Now that the World Cup is over, I'm seriously wondering what the hell I'm going to blog about.  Not to worry we'll keep you in the know with everything futbol related and Live Breathe Futbol related for the next four years, so be sure to add us to your feed reader and check back daily.  Some of the things coming soon are:

A new and improved website.  This new website will seamlessly incorporate every facet of Live Breathe Futbol. An entirely new store, new blog format, and most importantly, a new reader experience that I think you all will enjoy.

The 2010/2011 lineup.  This really excites me because I've been working very hard on it and think you will love it.  It is very different from every futbol/soccer related line out there because I am approaching the line from the perspective of being a fan of the game.  There will be no corny catch-phrase shirts, no cookie-cutter photoshop mashup jobs.  What you will get from us is high quality products that truly reflect the passion and love we all share for futbol.  The shirt that the contest winner will get is only a snippet of what is to come.

Without further adu....

I absolutely loved some of the "freestyles" that were posted, but the winner of our first t-shirt giveaway (read: there will be future giveaways) is...........

The greatest game must be the Oranje vs. Brazil,
the game tied up and little time to kill.
With a beautiful flick from Robben to Sneijder,
the header went in and set the world on fire.-- BCooke9

Congratulations, BCooke9!!! You are the first ever Live Breathe Futbol contest winner. Thanks to all who participated it was great and we will definitely be doing more giveaways. Oh and Spain are World Champions!

Twitter: @LiveBrtheFutbol

In under an hour The World Cup in South Africa will come to a close and a new winner will be crowned, or err "cupped".  Neither Spain nor the Netherlands has won a World Cup so this match means everything to both nations.  Who do you guys think will win?

My Prediction:

Netherlands 3-2 Spain.

Why: The Netherlands have been my pick to win the World Cup since since.  I am expecting a very open game because it favors both teams' style of play.  I do not see Spain's tactics against Germany working here because Van Bommel will be all over Andres Iniesta and Xavi and will prevent them from holding onto the ball too long.  Robben will be key in this game and Capdevilla will have a hard time defending him.   David Villa will be huge in this game, but Stekelenberg is up to the challenge.  I don't really want to say too much, I'm just really excited to see a game for the ages as I'm sure you all are.  Let us know who you think/want to win in the comments! Viva Futbol!

P.S. the World Cup contest is still open. Click Here to enter.  Follow us on twitter: @LiveBrtheFutbol

With the Spain v Germany clash just finished and the World Cup in South Africa drawing to a close I'm sure most of you are feeling pretty sad that the World Cup is over, well Live Breathe Futbol is here to cheer you up!

I thought it would be cool to have a little bit of fun with all the events that have occurred so far in the World Cup.  What do I mean by that? Live Breathe Futbol will be giving away ONE t-shirt to ONE lucky winner of our World Cup contest.  All you have to do is submit (via comments on this post) a 2-4 line "freestyle" rap talking about an event(s) that took place during this historic World Cup in South Africa! Keep it clean and let's have some fun with it! Be Creative!

Contest Rules:

-  Each person MUST submit a comment via a profile that is linked to a valid e-mail address. That way if you win, we can get in touch with you.

- An anonymous entry, no matter how awesome it is, cannot win because we can't give the prize to thin air.

- Each person is limited to 10 entries.  So post your 10 best raps.

- The contest is open from 6pm EST July 7th 2010 and closes at 4pm EST July 11th 2010.

- The winner will be announced at 5pm July 12th 2010.

What is the prize you ask?

Here it is!

Wow! That was one hell of a game. Let's review the game, shall we?

Van Bromckhorst Goal

Pure class.  Left foot cracker that got the stadium on their feet and forced Uruguay to open up.

Diego Forlan Goal

Classic Diego Forlan.  I've always said it, give Forlan an inch of space and he will take you to the cleaners.  One of the best players in the entire tournament in my opinion.

Wesley Sneijder Goal

Sneijder sneaks up on David Villa and is now a contender for the Golden Boot.  Controversial goal, but no protest from Uruguay. Clear goal for me. van Persie did well to keep his foot off it.

Arjen Robben Header

The most predictable player on the planet scores a sweet goal with his head and not his left foot.  Great goal to seal the win for the Oranje. Almost.

Maxi Pereira Extra time Goal

Le Grove, one of my favorite bloggers, tweeted something to the effect of "the Netherlands defend a lead like Arsenal."  If you follow Arsenal you know that they rarely keep a clean sheet and almost always give away a late goal.  It's classic complacency.  Uruguay were clever enough to catch the Dutch fast asleep on a set piece that was played short to Pereira who neatly curls it past Stekelenburg to give Uruguay last minute hope.

Final score: 3-2. Not too far off in my prediction.

Awesome, awesome game.  Results should be of no surprise to anyone.  Tomorrow Spain faces Germany and as predicted in this morning's post, Germany will edge out Spain by 3 goals to 2.

Thanks for reading and keep supporting Live Breathe Futbol.  There are 3 games left in the World Cup. I am sad. Maybe we'll have our own World Cup of sorts over here to keep the excitement going. Follow us on twitter: @LiveBrtheFutbol 

After a few days off, the World Cup returns tomorrow with a ferocity that no other sporting event can rival.  Over the weekend we saw Germany systematically annihilate Argentina by 4 goals to none and Spain get lucky against Paraguay.  Neither of those results should have been surprising to anyone, unless you are a Messi-faithful, in which case you failed to see the problems in the Argentine squad that were not exposed earlier because they hadn't faced a side as organized and disciplined as the Germans.  Without further adu here are my predictions for the semi final showdowns.

Netherlands v Uruguay

Prediction: Netherlands 3-1 Uruguay

Why:  The Netherlands have been my pick to win the entire tournament and everyone did not believe me.  A few posts back I mentioned my friend saying that history did not favor them, but I think that issue no longer applies and here's why.  They have earned their stripes: they defeated Brazil fair and square.  The Brazilians have shown the most quality as a squad so far in my opinion and the Netherlands found a way to come back from an early deficit to beat them.  They succeeded in tiring out the Brazilians (which was a very intelligent tactical move by van Marwijk) and made them lose their shape and composure towards the end of the game.  That was fun to watch.

As far as Uruguay is concerned, much responsibility will be placed on Diego Forlan's shoulders since Suarez's "Hand of God" in the QF against Ghana sees him performing a Hudini disappearing act in the Semi's.  Suarez has 3 of the 8 goals scored by Uruguay in the entire tournament. That's one hell of a loss for them.  The Dutch on the other hand don't have a "go-to" striker and share the responsibility pretty evenly.  This goes to show a more composed approach to the game that has been successful so far with the Oranje winning every single game they have played so far.  However, Heitinga will have to keep tabs on Forlan the entire game and Van Bommel will be key in the middle of the park.

Spain v Germany

Prediction:  Germany 3-2 Spain

Why: This will be a test of tactics and discipline.  Whoever can be the most composed and the most disciplined will win this game.  I presume this will be the Germans because they have been very consistent in their sonning of teams in this World Cup.  Spain has also been very impressive, but too much goal-scoring responsibility has been placed on David Villa's shoulders.  I believe that Germany will have no problems keeping tabs on the striker.  Germany has managed to amass 13 goals in 5 matches, averaging out to 2.6 goals a game.  Spain has only scored 6 goals so far with David Villa being responsible for 5 and Iniesta for the other one.  Hardly the showing of a complete squad.  If you have watched Spain play, only the goal against Portugal was a result of great one-two passing between Iniesta, Xavi and finally Villa.  The others have been moments of sheer brilliance from Villa.  At this stage in the World Cup, and in this era of futbol, great teams tend to be more successful than individual players (if you get me).  David Villa can not single-handedly beat Germany. Thus, I'm touting the Germans to win this one.  Keep your eye out for the Kloser to shut the door on Spain's hopes for their first World Cup.

So it looks like we will be witnessing an all European final once again. I'll predict the final once I see the Semi's, but I'm still sticking with the Netherlands to go all the way even though Germany is very teasing.

What are your predictions? I presume that at this stage in the tournament it is almost impossible to be wrong if you've been keeping up with the tournament.

Enjoy the games tomorrow and the next day.  Thanks for reading and please follow us on twitter @LiveBrtheFutbol.

My good friend Keith, who is also a contributor to this blog (he wrote this piece) wrote this on my Facebook wall a few days ago after Ghana's horrific loss to Uruguay. I think it's pretty cool. Check it out.

I think I understand why people go to extremes during the World Cup. You
wait anxiously for four years for your team to shine in this
tournament, then, one second of brilliance, luck, or stupidity (you name
it), your team ends up crashing out of the tourney and you're there
thinking, "Are you effing kidding me? I went through thick and thin,
buying an authentic 'Gyan' jersey, risking my rent money, got cable just
to watch the WC, etc." Not to mention going through the emotional
roller coaster that these games put you through. Then you're like "this
is all worth it because I Live Breathe Football!!! Do you?

I shot the first "vlog" but I haven't been able to get it off my camera. Technical difficulties. It's coming soon. Stay tuned. We get a few days off from the World Cup, but best believe that once it's back on, it's gonna be even crazier than before! Enjoy. And follow us on twitter @LiveBrtheFutbol

What's up guys. I'm really excited about what I have to show you guys, which you probably see above this post. What that is is a 40 second teaser/trailer for the full Live Breathe Futbol commercial/advert that is coming very soon.

Why the phrase? When I examined what I wanted to do with Live Breathe Futbol as a brand I realized that all the shirts and every design is centered around one specific moment that has occurred in futbol or one specific moment that we as fans of the game can all relate to.  For me and I'm sure for you all that's one of the things we love about the game of futbol.  Those moments that change everything; the moments that change history.  I won't speak too much on that in this post, but we witnessed that today in the QF match between Ghana and Uruguay.  Epic stuff.

Love to hear what you guys think about the video! Leave a comment and catch us on twitter: @LiveBrtheFutbol as we ramble about futbol and other nonsense!!

P.S. I'm considering doing a video-blog (vlog?) series of posts, what do you guys think? Would you rather read or watch a video? Let me know what you think in the comments!

The World Cup continues in the a.m. Germany v Argentina and then Spain v Paraguay. Great stuff!