Tag: Soccer

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: Is Beyonce the worst SI cover ever?



Booooooooo!

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue sales must have been down last year because this year, they are jumping on the celebrity bandwagon by having Beyonce on the cover. How is it possible that Marissa Miller (possibly the hottest SI swimsuit model ever) has never graced the cover but Beyonce gets it? The SI cover has been pretty sacred ground… until now.

Beyonce is perhaps one of the most overrated celebrities of our time. She is the Derek Jeter of pop stardom. Hell, for someone who is desperately trying to launch an acting career, she was out-acted by an American Idol loser in a movie she should have owned. Not only that, she wasn’t even the first choice for her role.

OK, so clearly Beyonce looks super hot on the SI cover but that’s because they fixed her wig and her mustache.

In other news…

[The Offside]: It’s always satisfying to see a professional blow a goal

[Steroid Nation]: The Dominicans love their juice

[10,000 Takes]: A list of special Valentines Day presents

[The Gold Seat]: David Carr to Vikings?

[Bright Side of the Sun]: Zoo names baby tigers Raja and Nash.

And finally… Valentine’s Day Pat O’Brien Style. Forgot to get a card? You can print out our handy version.

Categories
Soccer

Italian Soccer rioting leaves one policeman dead

Soccer in Italy has gotten completly out of control. Just two weeks ago, a team official from a 4th division (think AAA ball) was killed during a brawl when someone kicked him in the head. Now in Serie A, a policeman was killed when rioting broke out between fans after a game between Catania and Palermo. 40-year-old Fillipo Raciti was killed either by a blow to the stomach or being hit in the face with a small explosive. The autopsy is pending.

First of all, a small explosive? Who the hell brings a small explosive to a soccer match? (Yes, a fan once shot a flare gun at Veterans Stadium but into some empty seats.) Second, what the hell is going on with Italian soccer fans? It’s like they’re determined to take hooliganism to the next level. Italian officials have suspended soccer matches indefinitely until they can figure out what to do about the insanity. You know it’s bad when the Pope has to come out and remind Catholics that violence in soccer is… bad.

One possible reason for the tremendous amounts of violence in Italian soccer are the traveling fans according to EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini.


In Italy the clubs guarantee great bonuses to fans who travel to follow their teams in away games: free travel, discounted tickets. Abroad fans have to pay for their own tickets, while here [in Italy] they are offered by the clubs

We actually like soccer around here at Sportscolumn but the next time someone puts down American football and talks about how great of a game soccer is, we’ll remind them that at least we don’t riot to kill people (a new plasma TV will do) and blatant racism isn’t tolerated in NFL stadiums.

Links:
[Toronto Star]: Thousands mourn officer killed in Italy soccer riot

[Catholic Online]: Pope condemns violence ‘disfiguring’ soccer world

Categories
Soccer

Top 10 Dumbest in-game Injuries: #5 Paulo Diogo

[Sportscolumn is running down the ten dumbest in-game injuries in sports.  Here’s #5.]

In a Swiss soccer league game, a Servette FC player set-up a successful goal and in wild merriment he scaled a fence that was in place to separate the fans from the field. The just married Paulo Diogo’s wedding band snagged on the fence as he leapt off and part of his finger along with his ring remainder atop the fence after he had hit the ground. Talk about a symbol of love.

And if having a finger ripped off isn’t bad enough, a referee misinterpreted Diogo’s writhing on the ground and shrieks of agony as an excessive celebration and threw a yellow card in his face. Unfortunately, doctors were unable to reattach the ring finger and instead opted to amputate what portion was left.

Back to #6 | Forward to #4

Categories
Soccer

Cheryl Tweedy, meet Carmella Decesare


Most of you probably don’t know who Cheryl Tweedy (Cole) is. That’s ok, she’s just some pop singer in England. But she is also smokin’ hot. The reason why this is sports related? She’s married to a footballer (that’s soccer player) named Ashley Cole, who is rumored to be gay.

Cheryl lashed out today at people who think her husband Ashley is gay and dismissed the rumors as ridiculous.


At first I laughed my head off because the suggestion was so ridiculous. But Ashley wasn’t laughing. It wasn’t very nice for either of us, but it certainly wasn’t a good time for him. But I was there for him when people had a go at him in the street or asked if he was gay. He says it doesn’t hurt him when stuff is said but deep down I know it must do. To be honest, it’s more devastating for me than it is for him because I love him and I know what he’s going through.

So basically, Ashley Cole is the Jeff Garcia of soccer. Remember when Carmella Decesare (2004 Playmate of the Year) came out to defend her boyfriend against the accusation by Terrell Owens that Jeff was gay? (“I can attest 100 percent that he is not gay.”)

We think that Cheryl Tweedy should call up Carmella and ask her for advice on how to deal with the situation. And then maybe meet up for coffee… and then maybe go lingerie shopping together… and then… what were we talking about again?

Links:
[Pink News]: Mrs Ashley Cole attacks “ridiculous” rumours
[YouTube]: How did Jeff Garcia land Carmella? GARY BARBERA!

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Around the Blogosphere


Two great stories in the blogosphere today. The first from There’s Your Karma, Ripe as Peaches: “I couldn’t wrap my brain around the possibility that a person I once revered as more than a man could get in a dancing competition and proceed to out-gay Mario Lopez…”

The second is from Can’t Stop the Bleeding. We don’t know what the story is actually about but he managed to make a reference to Roland Przybylewski AND use the word effect as a verb correctly. Well done, sir.

In other news…

[CNN Money]: Why I hate Monday Night Football

[ESPN]: Here’s an idea – how about Bonds just leaves baseball period?

[USA Today]: Average college coaches salary up to $950k a year

[ESPN]: LPGA to start drug testing… cause you know, everyone was so up in arms about steroids in womens golf

[The Offside]: The High Cost of being a WAG

[Awful Announcing]: Dissecting Jemele Hill’s first ESPN Page 2 Column

Categories
Soccer

Odds and Ends: Soccer stories

We have a couple of soccer stories for Odds and Ends today. The first is a story of a Bulgarian club that is ordering one of its players to get married so that it will curtail his wild living. Ivelin Popov parties too much and has too many girlfriends so the team has ordered him to get married. This has got reality TV show written all over it.

Second (via The Offside) comes this video of a fan who pants an assistant referee during a game. Ed Hochuli would’ve kicked his ass.

In other news…

[Live Science]: Key to hockey goalie success is… watching the puck

[SI]: Second dancer in Duke rape case says the accuser was “talking crazy”.

[Mirror UK]: BERBICK: A TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN

[Boston Herald]: Cardinals are the worst World Series champs in history

[10,000 Takes]: They really should be in the Castro for Halloween

Categories
Soccer

Too bad this wasn’t Tony Siragusa

There are two things you can watch over and over: someone getting hit in the crotch and someone falling down unexpectedly. Well, from The Offside comes this video of a soccer sideline reporter taking one for the team.

Can anyone translate what the anchorman is saying?

Categories
Soccer

Rocky looks terrible


This is only marginally related to sports but the new part-owner of Everton is friends with Sylvester Stallone from his Planet Hollywood days and has promised to bring him to some games in the future. Maybe England is like Japan where washed up actors go to make commercials and die but does the appearance of Sly make an event better? This is a guy who has had all his recent movies go straight to video.

In any case, we wanted to just point out that Rocky, hero of our youth, looks like crap. And the movie doesn’t look much better either… which of course isn’t going to stop us from seeing it in the theater anyway.

Links:
[The Sun UK]: Rocky times ahead for Blues

Categories
Soccer

Croatian Soccer fans are racist idiots


It seems every story we do on soccer is tied to racism. The governing body of European soccer, UEFA, has warned Croatian soccer officials that they are in danger of getting tossed out of the 2008 European Championships if there are any more racist incidents from their fans because they have a history of racist behavior. In 2004 the Croatian Federation was fined because black French players were racially abused and white supremecist banners were displayed.


UEFA’s William Gaillard warned: “We won’t tolerate racism. We have had many problems with this in Eastern Europe before and Croatia have been among the worst offenders.

But we are determined this will not happen again and will send out a strong message to stop any incidents during the game against England.

FIFA have recently introduced new rules which can, in extreme cases, lead to a team being docked points or even being excluded from the competition.

Because of the problems we have encountered with Croatian teams in the past, they have been warned future sanctions will be much heavier than any which have been imposed for previous incidents.

Everyone (except the idiot fans) is absolutely livid about the human swastika that 200 Croatian fans formed at a game in Italy. Shouldn’t security have broken this up? Only in soccer is racism so blatant and rampant. Say what you want about ugly Americans but we keep comments about players to their mothers, wives, and pill popping — not the color of their skin.

You know, it’s sad when a brilliant idea like creating a message with people at a stadium is wasted on something like this. Imagine how great it would have been if fans spelled out FU TO at the Eagles-Cowboys game last Sunday.

Links:
[IHT]: Roundup: Croatia warned over racist chants

[The Sun UK]: Nazty

Categories
Soccer

Brazilian ref allows goal scored by ball boy

Watch this video of a ball boy scoring a goal. After the opposing team shot wide of the net, the ball boy casually dribbled a ball back into play and tapped it past the goalie and over the line. It was so obvious that it wasn’t a real goal but the referee awarded the goal to Santacruzense anyway and the game ended up in a 1-1 tie. On top of that, the “goal” happened in the 89th minute. And even worse, the referee was the first woman to have ever reffed a Brazilian National Championship match. We bet the rest of the women who have hopes of becoming a soccer referee are pissed. Also, check out the pavlovian response of the announcer.