Depends on if Ronaldo can shake them out of their complacency, or if Nani instead stupefies them with his unerring idiocy.
Ulohtsa
derrylmurphy
I was in the stands in Edmonton when Canada (anyone remember when they could field a team that could sometimes play? Crazy talk, I know) drew Brazil 1-1. We could hear the wailing and rending of garments up in the press box from the 10th row, center pitch. The drummers in yellow and green in the stands across the way…
Because they're going to field a different team. Even if it's the same players, it can be a different team, based on what their manager wants them to do. The US nicely weathered the storm from Ghana, but if they have to put up with the same thing from Germany they're fucked. So they'll have to reorganize how they…
Because Arsenal.
Yeah, it's certainly worse for the players in extra competitions, which is why top clubs have to carry a whole lot of players. But the good news is some of that distance is spent at a walk or at worst a gentle jog.
I got stomped on the top of my foot last season. Nobody saw it, not ref, not fans, and no players on the field, because it happened so fast. The kid who did it (I was an old man foolishly playing in my son's league) apologized right away, though. I was black and blue for a couple of weeks.
Just watched Gervinho go down in the area because he had to avoid an outstretched leg. Didn't whine and moan, just got back up to play again. Then, a little later, he could have gone down in the area and likely got the call, but instead made a sublime series of moves to score a great goal. I know the Colombian…
At least 8 players on each team - 9, if you don't count the keeper - play the entire 90+ minutes, and will travel between 8 and 13 km, depending on passing skills and how much the other team has the ball. It gets tiring, even if you're a top-conditioned athlete, more so when you're playing in the heat. Someone hits…
Has anyone else noticed this is the World Cup where your name has to start with the letter P before you get a red card? Perreira, Palacios, Pepe...
Duh. So I did. Apparently my fingers are dyslexic.
What most Americans (and we Canadians, too, I shall admit) think of when someone mentions soccer is a bunch of kids thrown onto the field, running like chickens with their heads cut off, kicking a ball and then chasing it. You know, the sort of game coaches of kids talk about when they tell the kids they don't want to…
No commercials? No wonder it's a goddamn commie sport full of terrorists.
I think it was a more a reaction to the recent elections in Europe, and all the anti-immigrant noise, rather than anything else. My boys and I (well, my boys, because I'm old and pathetic) found some problems with it, but I see its point. Although I wonder about Reus from Germany: they mention him in the photo, but…
The longest stretch without a draw since the 1943 World Cup, apparently.
God damn, what a great non-call by the Uzbeki ref at the end there. Does anyone know if he gave a yellow to the Ecuadorian when it was all done?
Apropos of nothing to specifically do with this game, but check out this piece about what World Cup teams would look like without immigrants. Not just players who decided to go elsewhere, but kids of immigrants, too. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/…
If you look carefully, you can see Sepp Blatter on the Swiss bench. That might have something to do with the ranking.
Pierre Maguire, maybe? Interesting in this house, anyways, in that I have to be restrained from putting a foot through the TV whenever he's yapping.
Hoilett could choose Jamaica, too, but I wonder if he'll ever choose anything. I know when Peschisolido was agitating to get the men's national team coaching spot, he promised he would get Hoilett for the team.
Their keeper may be incroyable, but he's also damned good at doing amazingly boneheaded things. I for one look forward to seeing if they're so boneheaded it ends up twisting the knife.