’o, Cameroon
14     Luis Fabiano, Brazil
15     Iker Casillas, Spain
16     Cesc Fabregas, Spain
17     Gianluigi Buffon, Italy
18     Dani Alves, Brazil
19     Nemanja Vidic, Serbia
20     Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands
21     Maicon, Brazil
22     Frank Lampard, England
23     Andrea Pirlo, Italy
24     Carlos Tevez, Argentina
25     Robin van Persie, Netherlands
26     Gonzalo Higuain, Argentina
27     Diego Forlan, Uruguay
28     Thierry Henry, France
29     Sergio Aguero, Argentina
30     Michael Ballack, Germany
31     Julio Cesar, Brazil
32     Arjen Robben, Netherlands
33     Gerard Pique, Spain
34     Miroslav Klose, Germany
35     Lucio, Brazil
36     Javier Mascherano, Argentina
37     John Terry, England
38     David Silva, Spain
39     Carles Puyol, Spain
40     Nicolas Anelka, France
41     Ashley Cole, England
42     Patrice Evra, France
43     Marek Hamsik, Slovakia
44     Karim Benzema, France
45     Yoann Gourcuff, France
46     Daniele De Rossi, Italy
47     Philipp Lahm, Germany
48     Yaya Toure, Ivory Coast
49     Giorgio Chiellini, Italy
50     Landon Donovan, United States

I’m glad to see my favorite players (van Persie, Cesc, and Didier Drogba) all well represented, but overall, I think this list is surprisingly solid.  David Silva should definitely be higher and some of the bigger names aren’t as good as they used to be, but ESPN did a pretty good job.  What do you think?

That was to tie it, and this was the winner in injury time:

I see you Didier.

Are you kidding me?  That’s the homey too…Allez Didier!  Shout to Jacques et Allan too…

Ok…Steve is having entirely too much fun.  And it’s for a good cause.

One of the reasons why he’s the best player in the world. That’s flawless.

No, your eyes do not deceive you.  That is indeed Pharrell running on Manchester United‘s legendary Old Trafford pitch, attempting to abscond with last year’s Champion’s League trophy.  Hilarious hahahah.

Skateboard and Shae stopped by MUFC while in Manchester for a show and they just posted pics on the BBC blog.  Err…not that BBC.  Check ’em out here.

Just when the Olympics end, the EPL season starts to pick up…chyea.

Doesn’t get much better than that.  Steve Nash recently held some charity events in NYC, one of which was “The Showdown in Chinatown,” a pick up game of footy involving some of the biggest stars in basketball and soccer: Baron Davis, Jozy Altidore, Thierry Henry (a future Sounder?),  Salomon Kalou, Claudio Reyna, and more.  The stop motion photography gives this video a great artistic touch.

Damn, now I really want to go play soccer…but instead I’m off to register voters at various 4th of July festivities.  Have a good 4th y’all!

Spotted on Hypebeast.

I’m a little ashamed that as big of a sports fan as I am, I managed to go the entire Euro 2008 soccer tournament without mentioning it in a single entry. It’s even more blasphemous because I watched pretty much every game and saw every goal. When you’re a Western European mutt like me, Euro is great because you can root for a handful of teams. My English side couldn’t cheer since they choked in qualifying, but I could claim allegiance to Italy, Sweden, France, and the eventual champion, Spain. Still waiting for my Maltese homies to qualify for a major tournament…ok…I’d be happy if they could win a single game. Actually, maybe I should go try out for them…

Anyway, I won’t bore you with all my thoughts on the tournament, but basically, it was great. If you missed it, here’s a good mix of someone’s top 10 goals, and I agree with most of ’em:

(if you weren’t sick of this song already, you will be now)

Top 10 Goals @ Euro 2008:

10. Robin van Persie finishing off a brilliant Dutch maneuver
9. Daniel Guiza staying onside and clinically scoring off Cesc Fabregas’ dime
8. Lukas Podolski cleaning up some sloppy German play with a sweet volley
7. Arjen Robben drilling home a stunner from an impossible angle
6. Nihat Kahveci kissing the underside of the bar to cap Turkey’s stunning comeback
5. Philipp Lahm opening up his body to send the keeper the wrong direction & win the game
4. Wesley Sneijder poking home a one time effort to complete a “total football” goal
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic audaciously scoring far post with the wrong foot from that angle
2. Wesley Sneijder scoring my favorite goal of the tourney with a long range bomb
1. Michael Ballack blasting a free kick that continues to rise all the way to the top right corner

Off the top of my head, the only one I would have included that they left out was Andrei Arshavin‘s goal against Sweden. That was end to end brilliance. Funny that Spain only has one representative on the list, but their goals weren’t necessarily that amazing. They just played the best football over the course of the tournament, hands down. Good stuff.