Posted on 05/18/2012 2:47:30 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
LONDON—Words can barely describe the jaw-dropping season finale staged by England's Premier League last weekend, but that didn't stop every pundit, Twitter wag and pub crawler in Britain from searching many beers into Sunday night for new ways to say "best season ever."
The day started at 3 p.m. with seven of the league's 20 teams still playing for something important: not just the championship, but also to secure berths in a prestigious Europe-wide competition and the right to stay in the Premier League at all, under rules that annually demote the weakest teams.
It wasn't settled until minutes before 5 p.m., when two improbable late goals delivered Manchester City—the world's only underdog lavishly bankrolled by an Abu Dhabi sheik—its first title since the late 1960s. Former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher described the feeling that swelled up in City supporters when he told the BBC: "I just swore a lot. I cried, I cried like a baby." Celebrating in a Santiago, Chile, bar, he "may have tried" to rip a TV off the wall.
Observing the mayhem from my usual perch at the Gunmakers pub in London's Marylebone, I left the television undisturbed, but marked a personal milestone of my own: I've made the switch from American football to real football. After years of trying to sneak away from the National Football League—with its weaponized linemen, bounty-hunting defenses and periodic bursts of action to break up the commercials—I am finally, completely finished with it. You may be ready for some football, but I'm so bored with the NFL.
As an American, this puts me at loggerheads not just with my countrymen—this year's Super Bowl was the most watched program in U.S. history—but also my colleague and boss, Wall Street Journal deputy editor in chief Gerard Baker.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Whats the toughest thing about playing soccer?
- Having to tell your parents you’re gay
At least a soccer game does end in our lifetime. Our whole hosehold is pretty irritated with the how-many-commercials-can-we possibly-get NFL games (didn’t they used to be fully within a 3 hour slot as televised?). and for baseball games, my wife will absolutely not tolerate the duration which has more spitting per inning than any other action. Golf is actually beginning to seem as exciting as baseball (and not much longer).
You say that, but everytime they’ve interviewed soccer players, they basically said that they are not comfortable playing with gays on their team, and that a gay player would have a pretty rough go of it.
I haven’t had time to check the score...Is it still 0-0?
My son was a goalie. It is not that gentle when you are diving for a ball just as a player is unloading a blast or... when you are playing kiss-kiss with an upright.
I love World Cup soccer because they play their hearts out for their countries (and soccer has no commercials). US and Mexican soccer suck by comparison.
Would it make you feel any better if each goal in soccer was worth 7 points?
Live hockey is incredible; not so good on TV.
If they were worth 100 points, the score would still be 0-0
Yes, indeed. Here’s the proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlG3qqtWNy8
Less than 5% of games end 0-0.
well, if noel gallagher is going to cry about soccer then it must be the world’s greatest game . don’t writers ever read what they write before they send their items off to print?
US soccer will never be popular because it is too easy for Americans to watch live games where they have talent (Europe, where even the best South Americans play). Why would someone watch the Red Bulls when they can watch Real Madrid?
Even hockey now seems to have endless TV timeouts, which really screws things up when you attend the games.
perhaps, but what percent of the games that ended 1-0 had the score occur in the last minute?
It’s like European basketball fans...are you going to watch your domestic league games, or the NBA.
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