Monday, June 26, 2006

The Pot calling the Kettle Black

I always find it funny and a little hypocritical that European nations, the majority of the time, turn their nose down at American culture as well as American behavior. Having experienced this several times, I am somewhat amussed that these nation's ills always seem to find thier way out of the closet during the World Cup or any other international sporting event. Look at the behavior of the Hooligans that has taken place during the past couple of weeks. Several European countries police forces, have sent officers to deal with thier country's hooligans. Interpol, International Criminal Police Organization, has a database of hooligan fans, from around Europe. When I was studying in London, I got a behind the scenes tour of Arsenal. Arsenal spent $7 million dollars on a security system to deal with hooligan fans. Well the only team here that would spend that much on a system like this is the Eagles. It has also been revealed, to unknowledgable fans in the States, the major problem that black futbol players are experiencing with racism. While we, as Americans, have our own issues with race; I have never known, in the past 20 years, American fans to begin emitating monkees when a black player entered the game. As I have stated we have our issues with race but we have come a long way in terms of confronting race head on. So I wonder which nation is uncivilized now? Last time I checked thier were no monkees in our stands!

The Pot calling the Kettle Black

I always find it funny and a little hypocritical that European nations, the majority of the time, turn their nose down at American culture as well as American behavior. Having experienced this several times, I am somewhat amussed that these nation's ills always seem to find thier way out of the closet during the World Cup or any other international sporting event. Look at the behavior of the Hooligans that has taken place during the past couple of weeks. Several European countries police forces, have sent officers to deal with thier country's hooligans. Interpol, International Criminal Police Organization, has a database of hooligan fans, from around Europe. When I was studying in London, I got a behind the scenes tour of Arsenal. Arsenal spent $7 million dollars on a security system to deal with hooligan fans. Well the only team here that would spend that much on a system like this is the Eagles. It has also been revealed, to unknowledgable fans in the States, the major problem that black futbol players are experiencing with racism. While we, as Americans, have our own issues with race; I have never known, in the past 20 years, American fans to begin emitating monkees when a black player entered the game. As I have stated we have our issues with race but we have come a long way in terms of confronting race head on. So I wonder which nation is uncivilized now? Last time I checked thier were no monkees in our stands!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Houston We Have a Problem!

I am extremly disappointed in myself because I bought into the hype of surrounding the US Soccer team. I let myself believe that they really were the 5th best team in the world, knowing in the back of my mind that this was truly a pipe dream. I knew we were in trouble when I watched the friendly matches and the one thing that I noticed was that we are not a physical enough team to compete with the European teams. If we want to compete against these teams we are going to have to find 11 guys with the size of Oguchi Onyewu, Gooch. We need 11 men with size and speed of Terrell Owens and the attitude Ronnie Lott, and here in lies the problem. If the United States actually wants to win a World Cup by 2010, as has been proposed, soccer is going to have move out of the suburbs and into the inner city as well as into the rural areas. US Soccer is going to have to attract athletes that want out of the situation that they currently live. People can talk about how much heart the US team has, but heart ain't going to get it done on the international stage in which the national team currently plays. As a friend pointed out we are good enough to compete in CONCACAF but we are not prepared to compete against the European teams. Think about this I can gaurantee you that the majority of the US players come from comfortable backgrounds, meaning middle to upper middle class. Compare thier backgrounds to the backgrounds of the Brazilian players or the Mexicain players and you will probably notice a stark contrast. We will not win a World Cup until the soccer's image moves away from soccer moms and orange slices to the way the rest of the world plays: a physical tough game.