Category: Football/Soccer

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Esteban Granero at Jot Down (III)

Posted on by teresamunoz91

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Here’s the last part of the Esteban Granero Jot Down interview, which is probably the most personal segment (my favorite kind), as the magazine delves into Esteban’s literary, musical and film tastes.

You shared a photo of many books: Valle Inclán, Maupassant, Gil de Biedma, Bukowski, Carver, Kafka, Miguel Hernández… have you read all of them already?

I’ve read all of them.  The Valle Inclán one was good.  You have to become the language, at least that’s how it is for me.  There are some things that you need to read twice.  I’m not used to the language from another time, one that is so literary, and I had to use the dictionary.  But el esperpento [a type of theater developed by Valle Inclán] is still very much present now.  I believe that works from that era are good ones to read, it was so complicated…

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Esteban Granero at Jot Down (II)

Posted on by teresamunoz91

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Here’s the second part of the Esteban Granero Jot Down interview.  In this part, he talks about the cantera, quotes Nietzsche and says he prefers reading books to tweeting.  A man after my own heart.

Does Cristiano descend from the mountain when he’s not on the field?

He’s on the mountain because he’s a player who lives at the summit.  He demands that of himself.  He’s so good and so determinant that he’s there, and that’s his place.  He’s affectionate, understanding, a good friend to his friends and a good teammate to his teammates.  Regrettably, the image he has off the field does not correspond to reality, because envy tends to discredit a footballer when he’s that high up.  But he doesn’t need to come down from the mountain.  He’s up there due to his own merits.  I hope he continues there.  One can be a good person and…

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Esteban Granero at Jot Down (I)

Posted on by teresamunoz91

love this interview with my fave player 🙂

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The Jot Down interview with Esteban Granero is out, and it’s a fantastic one, although there’s probably too much talk about psychology in the beginning, which made translating the interview quite tedious.  It’s great to see this philosophical side of El Pirata, and once again we are reminded that he is one very special footballer, and I’m not speaking about his skills on the field.  But, if you can’t be bothered to read the interview or just don’t have time, then take a look at the photos, because they are gorgeous (the whole set can be found here).  I love that the interview and the photo shoot took place at the Biblioteca Nacional!  Anyway, here’s the first part of the interview, just the first section, because I’ve translated enough for today and I have other things on my agenda!

A Real Madrid footballer who studies psychology.  Looking back, he’s…

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My (Very Late) Reaction to Spain winning Euro 2012

Posted on by teresamunoz91

I know the Euro 2012 final was 3 weeks ago, so why am I writing this now? idk, I meant to write his right after Spain won, but….I kind of procrastinated a little lol. Well, I guess I can write about it now. At least I;m writing about it in the same month 🙂 First of all, I was beyond happy for Spain, I love 80% of the team, like 15% of them, and the other 5%? well, the other 5% are Barcelona players =P lol I actually like Iniesta though.

 Although I had been rooting for Spain from the beginning, judging by the qualifiers, I really did think it would be Germany and Netherlands at the final. Despite this, I picked a Spain-France final. I was very shocked (but happy) that Netherlands didn’t even make it out of their group. I thought Germany would win the group (which they did) and Netherlands would be second. I’m happy it was Portugal who made it out of the group though. They have some players I like Cristiano Ronaldo, Miguel Veloso, Fabio Coentrao, and even Pepe (only cause he’s a Real Madrid player lol).

I was also surprised to see Russia lose in the group stage. I had picked them to win their group. Main reason I wanted them to go to the next round? Andrei Arshavin. I like him, he’s a good player, even if he is an Arsenal player =P I was disappointed that Sweden lost in the group stage. Esp cause Zlatan is one of my favorite players, even if he did leave Milan for PSG =( He did help Sweden beat France though, which I hated cause that meant Spain and France would meet in the QFs instead of the final. Can’t be too mad though, he scored a great goal.

I knew Spain would make it to the final, so that wasn’t too surprising. I was a little surprised to see Ital there, esp since they had to play Germany in the SF, I knew they’d be able to beat England, despite the fact that majority of the English players and media were all, Italy is going to be easy to beat -.- So glad Italy proved them wrong. It started off as a good final, unfortunate for Italy, that they lost a player due to injury and had to play 30 mins or so, a player down. Spain was incredible though. Idk which goal was my favorite- David Silva’s, Juan Mata’s or Fernando Torres’. Imo, they were all pretty great.

It was great to see Spain win, not only cause I like them, but I love what comes after a win. That’s right, their celebrations. Which means we get to see their airplane videos/pics, bus videos/pics etc. We also get to see them dancing, singing,  drunk Xabi, and much more. That day, and the few days after, I went on tumblr and twitter and saved so many pictures and videos of them haha it was a great day 🙂

Posted in Football/Soccer

From LA to SJ (June 30-July 1)

Posted on by teresamunoz91

Guess I can start with this post. After all, I’ve been meaning to write this for the past 3 weeks or so. Well, as most people know, I’m a huge LA Galaxy supporter. This year, I’ve had the opportunity to start going to their away games. The trip to San Jose was my first away game.  The Chivas away games don’t count cause they’re in the same stadium lol. Well anyway, we met at the HDC (Home Depot Center) Saturday morning and headed to SJ on the bus. The only bad thing was that I was going to miss a few Wimbledon matches, but it was okay though, since Roger Federer wasn’t playing that day anyways.

 

I keep saying that we went to San Jose, although technically, the game was at Stanford University, not SJ’s usual stadium. The ride took about 6 hours, we did stop a couple of times, which was good cause I was getting a little restless! We got to Stanford Stadium pretty late, in fact, we were in our seats about 10 mins after the game started.

 

First of all, even though I’m from LA (LA county, not really the city lol) Stanford had been my dream school growing up. To be able to see it in person was just amazing. Didn’t get to see much of it, cause like I said, we were late. But from what I did see, I was impressed, esp with the tennis courts. The stadium was also very impressive.

 

It was pretty awesome being there with all the other Galaxy supporters, we got to see Beckham score a goal 🙂 Although LA was up 3-1 at the end up the first half, SJ scored 3 goals in the second half and won 4-3 =/ For neutrals, I’m sure this was a very entertaining match, but for Galaxy fans, it was a little worrying seeing our team give up that many goals. We saw Beckham’s frustration as he lashed out at SJ’s mascot, which I thought was funny, and threw the ball at one of the “injured” SJ players, who ended up jumping up right after being “hit”. Apparently, Beckham is a miracle worker.

 

Although it was disappointing to see LA lose, the trip was over all pretty fun. The ride back home felt really long though, it was hard staying away, I was very restless. Had to eat my lunchables, yogurt, drink my sweet tea and aloe vera juice and read my book to keep myself awake. I will definitely like to go back to see LA-SJ again. Hope next time Galaxy can get a win.