World Cup Lists (1 of 4): The Goal-Keepers

Greetings to our readers in Panama, Canada and the Czech Republic, who are among the many countries which alas did not make the World Cup field of 32.

We start our series of World Cup lists with a look at the goal-keepers for teams that have made the knock-out round of 16 in Brazil:

1) Jasper Cillessen. Netherlands. Age 25. Ajax Amsterdam (pictured top)

2) Fernando Muslera. Uruguay. 28. Galatasaray (Turkey; pictured center)

3) Vincent  Enyeama. Nigeria. 31. Lille (France; pictured bottom)

4) Orestis Karnezis. Greece. 28. Granada (Spain)

5) Julio Cesar. Brazil. 34. Toronto FC (Canada/MLS)

6) Tim Howard. USA. 35. Everton (USA)

7) David Ospina. Colombia. 25. Nice (France)

8) Keylor Navas. Costa Rica. 27. Levante (France)

9) Diego Benglio. Switzerland. 30. Wolfsburg (Germany)

10) Sergio Romero. Argentina. 31. Monaco (France)

11)  Thibut Courtois. Belgium. 22. Chelsea (England)

http://www.espn.go.com

Comic Strips Grand Slam (4 of 4): We Really, Really Like Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog

Personally, we think two of the best comic strips around are "Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog" by Jonathan Mahood and "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" by John Hambrook. But, alas promoting these great comic strips with their own image might be grounds for copyright infringement and since we don't make a dime for blogging, we are going to go with images of Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va), the recipient of last week's Worst Week in Washington in "The Washington Post" (we asked Chris Cillizza, the political reporter who writes the piece to consider the Spanish ambassador this week, but alas, we got no response), Tim Howard, the goal keeper for Team USA who plays professionally for some team in England, and the late, great Jacques Cousteau instead.

We hope Mahood and Hambrook appreciate our efforts to go out of the way to avoid copyright infringement.

These strips are all in the Kings Features' comic wheel, which also includes "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith" from our good friend John Rose, alas his strip did not make our top ten (Note: These are last Sunday's strips, the new batch of brownies is already out of the even_ they won't get that joke in Dubai, will they?):

1)  Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog

2) The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee

3) Retail

4) Arctic Circle

5) Dustin

6) Tina's Groove

7) Sherman's Lagoon

8) Rhymes with Orange

9) Deflocked

10) The Pajama Diaries

http://bleekercomics.com/

http://edisonleecomic.com/

http://retailcomic.com/

http://arcticcirclecartoons.com/

Soccer Week (7 of 8): American Player Tim Howard Shuts Down Chelsea

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
We now how Dutch international Maikel va der Werff, who plays for the Dutch soccer team Zwolle, felt when he kicked in an own goal which propelled Ajaz Amsterdam to defeat Zwolle 2-1.

As we were typing to score for the Southampton-West Ham game which ended in a 0-0 tie, we punched the wrong button and all of our work (if one can call blogging work) vanished.

But, our header was that American goal-keeper Tim Howard (pictured above) came back from helping Team USA earn a World Cup bid by defeating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. And, then he flew back to England to help his team Everton (based in Liverpool) defeat London powerhouse Chelsea 1-0.

The lone goal of the match was scored by Steven Naismith of Scotland during extra time of the first half.

Mesut Ozil, a German national of Turkish heritage, had a solid debut with Arsenal as he contributed an assist in the team's 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Gyfli Sigurdsson of Iceland score two goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

French national Yoan Gouffan scored the game-winner for Newcastle United in the 73rd minute of play.

Finally, the stars came out for Manchester United as both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney came through for the home team.

Here is a complete list of weekend games in the English Premiere League:

Man U 2 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 (tie)

Liverpool 2 Swansea 2 (tie)

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Fulham 1 West Brom 1 (tie)

Tottenham 2 Norwich 0

Everton 1 Chelsea 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

Stoke City 0 Man City 0 (tie)

Hull City 1 Stoke City 1 (tie)

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.evertonfc.com

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com

http://www.nufc.co.uk/