Chris Powell is the definition of the consummate professional and a proud Englishman to boot (not for nothing is one of his middle names George). The 40 year-old left back has played 655 times with five of those appearances coming for England at the turn of the previous decade. He’s still technically registered as a player despite being …
Keeping ScoreBasketball
Game 7: An Epic Close to Celtics-Lakers Series?
Well, we got what we wanted. And tonight’s Game 7 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics is just what this series needed: one last chance to mint this year’s Finals as one of the greats.
Peyton Place-sur-Seine
French coach Raymond Domenech may have decided to put the team’s best interests ahead of his many, many personal grudges for once, but that still doesn’t mean sanity has returned to France’s footballing soap opera. Though virtually all press reports in France Thursday say Domenech is set to make what has long been an obvious right …
Keeping ScoreWorld Cup
Why the U.S. World Cup Ratings Are So Strong
Here, we dissect the impressive World Cup ratings in the States, and chew over their possible impact on American soccer, especially as it pertains to Major League Soccer. The U.S. pro league that has carved out a stable niche, but it hasn’t exactly captured the imagination of casual American sports fans. Do you think the World Cup can …
Switzerland to its Footballers: Thanks Very Much, Now Go Back to Where You Came From
It’s common to celebrate the tapestry of nations coming together at World Cups. The globe unites under a shared passion, and, for one month every four years, it seems hundreds of millions of people assume new nationalities. What other event could transplant the bitter South American rivalry between Brazil and Argentina onto a slum in …
A Glum Reality Check for the World Cup Hosts
While Spain’s 1-0 loss to Switzerland was the first upset of World Cup 2010, the only surprise in South Africa’s 0-3 defeat at the hands of Uruguay was the score-line — and the fact that Diego Forlan managed to keep his shirt on after scoring (he’s lately had a bad habit of earning mandatory yellow cards by whipping it off to celebrate …
Way To Go, Bobby: Bafana Gone
South Africa is now out–thanks in large part to a penalty-granted foul that you’d have to measure by microns–and you’ve gotten the silencing of your hated vuvus! I hope you’re happy, sir!
More seriously, nice match Uruguay–refereeing incontinence notwithstanding, a victory well deserved. You wonder where this side was against France. …
At last, the Cup’s first real upset
No, the U.S. drawing against England doesn’t really count.
Kudos to the Swiss for beating La Furia Roja. The tournament needed that. And arguably, so did Spain. In the run-up to the Cup, its players and coach spent too much time protesting, disingenuously, that they were not the favorites. That struck me as the wrong tone: it suggested …
Why my esteemed colleague is totally wrong about the vuvuzela controversy
Oh, come ON, Glen! Complaints about the vuvuzelas are not, as you suggest, “ridiculous fuss.” And your arch response (hold all Cups in Europe) is disingenuous. It suggests all non-European Cups have featured vuvuzelas, which is patently untrue. And it implies that European tournaments are quiet, decorous affairs – also untrue.
Cheering For North Korea: Weird, But Fun
Okay, let’s get one thing clear: no one likes horrible totalitarian dictatorial regimes that brutalize their populations, starve their people through incompetent and willfully destructive leadership, and spent most of their time threatening war on the outside world while trying to develop nuclear arms to use should those conflicts …
Not Exactly Having a Ball
Post-‘Samba’ Brazil More Likely to Win than to Entertain
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7duaxrSBSo&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Brazil, in dispatching North Korea 2-1 on Tuesday, made clear that we should not expect to see “samba soccer” at World Cup 2010 — and not only because the players couldn’t possibly hear their fans’ traditional rhythm section above the drone of the vuvuzelas. Dunga’s …
South Africa can have its vuvuzelas… as long as it promsies to keep them!
A friend in London reports that the infernal horn has found its way to British supermarkets, where it’s selling like the proverbial hotcakes at two pounds a pop. This raises the dreadful possibility that the vuvuzela will become South Africa’s export to the rest of the soccer world. That’s what happened to the Mexican wave, remember?
If …