Maybe I should get that Danica Patrick chick to save FIFA!!
There has never been any doubt in my mind that Sepp Blatter has been completely off the rails for quite some time now. In fact, most reasonable sporting minds worldwide will assent to that. His latest little toot in The Guardian about how England has been fixin’ to destroy FIFA since 1974 is simply more terrible frosting heaped on a quisling little cake. Yes, I’m quite sure that the Football Association has had nothing better to do than plot and scheme and implement ways to destroy FIFA out of revenge for losing the FIFA presidency in 1974. In actuality, what the FA has been doing has been far worse—instead of vengefully trying to destroy FIFA, they’ve been spending all these years attempting to recreate the glory of 1966 by clinging to the brave and terrible past, clutching to the neck of that past out of desperation, choking the life out of that past out of desperation and fear. To this very day they continue to try to stuff the square pegs of Frank Lampard and John Terry and Gareth Barry into the round holes of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton.
If only they HAD been trying to destroy FIFA instead….
Bulgaria 0 England 3
England will continue to take comfort in the delusion that a win against Bulgaria, no matter how bright and snappy it might have been, is more than just a win. Rooney scored a brace, and Cahill opened England’s account with a nice header at the 13th minute. And they now look forward, eagerly, to Tuesday’s match with Wales at Wembley. And pretty soon, it will be 1966 all over again! Finally and at last!! They’ll march through Poland and Ukraine and grab the Euro 2012 prize. And then, Look Out Brazil!! The British are Coming!! The British Are Coming!! Paulo Reveraõ will have to take the highways and rivers of Brasil from Porto Alegre to Manaus warning one and all! Brazil will be gripped with fear of the biggest British Invasion since Beatlemania!
Except, of course, for the Amazonian headhunters. One can only hope.
So nothing has actually changed. What I’ve been saying all along remains true. English football is more about club football than it is about the National team. And until that attitude changes, well…the FA would probably would be better off trying to destroy FIFA.
Chelsea 3 Norwich City 1
This match was much closer than the scoreboard would indicate. For the second week in a row, my Norwich City Canaries were brought to task by a red card and once more had to play a man down. It’s one thing to play a man down against Stoke….in that match, Stoke only managed a draw by the skin of their teeth on a Kenwyn Jones header in stoppage time (90+3 for those keeping score in Flossmoor Illinois). Norwich should have won that match with Stoke, but when 10 men, you can only hang on so long.
But against Chelsea, you have a hard enough time giving them a go with all 11 men. And I must say, Norwich could have pulled off a draw with Chelsea had they not gone a man down once again. At the 80 minute mark, goalie John Ruddy, who had earlier knocked Didier Drogba out cold as he went for a save (and Drogba for a header) sending Drogba to the hospital, was red carded for a challenge on Ramires in the area. This red card was undeserved as Ruddy was simply diving for the ball, and missed, and Ramires went diving over Ruddy’s outstretched arms. Ruddy never touched Ramires. But he was shown red. It should have been a yellow to be honest. Ruddy went to the bench, as did Chris Martin. 2nd keeper Declan Rudd came on to face Lampard, who drove it home down the middle as Rudd dove to his right. Would Ruddy have been able to make the penalty save? Probably not but more likely than a 2nd stringer in off the bench. Now Ruddy did well for the remainder of the match and did Norwich, including the 11 minutes of stoppage time owing to Drogba lying unconscious on the pitch for 9 minutes. But at the 11th minute mark of stoppage time, Chelsea’s new mid-fielder, Juan Mata drove one home and a tough 2-1 win at The Bridge went into the books as a tough 3-1 win. A hard won three points for Chelsea.
And three points I’d like to clarify.
- I don’t think Ruddy deserved a red card since he never touched Ramires.
- Had they not gone a man down, Norwich might have equalized.
- Lest you think I’ve gone completely off my rails, I have NOT suddenly stopped rooting for Chelsea. I said at the start of this season that I would root for Chelsea when the play Norwich at Stamford Bridge, and I would root for Norwich to win when they play Chelsea at Carrow Road. I’m glad Chelsea won this match, but the way Norwich played, they deserved a better result. Chelsea will need to play with more of the toughness and determination that Norwich has shown in it’s 3 matches so far this season if they want to topple Man U from their self-righteous throne.
Manchester United 8 Arsenal 2
Tottenham 1 Manchester City 5
Before I offer an explanation for Manchester’s 13-3 rout of London last Sunday, I will instead join the throng and blame England for something. I am going to blame them for my lack of timely posts recently. Only 1 post in the whole month of August!! Only 2 in July!!
It’s all England’s fault!!
No Premier League. Just a bunch of pre-season friendlies. Silly Season. Transfer gossip. Now I suppose it IS a bit unfair for me the blame England since despite it all there WAS and always is plenty to talk about. But I’m going to blame it all on England anyway.
Ron Hornaday, who won last night’s Good Sam Club 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, will gladly join me in blaming England for everything. Ron Hornaday could kick everyone’s ass in the English Premier League. There is NO ONE as tough as Ron Hornaday and don’t you forget that. Hornaday is now 5th in the points, 48 points back of new Truck Series leader James Buescher. He clawed his way back to the front after sustaing front end damage early in the race. And the right pit call at the end sealed his record 49th Truck Series win. Buescher jumped ahead of Wisconsin’s very own Johnny Sauter in the points when Sauter’s wreck on lap 60 left him 22 laps down at the end.
Meanwhile, Arsene Wegner would also probably like to blame England for everything as well. And maybe he should, just for laughs. But he was not, and is not, usually never is, in a laughing mood. His top two ballerina’s, Fabregas and Nasri have left the Gunners Dance Troupe. So their trip to the stage at Old Trafford, was bound to be a disastrous performance. But no one, not even the most ardent Man U fan ((I’m looking at YOU Mr. Jeff Manchester)) could have expected the 8-2 annihilation that took place last Sunday. Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick and Ashley Young’s brace ripped Arsene Wegner’s heart out of his chest, redolent and dripping with blood. But that was just frosting on the cake….the opening goal by young Danny Welbeck, and goals by Nani and Park would have been more than sufficient. Theo Walcott and Robin Van Persie danced with bravery, but their 2 goals were noted with very little alacrity and soon forgotten. I’ve been saying this all along, of course, that ballet is NOT a winning strategy in the EPL. Wenger’s dance troupe, these, days, would have boosted from SO, YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and DANCING WITH THE STARS long ago.
What Wenger needs or needed are a few Hard Czech/Slovak/Serbian/German bastards who can’t dance. That, or Clay Matthews. And as the transfer window snapped shut this past Thursday, Wegner grabbed a few last minute reinforcements. Per Mertesacker, the 6’6″ German giant from Werder Bremen might do the trick, but only if the choreography is altered from ballet to slam-dancing. But it’s a start in the right direct. Youssi Benayoun is headed to the Gunners on a 1 year loan. Andre Santos and Mikel Arteta also joins the troupe, as does Park Chu-Young the S. Korean skipper. So we shall see what Monsieur Wegner can do with this lot. Regardless of what happens, it will without a doubt continue to entertain us especially since Andrey Arshavin is still in the mix.
As for Man City’s trek down to White Hart Lane to club the Hotspurs like baby seals, the only explanation I have for that is that City’s 1-5 clubbage of Spurs is the punishment Tottenham and their truculent chairman Daniel Levy deserve for not letting Luka Modric go to the Chelsea. 40 million quid was Chelsea’s final offer. Levy turned that down. They deserved what they got from City. That’s all I’ve got to say about. Other than to note that like Arsenal, Tottenham was stuck with last minute floundering around on the transfer market on Thursday. And also to note, that, hey…they got Scott Parker! Now if they can only find where Luka Modric is hiding ((if I were Harry, I would conduct a thorough search along Fulham Road)), they might have something for Arsenal when the two teams meet. Well…they might have had something, but now Van der Vaart tweaked a hammy and is out for 6 weeks. So he’ll miss the first round of the North London Derby on Sunday October 2nd at White Hart Lane. But I won’t. I’ll be watching that trainwreck no matter what.
UEFA attempts to do something about fashionable racism.
One other little takeaway from England’s little tilt with Bulgaria on Friday was the racist taunts showered upon England’s black players by the Bulgarian fans. What seems to be fashionable among the racists of Eastern Europe is to greet black players with monkey chants. Now I know that this sort of thing has long been purged from American and English culture, but what the typical Bulgarian racist football fan will do is stand up and loudly imitate a monkey as soon as a black man walks onto the pitch. This behavior manifested itself this past Friday again as monkey taunts were directed Ashley Young, Ashley Cole, Chris Smalling and Theo Walcott. The FA of England has lodged a formal complaint with both the Bulgarian FA and UEFA. The Bulgarian coach, Lothar Matthäus profusely apologized for the behavior of the Bulgarian fans.
Darren Bent, Aston Villa’s star striker escaped the taunts this time as he was left off the England squad with a groin injury. England has made some progress on this issue. Could you imagine Darren Bent being greeted by Aston Villa’s “mascot” as he entered the pitch? Me neither.
Now I know that racism has not magically been eradicated here in the United States either, but could you imagine people greeting, say, Milwaukee Brewers 1st baseman Prince Fielder with monkey-taunts everytime he stepped up to the plate? Or NFL QB’s Mike Vick, Jason Campbell or Donovan McNabb when they took a snap?? And it goes without saying that you would NOT hear monkey-taunts at an NBA game. Would Lewis Hamilton get this at an F1 event? I don’t think so. You wonder what the fuck is wrong with the people that do this.
And it’s going to be a big problem for UEFA. They need to deal with this racist abuse swiftly and sternly. The 2 countries hosting the EURO 2012 Cup, Poland and Ukraine have been notorious for racist abuse….in fact, they’ll even abuse their own club teams’s players who are black. England is not the only team with black players heading to EURO 2012, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Italy all have black players who are major or up and coming stars in the sport. Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda, Vincent Kompany, Romalu Lukaku, Mario Balotelli, Jerome Boateng, Pepe, Nani, Jerome Heitinga, Nigel de Jong to name a few.
But UEFA’s Michel Platini, like his FIFA evil-overlord Sepp Blatter is all talk and very little action. Obviously not much was done about this after the 2006 World Cup in Germany. And I can’t see them issuing more than a slap on the wrist along with a stern reminder against future misbehavior. UEFA and FIFA’s attempts to do something about racism in the sport is more akin to NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity. Drive for Diversity sure has worked well for the black race, the hispanic race, and the female race now, hasn’t it? Any blacks, females and Hispanics in the sport are there no thanks to NASCAR’s efforts. So I don’t imagine that UEFA or FIFA will do much about it.
It gets me to thinking though. What if Kyle Busch were Black?
Kyle Busch revels in the abuse he currently get from NASCAR fans. He relishes being the VILLAIN. When he wins a race, the boos rain down upon him. As he stands on his car and bows to the crowd, and boos rain down even harder. He is currently tied for the Sprint Cup lead with Jimmie Johnson, but owns the tie-break dues his series leading 4 wins so far this season. Kyle Busch could very well win the Sprint Cup championship….in fact, he’s the odds on favourite to win it all.
What if Kyle Busch were black, and instead of boos raining down on him, it were monkey taunts raining down on him. Do you think he would revel in THAT the way he does the boos?? I bloody well don’t think so.
Boos are one thing, since Kyle Busch is white, a smartass, and not Dale Earnhardt Jr. He talented and wins races and pulls no punches. Taunting Kyle Busch works on all the levels and for all the right reasons. He’s the villain, and every sport needs villains. ((Aston Villa pun not intended….Birmingham City fans take note)). He’s NASCAR’s favorite villain…..Junior Nation’s favourite villain, replacing Jeff Gordon on the pedestal of all that is evil.
But what if Kyle Busch were black and a smartass. What then, NASCAR fans and Junior Nation? Will you being raining bananas on him when he takes the checkers. Instead of boos, will there be monkey taunts? And if it were the case and it happened, what will NASCAR do about it? Hustle Kyle Busch off the side and hand him his trophy after the fact like they did with Wendall Scott? Would they clear the stands?? Run the races in empty racetracks because the fans are too racist to behave themselves. It’s not like back in the Wendall Scott days when none of this was televised and everything was out of sight, out of mind. The eyes of the world are on them now. And what about Junior Nation? After all, they make up a sizable majority of fans who hate Kyle Busch? Does NASCAR keep them away en masse? Does NASCAR not sell tickets to known racists, the way many English soccer clubs will not sell tickets to known soccer hooligans?
I imagine this would give NASCAR fits, and deservedly so. Let’s make no mistake about it. NASCAR is a sport with racist roots, and much of what HAS been done is more driven by TV revenue than out of any inherent social altruism. Racism of the type I’ve described is a scary and real prospect to be honest….despite how far we’ve come in America.
I’m sure Junior would rise to Kyle’s defense in the face of that sort of racist abuse. I’m sure other drivers would take Kyle’s side as well. But we’ve still got a long way to go, not just in the world of sport, but in the world around us.
Kasey Kahne on the pole for tonight’s Southern 500
Okay….technically it’s the AdvoCare 500. And it’s at Atlanta Motor Speedway and not Darlington. But at least it’s not being held in fackin’ California. Oh, and the car pictured is not Kasey Kahne’s #4 Red Bull Toyota. But other than that….well….the race might be cut short by the remnants of Tropical Storm Irene. NASCAR has moved the start time up a bit. I think they get that focker going as soon as I stop typing here, which more most of you, I’d imagine, can’t be soon enough. It’s next to last race before the chase, and it’s really important that this bad boy goes the distance. I don’t much give a fock about Kahne, but Matt qualified 6th and I’d like to see him chalk up another win for the Chase seeding. A third win would seed him ahead of Harvick and Kesolowski.
And as for the car, I’m sure some of you recognize the car as the Honda MP4/5B that the late, great Ayrton Senna drove to the F1 Championship in 1990. Please tell me that someone recognized that car w/o me pointing it out to you.
And with that, Summer is over ((okay don’t get technical with me again here)) and September has begun. England is sorry it destroyed NASCAR for the past few months, but it promises to make up for it. See you in September.