A More Splendid Life

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Last Updated
September 5, 2008 14:02 EDT
Added
May 29, 2008

September 5, 2008

Sarah Palin, Soccer Moms, and Guy Lafleur's Disco Album

2
Some Hockey Mom's Son

A lot is being said about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's use of the term 'hockey mom,' her catchall for middle-class American housewives scared to death of Mad Cow Disease, Islamic fundamentalism, and Hispanic people.

It seems the old 'Soccer Mom' cliche, like the minivan, Dave Matthews Band, and East Asian market melt-downs, is so 1999. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 01:37 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: American sports, Guy Lafleur, Indoor Soccer, Sara Palin, Sarah Palin, hockey, soccer mom

September 2, 2008

What Ronaldo is Worth (According to Manchester City's Newest Owners)

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$250 000 000 seized from Mexican Meth Dealers, Sept 2. 2007 Courtesy I-Am-Bored.com To put this into some sort of perspective, Abu Dhabi United Group is pricing Cristiano Ronaldo at the same dollar amount as the Arab League invested in the Darfur region last Fall. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 12:21 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Abu Dhabi, Darfur, Ronaldo, Transfer fees, perspective

August 31, 2008

Meek Chelsea and Liverpool Surrender 100% Records -- Guardian Headline

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Another one. Has on-line football punditry gone mad? Are my socks black? It's round three ladies and gentlemen. There was a time when 'one hundred percent' referred to undefeated streaks. Surely we shouldn't have to remonstrate poor old Liverpool and victimized Chelsea for not winning their third match of the 2008-2009 Premier League season? Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 04:00 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Chelsea, Darren Bent, English Premier League, Liverpool, aston villa, punditry, tottenham hotspur

August 29, 2008

Cynicism, Football Blogs, and Barack Obama

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Reading through the footballosphere, I get the impression we're in a bit of a dead zone at the moment. The Euros are past and buried, the Premiership is in its infant phase, the Olympics seemed a bit of a dud except for the usual Brazil/Argentina issues, the MLS has lost its appeal for reasons Ben Knight would be better able to talk about, and lately I've been more rapt by the Democratic Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 05:15 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Argentina, Barack Obama, Brazil, David Forsyth, History, Major League Soccer, Olympics, Premiership, dud

August 26, 2008

Peter Crouch's Nachos for Thought

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I'm a freak aren't I? I am. Those bells are ringing in my ears, constantly. I forgot how long it first took me to tune them out -- Defoe said he's still getting used to it. Unbelievable. At least Vidic seems a little intimidated by me. God knows they laughed when I fought them off at Anfield. So bitter those Mancs. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 10:59 AM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Darren Fletcher, Defoe, Peter Crouch, Portsmouth, Vidic, rivalries

August 22, 2008

The Days of the Week: Trouble at the Guardian Football Weekly Podcast

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James was tired. He wiped his hands across his face, dealing with the fatigue caused from meeting all of his commitments, constantly, unendingly. Alone in the studio, he thought of his Setanta job, the meaningless voice overs, covering football, discussing it, but never of it. He ruminated over his decision. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 06:29 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail

August 19, 2008

Ronaldo may have to adapt to a drop in adulation -- Guardian Headline

3
So this is news now is it? Manchester United fans can't bring themselves to support their top-scorer's boyhood dreams -- report. And why does the wording make me feel wrong, like an apple that takes four or five bites to know if its mealy? Is this adulation thing like the stock market, buy low, sell high? Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 09:40 AM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Manchester United, Ronaldo, top scorer

August 17, 2008

David Bentley's Weird 1940s Era Pilot Haircut

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Bentley knew from the first whistle this wouldn't be his 'debut performance.' Tottenham didn't have the pressure-free pleasure enjoyed by Rovers, who didn't have anything to prove at least as far as the league was concerned. But he was tired of all the running and wanted to live in London again. He we would only really miss Santa Cruz. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 02:01 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Bentley, Middlesborough, Wheater, london, santa cruz

August 15, 2008

A Look-See Around the Corner

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So, tomorrow the ruckus begins, and in the spirit of starting afresh, here's a quick breakdown of what to look forward to at A More Splendid Life over the 2008-2009 European football season. You can have some, but only if you're good. Footie Fiction To further elbow my way to the vague middle of the football blog queue, AMSL will try something different by offering a fictionalized summary of Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 06:33 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Elbow, Fiction, Future, preview, spirit

August 10, 2008

How Long Will We All Bother with the Premier League?

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Well, it's almost that time again. The Community Shield has gone and been futile as only it can be, the networks are booming with knee-knocking, bladder-bursting promos featuring men screaming like 19th century parsons about Passion, Glory and Honour, the English leftwing cranks are crying hell and damnation at the prospect of another eight-month orgy of misspent wealth, and the technocrats Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 06:12 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: English Premier League, Neoliberalism, community shield, passion, richard scudamore

August 4, 2008

The Undiscovered Country -- On the Importance of Soccer's Legacy in North America

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Eduardo Galleano once remarked that you can't grasp the whole of cultural history in the West over the past century without discussing the game of football. Most modern historians, sociologists and cultural critics are only now discovering the importance of the sport when analyzing the myriad cultural shifts of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 10:01 AM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Galleano, History, Michael Redhill, Toronto

July 31, 2008

Whole Hog -- The Birth of Toronto FC

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When in February 2003, the Canadian Soccer Association broke the MLS taboo and admitted they wanted into the American pro-soccer league, few would have imagined 20 000 young fans chanting and singing at every match in four years' time. The headline, tucked in the back pages of the Globe and Mail sports section, probably drew little attention. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 07:20 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Canadian Soccer Association, History, Pro Soccer, Richard Peddie, Toronto FC

July 30, 2008

"In a Spirit of Brotherhood" -- Multiculturalism and the Beautiful Game

1
It was an odd sight for this lifelong native of Toronto: patrolling police officers, body searches, and warnings about ejections for racist banners featuring extreme right-wing symbols. All for a crowd of four hundred Croatian and Serbian spectators for a low-level amateur football match on Parkdale's idyllic waterfront. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 06:39 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Brazil, Italy, Toronto, croatian, crowd, multiculturalism, police officers, spectators

July 29, 2008

From Bad to Worse: Pro Soccer in Toronto in the '90s

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What a difference a decade makes. In July 1997, the A-League's (now the USL) newly-formed Toronto Lynx joined their fellow Canadian clubs in the top seven spots in the table, yet could only attract 1500 fans a game to watch them in Varsity's cavernous stadium. Ten years later, 14 000 season tickets would be sold at BMO Field before Toronto FC even kicked off their inaugural season. Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 06:27 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Toronto FC, Toronto Lynx, USL, a-league, decade, montreal impact, season tickets

July 28, 2008

The Great War and the Greatest Game -- The Loss of a Footballing Elite

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For the few brave souls that have read this series in its entirety, you will probably have noticed a marked difference between Canadian soccer in the late 19th and early 20th century (1885 v. USA, the 1888 tour of Britain, the 1904 Galt FC win), and soccer after the First World War. I've touched on this topic in one or two posts, yet because it is of tantamount importance to the direction soccer Click to continue reading...
A More Splendid Life @ 05:14 PM EDT | Blog Profile | Post Detail
Tags: Galt, National Soccer League, Vimy Ridge, World War One