David 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.
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.
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.
My blog posts are dishonest?
I had a few people leave comments on yesterday’s post about World Soccer Daily going off the air that I felt the need to delete. To say that deleting comments here is a rare occurrence is a huge understatement.
I don’t employ comment moderation and I generally allow people to say what they want in the comment section, as long as they are the ones actually saying it. What I don’t appreciate is when someone simply pastes the words of someone else from another blog or website into my comment section.
I usually delete these comments as spam.
This morning I received an email from one of the people who left comments yesterday that I had to delete. In his message to me, he encouraged me to post his email. I’ve decided to do that as well as reply to it.
Horace Steenblatter wrote:
From: Horace Steenblatter (hsteenblatter@yahoo.co.uk)
To: rick@bentcorner.com
Date: Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 7:19 AM
Subject: Your blog posts are dishonestYou are not deleting “something negative someone on another blog wrote concerning Steven Cohen.” You have repeatedly deleted comments that I’ve left under my own name which consisted of nothing but Cohen’s own words and Chelsea FC’s response to Cohen’s words. If you were actually concerned with disseminating factual information, you would let Cohen’s words speak for themselves rather than posting dishonest information which only contain a partial account of his words. How in the world is a post about Steven Cohen’s words “not the place” for Steven Cohen’s words?
Horace, your comments were not the only ones I felt the need to delete yesterday. Not that what you were actually leaving comments. You were simply pasting statements from other blogs and websites dedicated to getting Steven Cohen “fired” from his own radio show because he shared an opinion.
That’s what radio talk show hosts do in this country. They share opinions. Nobody says that you have to agree with it. Nobody says that you have to listen to it. Nobody says you have to like it.
I’ve posted the actual quote that got Steven Cohen in trouble with Liverpool supporters. You or anyone else re-posting it in the comment section is at best, unnecessarily redundant. It’s also not even important. Cohen only voiced his opinion about an historical event. People shouldn’t be shut down or threatened with physical harm because of their opinion.
At least not in the United States of America.
Furthermore, the comment section of my blog is not for you or anyone else to treat as their own personal blog. If you want to re-post content from other blogs or other websites, get your own blog and do it there.
Do not do it here.
‘World Soccer Daily’ calls it quits
Steven Cohen, co-owner and host of World Soccer Daily, has decided to pull the plug on the popular satellite radio show dedicated to all things soccer. From the World Soccer Daily website:
Today’s show was the last World Soccer Daily show. After almost 7 years in one form or another, WSD is going off the air. Longtime listeners can probably imagine why, but the details are in the podcast.
We would be remiss if we didn’t offer a sincere thank you to our listeners for making the show such a fantastic ride. I know I speak for everyone when I say thank you for tuning in, thank you for supporting our sponsors, and thank you for helping grow the Beautiful Game.
I guess I should have realized something was going on yesterday when I noticed all the Steven Cohen related traffic coming in yesterday, not to mention the wonderful email I received last night.
So far I’ve only listened to about half of the episode, but it’s safe to say that the death threats and the antisemitic comments directed towards Cohen have taken their toll. All because he dared to share his opinion that there was more than enough blame to go around involving the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster including some (not all) of the Liverpool fans in attendance that sad day.
Angry Liverpool fans began a crusade against Cohen and the show, going after the sponsors of the show and threatening to boycott any product advertised on the show. A good many of the fans also threatened Cohen with bodily harm and even death. Some even threatened Cohen’s family, including his step-children.
All for voicing his opinion.
I originally defended Cohen’s right to voice his opinion. Mostly because I believe in free speech, but also because quotes attributed to Cohen were in fact factually wrong. He was being accused of saying things he never said. At first I thought it was a simple mistake on the part of the person making the claim. I then came to the sad realization that the person making the false claim knew exactly what they were doing.
I then later criticized Steven Cohen for asking listeners for donations. I thought it was crass to ask people who already pay Sirius XM for a monthly subscription to donate money if they enjoy listening to the show. In hindsight, maybe I should have coughed over a few bucks. Cohen has said the reason he’s canceling the show is because of the threats, but I imagine it’s hard to make money doing a radio show without any sponsors, though the show did have at least some sponsors. It’s not like they were running public service announcements during their breaks.
European football comes to Baltimore
Sheri and I went down to Baltimore last night to watch Chelsea Football Club take on AC Milan in a pre-season friendly that was part of the World Football Challenge. Officially, Chelsea won the match 2-1, but real winners last night were the people in attendance.
It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a sporting event.
The seats we had were ridiculously good. We got to see some of the world’s best football players up close. The game began with Chelsea defending the goal in front of us which meant we got to see Petr Cech in his customary rugby helmet fly around like a mad man keeping the ball out of the net. Or at least trying to. He did manage to let one sneak in for an AC Milan goal.
The crowd there last night was overwhelmingly in support of Chelsea. When Didier Drogba scored in the seventh minute for Chelsea, the place went wild. Though many of the fans in attendance were wearing Chelsea jerseys, there were also quite a few AC Milan fans. The fans were very well behaved, very much unlike the fans attending the World Cup qualifier in Washington D.C. this past October. No smoke bombs, nobody throwing beer up in the air.
M&T Bank Stadium is a fantastic venue to watch a sporting event. I honestly don’t think there’s a bad seat in the house. It’s a complete opposite from the dump that RFK Stadium is.
AC Milan’s Oguchi Onyewu got a warm reception from the fans, both from the AC Milan supports and the Chelsea supporters, when he came into the game. The U.S. national player who grew up in Maryland was recently signed by AC Milan. Last night’s game marked only his second game with the team.
NBA player and Baltimore native Carmelo Anthony was there last night as a special host or something or other. He was on the field for the pre-game introductions. The Chelsea players presented him a Chelsea jersey with his name and NBA number on it. Instead of seizing the moment and putting it on, he just draped it over his shoulder. Talk about a missed opportunity. The place would have gone nuts if he had done that. After the game, Chelsea’s John Terry came over to him to get his picture taken. Either Carmelo Anthony is a lot shorter than I thought or John Terry is much taller. Anthony was taller than Terry, but not by much. Anthony was walking around the field after the game wearing sun glasses. At night.
He looked like a tard.
David Beckham gets the reception he deserves
Part-time Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham didn’t get much love from Galaxy fans in his first home game back with the team. Not that he deserved any.
From ESPN:
The 34-year-old tried to hurdle a barrier to get to a group of fans who had been jeering him throughout the match and appeared to make a “come on” gesture. Security had to hold the star back as he tried to get across to the supporters, while one fan had to be stopped from getting out of the stand to confront the star.
A hardcore section of the crowd booed Beckham every time he touched the ball and held aloft signs reading “Go Home Fraud” and “23: Repent” in reference to his shirt number.
Another read: “Hey Becks, Here Before You, Here after You, Here Despite You” while one stated: “Is evil something u are…or something u do?”
Galaxy fans refuse to forgive Beckham first for opting to return to Europe to play for AC Milan and then for making no secret of his desire to stay at the San Siro.
The apparent snub has angered some Galaxy fans, notably a hardcore that sit in the so-called LA Riot Squad section.
Beckham explained afterwards in comments broadcast on Sky Sports News: “I tried to shake one of the guy’s hands but he didn’t want any of it. That’s the way it is.”
Beckham is an idiot. The worst thing he could have done was to let the fans know that their jeering gets under his skin. He now can look forward to it only getting worse.
USA shocks the world
Landon Donovan (AP)
The U.S. men’s national soccer team shocked the world today and beat Spain, the best team on the planet in the Confederations Cup semi-final. Spain hasn’t lost in 35 games.
Until today.
Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey both scored and Tim Howard kept the ball out of the back of the onion bag.
This is the greatest win in U.S. soccer history. It’s a shame that most Americans don’t have a clue how massive this is.
I was looking forward to wearing an AC Milan jersey with Kaka on it
Brazilian midfielder Kaka finalized his move to Real Madrid on Monday, marking the end of a “soap opera” and the start of a new phase of his career in Spain.“Now the soap opera is over,” said Kaka, decked out in a yellow Brazilian national team jersey after a practice session ahead of Wednesday’s Brazil-Paraguay qualifier in the northeastern coastal city of Recife. “The only leftover details were the medical exams, and I’ve done them. The negotiations are closed and I have sealed my transfer to Real Madrid.”
Real Madrid announced the signing earlier Monday of the attacking midfielder from AC Milan, the 2007 FIFA player of the year. The Spanish club gave no financial details but reports said Madrid will pay Milan 65 million euros ($92 million) for Kaka, making it the richest deal in soccer history.
I thought the term “soap opera” was uniquely American. I guess this means Kaka wont be with AC Milan next month in Baltimore when they play Chelsea FC in the World Soccer Challenge. I wonder how long it will take the event organizers to remove Kaka’s image from their promotions.
European Champions
I just got done watching Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in the Champions League final in Rome to be crowned Europe’s best professional football (soccer) team.
I was rooting for Barcelona, but I figured Man U was going to win. Things just always seem to go Man U’s way.
That wasn’t the case today.
Checking in on some of the Liverpool FC fan forums
I wrote a few days ago about the Liverpool Football Club posting a statement on their official website condemning the statements made by Steven Cohen, a radio talk show host here in the United States, 38 days after the fact. What I thought was remarkable was not that they waited so long to respond to this controversy, but that they did not address the death threats and other assorted hate speech coming from Liverpool FC supporters.
Someone today left a comment in the comment section of that post claiming, among other things, that Liverpool FC supporter groups have been denouncing this type of speech, but that fact is getting ignored by everyone.
I found this to be quite remarkable because it’s simply not true.
If you go to public Liverpool FC fan sites today, you will find all sorts of things being spewed by Liverpool FC supports directed against Steven Cohen.
For example, LFC Online. It claims to be the “longest-running independent” Liverpool FC website on the Internet. It has a popular public message forum. Here are only some of the comments posted there concerning Steven Cohen:
- “I just wish that people who made “death threats” actually had the balls to follow through with them.“ – Tom R
- “When he dies (of natural causes), I hope it happens slowly.” — Newport
- “Someone should shove a pineapple up his rectum.” — Strontium Dog
- “If anyone can think of a way to upload a virus to their satellites I think that would be doing the planet a favour.” – Scouse Missionary
- “I was about to say, sounds like a jew.“– Phily Hamann
- “I’d be quite happy if he dies in screaming agony quite soon. Some kind of painful, terminal illness, maybe.” — Silverlining
- “Waiting for him to do a sports talk in Orlando so i can personally break his fuckin legs.” — scouselad1991
- “A real shithouse of a cunt and no mistake. Hope the thick fucker gets the bullet.“ — Mozzaretti
What I find interesting about these comments is that the forum administrator allows them to remain. One might think that if they didn’t agree with the sentiment of the comments, a responsible administrator would simply delete them.
The fact that they remain for the whole world to see says quite a lot.
A whole 38 days later, Liverpool FC condemns comments made on a popular radio talk show
From the official Liverpool Football Club website:
Liverpool Football Club totally condemns the comments regarding the Hillsborough disaster made by the radio and TV broadcaster Steve Cohen.
“Mr Cohen has obviously never taken the time to read the Taylor Report which stated clearly that ticketless fans were not a contributory factor or responsible for the events of that day.
“To use the 20th anniversary of the disaster to repeat false claims about Liverpool fans (which Mr Cohen first broadcast and then apologised [sic] for in 2006) is even more unacceptable.
The statement is really quite remarkable. Not because of the amount of time it took the team to issue a response, but because of the fact that the Liverpool FC organization chose not to address the death threats and other assorted comments made against Steven Cohen by Liverpool FC supporters.
That’s really quite unfortunate. The organization, in my opinion, missed a golden opportunity to help ratchet down the over-the-top, visceral behavior coming from some of their supporters. If anything, this statement from the team 38 days after the fact will only help fan the flames.
They should have denounced the death threats.
Steven Cohen apologizes
At the beginning of the second hour of today’s Word Soccer Daily, co-host Steven Cohen read an apology for this recent comments concerning the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. He also posted the apology on the Word Soccer Daily website.
It reads:
First of all I would like to apologize for comments made on World Soccer Daily on Monday April 13th that referred back to an event from April 1989. My apology is directed at any and all people whose feelings have been hurt and people who have had awful memories and scars re-opened. The apology is heartfelt, genuine and sincere.
There are some I suspect who will look at this apology with a cynical eye and of course you are entitled to see it as you like.
We are all football fans, we are all passionate football fans and the events that I am referring to could have happened to any club, in any sport, in any country at any public gathering. This is proved by events in the Ivory Coast recently as well as in South America, Ghana, the old Soviet Union etc …
Let me continue by saying that I came to this country 27 years ago, I believe in this country and what it stands for and most importantly I believe in the freedom of speech, opinion and expression and hold these values and freedoms as being amongst the most treasured of all freedoms. I wore the uniform of the US Army for 4 years between 1982 and 1986 because these freedoms are worth defending and worth fighting for. While there are many people in this world who’s views make my blood boil I would fight to defend their right to say what they believe.
I recognize that with my position as one of the hosts of a popular radio show I have a responsibility to my audience and perhaps the radio is not the ideal place to express every opinion and every belief I have if the net result is many people being hurt and upset.
By the same token those who use a keyboard and computer to exercise their own freedom of speech, opinion and expression also have a responsibility. They have a responsibility not to sensationalize comments made and twist them for their maximum appeal especially when this is done only for their own commercial benefit and clearly with malice intended.
Finally, to those out there in the United States who have hidden behind computers and monitors to send correspondence including too many death threats to count know that your actions and words hurt this game in this country more than help it. This game has yet to find a solid and guaranteed footing in the American sporting landscape and the baggage that this game carries with it from the past is only re-enforced and emphasized by threats of violence and death.
Lastly the subjects being addressed in this statement will never be discussed on this show again unless it is in a open forum or debate where both sides view points can be addressed and considered.
I for one hope this puts an end to this whole “controversy”.
Shocker of all shockers, Manchester United wins English Premier League title
Manchester United wrapped up it’s third straight English Premier League title yesterday with it’s 0-0 tie game yesterday with Arsenal. All Man U needed to lock up the title was one single point. A scoreless draw with Arsenal game them that one point.
Not only is this the 3rd straight English Premier League title for Manchester United, it marks the 11th championship in the last 17 seasons, which I guess means they are really good or something.
Since it’s inception in 1991, only four teams, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea, have been English Premier League Champions. One might say that the EPL surfers from a acute inequality. Since the 1994-95 season, only three clubs have won the championship.
This year, it’s once again Manchester United.
NPR on the Steven Cohen Hillsborough controversy
NPR’s All Things Considered had a segment on Friday’s show about the recent controversy surrounding comments made by World Soccer Daily co-host Steven Cohen concerning the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. In the segment, they play that actual clip from World Soccer Daily that started the controversy, as well as comments made by blogger Christopher Harris (The Gaffer) of the popular soccer blog EPL Talk.
Harris comments on the death threats Cohen has received and says that he doesn’t condone them and finds them “equally despicable”. The inference is that threatening a man’s life over something he’s said is somehow equal to Cohen sharing his opinions on Hillsborough. That probably tells you everything you need to know about this drummed up controversy. How anyone can equate death threats to someone saying that at least partial blame for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster on drunk, out of control fans, is beyond me.
1989 U.K. Soccer Disaster Still Stirs Emotions [3 min 50 sec]
The New York Times weighs in on the Steven Cohen controversy
Once again, the mainstream news media has weighed in on the recent controversy surrounding World Soccer Daily co-host Steven Cohen. Once again, they’ve come done on the side of Cohen.
Imagine that.
Jack Bell from the New York Times soccer blog Goal has written about the recent controversy surrounding Word Soccer Daily co-host Steven Cohen.
One can argue with the appeal of a TV chat show like “Fox Football Fone-In” on the Fox Soccer Channel, but what is hard to argue with is the right of one of the co-hosts, Steven Cohen, to state an opinion without becoming the victim of opprobrium, ugly scorn, death threats and vitriolic taunts.
Cohen’s transgression? During a call on April 13 from a Liverpool fan discussing the club’s past success, Cohen (a Chelsea supporter from north London who has been in the United States for nearly 30 years) said “what about the other side of your history,” and went on to discuss the club’s and its fans’ involvement in two of the worst stadium incidents in soccer history: Heysel in Brussels on May, 29 1985, and the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, England, on April 15, 1989.
I can only image that Liverpool supporters will now come out of the woodwork and try their best to get advertisers to pull their ads from the New York Times and to get Jack Bell fired.
Unfortunate ad placement on ESPN soccer page
ESPN Soccer ran a sad story yesterday about Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan who committed suicide by hanging himself with his Arsenal soccer jersey. He had just got done watching Arsenal lose to Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final with some friends at a pub. After the match, he left the pub crying.
It’s the last time he was seen alive.
The next day, he was found dead, hanging from a noose fashioned from the Arsenal jersey he had been wearing the night before. If this wasn’t sad enough, directly under the story was a Google ad for an Arsenal jersey. An Arsenal jersey just like the one Suleiman Alphonso Omondi used to kill himself with.
Click the image to see a much larger version.
One might think the self proclaimed world-wide leader in sports would not make a gaff like this. I guess not.
Defending Steven Cohen
Steven Cohen, co-host of World Soccer Daily, a satellite radio show dedicated to all things soccer, is in a bit of hot water over some things he said on a recent show. On an April 13 episode, while taking phone calls from listeners, Cohen commented on the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster.
It was a horrific event where 96 soccer fans were crushed to death at an FC Cup semi-final match between between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
So what exactly did Cohen say? From EPL Talk:
“People showing up without ticket, hell bent in getting into somewhere where they shouldn’t be going because they don’t have tickets, is the root cause of [the Hillsborough Disaster].”
Except this is not what Cohen actually said. The quote is incorrect. The above is a partial quote about the 23 fans that died in a similar fashion in the Ivory Coast at a World Cup qualifier. The correct quote should read:
“The thing is, the 23 that died in the Ivory Coast, in my opinion, the police were absolutely had something to do with it. At the end of the day, people showing up without ticket, hell bent in getting into somewhere where they shouldn’t be going because they don’t have tickets, is the root cause of it in my opinion.
Cohen went on to say more. Also from EPL Talk:
“I’m yet to read anybody write in this weekend’s Sunday papers in England, where they’re all doing big commemorations about the 96, and why we should never forget and how it’s changed the game, nobody discusses the 6,000 to 8,000 who showed up without tickets and my argument has always been, if those people don’t show up, this never happens.”
This too is not an accurate quote, but in this case, the misquoting does not change what Cohen said. His point is that Liverpool fans showed up at the game without tickets. The episode can be downloaded from iTunes. The comments on Hillsborough begin around the 1 hour, 13 minute mark.
People who have a problem with what Cohen said seem bothered the most by Cohen’s opinion that “6,000 to 8,000″ Liverpool fans showed up at the game without tickets. The Taylor Report, the official inquiry into the Hillsborough Disaster, found this not to be the case.
What bothers me the most about all this is that a group identifying themselves as the The North American Liverpool Supporters are trying to get those that advertise on World Soccer Daily to drop the show. They sending form letters to advertisers, urging advertisers to drop the show. An excerpt:
This is not a free speech issue. Mr. Cohen has every right to say what he wants on air within FCC regulations. However he has crossed the line as far as we are concerned. So he is free to say whatever he wants but with free speech one also needs to understand there are consequences to ones action. The potential boycott is one of those consequences.
Except it is a free speech issue and there are no FCC regulations concerning satellite talk radio. Cohen stated over and over again that he was only stating his opinion of what happened that tragic day in Hillsborough. The anonymous members of The North American Liverpool Supporters are the ones that have crossed the line by contacting sponsors to get them to stop advertising on World Soccer Daily.
It’s a dick move.
Is Cohen wrong about the 6,000 to 8,000 ticketless Liverpool fans? Probably, but that shouldn’t matter. Cohen is a radio talk show host. His job is to say things. Sometimes those things are going to be wrong. Sometimes those things are going to be controversial. Sometimes those things are going to be stupid. If you don’t like what someone on the radio is saying, don’t listen. Just because you don’t like what someone says on the radio doesn’t mean you have a right to get someone permanently silenced. It’s wrong.
Real football coming to Baltimore
Two of the world’s top football teams, Chelsea of the English Premier League (EPL), and A.C. Milan, from Italy’s top division, are coming to Maryland to play on exhibition in Baltimore on July 24.
I can’t begin to describe just how excited I am about this. I ordered tickets from Ticketmaster as soon as I read about it. I went ahead and purchased two of the fancy $175 VIP tickets. It allowed us to get two seats five rows up from the field along with access to the pre-game party tent before the game. It also allows us to watch both teams practice the day prior to the game. I’m not sure if we will be making the practice or not. I bought the VIP tickets because I wanted us to get the very best seats possible. When will we ever be able to see Chelsea and A.C. Milan play again? Probably never.
Chelsea is one of the teams in the EPL that I love to hate. They are owned by a Russian mobster and other than German midfielder Michael Ballack, I pretty much despise every player on Chelsea. A.C. Milan has Brazilian superstar Kaká, probably the world’s greatest football player.
We went to Washington D.C. to watch the U.S. National team defeat the Cuban National team in a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup. It was an awful game played in a run down, awful stadium. Many of the Cuban players had defected before the game. Some of the fans in attendance were making asses of themselves by throwing their expensive, watery stadium beers into the air and lighting smokes bombs every time the U.S. team scored.
Hopefully none of that crap will be going on in Baltimore.
The only football game I’m looking forward to watching today
Most of my fellow Americans are looking forward to watching the Arizona Cardinals (9-7) face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) in tonight’s Super Bowl. Though I may (or may not) watch the Big Game™ between these two teams, I could honestly care less who wins. Neither team was the best team this past season. That distinction belongs to the Tennessee Titans (13-3).
Six other teams in the NFC had either better or equal records compared to the the Cardinals. Three teams in the AFC had records either better or equal when compared to the Steelers.
I’ve never put much stock into the Super Bowl. Only occasionally does the winner of the Super Bowl represent the best football team that year. The purpose of the Super Bowl is not to separate the very best from the best football teams in the league, it’s to separate as much money from TV networks, advertisers, gamblers, and attendees as possible.
It’s all about the money.
The football game I’m looking forward to watching today doesn’t involve the NFL. It involves two teams that play real football, Lazio and AC Milan of the Italian football league. Normally we only watch the English Premier League, but now that David Beckham is finally playing (and scoring) for AC Milan, it will be an interesting game to watch.
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]
I think I would rather watch soccer on TV
Last night Sheri and I went to RFK stadium and watched the U.S. national soccer team trounce the Cuban national team. The final score was 6-1. The score is misleading in that the game was not nearly as close as a 6-1 score might reflect.
It was a drumming. The Cubans weren’t very good. Two of the players evidently defected before the game and were nowhere to be seen.
You know what else took a drumming? My wallet. We paid $50 each for our tickets up in section 446. That doesn’t include the $18.20 “convenience charge” Ticketmaster charged me for buying two tickets. It also doesn’t include the $4 processing charge or the $4.75 they charged me for the convenience of printing the tickets with my own printer using my own ink. We also had to pay $15 to park in a poorly maintained, unlit parking lot next to the stadium.
The stadium had a massive amount of empty seats. The announced attendance was 20,293. If there were that many people there, many of them must have been dressed up as faded burgundy and gold plastic seats covered with bird droppings. Maybe if they charged a lot less for the tickets, more people would have attended. Maybe.
The spectators sitting in the lower level did their best to make up for all of the empty seats. They beat drums. They blew whistles. They wore American flags as capes. They screamed and yelled and tried their best to draw attention to themselves. Mostly, they were just annoying. I’d like to think that most people were at the game last night to watch world-class soccer, not to see a bunch of basement living dorks pretending to be soccer hooligans.
You know what’s dumber then spending $8 on a Bud Light? Throwing that $8 Bud Light high up in the air, covering you and your fellow spectators in beer every time the U.S. team scores. There were some in the lower section doing that.
For some unknown reason, some in the lower section would also light smoke bombs after the U.S. team would score. Smoke bombs? I don’t know a lot about smoke bombs. I do know they stink. This made me wonder why they even bothered searching people’s bags when entering the stadium if some are allowed to bring in smoke bombs.
I think I’d rather just watch soccer on TV. It’s cheaper, nobody is setting off smoke bombs, and nobody is throwing beer in the air. In my home, beer is for drinking, not for liquid confetti.
The U.S. takes on Cuba tonight in World Cup qualifying play
Sheri and I are heading down to Washington D.C. to watch the U.S. men’s national team take on Cuba in a 2010 World Cup qualifier match. The U.S. team has been good so far in the first round of qualifying games. Cuba on the other hand, not so much. The U.S. sits atop the CONCACAF’s Group 1 with three wins in three games. The Cuba national team has failed to score a point. Cuba’s best player, forward Roberto Linares, was red carded in his last game and subsequently will be suspended for tonight’s match.
This will be the first soccer (football) game either one of us has ever attended. The more I watch the English Premiere League on Fox Soccer Channel, the less I am able to watch the NFL. American football (throwball) is just too boring. An NFL game consists of four 15-minute quarters and because of the never ending time outs and commercial breaks, it takes nearly four hours to get through.
A real football game (soccer) consists of two 45-minute halves and it takes around two hours.
There are no commercials during play. There are no times out. Commercials are shown during the 15-minute break between halves.
The game will be shown live tonight at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN Classic. Look for me on the TV. I’ll be the guy in the stands dressed up like Uncle Sam holding a sign stating that Fidel Castro’s parents were brother and sister.
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 »
You’re doing it wrong
The last time I saw something like this, my dog went on to have a litter of puppies.
Spain’s Fernando Torres (right) stretches with teammate Pepe Reina at the Euro 2008 European Soccer Championships in Austria and Switzerland. I don’t care what particular muscle this exercise stretches, I would rather just injure it.
(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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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