Emma takes taekwondo

 Emma took a taekwondo class with Fiona and they loved it!

 And after taekwondo ... water balloon fight!

Lily loves to help with Fiona's little brother, Miles...

Estadio Morumbi

 Great tour from Sao Paulo Futebol Clube for the U.S. media. W/Kelli Whiteside of U.S. Today

 Looks a bit like Candlestick Park!

 Press conference room

 Lots of shiny trophies

 Saint Paul the mascot in his halo. With L.A. Times pal Kevin Baxter.

Players stop to pray here before matches, it's in their warmup area

Spidey Bear's Brazilian tour

What a great trip this bear from Iowa City is having ... read more below.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/brazil-beat-businesses-brace-protests

Espresso and cookies kind of afternoon at U.S. practice

Didn't quite finish this double espresso after a triple-shot latte earlier. Probably a good move! (Cookies are long gone, however!).

Friday night fun

Quite a party going on ... Emma's having a sleepover at Declan's, Lily and Cormac having a blast!

Sweet little sloth in the Amazon

My photo colleague, Julio Cortez, took this adorable photo of the sloth when he was in Manaus.

Two fun clips from Minneapolis

 Former Pac-10 PR woman and friend Julie Christensen was sweet to send photos to me of these clips from Thursday's Minneapolis Star Tribune with my story on goalkeeper Tim Howard and Josh's on Tim Lincecum's no-hitter (with teaser to story on my page). Fun to see! Jenny Bangsund reports we were both in her Sioux Falls paper as well.

Beach run in Recife, Brazil

 How quickly things change during the rainy season ... these shots were all taken during my run outside our beachside hotel two days earlier in Olinda, a nice town 10 miles north of Recife.

Beachside soccer ... cool!

Festive Recife Airport welcoming music!

US-Germany in rainy, flooded Recife

 What a day! Once we finally got to the stadium after a 3-hour, 42-minute commute that included removing my soaked shoes and trudging through 18 inches of water in bare feet, then seeing others in far worse shape in the flooding, it was an amazing atmosphere.

 AP team (from L: Nesha Starcevic from Germany, Ron Blum of NY, Brett Martel, New Orleans)

Awesome national anthem I shot on my phone: WOW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgzW5uQH2Q0

 Cute B&B hotel in the outskirts of Recife where we stayed, the town of Olinda

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=784547548257125&l=6038237397227941610See my amateur video of the flooding on link above - like nothing I've ever seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgzW5uQH2Q0

 Devoted fans in any kind of weather!