LHK Soccer News

Carlo Ancelotti is officially leaving Milan and potentially coming to manage Chelsea FC.

Former Milan player and Brazilian national team member (and my fav Milan player back in the day), LEONARDO, has been named as the new manager of AC Milan!

LHK Tennis News

1) oooh-OOOH! I just ordered my tix for the ATP World Tour Finals in London this November! I can't wait!

2) Marat Safin takes on Oscar Hernandez at the Sony Ericsson Open today. Vamos, Marat! Unfortunately, one of my other beloveds, Jeremy Chardy, lost in the first round.

3) And YES! I won my company dubz tournament last night! Look out, playaz!

Off to the Desert!

I leave for i-Dub this morning, and I'm very happy to have the day off to indulge in tennis! Although the order of play for today isn't mind-blowing, there are some matches that I definitely want to catch. So, I will report upon my return, and I hope you have a great weekend, Playaz!

P.S. Did you hear that Roger Federer is going to be a baby-daddy?!

LHK's Top 5 Hottest EPL Playaz

The New Year is almost upon us, and this list is long overdue. But, I haven't been as motivated to make it as I was last season. Chelsea has had a weird season so far... And if Chelsea doesn't win a trophy again this season, I'll be soooo bummed. BUT, the eye-candy show MUST go on!

So, here are my picks for the TOP 5 HOTTEST ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYERS (for the 2008-9 season).

1) JOHN TERRY - Chelsea (No surprise here really since I worship the man)

2) Carlo Cudicini - Chelsea (He's Chelsea's #2 goalkeeper, but THE hottest goalkeeper in the world)

3) Niko Kranjcar - Portsmouth (I may be a little biased towards pretty Croatians; so what?)

4) Roque Santa Cruz - Blackburn Rovers (a little Latin flavour)

5) Lucas Neil - West Ham (a yummy Aussie)

Honorable Mentions:
Alan Smith - Newcastle
Peter Halmosi - Hull City

P.S. One of my usual EPL favz, Freddie Ljungberg, has left the EPL for America and is coming to play for the new MLS team in Seattle. So, as I've mentioned before, I can't wait to see him and Becks play on the same field when Seattle comes to L.A.

Anywhoo, feel free to compare this list to last year's picks, and let me know what you think. As always, I'd love to hear about your favz too!

Happy Birthday, Robby!

Tennis FOX (and one of my top two favorite playaz), Robby Ginepri, turns 26 today!

More Important But...

(It's been a while since I've used this) I know there are more important things in the world, BUT...

1) KEANE's new album "Perfect Symmetry" is due out on October 13, 2008! I can't wait! I read that they are currently in Los Angeles finishing it up.

If you're a tennis playa in the L.A. area, keep your eyes out on the courts for the band 'cause they're playaz too! I saw them once at La Cienega and completely spazzed out! I wrote about the incident for the (now defunct) LH webzine in an article entitled "Lady Hooligan Points".

2) NERD ALERT: J.K. Rowling's new book "The Tales of the Beetle the Bard" is now available for pre-order. It's definitely going on my Amazon wish list (hint, hint).

Oh, Robby!

Robby Ginepri almost beat Roger Federer in their 2nd-round match at the Cincinatti Masters today. Gineps had match-point against Roger but couldn't close it out; argh!!!

Oh well... I guess Robby can now focus on his preparations for the Summer Olympics. Good luck, Playa!

TOP 5 CHANGE!!

Emergency news (well, more like MIB aka "More Important But"): I've made a change to my Top 5 Hottest Playaz in the EPL list! Steven Gerrard, captain of Liverpool, is officially off my list! He doesn't deserve to be on the list, especially ahead of Chelsea's Champions League clash against Liverpool on Tuesday.

I don't care if the Chelsea manager, Avram Grant, is interested in "acquiring" Gerrard. I should never have had the Liverpool captain on THE LIST.

Speaking of the list, I've also removed Bobby Convey (U.S./Reading) just 'cause, but I'll be keeping Harry Kewell on the list. Even though Harry's on the Liverpool squad, he hasn't played much this season, and he's a cute Aussie. Hopefully, he won't be involved in any Champions League action...

Review Round-Up

First of all, a hearty congrats to Nikolay Davydenko on winning the Sony Ericsson Open today and beating Andy Roddick and Rafa Nadal along the way (sorry, Lady Lorelei).

Okay so, I've been accumulating several reviews that I've been wanting to share with y'all, and I thought I'd just put them in one post:

1) First and foremost, I'd like to introduce you to TWIST water, a new all natural flavored water with only 10 calories per serving and no preservatives. As you may know, my tennis nickname is "Twisty", so of course, I really dig the name of this product. But in addition to the cute name and company motto ("As in life, chill for best results."), I really like the variety of exotic flavors that this water comes in (mango acai, pomegranate blueberry, and mandarin white tea to name a few). All of my friends who have tried TWIST agree that the subtle flavors are delicious and refreshing. My favorite flavor BY FAR is the organic West Indies Lime, and although I wish it didn't have the 2 grams of sugar (aka organic agave nectar) per serving in it, I'm seriously on the hunt for more of it (maybe 'cause it reminds me of a healthy water version of a Cuba Libre?). TWIST is sold at select Ralphs and Whole Foods, so keep your eye out for it. I recommend it, and YES, it's LADY HOOLIGAN APPROVED!

2) Last week, Bill and I finally got back to our movie-going and saw STOP-LOSS (starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Overall, it was a decent flick. THE PROS: (obviously) the eye-candy, Ryan and Joseph's impressive performances, fellow tennis playa Timothy Olyphant is in it, and the general awareness-raising on the horrendous stop-loss policy of the U.S. military. THE CONS: not understanding Abbie's Texan accent, some music-video-style direction (well, it's a MTV Films co-production after all), some general cheeziness and (for me, not Bill) not enough perspective on the Middle-Eastern view on the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

3) Recently, some folks from work and I had lunch at a cute and casual sidewalk cafe called PRANA (located on the corner La Cienega and Melrose Place, adjacent to its sister restaurant/club, Republic). It's open for breakfast and lunch, and the food is delicious. In addition to yummy soups and paninis, they have Cap'n Crunch coated deep-fried brioche french toast! I really recommend this place because the food is so much better and about the same price than most of those crowded and somewhat overrated cafes on 3rd Street (e.g. TOAST).

4) Finally, back on the movie tip (yes, I still use 90's hip-hop lingo), Bill, Lady Stacy and I saw LEATHERHEADS today. As you may know, I'm a big John Krasinski (from "The Office") fan. So, I only wanted to see this because of him, and Bill and Lady Stacy both dig George Clooney. But, although it was lovely to see John Krasinki smiling on the big screen, I thought the movie was kind of boring, hokey and slightly lame. So, if you want to see it at all, perhaps just rent it?

Happy Birthday, Hollie!

Cheers to a Silver Fox and O.G. tennis playa, Hollie!

Speaking of o.g. tennis playaz, CONGRATS to Lindsay Davenport for beating Ana Ivanovic at the Sony Ericsson Open yesterday with some very strong playing that was inspirational to watch.

Yowza!

Today has just flown by! I left for Indian Wells to attend the Pacific Life Open at around 9am; got there at 11am; and because of the awful parking back-up, I didn't get into the stadium until about 11:45am.

But once I was in, I had a very eventful day. Without going into all the boring details, I'll just get to the best part: I MET ROBBY GINEPRI again!! I wasn't expecting to see him except during his match against Carlos Moya in the afternoon. But, when I went to go meet my friends at the practice courts to watch Rafa Nadal practicing with Feliciano Lopez, I noticed Robby practicing in a nearby court. And, before I knew it, he walked right by us, and thanks to my awesome pals/"wing-helpers" (Lady Lorelei and Laddie McFresh), I finally got a decent picture with Robby!! I'm so thrilled!

Other highlights of my day include indulging in a delicious bloody mary and and also finally meeting my blog pal, Erwin, in person. He's an absolute doll and was there to witness me being a complete dork over Gineps.

Okay, now before I get to my big match of the day, here's a partial list of the other pros I saw play a game or two today: Jelena Jankovic, Tommy Robredo (love him with the shorter hair), Ivan Ljubicic, Max Mirnyi, Jamie Murray, Andy Murray, Eric Butorac, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova! Not too shabby, huh?

But, of course, the match I was dying to see today was Robby Ginepri versus Carlos Moya! The playaz entered the stadium at around 3:45pm, and fortunately Robby dominated and won the first set. But then, before I knew it and as the weather became a lot colder and windier, he quickly lost the second set. Between the second and third sets, Robby had to get his right arm taped. Then, the heart-break began...

Even though Robby was playing well and and had SO MANY chances to break Moya in the third set, he ended up losing the match. I still sort of can't believe it. I guess my cheers didn't help. Wha happened? Sniff, sniff...I left the tournament after Robby's match 'cause I didn't have any more tennis energy, and I hit the road. I also hit some fairly rough weather (the sky between the Desert windmills and Cabazon looked like Mount Doom), but I'm thankfully back in L.A. and now ready for bed.

But, before I hit the hay, I'm going to set my DVR to record Saturday Night Live. The hilarious Jonah Hill is hosting tonight.

P.S. Chelsea beat Sunderland today with John Terry scoring the only and winning goal!

Bravo, David!

David Nalbadian just defeated Rafa Nadal in the final of the Paris Masters. David is truly an inspiration to all twisty playaz like moi!

P.S. Do you think the ATP's new FEEL IT campaign was inspired by our Lady Hooligan mottos of SELL IT and TASTE IT?! Hmm...

New Music (&DVD) Tuesday

Support Lady Hooligan pal and fellow tennis playa, Raul Campos, and buy Loteria Beats Mixtapes, Vol. 1

Other cool CD releases today:

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' collaboration Raising Sand
(Fellow Chelsea FC fan) Paul Oakenfold's Greatest Hits & Remixes
Comedian Nick Swardson's Party



And some (random!) DVDs I'm eyeing...

Selling it!

The L.A. Daily News recently did a series of articles on "the sex appeal of sports." My blog pal, Kenneth, gave me the heads-up about the series and was even interviewed for one of the articles. I read a couple of the articles and realized that they really didn't cover the topic of gals like me (a Lady who likes pretty male athletes). So, I wrote to a couple of the writers, and one of them posted my response on his blog... Just trying to spread the lady hooliganism, playaz!

Fall Fashion

The mega September issues of the fashion magazines are on newsstands already, and I've been enjoying checking out all of the fall fashions. I love this time of year; BACK TO SCHOOL! I'm always inspired by the fabrics (especially plaid and houndstooth). And, don't even get me started on all of the new cosmetics and fragrances I want to try...Well, if you must know, here are the fragrances that caught my attention:

L.A.M.B.'s "L"
Elizabeth Arden's "Mediterranean"
Valentino's "Rock 'n Rose"
Dolce & Gabbana's "the one"
Aquolina's "Chocolovers"

I know, I'm such a ridiculous consumer! But hey, if you're a big online shopper, like I am, check out EBATES to earn money back from your online purchases. It's really easy, and it feels like you're getting a bit of a secret discount.

P.S. The XXL issue of Vogue (I bet the term, XXL, just makes Anna Wintour ill) features Bill's lovely girlfriend, Sienna Miller, on the cover, and there are even a few mentions (with pics) of pro tennis playaz in the issue too!

LHK’s Top 5 Hottest Playaz in the EPL

First of all, Chelsea played their first game of the 2007/08 English Premier League season against Birmingham City today, and they WON (3-2)! They also happened to set a record for the most home league matches without defeat (64)! Bravo!! To celebrate, let's talk about some eye-candy:

(listed by Name – EPL Club – Country)

(tied for first)

1. John Terry – Chelsea – England


1. Freddie Ljungberg – West Ham – Sweden

(the rest of my top 5 in no particular order)
Frank Queudrue – Birmingham City – France
Carlo Cudicini – Chelsea - Italy
Niko Kranjcar – Portsmouth – Croatia

(eye-catchers/honorable mentions in no particular order)

Morten Gamst Pedersen - Blackburn - Norway
Harry Kewel - Liverpool - Australia
Carlos Bocanegra – Fulham – U.S.
Tomas Rosicky – Arsenal – Czech Republic
Ashley Cole – Chelsea – England
Lucas Neill – West Ham – Australia
Olof Melberg – Aston Villa – Sweden
Didier Drogba - Chelsea - Ivory Coast
Frank Lampard - Chelsea - England
Alan Smith - Newcastle - England
Richard Hughes - Portsmouth - Scotland
Paul Scharner - Wigan Athletic - Austria
Roque Santa Cruz - Blackburn - Paraguay

(Updated on April 20, 2008)

If I've missed any Pretties, I’ll report about them throughout the season, and please feel free to comment about your picks too. Speaking of which, I know that most people (i.e. mainly my gay male fellow fans) would put Cristiano Ronaldo (from Man U/Portugal) and Michael Owen (Newcastle/England) on this list, but they just don't do it for me (although I'm sure they, like most EPL players, look good shirtless).

KCRW aka THE DUB

89.9 FM KCRW's Summer subscription drive starts today and runs through August 13th. KCRW is arguably the coolest and most eclectic radio station in Los Angeles and on the World Wide Web. All of their shows are great, but some of my favorites are Dragnet, Nocturna and On the Corner. I've also heard that several of the Dub's staff members are superb tennis playaz. So, please give them your support, and call in and/or go online to subscribe (fun gifts are given to most membership levels). Sell it!

Speaking of great music, John Hoskinson is playing at Karma Coffeehouse tonight at 8pm.

P.S. Oooh-OOOH! Marat Safin made it to the quarters of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in DC, where he'll meet the (equally fiery) young Frenchman, Gael Monfils. This match better be televised!

WTA, here I come!

Yeah right, in my dreams! Actually, I'd settle for just being a towel-girl in the ATP. HEY NOW! No, but seriously, I just wanted to let you know that I won my singles semi-final league match tonight (6-2, 6-3). I'm very excited because now I'm in the finals, and I'm supposedly at least guaranteed a finalist trophy. I don't think I've ever won a sports trophy (perhaps a certificate or a plaque, but not a trophy). Anyway, thank you to my fellow playaz and to Coach Connz for all of your support!

P.S. Oy vey, Robby Ginepri lost in the first round of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships. I think he needs a hug, and my arms are, of course, open...

Monday's Order of Play

Since Robby Ginepri is out of the Countrywide Classic at UCLA (sniff, sniff), my main man will OBVIOUSLY be Marat Safin. He's scheduled to play tonight, and I plan to be cheering him on court-side (well, stadium-side).

The other playaz that might get a bit of my attention at this particular tourney are James Blake, the Bryan Brothers, and Jamie Murray (along with his doubles pard Eric Butorac). Oh and, Amer Delic ain't bad either (you gotta appreciate his sleeveless shirts).

The end of Wimbledon. Love Match?

Wimbledon ends tomorrow, and it's been a fun and exhausting tournament (aka delusional part-time tv viewing job for me). Although I was hoping for an upset, Marion Bartoli unfortunately lost to Venus Williams today in the Ladies' Singles final.

The only other playaz that I've been rooting for who are still in the tourney are Rafael Nadal and Jelena Jankovic. I would love to see Rafa upset Roger Federer in the Men's Singles final tomorrow.

In Mixed Dubz, Jelena has teamed with Jamie Murray, and they've made it to the finals! They're a cute team, and I'm wondering if there's a love match between them beyond their on-court partnership? Well, before I go off on a tangent about WTA/ATP hook-ups, I'll be rooting for them tomorrow as well.

P.S. The countdown to the Countrywide Classic in L.A. has begun!