Stuff that doesn't involve underage footballers

• I decided to watch the final of the Copa America between Argentina and Brazil on Sunday...not that I really like either team, but I figured that at least Argentina had been playing some good football throughout the tournament, so they'd be worth watching.
  
  Wrong.
  
  My theory us that they were so discombobulated by the sight of Julio Baptista acutally scoring that it totally threw them off their game. Baptista not only scored, it was a stunner, and coming so early in the match, it should have given Argentina lots of time to equalize. But although they did have a few good chances, it was Brazil who scored again. Well, technically it was Ayala, trying to atone for his earlier mistake against Baptista by clearing a dangerous ball in the box but sending it into his own goal by mistake. Ouch. It was 2-0 at halftime and 3-0 after an hour, with Argentina looking increasingly cranky and out of sorts. Brazil played like Italy -- solid defensively and then counterattacking dangerously -- whereas Argentina just played like crap.
  
  
• YNBA and I have done our second annual end-of-season awards. Yes, we know we're really behind on that. But it's never too late to award some lucky player Chav Of The Year.
  
  
• David Beckham was unveiled as an LA Galaxy player on Friday; I've got nothing new to say about it, so I won't. But I do have tickets to the Galaxy game against Toronto FC next month. I could sell mine and, you know, have a nice down payment on a house, but I think I'd rather see this one. Also, I wouldn't bet against the Toronto fans reviving some of the dirtier chants about Posh. (Speaking of whom, I watched that NBC special last night, and wow, that was not good.)
  
  
• Toronto picked up another point on the road, holding the Houston Dynamo to a scoreless draw despite having Maurice Edu sent off in the first half. Heading into the all-star break (the "Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park"; how lame does that sound?) they're still second from bottom in the Eastern Conference, but frankly it seems to be much tougher than the Western Conference. And thanks to the MLS's "Everybody wins! Participation counts!" approach, they just have to be among the top 8 out of 13 teams to make the playoffs at the end of the season. That'll be tough, but it is possible.
  
  
• Canada may have sucked at the U20 World Cup, but the Canadian women's team is currently kicking ass at the Pan Am games in Brazil. They thrashed Uruguay 7-0 to open the tournament and then followed it up by beating Ecuador 4-0 yesterday. Some of the team members are also guest blogging over at Canada Kicks; too bad they're not very interesting so far.