Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

I took my 8 & 5.5 year old sons and their 10 year old cousin who is visiting from Israel to watch the friendly game between LA Galaxy vs Barcelona at the Rose Bowl on Saterdauy. It was a fantastic night and a great memory for all of us, especially for Evyatar, my oldest son, who celebrated his 8th birthday that day.

Notes:

• A packed Rose Bowl with all the pre-game activities outside the stadium provides an amazing atmosphere for a soccer game
• There is such a huge potential to make soccer really big in the US as there is such a hunger by so many people to see the top players play locally. I am certain that if more European players will join the MLS, this league could be really successful. And if the MLS champion will start participating in the Champions league (similar to some discussions related to European basketball team(s) joining the NBA) that could be a real booster for success.
• Barcelona is coming to this season well trained and prepared.It was amazing the see how 2-3 players of Barcelona put pressure on a Galaxy player the second he had the ball
• I have a feeling Zlatan Ibrahimovic will score over 30 goals this season with Messi, Henry and Xavi feeding him with assists
• Galaxy fans are still not over their David Beckham booing. But when he scored a fantastic goal from a free kick, he was god to them. Go figure…

I uploaded plenty of pictures and videos (including Barcelona’s first goal) to this Flickr set but here is a taste.

We are in the midst of amazing two weeks for football (a.k.a soccer) fans:

• Los Angeles Galaxy played AC Milan last Sunday at the Home Depot Center (what a great stadium, no matter where you sit you get to see all the action). That was David Beckham’s first game with the Galaxy after coming back from a load to…AC Milan. He was booed by the fans the entire first half but gave a great game. Regardless of what many fans think, without Becks, the Galaxy are two levels weaker. Here are some photos I took and a video clip of Galaxy’s first goal, an example of how a fast break should be executed. It ended 2:2 and everyone were happy.
• Inter Milan played Chelsea on Sunday at the Rose bowl in front of 82K fans (who said football isn’t popular in the US?). Inter was weak (even with Zlatan), Chelsea was very strong and won rightly 2:0. Pictures here.
• Next Sunday I will see the world’s best team, FC Barcelona, in a game against the Galaxy. Since Zlatan Ibrahimovic just signed for Barca I will have a chance to see him again. I hope he will play much better than his performance with Inter. I hear there are still some tickets on StubHub if you are interested.

I have noticed that one of the most popular sources of traffic to my blog is actually Google Images. Not surprisingly, users all over the world are searching for a David Beckham photo and they end up looking at my attempt to be a paparazzi.

I know it has been written in every basic SEO guide but I will repeat it again for those who might have forgotten. You can always use a "professional SEO software" that will do a lot of the work for you, or you can simply remember to set ALT text and a meaningful file name for images you post. That itself will do a lot.

(inspired by true events)

On Saturday morning I took my 6 & 3.5 years old boys to Toys R’ Us to buy them new bicycles. As we approached the entrance we saw a crowd of paparazzi around a shinny black Bentley Continental GTC. It was easy enough to tell that a celeb was around, the question was who?

We walked into the large store and headed towards the bicycle area located at the far end. The inside of the store was suspiciously quiet and empty, but as we got closer to the rear we could hear the noise and feel the excitement. But still, we could not tell what was the reason for the hubbub.

We entered into the bike aisle and saw a lineup of 20 children bikes. A little boy was standing at the other side of the aisle examining the different models one by one. Eli, my 3.5 years old, was doing the same. Dora the Explorer, Spiderman and Dragon were some of the models Eli looked at. Then he got closer to the middle of the line and so did the little boy. They got closer and closer and approached the center where a blue and orange Diego bike parked. Eli grabbed them first and said “That’s the pair I want”. The other boy was shocked and with a sad look on his face turned around and walked back towards his dad. I wanted to stop him and say something, or even offer him the bike but the bodyguards stopped me from getting closer.

A minute later I saw the boy and his dad leaving with a scooter without giving me a chance to invite them for a play date…at least I had my iPhone with me to capture that moment.

David, welcome to La-La-Land. Just remember one thing. This is not Manchester. In this town, Liverpool fans rule!

Update: Eli has recently switched to a blue Razor A2 scooter, so the bike (video demo here) are for sale…

Technorati Tags: David Beckham, Papparazi, Soccer, Los Angeles Galaxy