Zak Whitbread :: Connolly/ESPN Soccernet.com (3/8/04)

[Flying Weasel]

ESPN Soccernet.com
Monday, March 8, 2004
Whitbread a wonder at Liverpool
Marc Connolly

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=293654&cc=5901

Interesting article, especially for us U.S. soccer fans.

Some interesting snippets:

While growing up in Liverpool, he was a fan of Manchester United . . . .
But, because Liverpool was his father's team of choice, he joined the club . . .

Mmmmm. A ManUtd fan, but it get's worse . . .

Whitbread is still young enough that he considers David Beckham one of his idols, . . .

Ohh well. And this seems fitting considering the position he plays and his appearance:

. . . as well as Liverpool's 30-year-old center-back Sami Hyypia.

[655321]

Aw, crap...he was born in Houston??? :)

[Parmigiano]

No offense to Zak, but that was a crap article from an editorial point of view. Someone should remind Connolly that most readers don't want to troll through 380 words of mostly irrelevant info before the subject of the article is finally introduced.

[Matt Clark]

It's a crap article for a number of reasons, but that's not one of them. It's called setting the scene and is only irrelevant if all you want to hear about is the player and not his circumstances.

Far worse is getting Ian Cotton (Press Officer) mixed up with Ian Rush (greatest goalscorer ever).

[655321]

Hahaha, didn't even notice that...

(getting flashbacks of my junior high teachers telling me to slow down when I read)