U.S. Men’s Olympic Soccer Team TV Schedule:

Aug. 7 vs. Japan Venue: Tianjin
MSNBC 4:55 a.m. ET
Universal HD 4:55 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 5 a.m. ET

Aug. 10 vs. Netherlands Venue: Tianjin
USA Network 7:30 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 7:30 a.m. ET

Aug. 13 vs. Nigeria Venue: Beijing (Workers’)
USA Network 5 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 5 a.m. ET

Predicted Lineup after the Jump…

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I was Rollin’ With Rogo this morning (he does the play-by-play, I am the analyst) at the FSC Studio this morning for the 2008 Toulon Tournament Group A match between hosts France and Japan.

While it would end 2-1, it was really a match about converting your chances as Japan had two great scoring opportunities and scored them both, while continuing to show their commitment to full team defending.

For the hosts, it was more of the same wasteful chances in front of the oppositions net that cost them their opening round match against Chile, a game that saw them lose 3-5 but easily could have been a 6-2 scoreline before Faty’s Red Card Ejection.

Today’s chances were mainly missed by their #8, Quercia. And while his name would eventually end up on the scoring summary with an amazing strike after going down 2-nil, it was his 3 glaring misses in on the keeper one v one that would cost France the 3 points and quite possibly qualification for the next round.

Remember, the host nation has won the last 4 straight Toulon titles.

Oh, and Bonnet kept his shorts on this time.

I’m studying for tomorrow’s Toulon Group A match between Japan / France and this is what I come across watching the replay of France’s 3-5 loss to Chile.

Let’s hope Alexandre Bonnet wears his banana hammocks again.

These are the Skullcandy’s I rocked this morning for the opening match of the 2008 Toulon Tournament between Japan  and Holland on Fox Soccer Channel.

Japan ended up 1-nil winners after both Dutch center-backs let the long ball bounce off the goal kick, with #20 Tadanari Lee skipping past his defender Van Eijdan and finishing with a sweet, outside of the left foot finish past keeper Tim Krul.

Yup, assist to the keeper on the score sheet.

Holland will face Chile on Thursday, following the France v Japan showdown.

Check the attention to detail.

image via FlightClub

Japanese tombstone maker Ishinokoe has introduced technology from the after life by offering mourning families Hi-tech tombstones.

The individual tombstones have a QR code (square code) locked inside, allowing family and friends to use their cellular phones to access the code which links them to a web address, allowing them to see the deceased in videos and pictures from a web site at the graveyard.

Price is 200,000 Yen or $1,901.05 as of today’s exchange rate.

Oh yeah, they can add this to existing grave sites..
image via Odgaard