Euro 08 and Sangria

This year's Euro Cup was one of the best international football tournaments I've ever seen in my short life. I know I haven't even been on this earth for 30 years, and I haven't been watching the footy for probably about half of that time, but ask any pundit and they'll say the same - if you missed this tournament, you missed something special. From the great surprises of Turkey, the "Cardiac Kids" (god, I hate that nickname), and Gus Hiddinck's quick, exciting, young Russia team; to the big guns that didn't let us down like the two obvious choices Germany and Spain, and the numerous matches going to extra time, or including scoring in the final minutes (ney - SECONDS!!) of the match; this tournament was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Recently, UEFA has had discussions to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24 for future tounaments because so many quality, high profile teams were left out, with England being the obvious example. But in my opinion, while I would have loved to see England play against some of the other best teams in the world, I really didn't miss them. There was a cleanliness to the tournament that spawned from England's omission, I think. And just as the Champion's League has become less special and more convoluted since more teams were added, I think the Euro Championships should remain at 16 teams for similar reasons.

For the final today, my buddy Charles came over to watch the match with Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood and I. We had previously decided we would support Spain in this one, mainly out of pity, since they hadn't won an international tournament in over 40 years. But also, Spain are an incredibly exciting side, and their coach is to retire after this tournament, and what a great sendoff a championship would be. So that being said, the only appropriate way to watch a game in Spain's corner, is to have a nice cold Sangria in your hand! (right? I'm not really sure actually, but why the hell not?) So the new food entry is a great, great, great recipe for an easy SANGRIA.

First, buy a bottle of mid-range red wine - Merlot will do just fine. If you can though, try to find a spanish wine (from SPAIN) which are usually just called "red wine" or a spanish equivalent thereof. Trow (that's my Chicago accent - trow) the whole contents of the bottle in the largest pitcher you can get your claws on. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2-3 shots of gin, one little can of mandarin oranges (including juice), one little can of mixed fruit coctail (including juice), the cut up one lemon and one lime, squeeze the juice into the pitcher and then trow (there it is again) the lemon and lime in there as well. If you can, refrigerate this overnight. If not, try to put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then, right before serving, add about 3 cans of ginger ale, and serve the whole thing over ice. It's refreshing, it tastes GREAT, and it'll get you hammered nice and quick. The sugar takes all the sting out of the red wine and the only thing you're left with is grown-up punch. Enjoy! And Viva Espana!!

Thinking positively

1. Eider Gudjohnsen 2. Steven Davis 3. Vassilios Torosidis 4. Carlos Cuellar 5. Miguel Veloso 6. Rui Patricio 7. Aaron Lennon 8. Kevin Nolan 9. Brian Howard 10. Aiden McGeady 11. Deco 12. Moutinho 13. Jermaine Pennant14. Steven Pienaar 15. Thierry Henry 16. Christoph Metzelder 17. Scott Brown 18. Mbarek Boussoufa 19. Luka Modric 20. Bafetimbi Gomis 21. John Arne Riise22. Artur Boruc 23. Fernando Amorebieta 24. Allan McGregor 25. Peter Crouch 26. Luis Fabiano 27. Giles Barnes28. Aaron Ramsey 29. Paul Scharner 30. Tal Ben Haim 31. Anthony Gardner 32. Achilles Emana 33. Lisandro Lopez 34. Guy Demel 35. Simon Vukcevic 36. Steve Sidwell 37. Klaas Jan Huntelaar 38. Medy Eltio 39. Luis Antonio Valencia 40. Andy Johnson 41. Richard Dunne 42. Mamadou Sakho 43. Leighton Baines 44. joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez 45. Eren Derdiyok 46. Ivica Olic 47. Jimmy Briand 48. Jean Makoun 49. Darren Bent 50. Stephane Sessegnon 51. Nelson 52. Zoltan Gera 53. Oscar Cardozo 54. Hugo Campagnaro 55. Nicky Shorey 56. Stephane M’bia 57. Bruno Alves 58. Edgar Davids 59. Amara Diane 60.Michael Dawson 61. Arstote Lusinga 62. Abdeslam Ouaddou 64. Luis Boa Morte 65. Djibril Cisse 66. Arda Turan 67. Jonny Evans 68. Anton Ferdinand 69. Tomas Ujfalusi 70. Fernando Amorebieta 71. Juan Carlos Marino Marquez 72.Mauro Zarate 73. Mario Gomez 74. Justin Hoyte 75. Diego Forlan 76. Yohann Pele 77. Loic Remy 78. Wayne Hennessy 79. Eren Derdiyok 80. Fabricio Coloccini 81. Alvaro Negredo 82. Kieran Westwood 83. Pablo Aimar 84. Gary Madine 85. Mikel Arteta 86. Nikola Zigic 87. Roland Linz 88. Roland Juahasz 89. Aaron Spear 90.Alexis 91.Pascal Chimbonda 92. Seb Larsson 93. Marcelo Mattos 94. Allan McGregor 95. Antonio Reyes 96. Van Der Vaart

96 Frigging players.

Newcastle have so far been linked with 96 players since the season ended and June has just begun. Some of these are ludricrous, some are way overpriced, some are out of our league, but there's a few who seem to fit just right. I'd go out on a limb to say these few are 20. Bafetimbi Gomis, 50. Stephane Sessegnon, 66. Arda Turan, 80. Fabricio Coloccini, and 92. Sebastian Larsson. Larsson is the guy who's really got me turned on recently - way too good for Birmingham, who are going down, is available at 4million pounds, playing international football right now. I've got a feeling Gomis and Turan will go with more Champions Leauge quality sides, so goodbye to them. Sessegnon would be a great signing if he doesn't get swiped up by Arsenal, and Coloccini would be a great asset to our defense.

I think if we can get 3 of those five guys(with a creative central midfielder to start - praying for Turan!!), along with continuing to pick up incredibly exciting youngsters, we'll be set and ready. We might not get back into the top six next year, but top ten is a very, very achievable goal. We were only two games away from a top ten finish this year, and this was the worst season in the history of Newcastle United football. And it's quite clear to anyone who paid attention - after Keegan came in and had a few games to work with the guys, the results started to show what kind of quality we were. Our 4-1 destruction of Spurs on their ground isn't much to scoff at and shows how good we can be if we're on the same page - but the 2-0 loss at Everton was deserved, and shows how long we've got to go before breaking the top 5 or 6.

Also - very happy to see Scolari taking the post at Chelsea - I always thought he was the man for the job. He's not only a master tactician but a thrill to watch on the sidelines. Let's see if he can get into any more fights with players or referrees on the pitch. HA!

Randoms

Here's a rare post which will cover all three aforementioned topics...AND MORE!!!

First and foremost - I'd like to welcome all the nice people who happen to be fellow-acquaintences of my buddy Craig Unterseher, who just recently moved down under to Melbourne, Australia. He'll be documenting his travels on his very own blog, http://www.darkhorse-au.blogspot.com/ (and he put a link to this one on his) so check it out if your jonesing for some koala-talk. Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood and I went to grad school with Craig, and he basically got us our current jobs, so we're pretty close to the kid. Seeing the back of him was hard, but we know that he's going to love Melbourne and we wish him all the best, as I'm sure all of you do as well.

ARCHITECTURE:

Frank Gehry, my not-so-favorite architect, has a new proposal for a tower to do in the downtown financial district of Manhattan, steps away from where our friends used to live, and where Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood used to work. And it's odd for me to say - but this tower, I love. I love the basic simplicity of it, but the intense detailing, adding up to be so much more than the sum of all its parts. I usually don't like Gehry's stuff recently, but this one excited me from the moment I laid my eyes on it.

FOOTBALL:

After my last week's post documenting only a small portion of a VERY large list of potentials for Newcastle to pick up in the transfer window, we have made some movement this week. Unfortunately, it's movement in the wrong direction. Instead of adding to our already small squad, we're subtracting from it. Emre, our enigmatic attacking central midfielder has been sold to Fenerbahce. Reports say, however, that we've gotten 8m pounds for him, and after buying him for less than 4, that's quite good business. So while I'm not happy that our squad has gotten smaller, I am happy that A) we're reportedly getting a good amount for him and B) we haven't sold him to another premiership club. Now here's the bad news - another report says we've only got 2m for him. That would be crappy.

Further news is that we've also sold Damien Duff to rivals Sunderland for 5 million, the same amount we paid for him. He's a great player and a great guy, and it'll be good for him that he won't have to move his family, only going over the river. But I hope, now being a rival, that his injuries will increase and he'll rot on their bench like he did on ours, so he can't score against us!

FOOD:

Bacino's of Lincoln Park: The Mrs. and I went up to Lincoln Park this afternoon to frequent one of the few Dairy Queen's in the city of Chicago proper. (I want to keep this portion of the post about Bacino's, but for the record, Dairy Queen still has the best chocolate milkshake I've ever had. If anyone debates this, please leave a comment because I'm on a mission.) So while up there, we were walking down Lincoln Ave, and we kept finding these great looking places to eat, and finally decided on Bacino's. I had never heard of it before, but it was completely crowded, and pizza didn't sound half-bad to either of us. Once we got in, the decor wasn't much to get excited about, but it did have fully-open front windows, giving it a great early-summer lunch experience. We were both happy to see thin crust on the menu and went for a 12" with anchovies and mushrooms. (Who here likes anchovies? I never even had them until about 2 years ago and just assumed they were horrible because they get so much bad pub. But if you haven't had them, I highly suggest it because they're gloriously salty and wonderful.) The beer selection was top notch, with a bunch of strange and interesting drafts, as well as a huge list of domestic bottles and an equally intriguing import bottle list. It made today just a little bit better.

Side note - Bacino's claim is that they're "heart healthy" pizza but I don't really see how or why. I didn't ask any questions and it certainly didn't taste "heart healthy." But I will go back in a HEART-BEAT. (SCORE!!)