A response to Ann Coulter

An American woman named Ann Coulter, apparently well known if you are American, but unknown if you are not, penned a diatribe against the beautiful game, the link is below. Read her and then read on.
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-06-25.html

Her Wikipedia page states that she is an American conservative social and political commentator, etc. so why she is attacking football in such a strong fashion that I feel a strong rebuttal of her article is necessary

Having looked into her career, she seems rather like a Luis Suarez in that she likes to bite in a literal sense, and has a bit of Mario Baliotelli, in her as well, he is "Why always Me", she seems to be "All about Me".

This is not an attack on Ms Coulter, (or on Americans in general, although it may seem so sometimes). It is just an attempt to set her straight as she has obviously never watched a game of football in her life.

Ms Coulter is obviously the type of American, who as Bill Bryson put it so succinctly in his book  The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, who is surprised to learn, that the Moscow mentioned in the news is not in Idaho but in some far away place called Russia.

To the article, her comments are in blue.

1) part a - Individual achievement is not a big factor in Soccer. Do they even have MVPs (Most valuable Player for those not American)

Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, to name the last two world players of the year, an award given for individual brilliance and skill. One is from Portugal, the other from Argentina, so the emphasis is on the word world in reference to her point 7 about football being foreign.

It is interesting to note here, that the last world baseball tournament was not actually won by the Boston Red Sox but by the Dominican Republic that great powerhouse of sport. The Boston Red Sox won the domestic title rather incongruously known as the world series, due to the egocentric nature of a lot of Americans.

1) part b- and I will paraphrase, Players make mistakes all in front of a crowd. When baseball players strike out they are alone at the plate. But there is also individual glory in home runs, touchdowns and slam dunks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFg_jpnlycE    Ryan Giggs 1999 individual run and goal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umxy9WcNjzc  James Rodriguez 2014 World Cup

In soccer, the blame is dispersed. There are no heroes, no losers, no accountability, and no child's fragile self esteem is bruised.

As we already know, Ms Coulter has never seen a penalty shoot out, so she doesn't know about damage to self esteem, being labelled a loser or accountability for the one who misses a vital penalty. What is the Italian Roberto Baggio most remembered for?
Missing the Penalty that gave Brazil the 1994 World Cup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbkRApq9qY 

She has obviously never heard of one Steven Gerrard, Liverpool's most famous son since the Fab four. (aka the Beatles)

In the space of two months, mistakes he made in front of a world audience has led to his club team (Liverpool) not winning the league and his National Team (England) failing to progress at the world cup.

He has been blamed and will always be remembered for those mistakes.

As for children, almost all of us had to suffer the agonies of being the last one to be chosen for a pick up game, because nobody wanted you on their team.


2) Football is not a co-ed sport to my knowledge, certainly not at a professional level.

4) The prospect of either personal humiliation or major injury is required to count as a sport. In hockey, there are three or four fights a game. 

For the personal humiliation, I refer back to penalty misses. For the injury, I don't want to post pictures of horrific broken legs or noses, which are sadly part and parcel of the game.
Why don't you go and watch boxing or wrestling then? You seem to like pain. Violence is not the point of the sport, for a supposedly intelligent women, so far you have not displayed much proof of that.

5)You can't use your hands in soccer

This has always been one of my favourites, In American football I believe only the punter and the kicker actually use their feet to touch the ball, funny for a game that is called football. Whereas in association football only the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands in an attempt to stop the ball being kicked with a foot into his goal.

7) They remain distinctly unimpressed by the fact that the French like it.

The most sensible line in your whole article

9) Soccer is not catching on. Headlines this week proclaimed "Record U.S. ratings for World Cup

We are then provided with some impressive stats re viewing figures

USA-Portugal game was the blockbuster match, garnering 18.2 million viewers on ESPN
Run-of-the-mill, regular-season Sunday Night Football games average more than 20 million viewers. this year's Super Bowl had 111.5 million viewers.

Ms Coulter, Hell, I watched the Superbowl, I love it, and it starts at 01.30 am where I live, but did you watch the Superbowl ? or perhaps I should phrase the question differently.
The Superbowl is an event which happens to rotate around an American Football game. It is an excuse for a party, a getting together of friends, to eat, drink and be merry.
A lot of the viewers are watching just to see the half time show or the great commercials which air during the Superbowl. Ask a lot of those 111.5 million viewers, how much of the game they actually watched ?
I doubt that they saw more than a few minutes of the actual game or understood what was happening if they did.

The NFL is mainly played on a Sunday and at prime times for television. The USA-Portugal game was actually watched by more than stated above by Ms Coulter, there were another 6.5 million viewers who watched on the Spanish language channel.(reading between the lines Ms Coulter does not seem to welcome your prescence in her beloved country) The figures do not take into account those watching the game in bars, at work or in World Cup viewing areas.

I would like to see the numbers for the Germany- USA game which was played at 12.00 noon on a week-day, I imagine the figures were still pretty good. The USA - Belgium game with a 18.00pm kick off Tuesday could set a new record.

The point is that numbers can be massaged to suit the view of the proponent of whatever theory they are putting forward. They don't always tell the whole picture.

In soccer, the women's games are as thrilling as the men's. 

As to women's soccer, I watched the last women's world cup final in 2011. It was amazing to see Japan beat the mighty US of A who have the best supported women's league in the world.

Do you believe women shouldn't be playing sports ?

I am not really interested about the demographic switch happening in America.
I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer
What about all those Americans who are descendants of the German and Italian waves of immigration of more than a 100 years ago, I would guess they also enjoy cheering on the Mannschaft or the Azurri as they finally get to reconnect with their roots.

Ms Coulter, going back to the Superbowl, you need to take heed of the advice from this volkswagen commercial from 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyAcQnu0Bfg

Chill Ann

Does the Punishment fit the crime part 1 (Suarez)

So now we know "Chewy" Luis Suarez has received the verdict, which I shall briefly summarise here. This piece will mainly be reaction from fans round the world with their reaction to the sentence. Then I shall post a more in depth argument for and against and also pose the question, re other examples of foul play and their non-punishment.

Luis Suarez has been banned from all football related activity for 4 months which basically means until the beginning of November 2014, he is not allowed to train with his club side Liverpool. He is not even allowed to set foot inside a football stadium. He has also been banned for 9 international games for Uruguay and fined 100,000 Swiss Francs.

So , is it fair ? is it too lenient ? or is it harsh ?

I have trawled the depths of English (and One Scottish) fans to gauge the mood of the people. All the readers round the world are welcome to add their views in the comments section below. I wonder if we will see a cultural divide on this issue.

Here we go, with the views of Liverpool fans first

A plumber from London  said:

"Sell him to Real Madrid for 80 million (if they'll have him) Enough already. He is a liability"

An owner of a bar from London :

"Dunno what to make of it. I don't believe the intent was to bite. I think he went to headbutt him and his teeth got in the way. They (Liverpool) should buy a replacement"

An unnamed source from Cambridge said . "Liverpool should bite their lip"

One of my brothers in law, ( I have a lot)

"He is too good to let go for a little bite, Some people love Italian food. The television replays are inconclusive. I am happy to turn a blind eye. He will probably go to Barcelona as he thinks the English press have it in for him".

Now the wider public.

A very interesting one from an MCC member, getting his sports mixed up here, the old duffer,

"Biting has no place in the world cup or any other football tournament. It's just not cricket."

He also thought the punishment was fair given he is a repeat offender.

A Geordie Hooligan (Newcastle fan)

"Fair, but they should pull his teeth out as well"

@israeligooner (Arsenal)

"Happy we never bought him in hindsight, an amazing player but has mental health issues, an accident waiting to happen. The ban should be from the beginning of the season in August not now. He needs help and that should be part of the ban"

A Sunderland fan

Not long enough

A Leeds fan (not me) a team well known for fair and clean play

FIFA needed to give a clear message  and they have done so.

Jimmy , a Glasgow Celtic fan with a typical Scottish focus on the money aspect

A wee bit unfair on Liverpool as he was representing Uruguay when the incident occurred. Clubs always get screwed when their players play for national teams and get injured for example, the club still has to pay his salary, not the National team. Liverpool should impose a big fine for damages he has caused to the club.

An Aston Villa fan (yes they do exist)

could have been a lot worse, I thought he would be out until January

and last but not least an American from New Jersey

It is a 9 match slap on the wrist. He is a recidivist It is not a one off thing

So there we have it. Will have to wait until the morning for next post, need to watch the next game. Please feel free to add your comments below, you can stay anonymous if you want.

The Gif to the left is from a great site for keeping up to date especially if you can't watch the games, Good text commentary and clips of goals very soon after they happen.

The Last Rites of the First Rouind

The Brazilian language is based on Portuguese as opposed to Spanish, as Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the year 1500 until independence in 1822. Today, we are likely to witness the exit of the mother country, Portugal who only have a very slim chance of going through as the final day of first round matches kicks off at 16.00 GMT with Portugal V Ghana and Germany V USA.

The first part of the equation is simple, if the game between Germany and USA ends in a stalemate, both those teams will advance and the result in the Portugal game will be academic. The USA are managed by Jurgen Klinsmann, a talismanic German striker in his time, and who also happened to be the previous manager of the NationalMannSchaft and there are suggestions, of course strongly denied by all involved, that both teams would be happy with a draw and may play so.

How can this be, I hear you all shout. Well there is previous for this. The reason both final group games are played at the same time which one would think is not good for television, as the viewers have to choose a match to watch, is that in 1982, the then West Germany played Austria in a game where all that was needed was a 1-0 victory by the Germans for both teams to advance at the expense of Algeria who had played the day before.
The Germans scored after 10 minutes and did not create another chance, and the game became known as the Nichtangriffspakt Von Gijón (Non-aggression pact of Gijon) or in Algeria, as the Anschluss, after the unification of Germany and Austria enacted by the Nazis in 1938.

Now I am not a conspiracy theory type of guy, but there are a lot of people out there who are. Mesut Ozil the German midfielder who is a descendant of Turkish Gastarbeiter was quoted on ESPN as saying that Germany will not be playing for a draw. The mere fact that he did this lends weight to those conspiracy theory lovers.

Of course all the above will be irrelevant if there is a positive result in this game. I am going for a win for the NationalMannschaft.

2 to watch Clint Dempsey and Thomas Muller

Assuming as I wrote that there is a result in the above game, then the Portugal V Ghana game takes on more significance. It is a little complicated as goal difference features in a large way. If Germany and Ghana both win 1-0 then Germany and USA would go through as goal difference and goals scored would be identical, but Ghana lost to the USA. The same outcome but not both 1-0 would see Ghana through. 

Of course USA could beat Germany, but at the moment the Shermans have a +4 goal difference which should see them safe even with a defeat. What about Portugal, they need to win by 5 goals to have a chance of qualifying.   2 to watch The Ayew brothers for Ghana

Ghana to win, but not maybe go through

The final games of the first stage 20.00 GMT see Belgium who are already through take on S Korea who have been disappointing so far and Russia face the surprisingly good Algeria. Algeria only need a point to progress.  A win for Belgium and Algeria getting what they need are my predictions here.

2 to watch Origi for Belgium and Feghouli for Algeria, the other teams are not worth watching

A date which will live in Footballing infamy and a look ahead to today

Today sees the concluding matches in Groups E and F and there is nothing on offer to really set the pulses racing. I will give a brief preview and then review yesterday's events, the good, the bad and the ugly.

The action starts today at 16.00 GMT when Argentina who have already qualified for the next stage take on Nigeria who need a draw to go through. Argentina have disappointed so far scraping through both their games with narrow victories due to Leo Messi scoring 2 fantastic goals.  The Nigerian goalkeeper could be their star player Enyema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgoLiwdox20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpiDf53RcgU    (Arabic commentary is great)



World Cup history is littered with teams who started slowly, did what they needed to get through the first round and then made a strong run.

A draw is the most likely result here.

The second game features Iran, (who were unlucky to lose to the aforementioned piece of Messi genius in injury time) against Bosnia who are already out. No-one outside of those 2 nations cares what happens here, although there is a remote chance that, if Iran win and Nigeria lose, then Iran could advance. Dzeko and Dejagah. are the 2 to look out for here

Bosnia to salvage some pride with a win

The 2nd set of games (20.00 GMT) features games between Ecuador and France and Switzerland against Honduras.

Free-scoring France have all but sealed qualification and top spot - they would have to lose heavily to Ecuador, and the Swiss record a huge win over Honduras. Ecuador are in second spot on goal difference only. It promises to be a cracking conclusion to the group stage.

We have to find something negative to say about the French, so how about this for a double miss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8NSMX0u-tw

France and Switzerland to win and both progress to the last 16.

So to yesterday, a day which had the Good, Greece fighting to the end and winning (a somewhat dubious penalty if truth be told) in injury time to progress,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-3CdprY0s

the Bad, the match between Italy and Uruguay which would not have been out of place in an ultimate fighting cage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZdlKKTk_A  the red card to Italy

and the Ugly, the disgraceful act by Luis Suarez as he sunk his teeth into the shoulder of Chiellini(no angel himself).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot9Vh2XDNZU  the latest bite

I wrote yesterday, that some of the Italian tactics would put the Mafia to shame, and so it proved yesterday until Suarez's moment of madness. Don Corleone, is going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

Now the world waits to see how the governing body FIFA is going to deal with something which could overshadow what has been a very good tournament so far.

The Silence of the FIFA (Suarez Bite)

In my preview of this group, I included a clip of Luis Suarez biting another player. It is astonishing that he has done it again, and even more so, is that from the subsequent corner, Uruguay scored and won the game thus advancing to the next stage.
The other clip I already showed you was his cheating 4 years ago against Ghana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GopdzPxE2gk   The last bite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcQkwxEGRYc   The hand ball

It is sad that he has so much football talent, but FIFA, if they want to maintain some semblance of credibility in the eyes of the world, especially in countries where they are trying to promote the beautiful game, must act and ban Suarez for life now.
He must never play football again and they should offer to pay for the counselling he so obviously needs.

I would love to read your comments

Football is going Home

Today, the World Cup says goodbye to En Ger Land, as they play in their last match against Costa Rica (16.00 GMT) before they go home. Costa Rica have already qualified and are undoubtedly the surprise of the tournament so far. England have made 9 changes for this game from the team that started against Uruguay and Costa Rica are also resting some of their "star players".

The other game in group D, features Italy against Uruguay (16.00 GMT). The sides are level on points with each have beaten England but lost to Costa Rica. However Italy are in pole position at the moment as they have scored 2 and conceded 2 giving them a 0 goal difference and Uruguay have scored 3 but conceded 4 giving them -1 goal difference. This means a draw would suffice for Italy to go through to the last 16.

Italy and Uruguay, between them, won the first 4 World Cup tournaments. Uruguay in the inaugural event in 1930,  then Italy in 1934 and 1938. In 1950 after a 12 year hiatus after the nations of the world had indulged in their second favourite pastime after football, i.e. war, Uruguay won it again. The last time of course it was held in Brazil.

Italy played Uruguay in Italia 90 and took the lead through this great goal by Toto Schillachi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWwgrLMOKA

The Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez was also in charge on that day, now aged 67 he is looking for revenge.

The Italians are past masters at obtaining a draw when they need it. The style was known as Catenaccio which translates into door-bolt. It implied a highly effective defence focused on nullifying opponents attacks and preventing goal scoring opportunities from being created by any means, some of which would make Mafia enforcers flinch. It could be brutal and did not make for pleasant viewing.

I didn't do very well yesterday with my predictions, but Italy will do what they need to progress.

2 to watch for. Cavani for Uruguay and Buffon for Italy.

For dessert, we have the 2 remaining games in group C, Colombia V Japan and Ivory Coast V Greece (20.00 GMT). This group is very open, Colombia are already through and Ivory Coast probably only need a draw to join them. Greece have to win which is unlikely because as I mentioned in an earlier post, they don't score very often.  Ivory Coast to go through and Gervinho to shine for Ivory Coast

The Japanese have been very disappointing, I blame the fact that so many of their team have bad haircuts and some have even bleached hair (why I ask)

They still have a slim chance if they can manage to beat Colombia, but I fear that we may be witnessing a mass hara-kiri by the fans and the coach committing Seppuku (ritual Suicide) on the sidelines after this game. At least that would be interesting.

Colombia to go through with a win

Down to the Nitty Gritty

Today sees the the opening of the last round of group matches, with there being 2 games being played at 16.00 GMT from Group B and the last 2 games from Group A kicking off at 20.00 GMT.

The first games are Spain V Australia and Chile V Holland. The result of the Spain V Australia game will decide who avoids the wooden spoon (the award supposedly given to the team finishing bottom of the group) but apart from that it has no bearing on the rest of this tournament.

We can not go without mentioning that probably 98% of the population of the world who follow football would not have expected the reigning champions Spain not to make it past the first round.

A little nugget for you, this is now the 3rd time in the last 4 world cups that the defending champions has not advanced past the first round. France in 2002 and Italy in 2010 being the other 2 teams to have achieved this dubious status. I suppose 4 years is a long time in world football.

The second game could be a classic, on the one hand as both sides have qualified, one may think they will just rest on their laurels and play out a quiet game with no team wanting to risk injury or unwanted suspensions due to yellow or red cards to their players.

The reality though is very different. The runner up in this group (at the moment slated to be Chile) will play their last sixteen game against the winner of Group A, which will most likely be Brazil. It might be stating the obvious to say that if Brazil are not going to win this tournament (even though they haven't played very well so far) then someone has to beat them, but that team would rather it be in the final, than before then.

So we should expect both teams to go for the win although a draw would leave the Dutch in first place on superior goal difference, (they are 8-3 giving them +5 and Chile are 5-1 giving them +4).

A new feature, 2 players to look out for, Robben for the Dutch and Sanchez for the Chileans.

I can't decide so I will sit on the fence and go for a score draw.

In the later games, all is still to play for except for Cameroon who have already been eliminated after 2 woeful performances, highlighted by these 2 incidents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKoc0rtCAAc

What Alexander Song was thinking I don't know, but at least he hit an opponent as compared to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHkejTLsQ_Y

Assou-Ekotto, he of the great hair, tried to get at the same player as they went down the tunnel after the game, it is no wonder that Cameroon, haven't scored any goals yet and have let in 5, plus another 2 which were wrongly disallowed in their game against Mexico.

Song received a red card and is suspended and Assou-Ekotto, escaped without punishment but will probably not play as he is not flavour of the month in Cameroon at the moment.

Brazil, will be happy they are due to face Cameroon and should have to much firepower which will see them safely through as group winners.

Brazil to win

This leaves us with the game between Mexico and Croatia, a draw will suffice for Mexico, Croatia have to win. Croatia could be considered to have been unlucky against Brazil and they have a lot of talent on offer. Mexico have been solid and their goalkeeper was outstanding against Brazil. Can they keep Croatia out for 90 minutes to progress. I am going with a Croatian victory

2 players to look out for, Modric for Croatia and Oscar for Brazil