Brits don't get it

Oh come now.

All Gerard was doing was trying to provide some cover for his goalkeeper, exactly the way a captain should. And all of the goalkeepers in the Cup have expressed worry about the ball before any games were played.

Regarding the game as a whole Gerrard said, "It was a difficult game."

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There's a World Cup thread over in the sportswriting Forum, and every Brit there expressed disappointment but concluded that although the USA definitely had some luck, all in all a tie was a fair outcome for the match.

That is all.

rugcat said:

Oh come now.

All Gerard was doing was trying to provide some cover for his goalkeeper, exactly the way a captain should. And all of the goalkeepers in the Cup have expressed worry about the ball before any games were played.

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Exactly right on both points. And it isn't as wussy as it seems...ask an MLB pitcher what his day is like when the balls aren't rubbed up properly before the game. Good chance he'll be tossing one after the other back to the ump, or spitting and rubbing after every foul ball.

All brands and models of soccer balls travel differently when struck at pace. There were grumbles back in Germany as well, although I heard someone say that as many as 25 of the 32 starting keepers had issue with these.

That said, Green simply muffed it. That was a ball my second string GU12 keeper would have collected easily.

In his defense, Green made a hell of a save later on Altidore (65th min) to keep it even...

blacbird said:

It's not enough that Brits are blaming Obama for the loss of a huge amount of their pension fund income, resultant from the collapse in the share price of BP. Now, they blame the World Cup draw with the U.S. team on the ball:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/37662603/ns/sports-world_cup/

Get real. Your national oil company (and it still is, in emotional and investment ways, despite being "privatized") garked up OUR waters and shorelines through their own corporate greed and ineptitude. A fact: No American gives much of a rat's about the conditions of your over-invested pension funds considering what's happening here. And now your futbol coach wants to blame the World Cup draw on the BALL?????????????

Own up to your screwups.

caw

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That was E-N-G-L-A-N-D. Not the Brits, England. I'm surprised there was only one excuse. Our "national" media goes on and on at such huge length about their God-like footballing abilities they can't accept responsibility for anything that goes wrong.

And I haven't heard anyone blaming Americans for BP. Blaming BP for BP, yes, at length, but not Americans.

Your national oil company

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Which is 39% owned by Americans...and is not 'emotionally' ours. It's not 'British' and hasn't been for some time. It's a private multinational company that's fucked up. Obama's done a lovely job with the anti-Brit rhetoric though.

Personally I reckon Obama bribed Green for that fumble.

There were plenty of articles before the tournament about the new ball they are using, many goalkeepers were quoted as expressing concern about it.

Do we know what nationality the BP senior drilling engineer on the rig was? Since it was his initial FU that caused the whole sorry episode.

waylander said:

Do we know what nationality the BP senior drilling engineer on the rig was? Since it was his initial FU that caused the whole sorry episode.

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And do we know what nationality the US President who gave the whole thing permission to go ahead in the first place was?

We could sling insults about whose fault this is until the cows come home. It solves nothing and gets no one anywhere. And can I also say complaining about a match ball and dumping thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil into an ocean aren't really comparable, regardless of who's responsible.

waylander said:

Do we know what nationality the BP senior drilling engineer on the rig was? Since it was his initial FU that caused the whole sorry episode.

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Well BP has more US employees than it does British...Who knows.

Fran said:

We could sling insults about whose fault this is until the cows come home. It solves nothing and gets no one anywhere. And can I also say complaining about a match ball and dumping thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil into an ocean aren't really comparable, regardless of who's responsible.

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Indeed.

The oil spill is a shocking thing to happen. But it isn't the fault of the Brits, or of Americans. It's the fault of a company, a multinational one. One that your president seemingly can't even get the name right. Or actually more properly, companies, one of which is American. Has Obama said the same about the US company that was actually running the rig? (He may have done, though I haven't seen it if so). Called them out on their appalling safety record (they've had warnings about the blowout safety device on a rig in the North Sea too) Or would that be tricky as, as reported over here today, Transocean's lobbyist is someone whose support Obama needs come the mid-term elections?

Trying to say we should 'own up' to something that isn't actually our fault - but is most surely the fault of at least one multinational company - is, um, maybe a tad on the inflammatory side?

BP screwed up. So did Transocean. See I admit it, though what the chuff huge companies fucking up has got to do with me, the gods alone know.

It's also useful to know that Obama is not all that fond of the British.
When he moved into the White House he ordered a bust of Winston Churchill to be removed.
He bears a grudge against the Brits for their role in suppressing the Mau-Mau Rebellion in Kenya.

I haven't sensed in any way that the name "BP" is prompting a negative association with England (or Britain) in the minds of too many Americans. I would even go so far as to say that I suspect very few Americans are even conciously aware that the two letters "B" and "P" even stand for "British Petroleum." And those who DO know it probably aren't swayed in their feelings about England and/or Britain at all by any of this.

Obama likes to blame everyone for everything, no matter how little good it does.

Take charge, do your job, clean the mess up and then start an investigation. Someone, somewhere, will be happy to know exactly which poor idiot to send their hateful emails to and which house to throw rocks at and scare the hell out of a family. Lot of good that's going to do.

Soccer? There's a superbowl of soccer?