Country Nobody Can Pronounce Wins Metric Football Championship for 2022

All you metric football fans can make your plans to go to Qatar in 2022.  From CBS White House reporter Mark Knoller:

By choosing Qatar, we're finally going to have to learn to pronounce it correctly: Gutter? Cutter? Kuh-tar'?

The US was in the running for this one...until we sent Bill Clinton and Eric Holder over there to make the sale. It's the Chicago Olympics all over again.

And from Jim Geraghty:

Theory: FIFA prefers its bribes in stable currency, and thus was less interested in Euros and dollars.

Oh, and this is an interesting take from Garrett Quinn:

Imagine being an LGBT going to the World Cup in Qatar or Russia? Fun times! #fail

Russia got the nod for 2018.

And you can't get booze in Qatar either. That should make for some fun times.

Religion of Peace Kills 64 in Uganda

Large crowds gathered to watch the World Cup final were slaughtered by radical Islamic bombers:

KAMPALA, Uganda -- An Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group suspected in twin bombings in Uganda's capital that killed 64 people watching the World Cup final endorsed the attacks on Monday but stopped short of claiming responsibility, as Uganda's president vowed to hunt down those responsible.

The blasts came two days after a commander with the Somali group, al-Shabab, called for militants to attack sites in Uganda and Burundi, two nations that contribute troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

The attacks also raise concerns about the capabilities of al-Shabab, which the U.S. State Department has declared a terrorist organization. If confirmed that the group carried out the attacks, it would be the first time al-Shabab has struck outside Somalia.

In Mogadishu, Somalia, Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, an al-Shabab commander, told The Associated Press early Monday that he was happy with the attacks in Uganda but refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible.

"Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah's anger be upon those who are against us," Sheik said.

NASA better get to work making these people feel better about themselves.

The World Cup Choice

Today the soccer world will crown it's new champion and the choices are between a nation where people wear wooden shoes, grow tulips and let you pick your prostitute from a handy window display, or a nation where people let enraged bulls chase them down the street and where they have huge fights with overripe tomatoes.

No wonder the US couldn't compete.

Sports Headline of the Day

From Breaking News:

Nigeria president suspends national soccer team from international competition for two years after poor World Cup performance - Reuters

The players will be ordered to go back to their keyboards and spend the next two years sending emails from dying Nigerian royalty who need to wire money to gullible Americans.

USA! USA! USA!

As the US World Cup Team starts it's match against Ghana (11:30 am PDT) here's a great video of the world's reaction to the last minute goal that won the game against Algeria and propelled the team into the knockout round:




Some folks are trying to compare this game to the famous "Miracle on Ice" from the 1980 Olympics. No, not the same at all.

In 1980 we had a group of amateur college players going up against the imposing Red Army team of the Soviet Union. We were not supposed to have a chance at all, and so the term "miracle" was very appropriate.

The US World Cup team has both overperformed and underperformed in this tournament. They did better than expected by holding England to a tie, but were expected to easily beat Slovenia and Algeria. It took late goals (and some bad officiating) for the team to tie Slovenia, and Algeria darn near held the US to a draw.

If they win the World Cup, then we can start talking about a miracle.

The Quintessential Socialist Sport

As I write this the US World Cup team has once again been robbed of a goal by a dubious call.  The same thing cost us a win against Slovenia, and depending how this game turns out that stolen goal today could keep the US out of the finals. (UPDATE:  USA scored with barely 2 minutes to play to win the game and go through to the knockout rounds.)

American Thinker has a piece on soccer today, and I excerpted a small section that demonstrates why this is not a big sport in the US:

Consider other ways in which it is the quintessential socialist sport:

Soccer is biggest where the "national teams" are the main sports focus of a nation. Hey, you can't get much more socialist than that. And everyone on every street and in every town pulls for the same team. Wow. Isn't that exciting? Whom do you pull for? Oh yeah, the national team.

And let's not forget the off-sides rule. Without getting buried in minutiae, suffice it to say that off-sides in soccer is like making the bomb illegal in football or the fast break illegal in basketball. This is a socialist sport. We can't be having any risk-reward equations here. You see, in soccer, it's not fair that you might take a chance to weaken your defense in order to spring a man deep downfield behind the defense. That would be unfair in a free-market, venture-capital-type way. No, no, no! You must let the defense be behind you. You cannot beat them downfield until you have the ball. That would be unfair and, no doubt, mean-spirited.

So ingrained is this into the soccer psyche that many of the world's best defenses employ what they call "the off-sides trap." In other words, they use the socialist rules to the hilt. Here, a defenseman gets beaten downfield on purpose to get a call against his opponent.

It's a lot like using high tax rates and the IRS to keep everyone's financial strata the same.

I've got to think a lot of Americans will be turned off by soccer if America misses the final rounds because of bad officiating calls. I saw this Tweet on the issue:

RT @mattyglesias: Anti-American refereeing highlights failure of Obama's public diplomacy.

Heh. And what good is it to be a world superpower if we can't intimidate soccer officials enough to keep them from stealing our goals?

World Cup Soccer Explained

If you're like me and barely have any knowledge of metric football, the Onion has an entertaining guide to the game that's worth looking at.

One thing I've noticed is that soccer has more bad acting than a CBS sitcom.  If one player barely grazes another, the grazed victim grabs himself like he was hit with a cannonball and falls to the pitch writing in faux agony hoping the referee is the only one in the entire stadium who doesn't know he's faking it.  It's really pretty pitiful.  No wonder Americans scoff at calling it a sport.

World Cup Referee May Get Canned

If not fired, he may end up sitting out the rest of the tournament after his dismal performance in this morning's USA-Slovenia game:

JOHANNESBURG – The referee who disallowed a potential game-winning goal for the United States will face an expedited performance review from FIFA and is likely to be excluded from the rest of the World Cup, according to a FIFA source.

Koman Coulibaly from Mali disallowed Maurice Edu’s 86th-minute strike that would have given the USA a 3-2 lead over Slovenia at Ellis Park and likely would have led to a thrilling comeback victory Friday. Coulibaly appeared to rule that American midfielder Michael Bradley had impeded a Slovenian defender, even though video replays showed no infringement.

FIFA’s refereeing committee will review footage from the Group C clash on Saturday to evaluate Coulibaly’s performance after several USA players complained about the way he had struggled to control a fiercely contested match.

Every World Cup match is viewed live by an on-site assessor who monitors the referee’s performance. However, in this case, a deeper assessment will take place at the earliest possible opportunity. That this is happening so quickly suggests FIFA is taking the complaints about Coulibaly seriously and is likely to leave him unassigned to referee further matches, according to the source. He could still appear as a line judge or other supporting role.

While eating dinner tonight I was watching a replay of the game and this guy's officiating was awful. Lots of blown calls, including several against the US that no doubt affected the outcome.

The Barack Obama of World Cup - an African official who doesn't know what he's doing.

Political Cartoon of the Day

What do you get when you combine annoying World Cup horns with the Gulf Oil Spill? This:

Sports Video of the Day

From The Onion:

Soccer Officially Announces It Is Gay

World Cup Has a Problem With Horny Fans

Well, sort of:

World Cup organising committee head Danny Jordaan on Sunday did not rule out banning vuvuzelas, the noisy plastic trumpets which have proved a hit with fans in South Africa but threaten to deafen players and viewers alike.

Criticism of the vuvuzelas has been almost as loud as the instruments themselves with broadcasting companies complaining the din is almost drowning out commentary.

"We've tried to get some order," said Jordaan.

"We have asked for no vuvuzelas during national anthems or during stadium announcements. I know it's a difficult question," he added, saying that "we're trying to manage the best we can.

"We heard from the broadcasters and individuals and it's something we are evaluating on an on-going base.

Jordaan told the BBC in an interview that he had to consider the option of banning the trumpets.

"If there are grounds to do so, yes," he said, asked if a ban was an option.

France captain Patrice Evra said the incessant noise was a factor in his side's poor display in their draw with Uruguay.

According to Evra: "We can't sleep at night because of the vuvuzelas. People start playing them from 6 a.m. We can't hear one another out on the pitch because of them," the Frenchman added.

I watched some of the USA-Britain game yesterday and the constant drone of the horns sounded like the stadium was being attacked by giant bees. I imagine it can get pretty annoying down on the field. The sound never let up during the entire match.

The Brits Could Really Use a Win Today

I'm not a soccer fan but I may tune in and watch some of the USA-Britain World Cup match later this morning just to see if anything exciting happens (a rather rare occurrence in soccer from what I've seen before).  Of course, I would be expected to root for the home team, but you can't help but feel a little sorry for the Brits these days.

They used to be our closest ally, but they've been pummeled by Obama since the day he took office.  One of his first acts was giving a valuable bust of Winston Churchill back to them (it had been in the Oval Office since the days following the 9/11 attacks). Then Obama treated Prime Minister Gordon Brown like an unwanted guest, giving him a collection of DVDs of American movies that he couldn't even play on European machines.  Shortly thereafter Obama visited London and gave the Queen an iPod loaded with his speeches.

More recently Obama referred to their new Prime Minister David Cameron as a "lightweight".  And, of course, the biggest Brit news is the mess in the Gulf of Mexico involving BP, formerly known as British Petroleum.  Obama has all but declared war on Britain over that mess and his words have done damage to BP's stock price and the retirement portfolios of thousands if not millions of British seniors.

Britain could use a win right now and I'm guess emotions on the British side will be running very, very high, both in South Africa where the game will be played and back home in the British Isles or wherever British citizens might be.

Given the abuse our friends have taken at the hands of Obama, I can't help but root for them a bit in today's match.

UPDATE:  Game ends in 1-1 tie.  Britain scores early and U.S. scores in 2nd half after Brit goaltender lets one slip out of his hands.