Saturday, June 19, 2010

Nada Mas

No more. We should never again participate in the fiasco of political intrigue and short-pants stupidity which is the FIFA World Cup. I mentioned my disaffection with soccer a couple of days ago. I wasn't fibbing. I didn't watch USA vs Slovenia. How ludicrous is a tournament in which ties keep you in the running?

But I couldn't miss the reporting about this episode:



I do know what "off-sides" is in soccer. That is probably the only thing I remember from my attendance at Squadron Officer School decades ago. This wasn't off-sides.

Look at the clip. The ball is kicked before any US player has moved ahead of an opponent. It certainly isn't a "fast-break" basketball style. Moreover, at least three Slovenian players are mugging Americans. The most egregious has one of our players in a bear-hug. Not even an NFL lineman would try that move.

Probably the worst aspect of the whole mess is that the referee simply stonewalls any question about why the goal was disallowed in the first place.

We should stop participating in this sort of global theater in which the apparent objective is to show how pathetically impotent the US is when left to the whims of a Mali operative on the world stage.

Soccer is a game suitable only for pre-pubescent teen-aged girls in upper middle class suburbia where their metrosexual fathers can root for them and mom can wait in the Excalibur or go shopping until the tedium ends.

2 comments:

sofa said...

Grew up playing. Played in a few National final fours.
Refereed: Grade 6.
Coached many select teams. Coached in a National youth boys final four.

Then the light bulb came on. An out of shape moron with a whistle decides the match - The players are merely an athletic distraction from the soap opera which is the rotten core of the game.

Walked away from it just 2 years ago. Now I have much more time at the range.

juvat said...

"We should stop participating in this sort of global theater in which the apparent objective is to show how pathetically impotent the US is when left to the whims of a Mali operative on the world stage"

Were we discussing the UN?