a)…because we’re unlikely to see a better goal, and
b) after Valentin Ivanov’s Sunday night, there might not be enough players available to finish the competition.
Tomorrow’s Independent claims that David Beckham’s 2nd half free kick — vaulting England into a quarterfinal clash with Portugal — will provide “a £100m boost to the economy.” That’s good news, given that Cadbury’s recent salmonella scare will undoubtedly cost the economy at least that amount, if not more.
Aren’t most sports just a tax in the end? That ‘boost’ is just the local soccer hooligans spending a few more pounds on shirts, beer, and ammo for godsakes.
well, in this case “the local soccer hooligans” will be a pretty major chunk of the island’s entire population engaged in (relatively) non-violent commerical activity in the run up to the QF…with further heavy spending if England go keep winning.
Considering that Portugal will already be at least two men down, I imagine it’s highly unlikely that FIFA will do the right thing and suspend Figo. As for Ivanov, any chance of waiving the mandatory retirement age for refs to bring back Collina?
holland v. portugal was the most brutally terrible game i’ve ever seen, and that includes kentucky middle school soccer.
Your site pretty much sucks. You deny pen discussion of issues. You edit or block innocent comments.
Nick- what did Figo do that hasn’t been done 400 times by other players in this tournament?
Head butt an opposing player?
DIRM,
I deny Pen discussion of issues? Hey, I’m a huge Honor Role fan. If he wants to write in, he should feel free.
But in all seriousness, I don’t block “innocent” comments. Because of the fucking massive amount of comment spam I’m hit with (usually from mortage, gambling porn or druggy sites), certain key words keep a comment held in a moderation line. Once I’ve ascertained there’s no commercial angle involved, said comment is posted.
There are a number of IP addresses that are blocked due to past examples of abuse. And those posters still manage to make their way through if they have anything to say besides “eat me” or “Barrett Robins is my friend”
If you want completely unfettered free speech, by all means, check out another blog or start your own. But as long as you’re in my house, chew on this for a moment or two :
a) commentators are not required to register
b) other than my own spelling mistakes, I’ve never edited someone else’s comment, including those that were highly critical of me.
Nick – didn’t see that. I thought you were talking about the acting job that got Boularhuz sent off.
Also, I finally watched the Argentina clip. It was a hell of a goal but it didn’t appear much different from the Joe Cole goal.
similar, perhaps, but Rodriguez gets nod because
a) his goal won the game for Argentina…in a win or cry like someone-who’s-had-sentitivity training situation and
b) CSTB’s institutionalized anti-Chelsea bias. Even during the summertime.
Charles,
Wisdom Weasel has the Y’all Tube video of Cole’s strike against Sweden :
http://wisdomweasel.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-quickly-we-forget.html
Watching both goals back to back, I still have to Rodriguez the points. He brought the ball down with his back to the net before turning and shooting….Cole was facing the Sweden goal the entire time.