Toucan World Cup

Outgoing postcard US-3373322 to China shows a vintage color poster advertisement featuring Guinness and a football (soccer) supporting toucan with an Irish shamrock scarf, with a tag line "Lovely day for a Guinness."

As for the 2014 World Cup in the recent news, the last two of the 12 stadiums built for the purpose of hosting the Brazil World Cup have finally been completed, 10 months after the tournament ended, while at least four others have either turned into a parking lot, been used by homeless people, or become other white elephants. The waste fueled the continued controversies about the amount spent on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, which, as many protesters claimed, should have been used to deal with the poverty issues and to improve infrastructures in the country.

Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio

Outgoing postcard US-3202778 to Czech Republic was a vintage card showing the Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the early multi-purpose stadiums built in 1930. Opened on July 1, 1931, with a capacity for baseball of 78,000, it can also seated 81,000 for football. The stadium was closed on December 17, 1995 and demolished on November 4, 1996 to make way for the new FirstEnergy Stadium that currently occupies the site.

Go Buckeyes

Unfazed by freezing weather, 45,000 Ohio State University football fans celebrated the Buckeyes' national championship at Ohio Stadium yesterday.

The event honored the Buckeyes’ victory in the inaugural College Football Playoff (CFP), a postseason tournament in American college football for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which started in the 2014–2015 season.  Using a 13-member committee to select and seed the participating teams, CFP is different from the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) used by FBS from 1998 to 2013. BCS used computer rankings and coach polls that sometimes, e.g. in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, caused controversy.

Never give up. Ohio State Buckeyes was only 16th in the first CFP rankings. However, they managed to bulldozed Wisconsin Badgers 59-0, which allowed them to bypass Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs and Baylor Bears for a final playoff spot. Then they went ahead to beat the odds by overcoming a 21-6 deficit and upsetting Alabama Crimson Tide with a 42-35 win. In the showdown with No. 2 ranking Oregon Ducks on January 12, 2015 at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX, the Buckeyes won decisively 42-20, despite Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota scored early during their first drive.

It is the first national title since 2002 for the Buckeyes. Previously, they did have three BCS championships under their belt. It is also the third national title for coach Urban Meyer who won BCS championships twice when he was the head coach for Florida Gators.

Postcard US-1844593 to the Netherlands shows a map of The Oval at the Ohio State University campus. However, North is on the right side, and West is on top of the postcard. Ohio Stadium, northwest to The Oval, would be on the upper right of the postcard.

World Cup Stamps

Postcard DE-3394587 from Germany was made of a series of World Cup stamps from several countries. The three stamps on the left were 1978 North Korea stamps showing World Cup winners: West Germany (1954, 1974), Italy (1934, 1938), and Uruguay (1930, 1950).

Magyar Posta in Hungary issued the three stamps in the middle to commemorate the 1978 FIFA World Cup held in Argentina from June 1 to June 25, 1978.

The top three stamps on the right were issued in R.P. Kampuchea in 1985, dedicating to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

The stamp on the bottom right was also a 1978 North Korea stamp from the 12-stamp History of the World Cup stamps set. Unfortunately, it fell off during the mailing.

The right stamp on the back was a Enthusiastic Germany football stamp issued on May 2, 2012.

Bremen, Germany

Postcard DE-3274224 from Germany shows a city view of Bremen in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the River Weser, Bremen is the second most populous city in Northern Germany and the tenth largest city in Germany.

The market square in the city center is shown on the card, with Bremen Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter, in the background. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, being protected by the monument protection act since 1973. The cathedral has twin 99-meter towers, built between 1215 and 1253, guarding the main entrance on the west side of the church. The towers were reinforced and given pyramid-shaped tops in 1346. Rhenish styled "helmets" were added when the towers were restored and raised in the 1890s, as still seen today. It is interesting to see that the crossing tower, a reminder of the original west front towers, also have a pyramid-shaped cap.

Bremen is home to the football team SV Werder Bremen that have won the German Football Championship and the German Football Cup multiple times. The team's home stadium, Weserstadion, almost completely surrounded by solar cells, is one of the largest buildings in Europe powered by alternative energies.

Coincidentally today, Germany have advanced to the FIFA World Cup Final today with a sensational 7:1 victory over the host Brazil at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

São Miguel, Portugal

Postcard PT-357733 from Portugal shows São Miguel Island, named for Saint Michael, the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Also referred as "the Green Island," it has a Special Protection Area containing the largest remnant of laurisilva forest on the island, habitat to the endemic and critically endangered bird, the Azores Bullfinch.

It is also the hometown of Pauleta (Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes, born April 28, 1973), a football player for the Portuguese National Team. Pauleta scored 47 goals in 88 matches for Portugal, a national record at the time of his retirement. He played in two World Cups and two European Championships.

In a Group G match against the United States during the 2014 FIFA World Cup at Arena Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil today, Silvestre Varela of the Portuguese National Team scored his team's second goal in the last minute, keeping Portugal alive with a 2:2 draw on June 22, 2014.

#451062278 / gettyimages.com

Alkmaar, the Netherlands

Postcard NL-2528251 from the Netherlands shows the city views from Alkmaar, the Netherlands. It is famous for its traditional cheese market, as shown on the bottom right. The North Holland Canal, as seen on the left, was dug through Alkmaar and opened in 1824.

Alkmaar is home to the professional football team AZ (Alkmaar Zaanstreek) with a 17,000-seat stadium, the AFAS Stadion, where the Dutch national football team trained in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In today's Group B match, the Netherlands beats Australia with a score of 3:2.

Open Training Session at the AFAS Stadion on June 3, 2014
(Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

FIFA World Cup Opens Today

2014 FIFA World Cup opens with music and dance in São Paulo, Brazil today. The official anthem and slogan is "We Are One".

However, a protest, against the money lavished on football stadiums instead of essentials for people and schools, broke out in the very morning and was met with police forces. Meanwhile, Fifa's decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar is under on-going scrutiny with allegations of corruption.

Brazil team won over Croatia with a 3:1 victory in the opening game. While the Brazilian players like Neymar did beautiful job on the field, they could not escape from the controversies such as the over-generous penalty call and the staged training session.

Nonetheless, as the month-long tournament starts, watched by millions of people around the globe, we hope that we can be united and find more consensuses in the end. The 2014 World Cup plays from June 12 to July 13, 2014. The featured postcard was made from a team sticker by Hyundai, an official sponsor.
  

#450511240 / gettyimages.com