should be CUT from spending in the Federal Government. That NPR is a “partner” with The Nation is all one needs to know about OUR tax dollars being thrown down a LIBERAL HOLE!

BTW soccer is just BORING other then David Beckham and I can get an eyeload of him in magazines

If I shoulder charge you and you fall on the ground don’t complain, because you just learned something new about soccer, and that will probably guarantee some excitement when it comes to something related to soccer.:)

I love being able to converse with others about their sports passions, I was as disinterested in American sports because I was born overseas, learned to love football and baseball when my younger brother became quite good at football, earning a honorable mention from USA today for his play on both sides of the ball.

I have played against Kuwaitis Jordanians, English Scots, Germans and now converse intelligently online with an English opponent when I play chess.
I heard from my English contact that the England goallie from the US vs England game may go to Switzerland to get cosmetic surgery due to contracts being put on him already for the lousy goal that he allowed. That isn’t passion, that is Baal like religion, people sacrifice, that the rest of the world practices,

Confidentially, I have to admit that King George’s charges aren’t at top form this go-round – something’s amiss.

Plus…….

Keepers are the base key and Fabio blew chunks on BOTH picks.

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Anyway…….. C’mon You Spurs !

Five from White Hart Lane on the side.

Git-r-done lads……. Far from over.

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I’ve the need to rant it again, so pardon me for repeating a (very slightly edited) section from one of my most recent diaries………

http://www.redstate.com/etcartman/2010/06/12/news-you-may-miss-because-guess-why

It’s Called The Vuvuzela Trumpet.

It sounds like a billion-count swarm of bees.

Got an idea what I’m talking about ?

If no, then you’re not watching World Cup (or any international and even many local ‘futbol’ matches the past several years).

The Vuvuzela Trumpet, or ‘VuVu’ for short, is the single most annoying thing on planet Earth (other than the current US administration, their accompanying screaming liberals and our murderous genocidal Moose Limb friends).

I’m into the World Cup every four years – Really into it – Go England ! Three Lions Forever !!

I’m into Premier League and FA Cup much more though and thankfully, the two leagues don’t and won’t put up with The VuVu for one second…….

But the incessant buzzing noise has me watching WC now without audio on the telly.

If you’re still not understanding……. pop on any match broadcast…… the tournament is on for about a month.

You’ll hear it.

You can’t not hear it.

Anyway, have a look at this little ditty as a supposed remedy to The VuVu…… http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/safrican-stores-run-out-of-vuvustopper-earplugs-20100612-y4oo.html

I’ll close with a warning…..VuVu ‘this’ you freaks !…… Stop it !…… I can’t hear myself yell ! Don’t anger this Eeeeevil Jooooooooooo ! I’m armed and want to watch King George’s charges slay the dragon.

Cheers !

Germany vs Australia Nt
4-0

Because they are both 11-man sports that evolved from rugby, people like to compare them and suggest that their popularity is somehow inversely proportional. Really, the comparison should be soccer and basketball. In most soccer countries, particularly the Latin soccer countires, soccer is the pickup game that inner-city youth play in their spare time. In North America, we have basketball for that. Instead, soccer in America seems to have been claimed by suburbanites. Whereas it is an athletic sport in most of the world, in the US soccer is a preppy sport. And, forgive my generalizing, preppy people are more prone to espouse that kind of snide elitism like David Zirin.

As for Beck & co., I have to disagree with them as well. I would enjoy the World Cup in the U.S. The taxpayer burden would be limited to security and temporary traffic issues, since we already have the facilities built. Sponsorship dollars should take care of all other costs. You can argue that it is not a part of our culture, but that seems to be changing. Look at the TV ratings for this WC, the interest is there. The US Hispanic population, which is skyrocketing, has always loved soccer. Plus, Americans love to cheer for a national team; heck, we even cheered for Bobby Fischer for a while. And if the pomp and circumstance of a big international competitions convinces Americans to participate in fun, competitive exercise, then all the better.

That being said, I’d still prefer to watch an old fashioned American football game any day.

His take was that he liked to play soccer, but thought watching it was about as interesting as watching paint dry.

I “played” soccer when I was in the Scouts, but it was definitely street soccer and cheap. We used a pair of trees at either end of the church lawn for goal posts, hardly ever called offsides (or whatever it is called in soccer), and probably did more than a little illegal tripping. This does make for more interesting play, but I doubt it would do much for watchability.

Imagine a baseball game where the pitchers can’t throw fastballs and the batters can’t swing, they can only bunt.

It’s possible that such a game could be played with tremendous skill – working out a walk, stealing a base, sacrificing with a perfectly placed bunt – but can you really see thousands of Americans lining up to watch 2 hours of that?

That’s soccer. It is a game with no element of power and no premium for power. There are no three-run homers, slam-dunks, or long bombs; there is no smash-mouth, no “nasty stuff” and no thundering body checks; there are no radar guns, one-punch knockouts or deep threats. To an American it is a 90-minute game of “keepaway” played by boys in short pants on a playground. Beautiful? No, boring.

America is a big country and Americans like big, powerful things. Always have, always will. They like NASCAR. They like heavyweights, especially heavyweights who are knockout punchers.They like homerun hitters. They like strike-out pitchers.

Imagine Stephen Strasburg as a knuckleball pitcher – same level of anticipation and excitement? Not likely. Greg Maddox won 300 games; so did Randy Johnson. Who drew the bigger crowds?

Without an dimension of power in the sport, soccer will always be a child’s game in the USA.

They have all tried soccer in their off seasons but grew bored with it after awhile.

Where’s the SEIU and their beat-down squads….. um…….. Obama is God chanting assault teams……. er……. violence-leaning house-invading mobs……. ah……… negotiators when you need them ?

Police opened fire with rubber bullets at approximately 400 ‘protesters’ at Durban’s stadium, because the protesters were part of the World Cup security guard staff who walked out on strike just a few hours before the Italy v Paraguay match.

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/world-cup-security-guards-walk-out-on-italy-opener-20100615-ycot.html

South African police took control of security at reigning champions Italy’s opening World Cup match, after stewards walked out in a spiralling dispute over pay. The strike came only hours after stewards providing security at Durban’s World Cup stadium, which are employed by the same private security company, clashed with riot police in a protest over their wages.

The dispute is a major embarrassment for organisers who also had to find alternative transport for nearly 1,000 supporters stuck at Johannesburg’s showpiece Soccer City stadium when bus drivers staged a wildcat strike. “Although we have respect for workers’ rights, we find it unacceptable for them to disrupt match day proceedings and will not hesitate to take action in such instances,” said organising committee chief executive Danny Jordaan.

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There’s much more in the article…….. Read it all.

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Ooooooooh……. Ronaldo doesn’t like the VuVu’s………. Sod him and the ego he rides in on !!!!! Make ‘em louder for the Portugal match !!!

I know soccer is an acquired taste. But when you really start to understand the strategies and patterns it really does live up to it’s nickname. Just watch the Brazilian team play or the Portuguese team (with Cristiano Ronaldo) when they’re on their game. They play with a finesse that borders on art. Then compare that to the Germans who play with an engineered precision.

By the way, this idiot is completely wrong when he claims the US National team should take a dive in the world cup. The US team becoming competitive in international soccer has actually gained us some respect in many countries. Taking a dive would just gain us ridicule.

Fred, I’d guess the problem you had with explaining the game to your girlfriend in the presence of Germans is because what we play here as soccer in school (even at the college level) has different rules than the real thing. For a while, even US professional soccer had some different rules than the international FIFA rules, but they’ve since changed to follow the standards. This last move improved the performance of our US country team since our players now use the same rules in their club play that they do on the national team..

Some of the rules seem mysterious. The offside rule seems to cause the most confusion, but it’s pretty simple really. If you pass the ball to one of your players who is in front of the last defender, he’s offside (there’s some additional specs, but that’s the meat of it). The purpose was to prevent having 1 player stationed right in front of the goal at all times. It’s sort of like the 5 second rule in basketball and serves the same purpose.

The clock is a mystery to most. It runs backwards from all the sports we’re used to. It starts at 0 and counts up to 45 for the half, then starts at 45 and counts to 90 to end the game. There are no timeouts, the clock just keeps going, but the officials add “stoppage” time to the end of each half to allow for excess time used for penalties and injuries.

Also, there is a limit to subs. For the most part, the same 11 guys start the game and run like hell for an hour and a half. The teams get up to 3 subs and once a player is subbed out, they’re out for good. This is one of the major differences between FIFA rules and US NCAA rules.

I’d suspect that most of the people who won’t explain the rules to you don’t actually understand them either. They just don’t want to admit it. I have the same problem trying to get hockey fans to explain “icing” to me. I just can’t figure out why they call it sometimes and not others….

Sorry, but soccer remains to me the sport that girls – and boys whose moms outvoted their dads – play. Right up there with volleyball. The bastion of suburban “but football is so VIOLENT” soccer moms.

and is 100% all American.

I’ve also always said that as long as America is entranced with football as a competitive sport — from high school on up — socialism in America will be stemmed somewhat.

You know those elitist bastards in Washington never played football, either.

As for soccer — liked the punchline at the end. No, it’s not American.

The coolest thing about it is that when we get to watch it here in the States, we won’t get killed for it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7826934/World-Cup-2010-Somali-football-fans-executed-for-watching-matches.html

Just say no to sharia law…

First, its a relatively low-key game when compared to other popular American sports. It combines the aversion to physicality of basketball with the scoring opportunities of ice hockey. People tolerate basketball’s lame foul system because of the high scores that can quickly and dramatically swing the other way, and hockey’s infrequent goals because the rest of the time the players are pounding the living heck out of each other, and occasionally resorting to fisticuffs as an expected and normal part of a tough match. Soccer possesses neither of these saving traits.

Second, soccer is genuinely exciting to watch in other countries (I lived in England for two years, so i speak from personal experience), because the top-level players represent, with very few exceptions, the top-level athletes in Europe and South America. In the United States, our top-level athletes go for the biggest bucks and the greatest glory, and hence wind up siphoned off into the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Then, to make matters worse, those top athletes who do pursue soccer professionally often go to play in Europe for a club where they can earn some very decent money and play against some of the best soccer players in the world. What we are left with in America is Major League Soccer, which is the laughingstock of the futbol world. No wonder Americans haven’t caught on professional soccer; it’d be like asking the Brits to become fanatical about football by watching the Canadian Football League!

It is not horrible, I kinda liked watching the sheer speed of the Ghana team. But it really is not much too it.

Yes, I know I just don’t “understand” it. But really, there is precious little strategy compared to American Football. And there is little scoring. There is a tremendous amount of flopping.

And then there are the stupid VUVU’s and all the hooliganism.

Don’t need it.

I have AT LEAST as much evidence that I am right as he does that he is right.

Article from yesterday’s edition of The Age (a Melbourne Australia newspaper).

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-sport/strong-police-presence-at-lakers-final-20100617-ygzq.html

Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck says he will be deploying hundreds of extra officers at the final NBA championship game between the Lakers and Boston Celtics on Friday Australian time.

Last year’s championship also triggered rock-and-bottle throwing, vandalism and looting. In 2000, after the Lakers won their first NBA title in 12 years, fans damaged 70 vehicles outside the Staples Centre.

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What could go wrong ?

Some stellar examples of God-given ability morphed into the guise of athletic shoe marketing campaigns and tattoo salesmen, (including a few felons and assorted other miscreants) running around in their underwear on a wood floor for 48 minutes.

Celebritards fighting over courtside first row seats to get ‘face time’ on national TV.

Open scalping of tickets in full view of anyone with even partial vision.

Gangs aplenty looking to ‘have fun’ in the aftermath of a local win, and ‘really have fun’ if the visiting team has the audacity to yank the rug out from under their purple and gold vision of utopia.

Yep, I’d have a boatload of L.E. out there too…….. With some APC’s, horses, shields and some high-tech non-lethal gizmos like the sound wave projector…….. and also with the express statement to every single person anywhere near the venue and downtown that the toys that go bang are within less than two seconds from being in-hand and on full auto.

Wait, this is Los Angeles Califailure…… The perfect city.

I’ve got it all wrong as usual.

There’s no need for a government to project any show of force…….. Ever.

All that’s needed are a smattering of citizen auxiliary patrollers stationed on the veranda of the arena, politely directing the general public away from any v.i.p.’s and celebrities seeking a little entertainment in their busy lives.

That should cover any and all situations possible that could even remotely arise at The Staples Center and downtown Los Angeles.

I had the opportunity to watch much of the just-concluded 1st round match between France (taking the home side) and Mexico (away).

Final score: Mexico 2 – France 0.

I pose that the outcome was predetermined and obviously so.

How do I know this ?

Easy.

Mexico was constantly crossing into the French side of the pitch ; Quickly, without notice of direction, or any other warning. They were also shooting at the French quite often.

France’s position was to surrender immediately upon the 1st half opening whistle.

But in what I have found is normal fashion, Mexico didn’t notice or care. They kept coming at France and crossing their side of the half line….. and shooting.

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Gee……. Am I trying to get a point across ?

Naaaaaaaaaah.

I’m just watching futbol.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooal !

“Part of our aversion to the sport could be the fact that the sport isn’t played like any other sport we’re used to seeing. Like the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup is only played once every four years. Other, smaller competitions take place in the interim. Also, the World Cup is played between nominally amorphous national teams, not established local clubs like football, baseball and, yes, Major League Soccer. In our minds, this seems to work for irregular sports like the Triathalon and the dozens of other sports that largely see great fame only during the Olympics, but for a game like soccer, we feel we should be able to follow our local club to a national (or international) championship.”

This is just incorrect. Like the Olympics, the World Cup pits national teams every four years. (In fact, it was formed to get the professionalizing sport out of the Olympics. Soccer returned when the IOC realized how much money it would be worth.) But from August to May*, it’s contested primarily by local clubs playing for national, continental and world championships. Ever hear of Manchester United? That’s a local club, as are Real Madrid, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Sparta Prague, CSKA Moskow, Chivas de Guadalajara, Glasgow Rangers, Kyoto Sanga, Wellington Phoenix and Columbus Crew. Do well enough in your country’s league and you get to play in the continental league the next year. Win that, and you go to the Club World Cup the next December. Thousands of pro and semi-pro teams in pretty much every country make up the vast majority of soccer competition, which works pretty much like any American would expect — one team goes to another’s stadium, they play a game, repeat forever.

*with a few exceptions, notably USA-Canada because of competition with other sports, and Scandinavia and I think Russia because of snow.