Have at it.
I have a full fledged case of World Cup fever.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Everybody saw this coming.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.
“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly
The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.
Bark louder, little dog.
It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
It’s the corruption, stupid.
The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.
At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.
The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.
I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.
Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.
Let me file that under fuck it.
She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.
“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”
Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
A fool as well as an oath-breaker.
Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
Steeplejack
Spare us your sarcasm.
I am nonplussed by the Algerians’ edgy ’80s bleached-hair-and-mohawks look. Didn’t help their keeper. Another fugly goal given away in this tournament.
burnspbesq
More horror-show goalkeeping puts Slovenia atop Group C. Friday’s match is now a must-win for the US.
John Cole
I wasn’t being sarcastic. Haven’t missed a minute of a game so far.
And yes, the haircuts and the goal were quite ugly.
J.W. Hamner
Algeria and Slovenia both look Greece level terrible… ineptitude only being masked because they were playing each other. If the US can’t demolish both sides, I will start to question the FSM.
burnspbesq
Robert Koren, who scored the goal, is a decent player. He played a key role for West Brom last season as they won promotion to the Premier League.
El Cid
Sarah Palin, moderate rational pragmatist.
Almost makes you nostalgic for the years when Reagan was the dumb one.
TR
And the only prescription is more
cowbellvuvuzela.cmorenc
@John Cole
Soccer is a great and beautiful game played by youthful men with bad haircuts.
BTW: The English tabloids have come up with a devastating label for the English GK’s flub yesterday:
“The Hand of Clod”
(echoing Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” offense in the 1986 WC, Argentina v England
Bailey
“Hand of Clod” was inspired. Also like “Tainted Glove.”
BB
And the only perscription is: more
cowbell.
Is it just me or does Slovenia look like Charlie Brown
in those shirts?
And does Algeria’s goalie’s haircut look like Dumb and Dumber meets Mad Max?
BB
And the only perscription is: more
cowbell.
Is it just me or does Slovenia look like Charlie Brown
in those shirts?
And does Algeria’s goalie’s haircut look like Dumb and Dumber meets Mad Max?
BB
And the only perscription is: more
cowbell.
Is it just me or does Slovenia look like Charlie Brown
in those shirts?
And does Algeria’s goalie’s haircut look like Dumb and Dumber meets Mad Max?
BB
Oops. Damn iPod touch.
Comrade Javamanphil
Is that what that is. I thought everybody in the stadium was simultaneously playing Pam Geller’s vlogs.
cmorenc
@J.W. Hammer
Slovenia is a small mountainous nation of only two million people, and soccer gets the athletes left over from skiing and ice hockey. I’d say the team they’ve assembled is magnificent for so small a country. Nevertheless, if the US cannot find a way to disassemble Slovenia’s defense and cleanly win the game, the positive impression the US made in the England game as far as the progress and quality of the US team, will quickly dissipate into disappointment and same-old same-old not-ready-for-prime-time at peer level with the better teams of the world evaluation.
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
I kid, I kid.
wengler
Algeria looks like truly a woeful team.
I’m a bit worried with the 3 points in their pocket that Slovenia is going to stack the box and really play negative futbol in an attempt to secure a draw against the US.
Steeplejack
Hat tip to Calouste for posting this really cool World Cup schedule graphic the other night, which I belatedly found in a back thread. Don’t think it was widely seen by the soccer crowd.
J.W. Hamner
Let’s go Black Stars! Without Essien of course, which makes me sad, but nonetheless enthusiastic.
trevorb
I don’t get cable, and ABC is not carrying this mornings game. So I am watching CBS sunday morning. WTF is with the jackass pro-death penalty guy, he is a law professor, and he even admits his defense of the death penalty is inconsistent. How are 63% of americans still for the death penalty.
Robert Sneddon
OT: The Hayabusa asteroid material return lander has re-entered over Australia and the capsule’s beacon has been detected. Lots of very happy Japanese voices on the assorted web channels reporting on the project’s culmination.
TR
@wengler:
No, they’ll have to play to win against us.
A draw with us and a loss to England gives Slovenia four points. Meanwhile if we get a second draw with Slovenia but beat Algeria, we’d have five; if England wins its other two, they’d have seven. Four points won’t advance them.
The Disgruntled Chemist
@El Cid:
Amazing. New blog tagline material, right there.
Allan
Over at Rumproast, a post about some recent excrement posted by noted PUMA failure Robin of Berkeley flushed out a response from Will Bower. Yes, that Will Bower. Then he stuck around to relitigate the primaries.
Needless to say, hilarity ensued.
wengler
Other than Algeria, I love watching the African teams play. Their games become so open and free-flowing. It’s not a surprise that the English Premier League is full of African stars while Serie A has very few.
Steeplejack
Serbia-Ghana is looking like a tighter game.
wengler
@ TR
You are right.
That one point from the draw against England means everything. I think an open game advantages the US.
frankdawg
@trevorb:
Because a lot of people are a lot more for blind vengeance than justice. They went pretty lightly over the “kill a white person & get death” thing it deserves more attention.
Now that horrible little (in every sense of the word) ‘man'(in only one noticeable sense of the word) B.S. is on my TV I thank all that is good and holy for the invention of the mute feature.
I thought I had World Cup fever – turned out to just be a kidney infection /ht attaturk
The Disgruntled Chemist
Is it just me, or does Ghana look like a really short team?
Peter J
I doubt that since the second criteria to rank teams in the group play is goal difference. A tie with US would mean that Slovenia would have +1 and the US team would have 0, the US team would then face Algeria, a team that by then would have zero chance to advance, if the US team at that point can’t win with more than one goal against Algeria, then they don’t deserve to advance. Slovenia would also need at least a tie against England too.
Slovenia can’t and shouldn’t bet on either beating England or Algeria beating the US, their real chance to advance includes beating the US team.
mcd410x
@wengler: If they succeed in a draw and if the U.S. beats Algeria, they’ll have to beat England to knock us out. If they manage a 1-1 draw with England, we’ll need to beat Algeria by more than 1-0 to progress. If we can’t do this, we shouldn’t be there, really.
The draw with England was huuuuge.
(Funny, that Slovenia is the first European team to win!)
Edt: See someone beat me to it. Cheers.
John Cole
I know I am probably in the minority, but I like the vuvuzelas.
cmorenc
If the US can’t find a way to cleanly beat Slovenia, if only by 1-0, the US don’t really have such a great chance to advance in the knockout rounds even if (with a draw v. Slovenia) the US winds up advancing nonetheless. Even with Slovenia hanging back on defense and playing for a draw vs the US.
Punchy
I understand that lots of soccer games are low scoring, but I’m a bit shocked that not a single game so far could muster even 3 goals. Is the play that more conservative?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@wengler:
It’s not only the style of play that discourages African stars from plying their trade in Italy. “Kick Racism Out Of Football” has nothing to do with 1-nil games.
wobblybits
@John Cole: Me too.
wobblybits
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: That has been a problem for the Brazilian players in Europe as well.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@The Disgruntled Chemist:
Freddy Adu was born in Ghana and he’s about as tall as Gary Coleman was.
The Disgruntled Chemist
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
I was surprised because I know two people from Ghana, and both are over 6 feet tall.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@John Cole:
The vuvuzelas grow on you. The atmosphere at Azteca Stadium has a similar effect with the Mexican crowd blowing their horns.
Watching the USA/England match let you know how strong and passionate the Three Lions supporters are as their God Save the Queen broke through the din of the buzzing vuvuzelas.
Punchy
Fucking genius. Pure, unadulterated genius. HAS to be a new tagline.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@John Cole:
During Chicago Fire matches a man in the supporter’s group plays the Tetris theme on his trumpet and Section 8 chants along. It’s kind of mesmerizing.
Darcy
Ghana isn’t short, Serbia is just freakishly tall, the tallest team on average in the tournament. They also have the tallest player, at 6 foot 8; he’s taller than Peter Crouch. I’ve forgotten which one he is, sorry.
Peter J
Fun fact:
Per capita, only Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has currently more players in the NBA than Slovenia. Also, only France and Serbia has more players in the NBA than Slovenia.
R-Jud
So I got shouted at by a table full of angry Brits last night– not about the football, but about the fact that Obama said “British Petroleum” instead of “BP”. “Why is he making this a racist thing? I thought he was better than that!” “It’s only 40% British ownership!” “Doesn’t he care about our pensions?”
Jesus Christ.
mcd410x
Nate Silver tweet: With a 1-0 win over #SVN, #USA would be 94% to advance. With a 1-0 loss, just 13% to advance. With a 1-1 draw, 56%.
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
They don’t bug me. The audio feed is keeping them well in the background.
wobblybits
@R-Jud: Since when is “British” a race?
Steeplejack
@Punchy:
Probably a combination of soccer being relatively low-scoring and also the level of competition. These are all all-star teams–the best in the world, supposedly.
But some weak team (I’m looking at you, North Korea) will end up getting pasted in the next week or two. Heck, Germany may whale on Australia this afternoon.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Darcy:
Zigic is 6’8″
Darcy
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Thanks :)
R-Jud
@wobblybits:
I was wondering that myself, but they insisted on saying it. I’ve also heard “American” referred to as a “race” or ethnicity over here, and have gotten blank looks when I explain it’s a nationality, which is different.
PTirebiter
Question for the soccer literate here among us. While the Bill Buckner quality of England’s GK’s now infamous play was obvious even to me, what might have happened? I pretty much know the things that might cause a great receiver to drop a perfectly thrown pass, but here I’m clueless.
wobblybits
@R-Jud: Interesting. Hubby is English but he seems to understand the difference but then again, he likes American football and loves peanut butter :) Anyway, I’m not as worried about their pensions as I am the people who have lost their livelihood.
Steeplejack
@PTirebiter:
What might have happened? I think one announcer said the pitch was wet, so the ball might have been a bit slippery. And I have heard speculation that the high altitude of the venues and the “new” ball rolled out for the World Cup could be factors. (But I note that there are always complaints when a new ball is introduced.)
Also, soccer balls are hard, especially kicked at such velocity–one reason the keepers wear those huge gloves–so that cuts down on your “touch.” To use your football analogy, imagine if that “perfectly thrown pass” was not a lofting spiral but a bullet thrown straight at you from 40 feet away.
All that said, it was still an awful play by Green. Unfortunate, but awful.
PTirebiter
Clueless unless I buy what Luis Fabiano had to say about the new ball.
Did Adidas make Serrano’s curve ball fearing bats? Jabulani – Jojubu, weird.
tatertot
I don’t see Obama reciting BP’s full title as a chance to sling a racism/nationalism barb. it’s more like when your parents are really angry with you and call you ‘Susan Margaret’ in a deep and scarey voice, rather than the usual ‘Susie’. ‘BP’ sounds too innocuous, to me, child of the 60s, it echoes of ‘you bet your sweet bippy’. ‘British Petroleum’ is the full title of this corporation, which tried to soften and globalise its image in the past decade by calling itself BP and making its logo a pretty green and yellow flower, as it went on assiduously ravaging the planet for its black, black oil – while we turned a blind eye, so we could keep on driving to the mall.
RE: World Cup. For four years, I never watch football/soccer, until the WC, and then I’m hooked once the quarter-finals start. I remember the ’92 WC, the first one I ever watched – England vs. someone – England lost on a penalty. I had to leave the room for that last try. I couldn’t bear the fact that 3 billion people were watching this poor guy try and kick a ball into a net; that’s INSANE pressure.
Amir_Khalid
If you’d like to know a bit more about tactics, I recommend the most excellent book Inverting The Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson. It traces the evolution of tactics on the pitch from the earliest days of football to the 21st century, and will help you understand what’s going on, how players create space to move in, and so on. Plus, it has a great deal of football history and is a cracking good read.
mcd410x
@tatertot: If you’re talking England, you’re probably talking WC 1990 semifinal when West Germany won 1-1 (4-3 penalties).
Hah, “West” Germany.
burnspbesq
@PTirebiter:
When I was learning to play goal, back when mastodons and saber-toothed tigers roamed the earth, I was taught not to take shots like that with my hands. Get below the ball like an infielder, take it on your forearms and let it run up into your chest. And move forward into the shot, so if you do spill it, you spill it in front of you. Howard’s second-half save on Heskey was textbook: surround the ball with your body.
tatertot
@mcd410x:
Yep! That’s the one! My house was one in a set of terraced houses (US speakers: shared walls, don’t know the ‘Murican terminology) in Scotland. My immediate neighbours were Scottish, the next door along was English. It was a beautiful sunny evening and I went outside because I couldn’t bear watching the penalty shot. I knew it was all over because I could hear my English neighbours speaking in resigned quiet tones, while the Scottish ones were going demented with glee at England losing.
PTirebiter
@Steeplejack: Thanks.
I’m wondering what a GK is concentrating on during an attempt. Is it analogous to baseball batters and pitchers? Knowing the pitcher history, reading his motion, picking up the ball’s rotation and speed etc. ?
burnspbesq
On ESPN, Klinsmann called Timmeh one of the five best keepers in the world, and I think that’s fair. After Casillas, Buffon, and Julio Cesar, who would you say is better?
burnspbesq
@PTirebiter:
Keepers at that level get detailed scouting reports on opposing players’ tendencies. The best ones can access and process the data in real time.
PTirebiter
@Amir_Khalid & Burnspbesq
Thanks, while I don’t anticipate ever becoming more than a casual viewer, I appreciate your insights. It’s obviously a great game but, like many, my passion for particular sports began by playing them as a boy, “…back when mastodons and saber-toothed tigers roamed the earth.” Thanks again.
arguingwithsignposts
@Peter J:
Doesn’t the United States have more players in the NBA than France and Serbia? ;)
R-Jud
@wobblybits:
Yep, my husband’s also English, and he gets it too (he plays American football and is a pretty decent outfielder in baseball). I have no idea what got up our friends’ noses. One of them even tried to corner me later and tell me how stupid and ridiculous she thought the pledge of allegiance was and how “proto-fascist” and blah blah blah.
It’s the first time I’ve felt so put-upon as an expat. Ugh.
Peter J
I’m just counting foreigners who are coming to the US to steal jobs from honest hardworking Americans. ;)
firebrand
Got World Cup fever John? Take some antibiotics. That’ll clear that right up for ya.