How MLS can help North America's lack of passion for football - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
I should start off by explaining why I wrote this piece. Well, mainly because I feel obligated to do a follow-up post after writing this.So here we go.
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude.
Two very different things. Manchester United is a football club and "Drop it like it's hot" is a
song by Snoop Dogg. What relation could there possibly. Well, how about Rio Ferdinand and a
2009/2010 Manchester United home shirt.
Judging from the shirt, it seems like an event from last year.
Four scores and seven years ago, or so it feels like now, Yours Truly had the chance to meet and
greet and play an actual football game with Steve McMahon. Yes, he of the
last-Scouser-to-win-anything-of-note, familiar-face-on-Indian-tellys,
Singapore-based-coach-and-pundit fame. In Chennai for the Great British Sports festival organized
by the British Deputy High Commission, Abhinav Bindra Foundation and our good friends at Slum
Soccer, Steve consented to play an exhibition game with the Slum Soccer+few assorted
tagger-alongers (e.
The ex-Arsenal and Wales striker John Hartson has one of his little outbursts and he reckons that
"people" are sick of Arsene Wenger always blaming the referee when his team gets beaten. The
Gunners have one of the worst disciplinary records in the Premiership this season and Wenger thinks
that it purely down to the [.
After the season that's just gone by, most Arsenal fans will be tempted to say ‘the entire
fricking lot', but quite obviously even Roman Abramovich will not prescribe to that modus
operandi.
A million apologies. I try and get a sensible headline in whenever I can, honest to God. But
sometimes there are a few guilty pleasures, like a secretly hummable Backstreet Boys song or a soft
spot for a Stoke player, that are too tempting to just mouse over without comment.
A trip scheduling mess up meant that when Cesc was having his pretty-weak-by-his-standards
penalty saved, I was sitting on a train headed home, bored, tired and nervous beyond belief. I had
to rely on texts from friends which is never an ideal situation. When my cell phone's reception was
immaculate, the friends never messaged and when they did manage to send a hurriedly typed out text,
a lack of service providers ensured I received its contents a good half an hour later.
Call me finicky, weird or whatever you may, but I have a hate list. And I pride it on being a
very dynamic and vibrant list, chopping and changing its occupants depending on new entries
storming their way in, older entries getting stale and my hatred for them withering away into a
faint emotion of pity, the weather and the menu at our hostel mess.
Journalist: Xavi Hernandez, I would firstly like to thank you for giving us a
few minutes of your valuable time. I would also like to congratulate you on the World Cup triumph.
You must obviously be delighted.
Xavi: As you say, it is obvious that I am delighted.
This World Cup has been quite interesting in the amount of publicity it has made off the pitch,
rather than on it. Going by the adage 'No publicity is bad publicity', FIFA and Sepp will be
grinning from ear to ear at this event which has now truly attained the status of a global event
(unlike the Americans who call their 16-team leagues the 'World Series').
In my experience, predictions made by the ‘expert pundits' have a success rate equal to that
of Bangladesh in Test Cricket. Factor in that even a draw counts as a success to the Bangladeshis
and it makes this statistic infinitely bleaker. All sooth saying that have been done with
Reputations as a frame of reference this time around in South Africa have fallen flat; as flat as
Russell Peters' stand up shows are when you watch them for even just the second time.
Now I can joke around about it, but the fact remains that Arsenal players have had a stinker of
a World Cup. But while Vela flitting around like an inconspicuous Mexican Cochineal before getting
injured is not entirely surprising, one sight which has raised quite a few eyebrows is our captain
cooling his heels on the bench for almost the entire tournament so far.
It's a room that gives birth to conflicts in your mind. As soon as you enter the chamber and see
the garishly purple walls, the crudely drawn stick figures on those walls, balloon shaped and magic
wand shaped cut-outs, you immediately think: Ten year olds playroom. But that's when the conflict
starts.
Now I know the World Cup, which is the greatest sporting event in the history of mankind and
other assorted one dimensional and pan dimensional beings if you believe the news channels, is
going on. And I've tried to enjoy it, I really have. I've sat in front of the television willing it
to entertain me somehow.
As Captain of the England team, Gerrard calls Rooney to make sure he is alright after hearing
that other members of the team were ridiculing his new hair transplant. Rooney exclaims he just
wants to be like other men and make his hair up. Gerrard goes on to tell Rooney he really didn't
need to get a transplant done as some people will go on to have either looks or talent and Rooney
has talent.
Footballers and the continued connection to horse racing - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Ownership of a horse is a sign of wealth and affluence, with modern day footballers some of the
richest people in sporting circles both in the United Kingdom and further afield.
With the money attached to horse racing and betting, leading figures in football stand to make
more money than their already inflated wages.
The phenomenon that is 'A Clockwork Orange' (for it would do it massive injustice to simply call
it a book or a movie) is very interesting when viewed through the prism of modern sport. It deals
with a protagonist, who enjoys violence, gets into fights for fun and is completely unapologetic
through it all.
In FIFA 10, EA Sports' widely popular football game, the weekly salary of Wayne Rooney is set
at £110,000 in Manager Mode. That is how rich a virtual edition of Wayne Rooney is.
Clubs like Burnley, Blackpool, Hoffenheim, Hercules have recently entered their respective
country's premier championship and impressed all neutrals.
Worried. Rarely have Lyon supporters felt so worried before the start of the championship.
Worried that, for the first time in over ten years, their club might not be on the podium come the
last game of the season. Indeed, Ligue 1 observers now seem to predominantly place Lyon in the
outsiders category, with Paris, Marseille and Lille being the favourites for the podium.
Two teams. Two coaches who count on the Coupe de France to salvage their record at the end of
the season. Granted, Nice is in a far worse position than Lyon; but when you're coaching Lyon,
you're expected to win the title, or, at the very least, to be qualified for the Champions
League.
In the past two years, Olympique Lyonnais' iconic president Jean-Michel Aulas has been less of
the media addict he used to be. But that doesn't mean he kept completely quiet, and on several
occasions throughout the season he voiced his concerns and observations, sometimes quite frankly.
But usually, in the transfer season, Lyon play the smooth operator, and little is being announced
or even discussed publicly.
The second half of the season is about to begin, we have our eyes set on that first game against
Lorient, but there are a couple of interesting things that have been said or done around the club
lately.
Hands up who knows what footballing event happened on Saturday 3rd March 1995 in a place famous
the world over for golf? It was change that has literally resulted in billions of pounds worth of
revenue flowing into the game in some form or another. Still none the wiser? Well what if I said
that it also resulted in us, TV viewers, being exposed to the intellect of the likes of Andy
Townsend, Harry Redknapp and Edgar Davids?
England's woeful performance in South Africa has reignited the debate surrounding season
lengths in the UK and Europe. Could player fatigue be the excuse every fan so desperately needs?
Not unless you include Maicon and Xavi, argues Robert Collins.
The 2009-2010 campaign saw the majority of the England squad played between 40 and 60
games,leading some to question whether the demands of the English football calendar have taken
their toll on their international performances.
Knee-jerk. Look at that phrase, roll it around your tongue, and say it in your head. Knee-jerk.
That is the god awful, insidious, depressingly ubiquitous mental response to anything to do with
the England football team in this country.
It would even appear the trend has migrated Franz Beckenbauer's incongruous comments that
England are a 'kick and rush' football team and have gone ‘backwards' have sparked another wave
of self denigration that inevitably culminates in the bogus assertion that the Premier League the
most watched league in the world employs too many foreigners.
World Cup 2010 is around the corner and just like the previous years, hot football fans will be
travelling with their nations to boost their morals. For once and for all, it does not matter if
the English WAGs aren't travelling with their respective players (or John Terry) because all the
Brazilian, Italian, Spanish, German, Argentinean and even Australian hotties will be there to keep
us entertained.
Ducky's Note: Ankur is the latest guest columnist on this blog and,
finally, a Manc. Since he's not a gay Arsenal type, he is not going to sing songs
here or write poems, two characteristics that seem to define
gooners.
Always felt Inception was better than Dark Knight.
- The Dude from Rotten Tomatoes
Jovanovic is no better than Voronin, but I haven't seen him play yet.
- The Irreverent Pundit, Carlton Palmer
With the start of the premiership and the date with Colney Creche looming large, there is only
one thing a blogger with a newly upgraded website could do about - Consume large amounts of booze
and wail in self pity Write a Season Preview.
Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow Footballers with great hair, all the time - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Hair is something we can almost universally live without, and yet it is a very important part of a person's life, from start to end. From your mother admonishing you to comb your hair to growing up in a world that takes extra notice of you because of your appearance your hair plays an important part in your life (especially when you start losing hair).
Player Rivalries: Best of Enemies - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Club rivalries are passed down through the generations; every Spurs fans knows that Arsenal are
the enemy, Barcelona look at Real Madrid with contempt, whilst River Plate and Boca Juniors fans
were born to fight each other.
Before I proceed to justify yesterday's defeat against the Tangerines, along with my thesis on
rising onion prices and how it could cause tears to the eyes, it is time to take a deep breadth and
a silence of two minutes for it was my cat that died yesterday.
*After two minutes*
First of all, Football, let me assure you, is like Fight club.
