Jesus.

(Pronounced "hey-zeus" for the rest of this thread, please.)

The Mexicans sure aren't taking their defeat in the World Cup particularly well.

[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020617/ap_wo_en_po/sports_soccer_wcup_mexico_reax_2]Story.[/url]

Choice quotes:

[quote]

"It hurts us here," said Jose Luis Luviano, 21, punching his chest. Tears melted the Mexican flags painted on his cheeks. "There has to be an end to this disgrace where (Americans) treat us like rats and idiots."
[/quote]

Hey, Jose, had your team won that match last night or lost it, we're still going to consider Mexico to be part of the third world.

[quote]
For decades, Mexicans took pride in dominating the United States in soccer, at least. But U.S. teams have steadily improved and now have beaten Mexico in five of their last six meetings. Mexicans continue to scoff at the state of soccer knowledge among U.S. sports fans, whose nonchalance toward the game makes defeats even more bitter.

"The United States is a country of basketball, not of soccer," said Lucia Arango, a 20-year-old street vendor. "Destiny has played a dirty trick on us."
[/quote]

Insert your own basketball / average male Mexican height joke here, I guess.


[quote]
"In no way do we feel defeated," he said. "The important thing is to fight, fight, fight with tenacity."
[/quote]

Scoreboard. I'd translate that into Spanish except that I am a dumb American gringo who does not know Spanish and because you lot likely have no word for "scoreboard" and will continue not to have one until the secret of electricity is handed over to you.

[quote]
"I wouldn't be watching if I weren't here," Tate admitted. "I didn't even know that the World Cup was every three years."
[/quote]

Leave it to Yahoo to make the last comment on their article one by the retarded American. LOL! I can't wait until them there presidential elections every three years! I can't wait until them summer games come by again in 2003! Hyuck! ROFL! ROOFLES!!


In another article, one Mexican citizen whined that though they have the superior team, with superior skill, talent, athletes, coaching and fuck, I don't know, magic rings hooked up to the power battery on the planet Oa, the Americans only won because the Mexican team plays so many "friendlies" against them and that now the Americans "know how to handle them." I have no sports-related take on that, just, that's what you get -- that's what you *deserve* -- for calling your games "friendlies," bitches.

:shock:

They don't still do penalty kicks for the games in the World Cup where they have to have a winner, right? For some reason I thought they changed that.

My completely knee-jerk opinion on solving soccer's woes would be to decrease the length of the field. Maybe they tried that in one of the American-only leagues or something and it failed miserably and if so I stand corrected. But while I can understand how someone could be interested in the setting of defenseman when one team has the ball in another's zone (I mean, like chess but with athletes) there seems to be far, far too much space in neutral area where not a lot of interesting stuff happens. I can appreciate a bicycle kick or a quality save or something, but seeing a bunch of guys dork around with the ball hundreds and feet away from the goal and essentially just "icing" it on one another isn't -- to me -- that interesting.

I also think it suffers from the same thing that the NBA does, where you can check out the last five minutes and still see all that needs to be seen. In the NBA, at least, you are rewarded with watching the entire game by seeing a nice dunk, seeing a guy make a string of three point shots, or gaining an inordinate amount of personal disbelief in a higher power by watching Rick Fox seriously comport himself as if he were an integral part of a championship team and not just a miserable wretch (and even worse actor) doing a job a hundred other guys in the NBA could do, and do with significantly less pretentiousness. But when one team is aggressively attacking the other in soccer, it's not bad fare. It only seems to occur with frequency when the game is nearing end and the team that gets behind is finally... [i]finally[/i] desperate enough to press.

Soccer will never catch on in the United States. Since using your hands and arms is illegal, the game is like some made up gym class exercise, like shooting baskets blind-folded or kickball. I read a press clip about a U.S. team player who in MLS play, came from the corner split two defenders and scored. This was considered extremely daring and innovative. Huh? A guy actual trying to score is innovative play? Any contact in this sport results in players acting like were shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. Soccer seems to be a bunch of guys running around playing keep away for 2 hours. THEN, they decide the outcome of the game on a series of penalty kicks where the goalie can only guess and get lucky in order to stop the kick. So lets see- no hands, 98 pound pussies for players, guessing and keep away. No wonder the French won the last World Cup.