Official World Cup matches discussion thread [R]

Seems like a good place to share this feature piece by Jeff Carlisle on the ESPN homepage:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-...ce/us/us-team-decades-futility?cc=5901&ver=us

The story may not be news to most on these boards, but it really distills the great strides that soccer has already made in this country.

 

The refs are crap!!






Oh wait.

Sorry, jumping the gun a little there ...

go usa!!!

- Mark

 

Currently the score is :
South Africa 0 vs. Mexico 0


it will not stay that way though.
SA wins

 

Jeff Carlisle does a damned good job telling it.

 

Yeah, only thing he negates to mention is that ESPN and sports media as a whole have and continue to treat soccer as if it is not only unpopular, but non-existent.

Surely soccer in the US has continued to suffer due to the lack of any real coverage by sports broadcasts, including mainly ESPN. Not only are soccer games not broadcast (if rarely), they are not promoted, they are not covered, they are not talked about. Soccer is relegated to the lowest point in sports in America. Obviously, the NFL, MLB, and NBA are the major sports in the US and will continue to be for quite some time. But ESPN and sports media continue to treat soccer as a sub-par sport, on the bottom rung of the sports totem pole - below NHL, below NASCAR, below golf, below college basketball/football/baseball, almost below horse racing and mixed martial arts and cycling. Surely the lack of coverage, the lack of familiarity in America keeps more Americans from being able to follow the sport, much less want to follow it or become interested in it. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: the sports networks see the seemingly lack of national interest in soccer, and cover the sport accordingly, thereby continuing the lack of interest in soccer, and repeat...

Of course, the most popular sport in the world deserves more coverage than that. When 30,000 people show up to Seattle Sounders games on a regular basis, and sports networks continue to ignore the following and the interest, they do a disservice to the whole country. Of course, I'm sure the MLB, NBA, and NFL pay ESPN handsomely to continue their near-total tri-opoly (is that a word?) of sports coverage.

It's just sad and frustrating to see soccer be deliberately not given attention only to perpetuate the stranglehold that the other major sports have on the sports media.

edit - riiiiight.. World Cup games... sorry about the rant I'll be watching SA vs Mexico, should be a very exciting opening for this year! And I'll be rooting for France to lose too Of course, for us it won't really feel like the WC has started until Saturday... can't wait!

 

Yep! You've got it. ESPN, FOX, and others want to see soccer fail in this country. As long as they don't have to learn a new sport, as long as they can continue to talk about the sports that they know and get paid handsomely for it, they are happy. And you can bet that they get plenty of threats from the big sports in this country. "Kiss our butts, early and often, or you don't get access to our athletes or coaches."

It will change eventually, but it's going to take time.

Until then . . .

*@#$% England!!!!

USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

- Mark

 

Elliott Almond had a very nicely written preview to the World Cup in the Mercury News today.

Unfortunately, Almond's preview was deliberately overshadowed in the paper by a snide and insipid commentary by Mark Purdy, who is, charitably speaking, a disgrace to journalism. Purdy, who thinks that soccer action gets bogged down at midfield (but loves ice hockey where the center ice trap won New Jersey several Stanley Cups), who thinks that the World Cup shouldn't be called that because he says a team from Europe or Brazil is likely to win while populus China and India didn't qualify (but loves baseball and its phony World Series, won seemingly every other year by the Yankees and exactly never by the San Francisco Giants), and who thinks hardly anyone will be traveling to South Africa because it's so far away (even though if he kept up with the news he would know that more Americans are making the roughly 24-hour plane trip than those arriving from any other country.)

I'd provide a link to Purdy's drivel, but I'm not going to do the douchebag any favors. Purdy's excuse for hating the Quakes has always been that they are not "world class," and yet when the globe's biggest sporting event -- bigger than the Olympics -- comes around, all he can do is pee all over it. Purdy is a soccer hater, pure and simple, a bigot who should follow Helen Thomas out the door and into the graveyard for media dinosaurs.

 

If anybody's into betting, I think a good bet to make before the World Cup would be for France to miss out on the knockout round. Probably good odds, and IMO likely to happen, since France is shit this year, Mexico looks awesome, and South Africa is the host nation and would be the first host ever to end at the group stage.

 

France is merde this year!

 

Don, I had to laugh when I saw your post because when I finished reading Purdy's article in the paper that morning I told my wife Merryl, "Purdy just wrote a really insipid article about the World Cup".

One of Purdy's big "jokes" or "points" was that when he watches soccer and the ball gets bogged down in midfield "as it often does" he tends to look away from the game and over to the stands to see how much beer people are drinking or other interesting things. But this year, he says, he will instead be looking to see how many black faces are in the stands to gauge if the WC will really be showcase for SA and for soccer or not. So if you want great sociological insights I suppose you will want to follow Dr. Purdy's future expostulations on the subject.

 

Awesome Nike World Cup commercial. The Wayne Rooney portion is especially great.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE[/ame]

 

The whole thing is great. They even got Homer in there!

 

brilliant post...

 

absolutely right...

 

oh, and just for Mark...

...go England!!!

honestly, I'm conflicted on this one...born in England but lived in US since age 4...usually I root for both...
...but for Saturday, I'm leaning slightly towards, and expecting a dominant performance from, England.

 

I think I speak for most people on this board when I say, I hope you're VERY disappointed come Saturday afternoon.

 

that's the strange part, I wouldn't be VERY disappointed...I've always followed and supported US soccer...and hope both teams advance...just being realistic about Saturday.

 

@$%& Enguland!! @$%& Enguland!! @$%& Enguland!! @$%& Enguland!! @$%& Enguland!!

Three and OUT for the Limey tossers! To hell in a handbasket with the lot of them!

GO USA!!!

USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

How am I supposed to drag my ass to work Friday morning with Mexico!!! crushing SA first thing in the morning? I guess I'll be eating burritos at lunch and drinking bogus beer, because real beer would make me fall asleep, or scream randomly all afternoon!

- Mark

 

i'm england till i die
england till i die
i know i am
i'm sure i am
i'm england till i die

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9SmXz5E1R4"]YouTube- Football's Coming Home (3 Lions)[/ame]

re USA :

where were you
where were you
where were you when you were shit ?

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2256618/

 

I've seen a couple of rumors that when he got divorced, Landon actually got custody of his sack. So, I'm hoping that bodes well for team USA.



GO USA!!!
GO QUAKES!!!!
@#$& Enguland!!!!

- Mark

 

Cool article.

He's going to get in trouble for this:

Dude, I get what you're saying, but there are some in this country who, you know, have no sense of humor at all.

USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!

- Mark

 

I thought it was "sac," Mark, "sac."

 

You're right, Mark. Although it differs a bit from the Beatles remark about Jesus. Problem is: It's true (and the fundies will up in arms).