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Spurs 5, Arsenal 1

Sports

It's only the Carling Cup. Still, I'm extremely happy Tottenham beat Arsenal 5-1 in the second leg of the semi finals! And not because of Laura (she's with another bloke anyway), but because I actually like them whites.

Sometimes the small things in life DO matter.

Rape and carmageddon in Eindhoven

Sports

Yay Feyenoord!

I'm not quite sure I can continue to support PSV now that they are signing Patrick "I'll rape anything I haven't yet run over with my car" Kluivert, so I might as well defect to the local football team in Rotterdam even though they hardly ever win anything. While rumours were denied on Monday, today all the headlines indicate a deal after all. Meh. Why sign a 30-year-old over-the-top loser who will be thoroughly hated by the fans?

If it weren't for Inge I'd boycott Eindhoven for as long as this tosser walks around there.

On the bright side, PSV is also attempting to sign Jan Kromkamp and Amr Zaki, while attempting to get Kevin Hofland to return to Eindhoven. Those players are very welcome, of course.

Fiscal benefit

Personal

More stupid people who annoy me: Arno managed to utter "I have two children so that gives me a fiscal benefit" on television. Isn't parental love magical?

Then again this entire annoyance is my own fault, for watching a news programme (RTL Nieuws) void of news yet carrying something I cannot describe as anything but an actual advert for nannies. Perhaps indeed people don't need to feel guilty about having a nanny raising the kids. But surely selling strongly opinionated editorials as news ranks high on the list of guilt.

That hilarious own goal by Vermaelen that kept Ajax out of the Champions League made the evening worth it, though.

Fantasy Baseball ruling

Anglosphere

Neil has a good short summary of the Fantasy Baseball ruling:

If they're going to publish stats in newspapers across the country, then people get to use those stats, including the player names.

I recall this has been a debate in Europe as well, mostly about football games. I'm not sure whether FIFA won or not, but plenty of unlicensed fantasy games (or pools, or betting) do exist.

There might however be a limit to the extent of player name usage. Most games featuring all players tend to be made by big publishers who very well might have made a deal with FIFA. On the other hand, not having the full dataset of player names might simply be a matter of practicality for smaller players.

PSV wants Kromkamp?

Sports

PSV wants to sign Jan Kromkamp:

"We have contacted Liverpool to ask what Kromkamp's status is," chairman Rob Westerhof told Voetbal International.

Good news, I think he'd definitely be an asset to the team.

Inter Serie A silent legis

Sports

Italy might return to a class-based justice system considering its Justice Minister's call for leniency against the World Cup winners following the huge betting scandal in the Italian leagues:

The national side's World Cup triumph in a penalty shoot-out against France has sparked calls for leniency.

"Let's do what they did in ancient Rome: whoever has given us prestige and dignity should be treated differently, as one who has done something exemplary," said Italy's Justice Minister Clemente Mastella.

That would be as just as the OJ Simpson trial, but at least the fascist Ities are honest about it. (That said, read about self-admitted über-fascist Paolo di Canio.)

Bye England for real now

Sports

Portugal beat England after a penalty shootout, but not until after the ref denied England a penalty and then let them retake an already converted penalty during the shootout. Well done FIFA. You've ruined football once and for ever.

Bye England

Sports

I ignored my vows and am watching World Cup again. And what do I see during England-Portugal? The ref sending off Rooney without any good reason. All I hear about this World Cup is how Germany has changed so much, but to be honest all I see is a bunch of totalitarian refs and their personal fetishes. In fact I'd like to state that this World Cup is in fact the worst thing to come out me Germany since the Nazis.

Update: I have withdrawn my criticism of the red card. I do maintain however that the qualify of referees at this World Cup has been disgraceful.

World Cup 2006 a disgrace

Sports

I've watched my last World Cup match this tournament. Australia dominated Italy but an unfair penalty in extra time gave Italy a win. A total disgrace. I'll watch international football again as soon as FIFA gets proper refs and no moment sooner.

Ohne Holland..

Sports

Ohne Holland fahren wir zum Viertelfinal. The Dutch lost 1-0 against Portugal, itself and the referee.

Officially, Holland lost against Portugal. Between the lines, Holland mainly lost to itself. The team had most of the possesion and over a double dozen of goal opportunities, but failed to convert. That's the most important thing to learn from this match. Those who had criticism of coach Van Basten's decision to keep Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have not been proven wrong. The team was far better than Portugal, but if you are unable to actually score you do not deserve to win.

But more was going on. Not only did we already witness a World Cup where referee Graham Poll gave a single player got three yellow cards in one match, tonight's referee decided to steal even more thunder: he caused three new FIFA World Cup records:

Most Red Cards (Game): 4 (2 each) in Portugal v Netherlands, 25 June 2006
Most Yellow Cards Against One Team: 9 (Portugal), 2006
Most Yellow cards (match): 16 - Portugal v Netherlands, 25 June 2006, and 16 - Cameroon v Germany, June 11 2002

He gave sixteen yellow cards (nine of which for Portugal) and four red cards (all as a result of two yellow). He clearly lost control of the match (as did the teams). Maybe he should have given Holland a penalty when they deserved one, or he could have sent off one or two Portuguese halfway the first half, when fair play became a lost concept. Unfortunately Holland followed suit with the aggression, but there wasn't really a choice without proper arbitration.

I maintain that Holland was simply not capable of converting brilliant play into goals and that this is the primary reason for dropping out so soon. But I must note that the quality of referees at this World Cup has been so bad that I would prefer to have those crazy referees from tiny countries back. For some complete unknown from Swaziland I can have sympathy. For so-called professionals not so much. I'm glad FIFA agrees with me:

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the referee could have been yellow-carded himself after sending off four players and handing out bookings to eight others in Portugal's World Cup 1-0 win over the Netherlands.

"It was a great show with intervention by the referee that was not consistent and (had) lack of fair play by some players."

Oh well. Huntelaar helped us to the Under-21 European Cup, so maybe he'll be the one who can take us to the European Cup in 2008.

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Lesotho football team
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2006-08-08 10:59
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2006-06-11 13:28
Orange fever
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2006-06-11 11:58
Trip to the stadium
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2006-06-08 20:41
World Cup slippers
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2006-06-08 17:28
Ahead of time
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Tom has more friends but mine are prettier! (#1/1)