Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Come All Ye Joyriders And Moonpiers, Let Us Gather Round And Ponderously Support The News

-Let me quickly address this whole "Micro-chip in the ball" dealio. IT WILL NOT WORK! The rule states that the entire ball must cross the goal line for it to be a score. How in the hell will a chip know when its all the way across. And how can they possible set sensors in and around a goal to read the chip when you have balls flying around nets all game long that will be banging into the sensors and knocking them out of whack. Who ever is behind this idea has never had a garage door opener that wont work because the stupid sensors are slightly out of alignment.
-3 Mexico players, Alberto Medina, Ramon Morales & Omar Bravo, all of Guadalajara Chivas, are being threatened with suspension by Seppy Blatter if they choose to play for their club this week in the Copa Libertadores rather than with their country in the Confederations Cup. What a frickin mess. I don't know the right answer, but the Copa Libertadores seems a lot more prestigious then a fake tournament set up by FIFA for purely financial benefit. But we all know Sepp rules with some bizarro book of ideas.
-What does this say about San Jose? Alexi Lalas, who was hired to stabilize the team during the turmoil caused by having no real meaningful ownership, has left the team and been named General Manager of Metrostars. The great thing about this for Mets fans is that they no longer have to put up with the moronically arrogant Nick Sakiewicz being in charge. Nicki has been moved to a "corporate position". And of course we can expect an announcement on a new Mets stadium within 7-14 days (a brand new window - seeing as the old line was 30-60 or 60-90 days for the last two years). Anyway you slice it though, this really does spell doom for the team in San Jose.
Here is the exact transcript of the media conference call introducing Lalas in his new position
-USA plays Germany today in the U20 World Youth Championship. Below are some really interesting numbers from US Soccer about the USA's performance throughout the years in this tournament:
5- This is the fifth time the USA has won their opening match in the FIFA World Youth Championship as the U20s also secured three points from the get go in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2003. In all four of those previous tournaments the USA failed to get points in their second match as they lost each time, but in each instance they advanced to the second round.
11- The USA has faced UEFA teams 11 times in the World Youth Championship, coming away with only two wins, eight losses and one draw. One of the two victories was against East Germany in Saudi Arabia in 1999, a 2-0 win.

12- Number of international wins USA head coach Sigi Schmid has compiled in 13 games for a 12-1-0 record since taking over the U20s in November of 2004. The team’s only loss was to South Korea in South Korea earlier this March.

The first two stats don't bode well for the USA today against Germany, but the Sigi factor could turn the tide. I think it will be one hell of a match.
-Remember Davor Suker's amazing performance for Croatia at the 98 World Cup. He played brilliantly even though he was forced to wear that red and white table cloth for a team jersey. Since retiring from the beautiful game Sukor has become a player agent. But this weekend his business parther was killed execution style. The belief is that his partner was also a loan shark and his hard hand tactics caught up with him underworld style.
-Petr Cech of Chelsea was named Czech Repulic Player Of The Year.
-Will Pizza Hut really be the name on the new Dallas Stadium? Thats kinda depressing.
-Not surprisingly, Zach Wells is named the MLS Player Of The Week for week 11. That was a no brainer.
-Some potentially good news for KC: TWO GROUPS HAVE MADE BIDS TO BUY TEAM - Hunt receives local offers

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

About the microchip in the ball thing. Silly. It's just plain f'n silly.

How in the year 2005 they still haven't been able to come up with a camera behind the goal or a NHL style camera above the goal to determine whether a ball has crossed the goal line is beyond comprehension.

Give the 4th official something to do other than babysit managers and hold up the time board. Let the official look over to a monitor in circumstances of a disputed goal (only to determine if it has crossed or not) and quickly tell the match official goal or no goal.

Simple enough.

6:31 PM  

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