Leander on the Politics of Football

Schaerlaeckens letter to FIFA

Really, Blatter?

Gaff by the FIFA president Sepp Blatter doesn't do much to improve soccer's image as the least gay-friendly sport on the planet. While discussing the current laws in Qatar, including the illegality of homosexuality, Blatter had this gem of a joke:

"I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities."

Lovely. And his save?

"We are definitely living in a world of freedom and I'm sure when the World Cup will be in Qatar in 2022, there will be no problems."

No offense, Mr. Blatter, but I'm not holding my breath.

Source: Sepp Blatter in hot water for making 'gay joke' when discussing Qatar World Cup 2022 - Telegraph

The Ails of Football

Becoming a fan of any team is a long and dangerous journey, and my early support for Manchester City is approaching it's first obstacle.  Carlos Tevez, this seasons highest scorer for the Citizens, has requested a transfer from the team. While transfers themselves are not rare, it is still painful when a club's captain feels he just can't work things out with upper management.

How will this affect my feelings for the team? Hard to say, really. City performed well without Tevez this weekend against West Ham (3-1 win). Adam Johnson got some playing time, which always makes me happy.  So I can see myself still supporting the Citizens even without the talented Argentinean.   However, if a transfer brought in a player I strongly dislike (read: Rooney, which I'm pretty sure is impossible), then my feelings would be hard to predict. I would probably be heard calling out such silly phrases as "Come on, you Lilywhites!" or "Go Liverpool!"

The only good to come of losing the World Cup to Qatar...

... is that these scarves are were on sale!

Detroit Lions, not really getting it done

If I had to choose one team from the National Football League to cheer for, it would be the Lions of Detroit. It is rather fortunate, then, that I don't care too much for the NFL, but I do occasionally watch former Notre Dame players that have moved up (some of them play more than others). I wonder, however, if I had been born in Indianapolis or some place with a history of professional football success, if things wouldn't be different.

My sister married into a Colts family, and since then her Sundays seem so much more exciting. They have people over to watch the games and can buy jerseys and hats and t-shirts with horseshoes on them. She has a reason to watch the Super Bowl (other than for the ads).

It's not too late for me. I just wish that the Lions would get their act together so that maybe I can be the one converting my future in-laws to a team, and not the other way around.

Game v. South Africa

U.S. Soccer Mens team against South Africa:

22 Agbossoumonde, Gale

17 Agudelo, Juan
7 Bedoya, Alejandro
6 Borchers, Nat
12 Bornstein, Jonathan
9 Bunbury, Teal
16 Carroll, Brian
23 Cervi, Dominic
14 Diskerud, Mikkel
20 Findley, Robbie
11 Gaven, Eddie
21 Goodson, Clarence
18 Guzan, Brad
13 Lichaj, Eric
15 Pause, Logan
5 Ream, Tim
8 Rogers, Robbie
2 Spector, Jonathan

Who are these guys? They look really young. I recognize some of them from the World Cup, others from the USMNT blog, but still.

Here are some handy facts about today's game and the Nelson Mandela Challenge.

The NBA is back

So much for good sports TV during prime time.

The Fifth Official

sums up the weekend rather nicely.

I'm still a bit hungover from the losses.

Which of these things is not like the other one?

The Italian town of Castellammare di Stabia is considering a ban on miniskirts, low-cut tops, swearing and pick-up soccer from their town. Apparently it has something of an image problem and wants to come off as less trashy. That's all well and good, but why ban soccer?

Big Sports Weekend

I love weekends in October: college football, NFL football, playoff baseball, hockey, soccer and, if you are in Lexington, Kentucky, Keeneland fall races. With so going on, it can be hard to keep track of how my teams are doing.

Last weekend was great: I was at a wedding on Saturday, but the bride and groom scheduled a break between the ceremony and reception so we could watch the Notre Dame v. Western Michigan game. Plus,
my friends at home kept me updated throughout the day with various scores and highlights. The best moment was finding out via text that Kentucky was winning over South Carolina while seated next to a current SC grad student at dinner. Sure, we were both Irish at heart, but a little friendly competition never hurts anyone.

Fantasy Squad 

This weekend is much bigger than last weekend: Notre Dame plays Navy, the Giants and Rangers are making decent underdog runs at the World Series,  I'm attending the UK v. Georgia game, my fantasy team is probably unstoppable, and Man City is playing Arsenal.

That last game is especially important because though I meant to wait a season before throwing my support behind a team, I find myself cheering for the Citizens every weekend. Now they are playing three of my friends' favorite team. As a wise man once said, "This shit just got real."

Couldn't be happier

I couldn't be happier to wake up today to the news that Wayne Rooney was staying at Manchester United until 2015. He'd been making noise about leaving the club where he's played since he was 18. For me, it's just so much easier to have all the despicable things in one place. Someone mentioned yesterday that City might have been looking to pick him up and I threw up a little in my mouth.

I don't know what it is about this guy, but Rooney is also one of the reasons that I don't want the English national team to do well. He's like the A-Rod of football and he plays for the equivalent of the Yankees. What's to like?

Plus after a brief glance at his Wikipedia page, I found this to confirm my conviction: "Rooney owns a French mastiff dog, which was reportedly bought for £1,250."  Really?

When dogs resemble their owners...

Soccer: a light to those in the dark

Sports have a way of bringing hope, even in the darkest of places. The 33 miners trapped underground for two months are able to watch the international friendlies between Chile and Ukraine, the UAE and Oman. And those on the pitch haven't forgotten those underground:

The first miners are expected to be rescued on Wednesday.

How did the miners survive?

Celebrating Universal Music Day

In celebration of Universal Music Day 2010, here is an ad Puma produced for Valentine's Day last year. Remember, it isn't about how well it's sung. What matters is that it comes from the heart.

Would someone please hand Marty McSorley a Magpies shirt and some boots?

The saga that is Nigel de Jong's utter disregard for humanity just won't go away. Nor should it. By now, unless you have been under a rock (or you are the average American sports fan), you have seen, heard, or read about Nigel de Jong's recklessly conceived tackle on Newcastle United's Hatem Ben Arfa. De Jong's ghastly challenge assured Ben Arfa of a broken left leg, a swift trip to a Manchester hospital, and a premature end to his 2010-2011 season. Condemnation abounds. Even De Jong's national team manager, Van Marwijk, decided to leave the midfielder out of the Oranje's upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers. Nevertheless, because De Jong's actions went unpunished — not a red card, a yellow card, or even a free-kick — FIFA regulations stand in the way of any sort of retroactive punishment.

For the fourth or fifth time in three years, the EPL and its officials are under the microscope for yet another gruesome injury - Eduardo, Aaron Ramsey, Antonio Valencia, Zamora, etc. FIFA seems primed to throw its weight around to end 'brutality' in football, but the truth of the matter is that much of this 'brutality' is happening in the FA's jurisdiction and the FA already has the tools to stop it. This has been the case for the last few years, yet there has been no noticeable change in how conduct, such as De Jong's, is being policed on the pitch.

Essentially, two types of players populate the most popular football league in the world: domestic players (average to great) and la crème de la crème from around the world. The former type matured within a footballing culture that places a relatively greater emphasis on physicality and toughness, which is reflected in the way the English game is officiated. For the latter group, their native footballing culture generally snubs the physical side of the sport for the skill, technique, and fluidity of the game. When juxtaposed in the extreme (the average British players up against the skilled, technical, or 'sexy' player), this contrast in footballing styles creates an environment that invites increasingly reckless challenges unless match officials take charge of the game.

If, at some point, it should become clear that such enforcement is not going to make its way into the English game, then managers, for the sake of their players' health, will have to find creative solutions. I propose that a page be taken from the great North American sport of ice hockey: Bring in the enforcers.

Bring in the Tie Domis, the George Laraques, the Bob Proberts of football. If it was good enough for Gretzky, why not for Tevez, Fabregas, and Berbatov. Of course, this is not to be mistaken for an endorsement of violence in football. On the contrary, it is a recommendation that managers and players take matters of deterrence into their own hands as last resort. Put at least one man on every EPL roster, whose presence alone makes other players think twice about rash, desperate tackles.

Basically, the thought is this: You'll be less likely to go studs up on your opponent when you know there is a guy on his bench who gets paid to see red.

International Soccer Friendlies

Who's ready for some more international football? With Bob Bradley still at the head of the US Men's National Team, I'm pretty excited about our upcoming games:

The U.S. first takes on Poland at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sat., Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. CT, with the match to be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision. Three days later, the U.S. will host South American rivals Colombia on Oct. 12 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. Kickoff for the USA’s first match on the Chester waterfront is set for 8 p.m. ET, and the match will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and Galavision. Fans can follow both matches live online via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and at twitter.com/ussoccer. 

US Team (club team):

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Étienne), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaelland), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

Midfielders: Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), Jermaine Jones (FC Schalke), Brek Shea (FC Dallas)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Eddie Johnson (Fulham)

Source: Bradley Names 20 Players for Upcoming Friendlies

Watch soccer in other languages!

To truly enjoy soccer, watch a few games in Portuguese. This video says it all:



And it's doubly sweet because Man United looks horrible. Vasco is my Brazilian pen pal's favorite team.

Fan chants

One of the awesome things that a fan base can do is have team chants.  These can be found in many forms: team songs (Blue Moon for Manchester City), a key players names (ASH-ley, ASH-ley, ASH-ley for Ashley Cole), etc.  One area that football truly excels at is the jeer.

Understand that this isn't my first taste of jeering. Some students at Notre Dame were basically professional jeer-ers and managed to catch a bit of flack for it from our opponents. Admittedly, giving out the starting forward's cell phone number to 1,000 students is kind of a dick move, and yes it is pretty horrible to print out a couple thousand copies of a yearbook photo of the opposing point guard's little sister, but all is fair in love and basketball. Even Dick Vitale approved.

Notre Dame basketball fans, however, have nothing on soccer fans. Instead of simply heckling the other team, there are whole songs that revel in the failure of one's opposition. In celebration, they aren't limited to a few songs or expressions, and they do a fine job in making fun of themselves. Plus during international play, us Yanks can't help but point out a few historical highlights.

Website: Fan Chants

Blue Moon:

Three Months Later...

The horror still hasn't faded from our minds:

Though when West Ham supporters start using vuvuzelas as a weapon, I will probably think better of them.

Source

Beginnings

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A mere seven weeks into the 2010-2011 Barclays Premier League season and the footballing world has turned on its head. Liverpool and Everton, eternal residents of topflight football, are lingering in and about the drop zone. Premier League debutantes Blackpool and the biennial newcomers of West Brom are in the top half of the table, giving supporters and casual observers alike reason to believe. Manchester United — the insatiable kings of world football, the game and the global marketing phenomenon — are off to their worst start in nine years. Moreover, last year's wonder boy can do nothing right, on or off the pitch. And finally, the Big Four is looking more and more like the Big Two. That is to say, the two teams operating on financial losses to the tune of nine figures also happen to be the two teams that appear most likely to walk away with the Premier League title.

No, Toto. Kansas, this is not.

But wait. Sunday's feature match in West London offered up some familiar headlines — and emotions. For yet another season, Arsenal came up empty-handed against their cross-city rivals, despite having the larger share of possession and a great number of chances once more. (An important point of reference here is: I'm a Gooner.) So for me and my fellow Gooners, this season is starting to feel a lot like the last season, and the one before that, and the one before that. And yes, Mr. Wenger, you are insane, as am I. For every season, I start out filled with hope and confidence, allured by 6-0 wins at home to Blackpool and Braga.

"This is the season all will be made right. The year when, finally, the moral rectitude of the Arsenal product will prevail and silence the naysayers."

Then there is Didier Drogba, and cosmos are realigned, however cruel or unjust.

But something is different this season. Where I might have seen Arsenal's title hopes seriously damaged by the Ivorian Machine alone from the couch of my (then) studio apartment in seasons past, this Sunday I watched Arsenal's title hopes seriously damaged by the Ivorian Machine in a pub, with friends, each of whom having a vested interest in the outcome. In that I may take a little pride.

Last season, I realized that Fantasy 'football' was an incredible aide for familiarizing oneself with an otherwise foreign and less accessible sport. This summer, with the 2010-2011 EPL season quickly approaching and the post-World Cup hangover threatening to set in, I needed something to sustain the football fever that produced the largest match-viewing gatherings I had been apart of thus far.

Our EPL fantasy league was born. (The details of this league can be read elsewhere in this blog.)

Of course, reservations are to be had. Maybe, as another blogger on here has alluded to, fantasy fans are a bit 'different' from the rest of us. But as Alex's ridiculous free-kick smashed the back of the Arsenal net in 85 minute, crushing my hope, and sending the arms of my smiling week-seven opponent skyward, knowing instantly that this wonder strike had secured her a victory, I knew that something good had come of this. "She got it. They got it." This game I had fallen in love with on my own, in my studio apartment, was now theirs.

Too bad they're all indirectly rooting for Chelsea.

Kompany basically saying, "Who the f**k are Man United?"

Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany isn't alone in feeling that City's success doesn't simply rest on doing better than Manchester United.

"Who the #$%& are Man United" fan chant

Weekend Update

This was a good sports weekend: wins for Notre Dame, Manchester City, the Detroit Tigers (well, kinda) and me.  Not only did I beat the incredibly knowledgeable commissioner of my EPL fantasy league, but I score highest overall. That means that I won the following plaque:

Winner!

This is a dangerous award to receive as it is rumored to be cursed. Originally meant as a honor for the top scorer of the week, whomever has the picture has lost their next head-to-head match. As creator of the "Huge Balls" award, fate will probably treat me just as cruelly.

On a happier note: following the 2-1 City victory over Newcastle, my roommate now owes me a beer at the Beer Trappe on top of a six-pack from a previous bet. Woot!

Good year for football

This is a good year to watch more soccer. If you cheered for the teams I like, you'd be forced to agree:

Baseball
The Detroit Tigers finished their season on Sunday with a .500 record (81-81), though they tried their best to make 2010 another losing season. After they traded Curtis Granderson to the dreaded Yankees, I knew we couldn't expect much this season, but fighting to stay at the middle of the AL Central was just depressing.

We miss you. 

(American) Football
The Detroit Lions don't look to do much better than their baseball brothers. So far they have surprised everyone with one win and were denied another win (against the lousy looking Bears, no less).

The Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame du lac have a new coach with an inexperienced quarterback. Sure they beat BC, but it was an ugly win. I won't rest easy until we beat Navy (41 times) again.

Out of season: 
Basketball
I really don't like the NBA, so my basketball season doesn't really begin until the University of Kentucky Wildcats play Notre Dame on December 8. Though I'll be cheering for the Irish, one can't help supporting Kentucky after living in Lexington for a few years.


Hockey
I'm pretty excited about this year's Detroit Red Wings team. Preseason play is just getting started. Sadly, it's nearly impossible to watch many hockey games unless you live in your team's town, and I'm not moving to Detroit any time soon.

Game Day! Woo!

This is a big day.  My favorite team plays a team I seriously dislike. Unfortunately, this is where the Ails come in for "Football and Ail."  I'm a Notre Dame fan and today we play the Golden Eagles of Boston College, who always seem to beat us when we are on top of our game. Even though I wouldn't call this season a success so far, I'm still not looking forward to this match.  Of all the fan bases that I've met, BC wins for rudest, and that includes Michigan fans throwing eggs at my friends when they were visiting Ann Arbor and Tennessee fans who basically blind you with their colors.

EPL notes:

Manchester United's dressing room was flooded before their visit to Sunderland. It delayed the game by 20 minutes and won Sunderland my respect for their dirty tactics. Rooney isn't playing (not that he contributes that much when he does), which means Man United gets to start a lot of people that no one has on their fantasy team (30-year-old Michael Owen is only owned by 1.5% of all teams).

Blackpool is the blue-collared Cinderella story of the season, and this Cinderella has a potty-mouth. Blackpool is unique in many ways; they are the only team owned by a convicted rapist. This is their first season in the Premier League and everyone expects them to be relegated right back down to the second tier at the end of the season. Regardless of expectations, the Tangerines seem to be holding their own and make a decent underdog to root for against Liverpool.

I've been taking a shine to Manchester City this season (drinking game to come tomorrow). This weekend they play my roommate's team Newcastle United, who probably don't stand a chance. City is coming off a 1-0 win over Chelsea who had looked unstoppable so far this season.

Speaking of Chelsea, the game of the week is theirs against Arsenal. It airs at 11 am here and probably not on any channel that I have access to. Thankfully my favorite pub has a Sunday brunch...

This week's fantasy team:

I'm playing against the commissioner of my league who had the highest score last week. We have similar teams, he has more Arsenal players where I have as many Man City guys as I am allowed. I started the season with an all-Brazilian team with Irish subs, but as you can see, I made a few changes to losing the league. 

Go Irish. Beat Eagles.


Update: My roommate and I now have a beer riding on the Man City–Newcastle game. Let's go Citizens!

West Ham drinking game

Along the line of the Arsenal drinking game.  These are for those games you watch but don't really have a dog in the race. (Remember, most of these games start at 10 in the morning if not earlier for us Yankees.)

Drink 1:

• Yellow card

Drink 2:

• A fight breaks out in the stands (home games especially)
• Dives

Drink 3:

• Commentators mention Robert Green's World Cup performance
• Red Card

Finish your drink and go make a new one:

• Green lets a goal in that he should've saved.
• West Ham Utd Wins!

Giving Bill Simmons his due

Though I consider him crazy for trying to pick a Premier team on research and suggestions alone, I will give Bill Simmons some credit; he's figured out a way to become interested in a sport without the years of background, moving cities, or family history normally required to become a fan of a team. As he mentioned in his Third to Last Note of his 2010 NFL preview:

This is the 20th anniversary of my first NFL gambling season -- 1990 -- when I started betting with a college friend's cousin's bookie because I was so bored by another hideous Patriots season. At some point, I realized, "Wait a second, every time I bet on a team, I care about what happens in a football game for three hours! It's almost like renting a favorite team!" The rest was history.

That's right, friends: the answer is gambling. You don't need to arbitrarily pick a favorite team in order to have one every game. You simply need to put some money on it, which is exactly what 11 of my friends and I did this season for the Premier League. Getting up at 8 am on a Saturday morning is a lot easier with $20 out of my pocket and three pitchers of beer on the line.

If you think Fantasy NFL Football is nuts, you should attempt fantasy English Premier football: no draft, £100 million cap, and Didier Drogba to mess everything up. Like American football, you need to pay attention to injuries, but unlike the NFL, these teams are playing games outside the league during the week that count towards entirely separate champion Cups.

The Tiger-Cats could ruin everything!

Imagine that the Detroit Lions play the Bears on Sunday, but then on Tuesday have a game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League that will count towards a separate post-season Bowl (North American Bowl? Less-Super-But-Still-Cool Bowl?). Your starting wide receiver could play the whole game and then be rested or just lousy on the day that it counts for your team (and if he's Robbie Keane, he will play really well in the English Carling Cup game and never get you points on the weekend) (Jerk).

The point is that Premier League fantasy play has more variables than the NFL, and is another reason to pay attention to soccer, even if you don't have a favorite team to root for (or if your team is really bad, like the 1990 New England Patriots).

Don't be like this guy

I guess one of the reasons I'm writing this blog is in response to this guy. GuitarEarl is all for finding his own English Premier team, which is great.  It just seems he is going about it all wrong. He's trying to be logical about selecting a new team. I too tried to become a fan through research. I spent a week creating and perfecting a sweet chart that first identified different qualities of the teams and then gave those qualities arbitrary points and ranked them. I wasn't magically a fan of Everton after my chart told me they were a good fit.

What I am, however, is better informed about the Premier League than I had been. I can now carry on a conversation with people who are fans, which in the end is worth more than having one team to call "mine." I don't have any sweet swag to wear on Saturday mornings, but I can follow the game because I'm familiar with the players, I can decipher the chants out of the crowd, and I can occasionally even impart knowledge that comes from reading Wikipedia for hours on end.

So GUITAREARL of epltalk.com, it isn't that I think you are doing is bad. Over the next 30+ games I'm sure you will realize that some of your prejudices were unfounded and some of your research unnecessary, but your efforts won't make you enjoy the league any less. It's okay not to have a team, because we can still have fun, and watch the league for the love of the sport.

Choosing an EPL team

It happens every four years: Americans find that not only are they watching soccer for hours at a time, but that they actually enjoy it. Even after USA loses, they amaze themselves and watch the rest of the World Cup through to the finals.  "What a beautiful game," we think. "Hardly any ads and non-stop action. I wonder how I can see more of this?" A few of them have friends with the expanded sports packages that show the English Premier League and Serie A games, so they figured they'll just do a little research, pick a team and boom, they are a soccer fan.

People who think they can simply pick an English Premier League team as a way to start watching soccer are kidding themselves. 

Bill Simmons tried it. He maybe watched a few games but we didn't hear much from him about his love for soccer over the last four years (the two books focused on baseball and basketball might've been a factor). His problem was he likened choosing an EPL team to picking out a new car.  As dedicated a sports fan as he is, he should've known better.  Your 2010 Lexus hybrid SUV isn't going to break your heart, and it comes with a warranty.  The 2010 Arsenal team, on the other hand, probably will break your heart if you give them the opportunity, and the only condolence will be the thought of next season.

I'm not here to "pick" a team. What I'm hoping is to eventually fall in love with one.

Ironman and Love

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to cheer my brother on at the Ironman Wisconsin. My expectations were that the family and I would see Dave when he was in town (start of the swim, start of the bike, and the beginning, middle and end of the marathon) and then spend the rest of the day shopping in downtown Madison and grabbing a pint or two at a pub with a view of the run.  In reality we were dashing about all day, racing from one spot to the next to cheer as loud as we could for about five seconds as he biked or ran past. 

But what really impressed me was how Dave's Ironman was a team effort between him and his amazing wife Melissa.  The day of the Ironman was also her birthday, and exactly two weeks short of their first wedding anniversary.  There was incredible sacrifice of time, energy and money on both of them this past year, but watching them throughout the day, you knew it was worth it. 

Last kiss before the start.

Arsenal Drinking Game

Watching football with a bunch of Gooners, we (non-Arsenal fans) developed a drinking game to keep us occupied:

Drink 1:

• Sanga looks indignant
• Arshavin throws the ball away
• Close-up of Chamakh's hair

Drink 2

• Announcer mentions Arsenal's attempts at picking up a new keeper
• Dives
• Player Snot Rockets
• U2 song plays

Drink 3:

• Almunia does something stupid

More tips for drinking game from a miserable DC United fan: DC United Drinking game

Soccer. Football. Rose?

This game by any other name would be just as beautiful. I will use these words fairly interchangeably. Get over it or quit reading.