Where football is soccer

Because of work I’m currently in the USA and have been forced to follow ‘Soccer World Cup’ (Football World Cup to the less ignorant) on the USA network of ESPN and ABC. For someone who is used to a Martin Tyler or an Andy Gray on Sky, the difference is huge and pathetic. While some of them are ex-players (USA), that isn’t an excuse of poor analysis and thoughts on the game. Lalas still tries hard but Wynalda sucks and so do the other ones. They really believe all of USA (most who are ignorant of football played with the feet for a change) have woken up and now is the time to teach them the nuances of the game during a live world cup match. Some don’t even understand the ‘offside’ rule. And yes, every night there is a build up or TV spots of the next USA game - as if they are Brazil and are surely winning the cup - who told you otherwise? And the icing on the cake was when one of the commentators cried out ‘Who would have thought Ghana could beat the Czechs? My money wasn’t on them!’ - well what can I say. Here’s info on Ghana’s qualifying road to the world cup. Why would someone treat them as pushovers? if someone does, maybe he doesn’t know how the game works! Essien was brilliant in the game, something I have never seen in all his games at Chelsea. Anyways, back to the commentary. All I can say is that its hightime the networks realised that people who tune in for the world cup (99.99%) know how the game is played and we do not need to know the rules of the game. Talk about the match which is on!!!

Lastly, the FIFA rankings are a complete joke! I’m sure you knew about that one!

Crossposted & Comments at BlogFC