For whatever the reason, the term "friendly" can be lumped together with diving (i.e. David Ngog)
and the quantum physics intricacies of the offside rule as primary reasons why mainstream media
types prefer to mock soccer, as opposed to caring about it. What exactly is a "friendly" anyway?
Why not call it an exhibition?
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Please chime in on this, as I'm sure there will be much debate. Ken Gude of the Huffington Post
says that 2009 is the year that soccer arrived in America. Not because of Pele or Beckham, but
because of mainstream media (read ESPN) upping the ante on soccer coverage. He also cites the
continued success of the sport at the youth level and, consequently, improved play on the field by
our Men's National Team.
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Quote: His season with the Result (highlight to reveal): Galaxy has been similar to Alex
Rodriguez's with the Yankees — short on drama and long on performance. Here's a fun game for you.
Who is Jere Longman referring to in this sentence? I'd provide a link to Longman's New York Times
article, but the answer is given in the link.
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It's not what you own, it's what you're owed this is how the balance of power currently lies at
the Rangers Football Club. Lloyds Banking Group is owed far more than they own, and they are
prepared to take drastic measures to get what they are owed up to and including administration, if
reports of Rangers' mid-October board meeting are to be relied upon.
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If ever two rounds of FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifiers demonstrated the utter and
complete fake of the whole charade, these last two rounds were it.
The icing on an incredibly corrupt cake inevitably occurred at the Mall.
David Beckham performs no more than adequately for 32 minutes as a substitute, publicly displaying
his new self-adhesive Dostoyevskian facial hair, and Steve Bruce, the man who still seems to think
that Rio Ferdinand has his nose on the job, gives Our National Treasure the Man of the Match award.
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The moment that England's chances of winning the 2010 World Cup ended came in the fifteenth minute
in Dnepropetrovsk yesterday.
At that time, for the second occasion this season in England internationals, Rio Ferdinand, already
well versed in defensive shenanigans at Old Trafford, did huge favours for David "Calamity" James,
Key Sports agents and bookmakers throughout the land.
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25% of blog posts in Britain are fake.
These bloggers are paid by the inevitable middle people to include content that is linked to a
particular website.
We are inundated with such proposals, as they are seeking blogs that are trusted by their
readership.
Some of these operations are less shady than others but, with the worst examples, the blogger is
paid markedly extra for including positive content about the website with an embedded link in the
post.
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I have no idea what Ongisnade means but it is the name of what I guess is an independent Arema
supporters' website and bloody well designed it is to (all in Indonesian).
The guys there produce an excellent looking on-line fanzine called, obviously, Ongisnade, but for
some reason after I download it I can never open it!
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Sources have been informing our trading team that Tottenham Hotspur manager, Harry Redknapp, is
leaving the club after the match against Bolton Wanderers this afternoon.
Contrary to the rampant rumours circulating yesterday, Redknapp will not be returning to former
club Portsmouth as there would likely be a lynching for the Fake Freeperson of the City.
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So, who shall we point the finger of scorn at today?
[Strokes chin in mock consideration]
I know.
Southerners and people from t'other side of the Pennines.
It should possibly be noted as a meagre aside here that, in that we have only a scribbled-in-crayon
agenda as to who we target, we tend to piss off everybody in the end.
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In the past few weeks much criticism has been levied at those, including myself who made an
effort to critique the 5-0 loss in the Gold Cup Final by the United States to Mexico.
After all what difference does a 5-0 loss make to your biggest rivals when you are playing a "C"
team and they are playing an "A minus" team?
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Sulaiman Al-Fahim is, of course, the new owner of Portsmouth Football Club, but his
accession there hasn't been without a degree of controversy. Mark Murphy wonders this emperor's new
clothes are already starting to look a bit ragged.
According to the Premier League, Sulaiman Al-Fahim is a fit and proper person to be running one
of its clubs.
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Nick Thomas of WeWantRapidman and yours truly were guests on a podcast by Robert Jonas of Center
Line Soccer as the Bay Area Web site previewed the two upcoming games between the San Jose
Earthquakes and the Colorado Rapids.
Nick focused very precisely about the Rapids' current manpower situation, we both talked a bit
about Coach Gary Smith's influence on the team since taking over a year ago.
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Red Rants 14 September @ 05:19 AM EST
Pardon the overly extreme headline and this will be a short one, I promise but it's things like
these that rub bloggers or independent reporters the wrong way. You would expect the mainstream
media to follow basic journalistic etiquette; if it's a quote you attribute the source, or give
credit where it's due.
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Pomposity, sharp suits, a clipped accent courtesy of your private or finishing school, the English
view of intelligence is a chromatic aberration.
The individuals put forward as innovative, ground-breaking, free-thinking creative types share one
common theme - these people are repeatedly incorrect in their assertions.
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East Lower 03 September @ 03:59 PM EST
So what's going on? Well predictably, Arsenal have appealed against the Eduardo ban. And they
haven't minced their words with their response to Uefa:
The Club is in receipt of Uefa's reasoned decision in relation to the charge against Eduardo. We
strongly believe that the decision taken is deeply flawed and not based on any forensic review of
the video evidence available.
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Morning everyone.
The fallout has begun. For years and years Wenger has been subjected to the vilest of chants, as
serious as any racial abuse, whenever we have made the trip to Old Trafford (and certain other
grounds, too). The mainstream media occasionally give it a casual reference, but until yesterday it
had never been properly addressed.
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Arseblog 03 September @ 01:54 AM EST
Morning.
I don't know how long Man United fans have been singing that song about Arsene Wenger, years and
years. I know I've mentioned many times on this blog. It's always audible when the games are on TV
it's been a huge credit to the manager that he's never reacted to them. And how difficult must that
be when you consider what they're singing.
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In this new series, I'll be highlighting blatant cheating in football, whether it's diving,
feigning injury or any other dubious method of gaining an unfair advantage. The naming and shaming
of cheats does happen enough in the sycophantic mainstream media, which is more concerned with
putting players on pedestals than telling the truth.
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You have to feel for Peter Storrie.
His second face was ecstatic as Pompey sunk to their latest defeat at the Emirates last Saturday.
For, despite the defeat, our sneaky CEO had only gone and done the dirty on the man who was sitting
next to him, US college kid lookalike, Sulaiman al-Fahim.
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the yorkies 27 August @ 06:14 PM EST
A tempest in a 6 foot 3 teapot? It seems as if a mini firestorm has been swirling around BMO Field
this pass week with a lot "
he said - no one said" coming from the traditional media
circles. By now, most TFC supporters have heard the story - team legend and voted "
most likely
to walk on water" Danny Dichio had been left off the roster for recent league matches and was
apparently told he wouldn't be travelling with the team to Seattle for this week's match against
Sounders FC.
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Regular readers of the blog will have noticed the introduction of our new format which I believe
will appeal to many Gooners. The site will have a minimum of two blogs daily with match reports and
breaking news items making 3 posts daily. Look for our content also on Twitter and Facebook.
Intended format
In the early morning (0700-0900)
There will be a round up of the daily british newspapers with any relevant Arsenal content.
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Or that should read magnificent Tony Tannous from the Half-Time Heroes.
Was he the only football writer in the country to have any real analysis of the opening game?
He picked the Jedinak factor as being important, no surprise their but unlike any other football
analyser in the mainstream media he solved the problem, or least found out the solution from the
man who knew, Laurie McKinna.
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The internet is dominated by teenagers. If you doubt it, go to Yahoo, look at any sports story,
and take a look at the comments. Those that are decipherable (why do people use text speak when
space isn't limited?) are almost exclusively the extreme views of the fickle, the black and white
majority that see either unprecedented success, or unmitigated disaster on the horizon.
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By Brooke Tunstall - CHARLOTTE, NC (Jul 25, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- For obvious reasons, the
United States National Team's run to the finals of last month's Confederations Cup made headlines
around the world. It even captured the attention of the mainstream media that usually has very
little time for the sport.
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Lots of big things are going on in our little corner of the soccer world, and that is mostly a good
thing. People are talking about the game, taking sides on issues and generally getting a little
more glide in their soccer stride. Yea, us! Grant Wahl's book has infiltrated the MSM (mainstream
media) as the excellent [.
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I am talking tomorrow with Gustavo Arellano (KPFK 90.7/4:00pm) about David Beckham, one of my
favorite subjects. Becks, of course, is much in the news for his reappearance on the LA Galaxy
roster in an exhibition match against the other team in his life - AC Milan. (See Nick Green's
match report.)
While watching the game on television this afternoon, I couldn't help noticing that the man seems
happier.
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While David Moyes did not mention him by name, seems the mainstream media believes Moyes statements
two nights ago at the Everton shareholder's forum made it clear that Joleon Lescott will not be
leaving Goodison.
"I have already said there will be no players sold at Everton and I do not feel I need
to say any more"
"The board have never sold a player from me, it will only be at my discretion.
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                                               Â
      Photo by ISIphotos.com
David Beckham took part in his first practice with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday, and while
one might have expected him to be taking questions about his time in AC Milan and his return to LA,
all anybody wants to talk about his Landon Donovan.
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                                               Â
      Photo by ISIphotos.com
David Beckham took part in his first practice with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday, and while
one might have expected him to be taking questions about his time in AC Milan and his return to LA,
all anybody wants to talk about his Landon Donovan.
Click to continue reading...
Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl's soon to be released book, "The Beckham
Experiment", reveals that ESPN paid 19 Entertainment, Mr. Davey Becks' management company, to
produce the hour-long documentary which was broadcast before his first match with the LA Galaxy
back in 2007.
In what Wahl describes as an "example of checkbook journalism", the program entitled "David
Beckham: New Beginnings" (part one above, the rest is on YouTube) was positioned as an insidery
look at the lead up to Davey's move to Los Angeles something ESPN The Magazine failed to get when
19 Entertainment denied them interview access to Beckham.
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the yorkies 04 July @ 08:25 PM EST
Regular readers of The Yorkies' site know that one of our aims is to shed light on the fairly poor
coverage of Toronto FC in the local mainstream media. In order to illustrate this, and positive
coverage as well, we are set to unveil The Yorkies'
"TFC Media League".
The league will be a year-long tally featuring local media outlets vying to win the prestigious
Graham Leggat Trophy named for the Scottish pioneer of Canadian football broadcasting.
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Okay, I don't know the machinations of international confederation soccer so maybe this type of
thing happens all the time and I have never really noticed. But Tuesday's CONCACAF ruling that
allows the US to call 7 more players to their already established Gold Cup squad feels dodgy.
In a nutshell, CONCACAF changed the rules on Tuesday to allow a country that participates in
both the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup to call a roster of 30 players, as opposed to 23.
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Michael Bradley showed his passion at the end of the Egypt game when he told us all off. That
for me wasn't a rebuke but a proud moment. The United States National Team which for years lived in
a bubble with nothing but a few media who followed them and passionate, sometimes uncritical fan
support had become big time.
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OK, so we've had 24 hours to reflect and rejoice on the United States' 2-0 win over Spain in the
Confederations Cup semifinals yesterday. And while the win is getting somewhat its just due from
the mainstream media (ESPN actually led SportsCenter last night with it), some in the U.S. soccer
community are trying to put the victory in some sort of historical context.
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