Gold Cup by Angel Gonzalez

The Gold Cup 2013 started on July 7, 2013.  It started with 12 teams: U.S., Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Martinique.  They started with a rough start, but as the tournament progressed, 4 semifinalists have emerged: Mexico, Panama, USA, and Honduras. 

These 4 teams are doing their best with good passes, good strategy, and good players. The favorites for the finals are Panama and Honduras.  Both coaches of these awesome teams are trying to do their best to do what the people want.  For the Gold Cup, the teams are playing only in US stadiums as opposed to global stadiums. 

The reigning champion is Mexico with 2011's winning goal. This year's final is on July 28, and will e  either at Soldier Field in Chicago or Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Cali.  For this story we interviewed a literature and scrapbooking teacher at Breakthrough Silicon Valley at Hillbrook, Jennifer Cruz. Cruz has a long history with soccer. 

"I played soccer for 2 years when I was around 12 years old," said Cruz. "I love watching soccer with my dad; it's like a father and daughter bond."

Who do you think is going to win! Leave a comment below!

2013 Hillbrook vs. Evergreen Basketball Game, by Eduardo Soria

        “There goes Evergreen, then Hillbrook intercepts the ball. There’s the shot and. . . IT’S IN!!”

That was one of the first moments of the spectacular and entertaining basketball between Breakthrough Silicon Valleys two groups: Hillbrook vs. Evergreen. This incredible basketball game happened in July 19th, 2013 in Evergreen High school’s basketball gym, during the annual Breakthrough Olympics.

The Breakthrough Olympics are a competition between every crew that the program sets up. Each branch goes against the crews in their branch. They go through both mental and physical challenges. The first part of the Olympics is the mental challenges. In the end both branches complete a physical obstacle course to see who wins this year’s Olympics. Some of the events for the obstacle course included Leap Frog, Wheelbarrow, and Word Search, all while protecting the crew’s egg. After the Olympics the basketball game began.

First, all of the players were warming up for the big game. Both teams had practiced very hard in the days before the game. The coaches for the Hillbrook basketball team were Ramon Gomez, Rahul Singireddy, and Michael Augustine. The Evergreen basketball coaches are unknown to our reporters. The referee was our very own Hillbrook teacher Jordan who teaches 7th grade biology. In the beginning of the first half Evergreen managed to get the ball and they tried to make a point, but they missed. They tried again, but they missed again, but this time Hillbrook caught the rebound and shot, but they missed. They caught the rebound though and then they made it!! When Evergreen started the game again they tried to make a shot they did not make it. Hillbrook caught the ball and they made the shot! That was their 2nd shot! Throughout the first half Hillbrook made 2 more shots to equal ten total points in just the first half.  

In the half-time show Hillbrook’s dance squad, yoga, and volleyball class danced for the entire Breakthrough program to “Beggin’” by Madcon. Hillbrook dance teacher Joseline Gonzalez choreographed the routine. In the 2nd half, Evergreen started with the ball. Evergreen tried to make a point, but they threw the ball outside the boundaries. When Hillbrook got the ball they managed to pass the ball to an open player who was left alone and he could make his shot. Then finally Evergreen made their first shot. Then Hillbrook made 2 more shot and Evergreen made 1 more shot. In the end Hillbrook won with the stunning score of 14 to 4.

On the Hillbrook side there were two MVP’s. They were Daniel Gonzalez and Sergio. We were also available to interview MVP Daniel Gonzalez.

When asked if he thought that this was a hard game he said, “ No. This was an easy peasy game for me.”

Also when asked if he practiced enough he responded, “ I practiced every day for 4 hours for the game.” This was an interesting game and we can’t wait for the next one.     

2013 NBA Finals by Adal Zeraitson

It was Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals and the Heat was down by three in the final seconds of the game.  They have one chance to tie the game and send the game to overtime. LeBron takes a three pointer, but he misses. Chris Bosh, a teammate of his gets the rebound. There is enough time for one more shot. He kicks the ball out to Ray Allen, who gets a shot up just in time. The crowd is silent and the shot was good. The game went into overtime, and the Heat won the game in overtime. It was a very critical game for the Heat because they were facing elimination.

“I heard that the game was one of the most intense games,” said Edwin, a Breakthrough teacher. The next and final game was in Miami so it was going to be a tough one for San Antonio. Both teams accepted the challenge.  It was a hard fought game by both teams. But unfortunately, for San Antonio fans, their team did not come out with the championship. 

“The Heat are overrated,” said Edwin. “The Spurs did more than enough to win, but they didn’t win.” 

The Heat won their second consecutive title and celebrated in the locker room. And that leaves LeBron with two championships and two Finals MVP awards and leaves Dwayne Wade with three championships and one Finals MVP award.   

REVIEW: FIFA 2012 by Eduardo Soria

Fifa 2012 is one of the newer versions of the franchise soccer game. It is the nineteenth game of the whole series. On the cover, it represents the UK(United Kingdom) and Ireland by putting Wayne Rooney for the UK and putting Jack Wilshere for Ireland. This game was developed EA Canada and was published by Electronic Arts. 

 In this game there are 3 types of ways to play Fifa 2012. The first one is the regular gameplay in which you just play a quick match with the teams you choose with all the new added stadiums^[b]. The second way of playing the game is by playing the career mode in the game in which you choose a league and you also choose what team you want to be in control of and the whole purpose is to win the cup of the league. The last way to play the game is to play the online mode. To play the online version you need to be part of the Playstation Network or have an Xbox Live account to play it because you play with friends or other people around the world to see how good your skills are at playing the game. 

We also interviewed a veteran at playing the game, Mr. Ramon Gomez.

When asked what he thought of Fifa 12 he responded,”I think Fifa is is a great game; it’s really fun. It makes me think that I am great player^[c]. And in the game you have skills that you wouldn’t have in real life and it makes me feel good.”

When asked his final question about what he likes specifically about Fifa 2012 he answered by saying,” I like scoring goals and winning.”