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 ...
In Europe (and in Oakland) the thugs are in the stands, in the U.S. they’re on the field chasing their coaches bounties.
The wives and girlfriends of the players are much hotter than in any other sport; much hotter.
It is also one of the few sports where height has advantages that may be offset by short, very athletic players.
Lionel Messi at 5’7” is clearly one of the best athletes in the world; and, by the time he is finished may be considered one of the top 2-5 players of all time.
At the highest level, soccer is a very exciting sport when a score can be made at any time. I love basketball, but I’m old enough now that I rarely watch much of any one game; not even the NBA finals. Catch the last five minutes of a game, and you see all you need to see.
I had more fun playing rugby than either soccer or football. You also can't beat the sportsmanship or the comraderie. No where else can you speand 90 minutes trying to kill someone and the rest of the night they're a drinking buddy.
One of the things I like about soccer, is that time is added to compensate for injuries or delay tactics. I’ve even seen cards given in the EPL for stalling.
I also like that if the match is close and one team is threatening to score, the teams know the ref is not going to blow the half-time or full-times whistle until the ball is cleared away from a threatening situation. Everyone knows this is what happens from the fans to the players, to the refs, the owners, and the leagues, all the way up to FIFA. It’s just an accepted fact and everyone agrees that is the way it should be.
As for bad officiating, bet your son’s game wasn’t as bad as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6v-bW6wxoY
Salve
Now you are talking, If I see beautiful girl like that, I can tell you, I will miss a hit but not that girl, no guys you can have good game, I want to talk to her.
Sorry but I am a man and you see pretty looking woman like that and you want to go away, no way no no no...
Merci
‘soccer is a hopelessly stupid little game that is so completely clueless, it doesn’t even know when it ends’
‘’soccer is a hopelessly stupid little game that is so completely clueless...’
thats because soccer is played outside the UNITED STATES and places outside the United States are more or less completely boring or stupid if not ...they’d be carbon copies of the United States emulating it years and years ago ....and therefore they’d not be stupid...so that makes ‘em pretty much slow balls......so....
Succer is way better at enabling organized crime, drug crime.
Way better at teaching kids to cave in to illegitimate authority.
Socialism in game form.
I could not have said it any better!
ditto ditto & ditto!
Having spent years in England, Italy and Argentina, I’ve seen the best world football has to offer. Even if a match does end up 0-0, it can be very exciting with close call after close call. The English Premier League Championship last week between Manchester City and QPR was as exciting as it gets. I was a huge Leeds United fan when they ruled Europe back in the day, but it’s been years since they were in the EPL. My second love was Liverpool. Until you’ve stood on the Spion Kop, with thousands of Liverpool fans holding up their red and white scarves, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” you don’t know what inspiring is.
Brude Orwall = Pansy
Bruce Orwall = Pansy
Bill Schultz on Red Eye...”soccer is boring to watch, but it’s fun to do...much like a fat chick”
That’s a verrry nice uniform she has there! How does the other side look?
I grew up watching Bayern. I personally hope they make up for it this weekend.
After 9-11, any American soccer fan who roots for either John Terry or Frank Lampard needs their heads examined. Seeing Terry miss out due to suspension is personal Schadenfreude for me.
It would be fun to watch an exhibition of that sport, say in an NFL venue where the goalposts are similar.
Two years ago the Wall Street Journal did a study that noted that the ball is actually in play in an NFL game for about 11 minutes out of the sixty.
According to the article, the average telecast devotes 56 percent more time to showing replays than game action and commercials took up one-third of the broadcast time. About 60 percent of the total air time is spent showing players in huddles, at the line of scrimmage or standing around between plays.
That said, I enjoy the NFL. But action-packed? Not so much.
Dunno .. turned her around and there was a Heinekin ad where her other bits shoulda been !
'twas a travesty
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