Football

“Insipid” Sounds About Right

Jeezo peezo. If that farce was a World Cup 1/8th final match, I wonder how we managed to avoid death by narcolepsy during the group rounds. Certainly the Netherlands deserved its 2-1 victory over Slovakia, but only because it lost what for the most part looked like a sleepwalk competition: the Dutch couldn’t quite manage to be as …

Multipolar Dreaming

Japan’s inspiring play last night (and Tony’s post) have me daring to wish for what in any other Cup would have been the impossible: greatly favored sides being shown the door by nominally modest rivals. If France and Italy can both go out in disgrace, and the U.S. finish ahead of England, why not hope for (but not lay lots of money …

Ah, They’re Home! After Them!

It just keeps getting uglier. Not 48 hours after their World Cup elimination, members of France’s soccer team returned to a French public whose lust for pay-back hasn’t been seen since locals who collaborated with Nazi troops were being shot or shorn of their hair. Indeed, the public, press, and political denunciation of the …

The Agony of Defeat (Not To Mention Group Suicide)

And so the miracle the entire world had waited for transpired after all. No, France didn’t pull itself out of the pathetic, self-mocking off-field tantrums for which it had become a laughing-stock in recent days. And didn’t knock in enough goals to beat South Africa and sneak into the knock-out round as Mexico lost against Uruguay. …

Portugal Resplendent

The match isn’t over yet (well, it is; just time isn’t out yet), but Portugal’s 5-0-and-counting drubbing of North Korea is as impressive as Germany’s opening pounding of Australia was—and perhaps then some. Sure, it turns out Australia isn’t as bad as it looked in taking four unanswered German goals last week, while North …

Player Gives Domenech A Piece of France’s Mind

Now we know what it took for French coach Raymond Domenech to—finally—pull the utterly useless attacker Nicolas Anelka off the pitch in the hopes someone else might create something remotely resembling an offensive presence: Anelka lavishly insulting the previously adoring Domenech in front of the entire squad.

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 …

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 …

Taking On Vuvuzela Inc.

One thing seems certain as the great global debate continues to rage over whether the South African vuvuzela should be banned from World Cup stadiums or not: someone is going to find a way to make a truckload of money out of the rumpus. And a couple of companies are already seeking to do just that by moving fast on what’s become the …

Away from the Hermit Kingdom, North Korea Faces the World

Every World Cup needs its mystery team, usually a side of minnows few know very much about — in 2006, the “Soca Warriors” of Trinidad & Tobago played that role with cuddly, heart-warming gusto. It’s a bit harder to attach that sort of sentiment to North Korea, whose dictatorial regime is one of the most alienated and vilified in the …

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