Who We're Buying a Beer For...

Who are WE buying a beer for this week you ask? Who are YOU buying a beer for this week? Oh, right... we're the one's who started this whole "beer buying" thingy. I guess you're under no obligation to purchase and beer... Our bad.....

On to the list!

The Beaverton, Oregon sports behemoth Nike recently launched its line of 2010 National Team World Cup jerseys, including those of the U.S. National Team. We're not here to debate the look of the brand new kits (beauty pageant, anyone?) we're here to praise the Swoosh branders for their environmentalism.

According to an article from Fast Company:

Nike's bottles-to-T-shirts operation is fairly straightforward. Recycled polyester comes from a Taiwanese supplier that cuts up, melts, and spins plastic bottles into a yarn for the shirts. Each shirt will consist of 100% recycled polyester and approximately eight plastic bottles. The shirts are slightly more expensive to produce than standard jerseys, but Nike claims that the costs ultimately even out because less material is needed for production. And on the outside, players and fans won't be able to tell the difference between the bottle-filled jerseys and the regular polyester shirts worn by non-Nike teams.

Environmentally savvy soccer lovers will also have the chance to check out Nike's shirts--the brand is using 13 million plastic bottles to produce jerseys for fans. All in all, Nike's initiative will stop 254,000 kg of polyester waste from being dumped in landfills.

Sure Nike has used child and sweatshop labor in the past, but let bygones be bygones! They're on the "green" bandwagon now! Seriously, though, this is a great move for Nike. Even if "caring about the slow destruction of our planet" is "IN" right now are you all glad that global sportswear companies are getting behind it? (Aside: Nike even dropped out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who are active global warming deniers... take that!)

Additionally, Nike says that the jersey push will prevent some 13 million plastic bottles from ending up in landfills. So that's step one. Step two is taking care of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

When you're watching U.S. versus England on June 12th just remember the team scoring all the goals is also saving the Earth.

Speaking of the Nats, the Yanks might have an unlikely ally in Sir Alex Ferguson. According to a report in the Times of London the Manchester United manager has been in close contact with Coach Sweatpants (have you ever seen him not in them?) about the English contingent on his team along with several other Premier League managers.

Coach Bobbo had this to say about his foreign manager spies:

“I have been in Europe a lot lately and I’ve had the chance to catch up with different people,” he said. “I appreciated those opportunities, whether it was watching training sometimes or communicating about our players.

“Occasionally, there are some managers in England who subtly let me know they will be rooting for us that day. You can guess that they were not actually born in England. That’s all part of it, I guess.”

The gum-chewing (obsessively almost) Scotsman gets big points for siding against the fish-and-chip face stuffing English and giving some help to Coach Bradley.

Fereguson, who is known as a connoisseur of fine wines, will get a bottle of whatever he wants if we beat England on June 12th.

One part of the U.S. Soccer world that doesn't need any help winning is the U.S Women's National Team, which took home its seventh Algarve Cup this past week, defeating Germany 3-2 in Portugal.

Carli Lloyd’s goal in the 18th minute was followed by a powerful header from Abby Wambach four minutes later, staking the U.S. to a 2-0 lead. German forward Inka Grings pulled a goal back five minutes before halftime, but a goalkeeper mistake from Germany’s Nadine Angerer allowed Lauren Cheney to make it 3-1 in the 69th. Grings finished her brace with a goal in 74th minute to make the end of the game tension-filled, but some tremendous ball-winning in the back by central defenders Amy LePeilbet and Rachel Buehler helped the U.S. hold on to the victory.

Check out the highlights:

Over the years we've becoming HUGE fans of the USWNT and women's professional soccer. It might come from Mr. FBM's high school days as equipment manager/waterboy/goalkeeper coach of the Sun Prairie (Wisconsin) Lady Cardinals soccer team. It might come from his younger sister's storied soccer career. It might come from the striptease that was Brandi Chastain's celebration in the 1999 Women's World Cup Final. Who knows?

The point being we love all forms of the American beautiful game and our proud of our women's national side for their absolute domination of the sport. A few years back we worried about how the team would replace such household names as Mia Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Michelle Akers, and Julie Foudy, but we now have a new generation of American women taking center stage in Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Shannon Boxx, and Heather Mitts (oh... Heather Mitts!).

Of all the people we've bought beers so far this is the group we'd most like to actually follow through with!