Miscellaneous sports-related items (mostly soccer talk, because other than the World Cup, there are no sports going on now worth watching):
- Before getting to soccer, some really important sports news: Williams College won its tenth Sears Cup in the last eleven years, as the best athletic program in Division III. They also topped the US News rankings for liberal arts schools. Eat our dust, Amherst.
- On to soccer: I didn't get to watch any of Tuesday's games, because I have a day job, but Monday's games were pretty ugly. Australia lost to the Italian national diving team on a late penalty kick, and Ukraine beat Switzerland on penalty kicks, in a game that both teams seemed determined to have end in a 0-0 tie. What a bunch of crap that was-- this is why most Americans think so littlle of the game.
- Tuesday's games were apparently more entertaining, with Brazil beating Ghana 3-0, and France beating Spain 3-1. Brazil's Ronaldo broke the record for career goals in World Cup play, with a sweet cross-over move that completely flummoxed the goalie. Somebody with more soccer knowledge than I have can determine where this puts him in the pantheon of all-time greats.
- While poking about idly waiting for something, I was reading previews of the Spain-France game, and ran across a reference to Spanish striker Fernando Torres, shown celebrating a goal against Tunisia. I wondered what the hell that tattoo on his arm is, and as always, Wikipedia provided the trivia answer: "He has a tattoo on the inside of his left arm that says "Fernando" in tengwar." Yes, that's right, a striker for the Spanish national team has a tattoo in Elvish. Question: Is this more or less dorky than the waitress I met who had the inscription from the One Ring tattooed on her shoulder blade?
- Speaking of soccer and nerds, Sean Carroll suggests some rules changes to improve the World Cup. I mostly agree with them, but it's the comment thread that really takes this topic to the next level, particularly the equation of soccer and guerilla warfare in this comment.
- Not related to actual soccer, but pretty amusing: Park Foot Ball, a QuickTime movie of little colored blobs playing soccer, among other things. It's surprisingly entertaining. (Via Drink At Work.)
And that's about enough of that.
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There probably some one out there with more soccer knowledge than me. But I got dips.
Ronaldo in Barcelona, and the first year in Inter was probably as good an attacker as one can get. But one of the all time greatest he is newer gonna be. He tops around the world cups, his last couple of seasons for Real Madrid has been unpleasent to watch. Gerd Mûller, who is nr. 2 on the world cup ever scoring list, scored an ekstrem number of goals for Bayern Munich in his days.
Ronaldo is just a fat lazy boy, who plays on a fantastic team. He is not on a all time top 10 attacker.
I already gave that commenter a bit of what-for over at CV, but I have to add that I found it amusingly ironic that that fellow was giving off a strong "ignorant Americans" vibe while simultaneously appearing completely oblivious to the American style of play on the pitch. Funny.
did you get her name and number?