South Africa, 2010

Priene said:

Well, there's a marvellous rumour doing the round about why the atmosphere was so bad in the England camp. Recommended google keywords: Gerrard gagging order.

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I fail to see the reasoning behind it - Gerrard cannot be that ******* stupid to take a 16 year old instead of the hot woman he has as a wife, Alex Curran.

Tabloid Nonsense.

Eddyz Aquila said:

I fail to see the reasoning behind it - Gerrard cannot be that ******* stupid to take a 16 year old instead of the hot woman he has as a wife, Alex Curran.

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Not stupid enough? (even though it may yet to turn out to be Curran's sister...)

He is an English footballer you know. They lead with their groins.

Eddyz Aquila said:

I fail to see the reasoning behind it - Gerrard cannot be that ******* stupid to take a 16 year old instead of the hot woman he has as a wife, Alex Curran.

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Well, who knows the ways of the human loins, er heart. Most people wouldn't get involved in melees with DJs in nightclubs, consort with prostitutes old enough to be their grandmother, or allow themselves to filmed in sex videos. Or forget to attend drugs tests. Or be outraged at being only offered £55000 a week.

The world now roots for Paraguay.

I'm down with that.

robeiae said:

I'm down with that.

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Yes, great song. And a convenient three minutes long...

robeiae said:

The world now roots for Paraguay.

I'm down with that.

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Paraguay gained a country-load of fans over the weekend after Ms. Riquelme announced she would strip naked in Paraguay's capital if they win the WC.

Sounds like a deal.

IdiotsRUs said:

Not stupid enough? (even though it may yet to turn out to be Curran's sister...)

He is an English footballer you know. They lead with their groins.

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Okay, I retract my slur (for now )

Yay for Brazil going home. Never liked the team. They're snobs.

Sucks to be Ghana. Woulda, shoulda, coulda.

I'm so happy Suarez got a red, though. I thought his play today was an absolute disgrace. Really, I hop they sit him for the final, if Uraguay somehow makes it.

robeiae said:

Sucks to be Ghana. Woulda, shoulda, coulda.

I'm so happy Suarez got a red, though. I thought his play today was an absolute disgrace. Really, I hop they sit him for the final, if Uraguay somehow makes it.

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I thought the handball was hilarious and later on the stroke of a genius. No handball = victory for Ghana.

I rooted for Ghana!

But I am absolutely disappointed with Brazil...

I'm not talking about the handball. It's his play in the rest of the game that was so disgraceful, imo.

I was happy to see the Dutch win. I like that team.

More important, Dunga's philosophy of a more structured, controlled type of play will hopefully go out the window and Brazil will return to the elegant style that not only has won a lot of world cups, but is a pleasure and a treat to watch.

There's a conventional wisdom that flash and fun are fine, but to win the big games you have to be grim and serious, no fun allowed. Every time that notion takes a hit, I applaud.

For the Americans here, remember the Packers/Jets? Vince Lombardi, the icon of football coaching? "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

He was the essence of drill sergeant mentality, dour and humorless, and his players wore military haircuts and toed the line.

No way could the hard drinking wisecracking Broadway Joe team beat them in the big game. But they did, and outplayed them as well.

The idea that to win at the highest level you have to abandon all notion of fun has done a lot of harm to sport in general. If Brazil had won the world cup this year you'd be seeing a humorless team with little soul for the foreseeable future. So, goodbye Dunga, and good riddance.

Brutal loss for Ghana -- what a finish, though. But they're young. The entire team will be back four years from now, with more experience and maturity. They could be a force.

The idea that to win at the highest level you have to abandon all notion of fun has done a lot of harm to sport in general.

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It has, but it's so pervasive these days. Nowhere near so much fun.

So who's winning tonight? Anybody want to venture a guess? I'm hoping Argentina and Paraguay. I think I'll be dissapointed in both cases.

poetinahat said:

I applaud the sentiment, and I agree. But...

- the quote isn't actually Lombardi's. What Lombardi claimed to have said was, "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing."

- The big game in which Broadway Joe and the Jets triumphed, in Super Bowl III, didn't involve the Packers - it was against the Baltimore Colts. Lombardi's last game was the Packers' 33-14 Super Bowl triumph over the Raiders the previous year.

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Ditto...I agree that "fun" is good. Or rather, it can be good.

But that doesn't mean discipline has no place. Having both is the ideal.

And maybe ease up on old Vince. He was an NFL head coach for ten years...and won a championship in five of them. There's not a whole lot of second guessing available on that road.

Today I'm going all patriotic and backing Germany.

The horror! The horror! Germany's up by two.

Oh, well. Luckily, my number two team is Germany...

(but the Muller yellow is gonna hurt badly)

robeiae said:

The horror! The horror! Germany's up by two three.

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Fixed that for ya.

robeiae said:

The horror! The horror! Germany's up by two three four.

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Fixed it for myself...

And once again...Klose. W.T.F.

4-0. Germany's really got it in for countries from the Southern Hemisphere that start with A.

Ich bin stolz, ein Deutscher zu sein.