And. . . the weather calls for NO FOOTIE.
There’s a break today before the round of 16 begins tomorrow with the following games.
Both great games but, unfortunately, I won’t be able to watch either as I’m going to a BASEBALL game (the Cubs vs. the Nationals, starts at noon). While we wait out our football hiatus, here are some amusing pictures of Chomper Suarez from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (and please, no admonitions that the Biter is off limits to sarcasm):
h/t: John
Luis Suarez has a long history of extremely unsportsmanlike behaviour, the worst being his disgusting hand ball four years ago against Ghana in the quarterfinals — and later shamelessly bragging about it. Good to see he finally gets his comeuppance.
Along the lines of the religion/sport connection, have you noticed the denialism in Uruguay?
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/26/uruguay-luis-suarez-montevideo-colombia
‘The captain, Diego Lugano, eventually took to social media to speak of “outrage” and an overriding sense of “helplessness”. Then the familiar accusations of injustice reared once again.
“We would like a fairer world, but that world simply does not exist,” wrote the West Bromwich Albion defender. “The people who are in charge are in charge, and the strong are strong. They do not judge us by the same law. Embrace Luis who, as always, will get back on his feet again. And especially embrace his family who are always the ones who suffer most in cases like this. They should still be proud of him. He deserves that.”’
Talk about chip on the shoulder!
oops!
Be proud of someone who flagrantly breaks the rules again and again? Really? Want to lose all respect in the sporting community?
I wasn’t really aware of that hand ball incident. Wow, that was blatant as hell! Red card, as well he should have gotten, but it sure changed a critical goal, critical turn of the game. That ball was a goal …
Not just biting and handballs, also the racism row with Patrice Evra.
This guy has Previous.
The handball may feel unsportsmanlike, but it’s not comparable to the biting.
Any player would commit that handball at that point in the game. It’s the only possible way to win “within” the rules. You know the penalty and you’re willing to take it in exchange for giving your team a chance to move on to the semis. If you don’t it’s a 100% guaranteed loss at that point in the game.
Part of the reason the biting is being rationalized as “ok” by Uruguayans is that it’s not as harmful as a leg breaking tackle. But the point is it’s completely outside the lines of the game, besides being outside any civilized lines. The handball is within the parameters of the game (so and so there’s a specific penalty for it and the rules were followed on that play once he violated them).
That’s not to say he wasn’t the bad guy in that incident, but that he wasn’t the only player who would do that and I expect most if not all professional players would do it and receive similar treatment for it (vilified by others, while being praised or at least understood and forgiven by their own).
Yes, I agree that biting is not in the same league (no pun intended) with a hand ball. However, IMO, that hand ball still shows bad sportsmanship. By definition, basically.
Breaking the rules in order to win? Yes, it can be done, and many will do it: But it is still bad sportsmanship, full stop.
It is unsportsmanlike by definition but it’s also very clearly a rule most will be willing to break in a competitive environment and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a simple risk/reward equation.
It’s a weird idea that the fact that breaking someone’s leg is worse than biting them should make biting ok. That line of reasoning essentially makes all crimes short of murder ‘ok’.
The Uruguayans should be complaining at Suarez for letting down the rest of the team not pretending that there has been an injustice imposed on him.
Handball is within the rules of the game. I’m not sure how much you watch soccer but pretty much any player would have tried to do the same thing and I’ve seen many instances of the same thing, that is, a player prevents a goal by hand and then he is kicked out and the other team is awarded a pentaly. It is almost standard.
The only unsportsmanlike behavior was that he tried to sneak away and hide the handball. That is unsportsmanlike but unfortunately, any professional player these days would have done that too.
Those are hilarious!
Yup. I love them all but the chew trident one is my fave — such an affordable, helpful, simple solution!
The history of fairness and justice by FIFA is quite flawed; while it may be less corrupt than the base organisation that still isn’t much to write home about really…
That said, even FIFA can’t help being right occasionally.
The only point I strongly disagree with is that he’s actually even banned from training with his club as far as I understand. With all due respect, that’s not FIFA’s business to regulate.
I think you will find it is, unless you want to claim football training has nothing to do with football.
It has nothing to do with the part of football that FIFA should regulate. Nor does any pub or park league need to be regulated, for another example.
What a corporation does with its adult employees, unionised actually, on a private training ground should not be seen as FIFAs business. FIFA is the highest level of the amateur football movement, where regualtion has a point, the premier league is pure business, and should resent FIFA trying to muscle in.
As soon as it gets public, FIFA may speak up, through the PLs integration with the FA, but as far as I’m concerned keeping a professional player from training with his team hurts the club, who have not been directly involved, more than anyone.
Yes, I despise FIFA as corrupted, and it turns my stomach when they use the language of ethics. Sure, Suarez needs a ban. He failed big-time. But even he gets dirtied by a FIFA official’s condescension.
Just to get my prediction in here, I reckon that at least one of USA or Mexico will get through against the Benelux teams.
PLUCKY MINNOWS USA TAKE ON MIGHTY BELGIUM
There’s a sentence that doesn’t get written often.
Ha ha! I see someone else thought of Doctor Lecter too! Nice!
Not to go off-topic, but which of these recipes do all y’all consider your favorite?
Cheers,
b&
Favas had to come up! Make sure it’s Chianti Classico, (look for the gallo nero) not just D.O.C.G. Chianti.
It seems the more – ahem – patriotic Americans don’t like the footie so much:
‘Determined to preserve American exceptionalism against a rising tide of baguette-munching ball-juggling pinko Europhile hippy surrender-communism, Ann Coulter has come to the rescue: “Any growing interest in soccer,” she wrote to widespread amusement, “can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.”
Her reasons for hating football are manifold, and typically hilarious – chiefly, the suspiciously popular game with the round ball seems to show all the key indicators of socialism. The New York Times likes it. It’s foreign. Foreigners like it. Obama likes it. It is even, somehow, “like the metric system”.’
from the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/27/world-cup-fever-america-ann-coulter-football-socialism-team-usa?CMP=twt_gu
On the other hand there’s this
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BrJBnblCMAAB0OV.png:large
Sorry source didn’t come through: http://regressing.deadspin.com/when-did-nazi-insults-spike-on-twitter-during-usa-germa-1596610394
On the other hand, there is one thing that doesn’t surprise me: you see someone on the ground and you hurry to kick him. This is cultural. We approach things differently. And combined with the facts that you clearly know very, very little about the sport (“extremely unsportsmanlike behaviour, the worst being his disgusting hand ball”… WTF???) and a lot of this is based on envy, it makes the articles and comments on the subject a waste of time. For biology articles I will happily keep visiting the page. For soccer commentary… I think not.
No need to answer, I will not be receiving comment responses. Enjoy yourselves.
Wasn’t going to sub, but now…