SubscribeDavid Beckham tears left Achilles’ tendon
David Beckham has severely injured himself while playing soccer in Italy. From Yahoo! Sports:
David Beckham has torn his left Achilles’ tendon and is at risk of missing the World Cup.
The former England captain injured himself in the closing minutes of AC Milan’s 1-0 win over Chievo Verona on Sunday.
Club physician Jean Pierre Meersseman told Italy’s Sky TV that Beckham will fly to Finland on Monday for surgery.
The injury occurred when Beckham was by himself with the ball at his feet. He shifted his weight and immediately realized there was a problem, reaching his hand down to his left heel.
The fact that he hurt himself without making contact with anyone says a lot. He’s getting to that age where parts of his body just start to break down. Parts like his Achilles’ tendon. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never played soccer again.
John Terry has been a naughty boy
The news tabloids in the UK have been in a frenzy over a sexual affair between Chelsea defender and England captain John Terry and Vanessa Perroncel, a French underpants model and the ex-girlfriend of England teammate Wayne Bridge.
Terry, 29 years old, married his longtime girlfriend and the mother of this children Toni Poole in a lavish ceremony in 2007 funded at least in part by OK! Magazine. Toni has reportedly left Terry over the news of the affair.
Wayne Bridge played for Chelsea before this season. He now plays for Manchester City. Not only were Terry and Bridge teammates, they were reportedly best of friends. If the story wasn’t already icky enough, reportedly Perroncel became pregnant as a result of the affair and Terry arranged for the woman to have an abortion.
Some are now calling for John Terry to be stripped of the England captaincy. Wayne Bridge is expected to make the squad for this year’s World Cup in South Africa.
I should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Tell me something I did not already know
The Wall Street Journal did a study that showed in the average NFL football game, the ball is actually only live for about 11 minutes. Most of the nearly three hours it takes to play a professional football game in the NFL is spent just standing around waiting for play to begin.
To be perfectly honest, I’m actually surprised it’s that much.
If you have ever watched a real football game (soccer) you will quickly realize just how much of American football is spent doing absolutely nothing. In soccer, the ball is constantly in play. Time does not stop, even for injury. The ball gets kicked out of bounds by either team and then the injured player is attended to. The officials decide how much time was spent attending to the injured player and that time is added to the end of the half or the end of the game.
In soccer, the only commercials are at halftime.
The first year I started watching the English Premiere League, I could not even watch the NFL. The thing that struck me the most was just how much time is spent in an NFL game where the coaches are shown standing on the sideline. When I watch a sporting event, I want to see competition between athletes. I don’t want to see a middle-aged white guy with a perturbed look on his face.
I thought people in Mexico hated Landon Donovan
Even though soccer fans in Mexico throw cups of urine at American soccer player Landon Donovan, he still takes time out of his schedule to be a pitchman for the Mexican lottery. At least I think that’s what he’s shilling. I don’t speak Mexican. I wish I did, but don’t. Landon Donovan on the other hand appears to be very fluent in the language.
‘World Soccer Daily’ to return
Only a week after announcing that World Daily Soccer was coming to an immediate end, show co-hosts Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan announced in a 15-minute teaser show that the show is returning as World Football Daily.
The new show will not appear on Sirius XM radio as World Soccer Daily did. This new show will be a subscription-based show. To listen to the show, you will have to pay $9.95 a month and listen to it either live on Ustream or on a delayed basis through the podcast.
I don’t think they’ve thought this through.
They also have the same exact problem they had with the old show. Cohen made comments about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster that enraged Liverpool FC supporters which prompted them to organize boycotts against World Soccer Daily advertisers. Some Liverpool FC supporters also made threatening statements towards Steven Cohen and reportedly even towards his step-children on Facebook. It was latter that prompted Cohen to cancel the show last week.
What changed?
Not that I understand what motivates someone to threaten someone’s step-child on Facebook, but I don’t see how simply renaming the show and going over to the subscription-base format is going to stop these people. Canceling the show last week only encouraged them and others that would use similar tactics. Steven Cohen flinched. What’s to make these people thing he won’t do it again?
I also have a problem with the name. They’re audience is overwhelmingly American. In America, the beautiful game is referred to as soccer. Now I realize that the rest of the world refers to it as football, but when you say football in America, you are referring to a game where the players wear helmets and shoulder pads and the play is continuously interrupted with commercials. That’s just the way it is. Compounding this problem is that they are starting this new show with a different name at the same time the NFL is about to begin it’s regular season. The new name will only create confusion.
With the current economic crisis, I’m not sure this is the best time to switch over to a format where listeners will have to fork over $9.95 a month to download the show. With the old show, they could download it for free. I know that I wont be paying $9.95 a month to listen to the show and I’m sure most people wont either.
Once again, I don’t think they’ve thought this through. Then again, that seems to be a running theme with the show for the past six months. It’s one thing for Steven Cohen to have his opinions about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, it’s quite another to voice those opinions knowing how Liverpool FC supporters would react to those opinions.
Hooliganism rears it ugly and bloody head
Fights broke out last night at the Carling Cup game between London clubs West Ham and Millwall at West Ham’s Upton Park stadium. People were fighting before the game. People were fighting during the game. People were fighting at the end of the game. People were outside the stadium throwing bricks and whacking each other with sticks. Millwall fans stormed the pitch (field) in the final minutes to disrupt the game. Their team lost the match 3-1.
One fan of the beautiful game was even stabbed in the chest, but remarkably, he survived. Remarkable because everyone knows that England has that awful icky socialized health care where usually a bad case of the hiccups is usually a death sentence.
The fights were planned and organized on the Internet. Instructions were given before the game on message boards. One message read: ‘Make sure you bring your bats and don’t bring your kids.’
I happen to know for a fact that Al Gore cries every time his Internet is used not for good, but for evil. Do they even have bats in England? I thought bats were exclusive to baseball playing countries.
David Beckham To Join AC Milan
From Goal.com:
Beckham will join the Italian side in January while the MLS season takes a break, and he will stay at Milanello until the end of the European season, possibly then making this a permanent move.
“Beckham wants to train and play with Milan,” Galliani told Il Corriere Della Sera.
“We want him. He will arrive in January and we will sign him for the rest of the season.
“It’s not just a shop window deal, it’s a great deal. He will be available for Ancellotti for Serie A and the UEFA Cup.
“Football today is not just about tactics and technical abilities. It’s about full stadiums and sponsors. No-one can beat the 65,000 fans we had on Sunday.
“The stadiums will only fill up with superstars like Beckham who has asked Milan for hospitality, not another club.
“With him, Kaka and Ronaldinho, it will be a dream team.”
The English midfielder is still under contract with LA Galaxy but it seems as if Galliani has concrete ideas already in place in trying to land Beckham on a permanent deal.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I bought an LA Galaxy Beckham jersey this past weekend.
DC United player target of racial slur
DC United goalkeeper Louis Crayton was talking with fans after a 0-0 draw with the Houston Dynamo when a Dynamo fan approached him and called him “a monkey”. He then told him to go back to the jungle.
Crayton responded to the fan telling him he could not talk to him that way and that he was a human being “just like him”. I think perhaps Crayton was giving the fan way too much credit.
Security personal immediately moved in and removed the racist fan from the stadium and immediately banned him from all future games indefinitely.
Where did the fan think he was, a McCain-Palin rally? [Washington Post]
Fox Soccer Channel & Setanta Sports announce the 2008-09 English Premiere League schedule
I wish Antietam Cable offered the Setanta Sports channel. I think it’s only available to people that have Direct TV. Read the full article »
Nazi war criminal spotted at the Euro 2008
It turns out I’m not the only one getting into the Euro 2008 football (soccer) championships. An internationally wanted Nazi war criminal has been spotted supporting his national team at the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria.
Milivoj Asner is wanted by Interpol for alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during his service as a police chief in Croatia during the Second World War, when the country was ruled by a Nazi puppet regime.
But Mr Asner, 95, who now lives a quiet and undisturbed life in Klagenfurt, Austria, has been seen taking leisurely walks, sipping wine with his wife Edeltrat and mingling with Croatian football fans prior to the matches of his country’s national team.
He is the number four on the most wanted list of the Nazi-hunters and Croatia has demanded his extradition.
You’d think being #4 on the Nazi-hunter most wanted list would make a person stay at home and watch the games on ESPN. Do they have ESPN in Austria?
They are the worldwide leader in sports.
I thought I knew what choking was, but then I watched Turkey beat the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic was up 2-0 with 15 minutes left in regulation. They had arguably one of the best goal keepers in the world with Petr Cech in front of the net. Turkey didn’t stand a chance, right?
Wrong.
This has got to be one of the most exciting soccer games I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable.
It even included Volkan Demirel, the Turkish goal keeper receiving a Red Card in the final seconds requiring him to remove his distinctive goal keeper jersey and leave the field. A Turkish defender then had to put on his sweaty jersey and Hamburger Helper gloves and take on the goal keeping chores.
Exciting!
There is a reason they call soccer ‘The Beautiful Game’
Poland faces Germany in the first round action of the 2008 European Championship. This photo ran in a major Polish newspaper. It shows the Polish manager holding the severed heads of German footballers Michael Ballack and Joachim Loew.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say somebody in Poland has a score to settle with Germany.
The games will be shown live on ESPN. The schedule can be found here.
(Photo: The Spoiler)
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