Inside the Olympic Village

I went to the Olympic Village today.... It's huge, every building have tons of different teams staying as shown on the pictures below. Except these pictures, I saw a lot of great athletes but they were minding their own business & relaxing therefore I didn't want to ask for a picture. Next time soon I'll give you more pictures & different athletes. Enjoy for now.

Look at the sky, the cross is pointing down at the Stadium

Dollar.....Thats her name no joke...She is about to blast ppl on the 800m

Caster...The lady to beat

Henry, 400m...its about to go down pretty soon

Sanya Richard-Ross, me, Dawn Harper and Francena Mccorory

Volleyball athlete from GB

The background is nice, but these two guys are hilarious 

Yohan Blake....I said "you ready?", he said "Man I was born ready"

Nene

Abdi Abdirahman from USA

I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky....and......Pause!!!

Kerron Clement, me and Aries Merritt

Olympic BMW cars

Asbel Kiprop will win the GOLD by far....u betta believe it...he laughed and said "We'll see"

OKC OKC OKC...in this case SPAIN..Serge IBAKA...he busy but still taking time for a pic....AWESOME

My homeboy Rabah, about to kill youngster on the 400m 

Loving this picture

Kirani James......You already know he is all about the GOLD medals

Gloria Asumnu.....Tulane's/Nigeria's finest......

London: 2012 Olympics Day 1 Highlights

Lochte dominates 400, Phelps 4th

The long anticipated showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte ended with a very anti-climatic finish. Lochte won the event by 3 seconds while Phelps finished 4th. Pretty disappointing from a spectator's point of view considering we expected a tightly contested race between the two Americans. Is this the beginning of Olympic domination for Lochte or will Phelps and the rest of the competition take him down in other events. Regardless of whether Lochte wins the rest of his events or not, I just hope somebody can keep it close.

USA Women's soccer continues to roll

The American women's soccer team notched another convincing victory. They defeated the Colombians 3-0 with goals coming from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach, and Carli Lloyd. This game definitely had some intrigue during and after the match. The Colombians might have lost 3-0 but they didn't go down without a fight and I mean that literally. In the 41st minute Lady Andrade of Colombia took a swing at Abby Wambach's face off the ball. A shot that definitely left Wambach in some pain. There were more off the ball collisions between the two teams as the game went on. Former U.S. star Brandi Chastain co-commentated the game and criticized the U.S. defending throughout the game. Well the American players heard what she had to say and goalkeeper Hope Solo took some shots at Chastain via twitter. Here's a little bit of what Solo had to say to Chastain;

Solo tweeted: "Lay off commentating about defending and going until you get more educated @brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago."

"Its important 2 our fans 2 enjoy the spirit of the Olympics. It’s not possible when sum1 on air is saying that a player is the worst defender! … I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute, especially bc @arlowhite is fantastic. @brandichastain should be helping 2 grow the sport"

Things are definitely getting interesting in this tournament and we look forward to Chastain's response.

CYCLING MEN'S ROAD RACE ENDS IN DISAPPOINTMENT FOR GREAT BRITAIN

Heading into the men's cycling road race Great Britain had put together a squad well capable of having a gold medalist. Highlighted by Bradley Wiggins and sprinter Mark Cavendish, Team Great Britain was set up for success. They went out to the front right from the start and rolled for most of the race. The team put Cavendish in the right position to make the final sprint and bring home the gold. Unfortunately it did not go down like that. The chase pack caught up to the Brits and just swallowed them up heading into the finish. The medalists were Alexandra Vinokurov (Gold-Kazakhstan), Rigoberto Uran Uran (Silver-Colombia), and Alexander Kristoff (Blonze-Norway). What happened to Cavendish? Well he slipped all the way to 29th but don't lose faith in the hosts.

Day 1 was very exciting and it surely is going to get even better. I am looking forward to the rest of the games. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more posts about the Olympics from Abdi and I. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter. @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed

London: Queen opened the London Olympics 2012

This was the second time Queen Elizabeth II opened a Olympic game.

Queen in action

WoW, they delivered. London and Lord Seb Coe delivered what a lot of people expected. I'm not gonna go into details what happened during the Ceremony for the Olympics London 2012, but I'll point out some of the highlights of the night. First of all it was unexpected, "unthinkable", phenomenon, crazy thing that the Queen of United Kingdom went along to make a movie with James Bond. I LOVED IT, THAT WAS DEFINITELY THE HEART OF THE CEREMONY. James Bond star Daniel Craig and the Queen had a little scene where they ended up taking a chopper to the Olympic Stadium, amazing......at the top of the stadium the Queen jump down to the stadium with a parachute...GO ON Your majesty!!!

The Olympics rings.....splendid....


The industrial revolution scene.....WOW......
I think it was cool that the whole set had a story behind it and it was a good one. Great writers behind it and you gotta give them that. They put good work to make that happen.

THE RISING OF THE TORCH........That was a touchy and beautiful moment. Five out of Five on that.

Hall of Fame Comedian

Last but not least Mr. Bean. One of the funniest human being alive was there.....I CANT BELIEVE IT. I mean like come on. None of you reading this expected that, Mr. Bean. We (I) kinda forgot about him, he made me laugh at a younger age in everything he did, saw his show over and over again and I'm definitely not alone on that. But I was amazed that he was part of it. He saved them from a lot of other boooooooooooring ass moments.....


Buuuuu moments:
- Kids sleeping and stuff.....Let the kids go home and sleep....
- All that Dancing...WASTE OF TIME.Yea I do get the point but ummmmm its the Olympics, be little bit more creative!
- £27 million? What........REallllllly? I've no comments!

The LEGEND

Okay Again another person who saved them. The one and only Muhammad Ali attended at the ceremony. Huge respect to that man.

The creativity of the teams were impressive as well. The outfits, a lot of teams were outstanding, Italy with Armani outfit, niceeeeeeeeeee..........Ralph Lauren USA......I like that......

Now that the ceremony is out of the way, WE are READY for the action! Hopefully records in each sport will be set.

Thats all I had to say about the ceremony.......

I got my share of the ceremony!

Don't forget to follow Guy and me on twitter @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed

London: Men's Soccer Tournament Day 1 Recap

 We enjoyed some exciting matches from the women's tournament on Wednesday, and it got us excited for the beginning of the men's tournament. The men kicked off their tournament on Thursday with 8 action packed games. The women's tournament started off with very few surprises but on the men's side it was the opposite. A couple underdogs put up remarkable performances that have us second-guessing all the pre-tournament predictions. Here are some of the highlights from the opening day of the men's tournament.....

JAPAN FEARS NO OPPONENT

Before the tournament started Spain was instantly one of the favorites and for good reason. The Spaniards have won the past two European championships and also the 2010 World Cup. Their opening match against Japan was not expected to be a blowout in their favor but they were still expected to win without strong resistance. The Olympics only allows each nation to bring 3 players over the age of 23 which means quite a few superstars from Spain would not be able to play. Regardless of that fact, Spain still has one of the most talented group of youth players in the world and the likes of Juan Mata and Jordi Alba were brought on the trip. With that being said Spain was named the tournament favorite, well someone forgot to tell Japan that. The Japanese strategy was simple yet effective, crowd the middle of the field, deny the Spanish midfielders the space to pass around the midfield and hold possession, and catch Spain on the counter attack with their lone striker and two attacking midfielders. Japan struck first off a corner kick goal by Yuki Otsu and never looked back. A combination of tireless pressure from Japan, mental errors from Spain, and a red card to Inigo Martinez led to complete domination by the Japanese. If it wasn't for great goalkeeping by David De Gea, Spain would have probably lost by about 4 goals. Maybe this was just one bad performance by Spain but I don't think Japan's performance was a fluke. They are well organized and mentally prepared to take on any opponent. I'm excited to see how they play the rest of the tournament.

GREAT BRITAIN DISAPPOINTS THE HOME CROWD

Hosting a major tournament comes with a lot of pressure especially when your home fans expect success all the time. For Great Britain there is a sense of urgency to win this tournament in front of the home fans. What was suppose to be a fairly simple opening match against Senegal ended up being something of a nightmare for the British. Even though they scored first and held the lead late into the match, you could just feel disaster coming. Senegal had quite a few opportunities on goal and finally capitalized with a goal by Moussa Konate in the 82nd minute to equalize the match. The game would end 1-1, a result that was a huge disappointment to the home crowd. As much as British players and fans would like to blame the officials for not calling some fouls on Senegal, they can't argue that the performance of their team was way below their standards. It might be too early to panic but an early exit from the tournament would be a huge blow to the morale of the host nation/territory. 

NOBODY IS SAFE FROM THE UNDERDOGS, INCLUDING BRAZIL

If there was one game that was expected to be an easy win for the favorite it was Brazil vs. Egypt. The Brazilians led by their young superstar Neymar were suppose to breeze by the Egyptians. Instead, it turned out to be an evenly matched game. The 3-2 victory by Brazil was not very impressive and they did not look like tournament favorites. Egypt gave them all they could handle and played to win. Brazilian fans will hope this was just a case of their young boys getting over some opening day nerves. Key word is "HOPE", but with a player like Neymar on your side, you can't blame them for feeling invincible. 

If there is one thing we can conclude from day 1 of the men's tournament it's that the underdog teams refuse to lay down against the favorites. Even first time Olympic participants Gabon forced a draw with Switzerland after conceding a goal in the first couple minutes. I hope all the favorites took notice and are prepared for a hard earned gold medal. If not, they could be making an early exit from London.

Thank for reading. Don't forget to follow Abdi and I on twitter @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed

Women's Football/Soccer Tournament; Day 1 Recap

We are still a couple days away from the opening ceremony of the Olympics but the Women's soccer tournament got underway today. 6 games were crammed into a 5-6 hour time frame (some were played simultaneously). At the end of the day some games went as expected while a couple had a little drama. Here are 3 things we witnessed and learned from today's action.

1. BEWARE OF THE NORTH KOREANS!!!!!!!

Some people will look at this and say to themselves "I know, they have a lot of nuclear activity going on". Well no I'm actually talking about their women's soccer team. They kicked off their tournament against the feisty and very athletic Colombians. Those of you that read my last blog post will remember that I mentioned Colombians stars Carmen Rodallega and Yoreli Rincon, but the North Koreans could care less about those ladies. There was drama before the match even started as the North Koreans refused to come onto the field because the stadium jumbotron displayed the South Korean flag next to the names and pictures of the North Korean players as it was listing their lineup. After an hour delay the issue was resolved and both teams took the field. The ladies from the north side of the Korean peninsula took out their pregame frustration on the Colombians by putting constant pressure on their defense and handling them en route to a 2-0 victory. I don't think anyone really expected this result but the North Koreans came out to make a statement today. They are nearly impossible to scout because they don't play many international matches but they showed today that they are well organized and other opponents better take caution. Whether it's politics or sports, in this day in age the North Koreans refuse to be ignored.

2. GOALS GALORE!!!!!!!

Great Britain 1-0 New Zealand

USA 4-2 France

Japan 2-1 Canada

Brazil 5-0 Cameroon

Sweden 4-1 South Africa

North Korea 2-0 Colombia

When it comes to major soccer tournaments we are accustomed to seeing games end with little to no goals on opening day. Teams come out very cautious in their first games to avoid losing. We usually don't see high scoring games until the end of the group stage or the knockout stage when everyone starts playing with a sense of urgency. Well that was no the case today. With the exception of the Great Britain vs. New Zealand game we witnessed at least 2 goals in each game. Spectators often complain of soccer being too boring because of a lack of scoring, but no one will be complaining about today's result. Even more interesting is the fact that after only one day of action there are already 4 players tied for the goal scoring lead at 2 goals a piece (Alex Morgan-USA, Marta-Brazil, Lotta Schelin-Sweden, Kim Song Hui-North Korea). I hope this is a sign of things to come and we see more games with many goals. 

3. THE AMERICAN WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS

Out of all the teams that were victorious today, the most impressive had to be the United States. After 15 minutes the situation didn't look so good for the Americans as they fell into a quick 2-0 hole against a strong French side. Team USA needed a spark and they needed it fast and they got it minutes later from a familiar player. Abby Wambach who made it a routine to finish crosses by heading them into the back of the net during the 2011 World Cup came to the rescue for the Americans. She slipped through the French defense and finished off a corner kick with a great header to get the U.S. on the board. That was all it took for her teammates to get going. A couple minutes later Alex Morgan scored the equalizer, and when the second half started the Americans took total control. A goal from Carli Lloyd gave them the lead and Alex Morgan put them 2 up by scoring her second goal as they entered the last 25 minutes of the game. After a devastating loss to the Japanese in last year's world cup the American ladies are determined to bring home the Olympic gold and what better way to start that journey than beating one of the top teams in the tournament with 4 unanswered goals to complete a spectacular comeback. The only concern the Team USA in the tournament is their ability to finish games once in the lead. Former American soccer star Brandi Chastain who co-commentated the game emphasized towards the end how this USA team does not know how to control possession and finish a game comfortably. They refused to stop attacking against the French and almost got punished on a couple counterattacks. We will see how they adjust as the tournament goes along but for now we all have to admit, they look the strongest.

Be sure to catch more women's soccer action on Saturday but in the meantime check out the men's soccer tournament, which starts tomorrow Thursday July 26th. Opening ceremony for the whole Olympics games is on Friday. Enjoy the games and look out for more blog posts about the Olympics from Abdi and I. 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow us on twitter @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed.

London Pics