Here's the trailer for what looks like an intriguing movie centering around last summer's World Cup in South Africa.
Calabash, named after the nickname for the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, follows five ordinary South Africans and a 78-year-old Mexican man who was attending his 13th World Cup through the tournament.
As the U.S. men's national team bowed out of the World Cup in South Africa, ESPN commentator Ian Darke said, "The USA are dying here in the World Cup, but dying bravely."
That phrase has become the name of an excellent video montage put together by Nick Butler.
"Dying Bravely" captures the emotions, both highs and lows, for the U.S. teams at the World Cup in 2002, '06 and '10, and centers around the Americans' never-say-die attitude.
Any U.S. supporter will find it well worth the 11 minutes of viewing time.
The U.S. remained 18th in this month's FIFA world rankings, while regional rival Mexico fell three places to No. 28. The top five teams remained the same – Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil and Argentina, with Germany and Brazil swapping spots from last month.
Central defender Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port) is among the U.S. national team players interviewed for Fox Soccer Channel's "Team USA: Journey for Glory."
The 30-minute program recapping the Americans' run to the second round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will debut at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 7.
In addition to DeMerit, the second Wisconsin player to appear in the World Cup, U.S. coach Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey were interviewed for the show.
U.S. television viewers saved their best for last when it came to the 2010 World Cup.
Nearly 25 million Americans watched Spain's 1-0 extra-time victory over the Netherlands in Sunday's final, making it the most-watched soccer match in U.S. television history.
ABC drew 15.5 million viewers and Spanish-language Univision had 8.8 million for the finale of the month-long tournament.
ESPN reported that its coverage of the 64 matches, which included games on ABC and ESPN2, averaged approximately 3.3 million viewers – up 41 percent from the 2006 event.
The U.S. ended up 12th out of the 32 teams in the final FIFA order of finish, one spot ahead of England – the 13th-place finish was the Three Lions' worst at a World Cup.
Here are all the statistics for U.S. defender Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port), courtesy of FIFA.com. He played all 390 minutes in four matches, had two shots (neither on goal), committed eight fouls, suffered two fouls, was issued one yellow card and completed 125 of 162 passes (77 percent). DeMerit had a 7.78 score in the Castrol Index, ranking eighth among U.S. players, 58th among defenders and 146th overall out of the 599 players who saw the field in South Africa.
I came across two great videos that wrapped up the first World Cup in Africa nicely. The first is a compilation of all 145 goals scored during the tournament, and the second is ABC Sports' closing sequence from Sunday's final. Enjoy. And remember, there are only 1,430 days until the 2014 World Cup kicks off in Brazil.
So where were you when Landon Donovan scored his stoppage-time goal to give the U.S. a 1-0 victory over Algeria on Wednesday morning?
Most likely, watching it somewhere.
The dramatic match was watched by nearly 6.2 million people on ESPN, making it the most-watched soccer game in the network's history, and another 2.2 million watched in Spanish on Univision.
Records also were set online, with 1.1 million viewers watching on ESPN3.com, the ESPNRadio.com stream hitting a peak of 180,000 listeners and the ESPN GameCast attracting 1.7 million viewers – breaking its previous high by 42 percent.
As we look ahead of Saturday's Round of 16 match against Ghana (1:30 p.m. on ABC), here's a great compilation of how U.S. fans across the world celebrated Wednesday's win:
Additionally, legendary Argentinian announcer Andres Cantor – known for his long-lasting "Gooooooooooooool" call – got a little fired up about the goal. Check out his radio call here.
U.S. Soccer released the second part of "The Jay DeMerit Story," in which the Green Bay native discusses his experiences playing in Europe.
It really is an amazing tale, how he and a friend went to club after club in Europe before getting a break with a non-league team in London that opened doors and led him to a stint in the Premier League and now the World Cup.
World Cup matches are creating a buzz with American television audiences, and it's not just the constant sound of vuvuzelas.
More than 16 million people watched the U.S. and England play out their 1-1 draw in a World Cup opener Saturday afternoon. ABC drew 12.956 million viewers for its broadcast, while Spanish-language Univision attracted 3.8 million viewers.
The ABC showing was the most-viewed first-round World Cup match in U.S. history and was the best audience for a U.S. game since the round of 16 game against Brazil at the 1994 World Cup (13.7 million).
Overall ratings for the tournament have been impressive for ESPN and ABC, with an average of 4.94 million viewers for the first five matches – up 108 percent compared to the first five games in 2006.
In case you missed the highlights of the match, here's a re-enactment of the goals done with Legos. The German website Lego Fussball, which recreates many games in Lego form, is scheduled to do 27 World Cup matches – however, no other U.S. games are on the list at this point.
One of my favorite shows made its triumphant return Friday night.
"Special 1 TV" features the puppet of self-proclaimed "Special One" Jose Mourinho along with co-hosts Wayne Rooney ("The Boy") and Sven-Goran Eriksson ("It").
After its run on Setanta Sports, which folded earlier this year due to financial reasons, "Special 1 TV" recently was picked up BBC Three and announced plans for daily shows during the World Cup. Episodes usually are posted to YouTube within a few hours.
You should be doing the watching of the show. Do it. Be champions.
Central defender Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port) is among the U.S. national team players interviewed for Fox Soccer Channel's "Team USA: Journey for Glory."