Under Armour Recharge Suit, really?

Ok, so when the samples of this full body suit came in to the office, we were a little skeptical. And when the directions said you have to wear it for 24 hours post workout, our immediate reaction was "yeah, right!" But we're all getting a little older and our bodies are much slower to bounce back from those Saturday afternoon pick-up games, so we thought we'd give the Recharge a shot. 

And honestly after having spent some time with the Recharge suit, we're totally buying what Under Armour is selling. Granted we never wore for the suit for the full 24 hour period and we did encounter some ridicule from significant others, but the suit left us feeling less sore and ready to get back out on the field. 

This compression suit essentially hugs the body, helping to prevent water from getting into recovering muscles. This lets them heal and recover much more quickly.

I guess it is based on science after all. From Under Armour's site:

"Dr. William Kraemer led a study pitting Recharge against loose garments. After performing hardcore strength & conditioning workouts, college athletes wore Recharge vs. the loose stuff for 24 hours. Dr. Kraemer's team ran a battery of tests on the athletes, and the results were clear: Recharge makes you feel better, stronger, and more energized. The loose stuff doesn't." 

Our final thought: Under Armour's Recharge Suit - looks ridiculous, but it really works and is easy to hide under your everyday clothes. 

Under Armour Generation II Recharge Energy Suit

International Friendlies Recap

Yesterday’s full slate of international Friendlies served up a plate full of notable performances.

The most anticipated match was the 1st ever meeting of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in a non La Liga match up. Both stars lived up to their billing. After 14 minutes Messi once again demonstrated his dogged determination NOT to go to ground despite incessant fouling, by assisting on Argentina’s 1st goal to Angel Di Maria. Ronaldo (who also had a shot clang off the crossbar) countered with a goal of his own just 7 minutes later. Messi finished with the upper hand however, converting a 90th minute PK to give Argentina the 2-1 win.
Meanwhile, Brazil could not survive the 1st half ejection of Anderson Hernanes, falling 1-0 to France on 54th minute goal by Karim Benzema.
In Atlanta, Javier Hernandez and Edgar Pacheco scored second-half goals to give Mexico a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in a successful debut for El Tri coach Jose Manuel de la Torre.
In other games, American born Guiseppe Rossi helped Italy salvage a 1-1 tie with Germany, notching the equalizer in the 84th minute, and England overcame a 1 goal deficit on goals from Aston Villa teammates Darren Bent and Ashley Young to top Denmark 2-1.
Other scores from yesterday’s action;

• Iran 1, Russia 0
• Croatia 4, Czech Republic 2
• Netherlands 3, Austria 1
• Turkey 0, South Korea 0
• Greece 1, Canada 0
• Spain 1, Colombia 0

Full Flight Of Friendlies Tomorrow

Even though the United States vs Egypt match was canceled due to political unrest, it doesn’t mean there won’t be a glut of international Friendlies to  fill any soccer fanatic’s plate.



Just down the I-85 in Atlanta, Mexico will take on Bosnia-Herzegovina in what should attract a near sell out crowd in the Georgia Dome.  Then there’s the 1998 World Cup Final and 2006 Semi Final rematch of France vs. Brazil.  Traditional European powers Germany and Italy face off, as well as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s first ever meeting while not wearing their Barcelona and Real Madrid jerseys.




WEDNESDAY’S INTERNATIONAL FIXTURE SCHEDULE (video for all streamed on FIFA.com)
2:15 p.m. – Denmark vs. England – ESPN3.com
2:30 p.m. – Netherlands vs. Austria – ESPN3.com
2:45 p.m. – France vs. Brazil – ESPN2/ESPNDeportes/ESPN3.com
2:45 p.m. – Germany vs. Italy – ESPN3.com
2:55 p.m. – Argentina vs. Portugal – GOLTV
3:30 p.m. – Spain vs. Colombia – ESPN3.com
8 p.m. – Mexico vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina – Telefutura
San Marino vs. Liechtenstein
Andorra vs. Moldova
Armenia vs. Georgia
Belarus vs. Kazakhstan
Greece vs. Canada
Iran vs. Russia
Latvia vs. Bolivia
Macedonia vs. Cameroon
Croatia vs. Czech Republic
Azerbaijan vs. Hungary
Israel vs. Serbia
Turkey vs. South Korea
South Africa vs. Burkina Faso
Estonia vs. Bulgaria
Luxembourg vs. Slovakia
Belgium vs. Finland
Malta vs. Switzerland
Poland vs. Norway
Venezuela vs. Costa Rica
Honduras vs. Ecuador

Wolf attack

As all big fans already know, lowly Wolverhampton upset mighty Manchester United on Saturday with a 2-1 come-from-behind win. Of all teams to end Man United's 29-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League, I doubt anyone thought it would be Wolves! I thought I'd pay a little tribute to the victors with this great old program from the '60s.


Next up for Wolverhampton: second place Arsenal on 2/12. Let's see if they can keep up the momentum!

Flashback

We came across some images of the very first Eurosport catalog we thought it would be fun to share. This 18-page catalog was printed way back in 1984 and featured three brands of soccer boots (adidas, PUMA and Patrick), eight ball choices, four goalkeeper gloves and one shinguard. The options for players were really limited back then but, my, how times have changed! Some of the big Eurosport catalogs now top 100 pages, have too many footwear options to count and pages of balls, gloves and shinguards. 

It's interesting that, despite all the high-tech advancements in soccer shoe technology, the venerable adidas World Cup is still a popular boot today.

Not even sure if they still make Patrick boots (maybe they're just not available in the US) but they were cool back in the day. Kevin Keegan and Michel Platini made them famous and trendy in the early 80s.

Named after legendary German player (and later coach) Rudi Voller, the PUMA Voller Volltreffer was one sweet kangaroo leather boot.

While looking at the old boot models is pretty cool, the apparel pages of this first Eurosport are, well, a bit embarrassing. No way these models were real soccer players; they were way too pretty. I bet these guys would have cried if taken down with a nice slide tackle. Yeah, they were probably just American football players....

TRANSFERS TRANSFERS TRANSFERS!

English Premier League stars Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll have changed teams in last minute transfer deals.  Torres has left struggling giant Liverpool to join struggling giant Chelsea while Carroll has left Newcastle United to replace Torres in Liverpool.  In addition to Carroll, Liverpool has also acquired the controversial Uruguayan World Cup hero Luis Suarez from Ajax of the Dutch league.  Makes your head spin, doesn’t it?

We’ve got Yanks on the move in England and Europe as well, with Michael Bradley leaving Germany’s Borussia Moenchegladbach for Aston Villa of the Premier League. Robbie Findley of MLS’s Real Salt Lake has joined League Championship side Nottingham Forest and Eddie Johnson has been loaned out from EPL's Fulham  to Preston North End, also of the League Championship.  
That's not to mention the fact that Oguchi Onyewu was loaned from Italy's AC Milan to Holland's FC Twente over two weeks ago, where he promptly suffered ANOTHER injury.  Fortunately it was not serious.  Finally  to top it all off, Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu are headed to Turkey!  Altidore from Spain’s Villareal to Bursaspor of the 1st Division, and Adu from Potugal’s Benfica to Rizespor of the 2^nd.   Stay tuned.