78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



Still don't know why it doesn't do well here
2006-06-15   2:19 p.m.

I just watched Trinidad & Tobago lose their match to England - but they should be proud of the way they held their defense for MOST OF THE GAME. I get that England is supposed to be one of the best football teams in the world, so why do they suck this week?

They only won against Paraguay the other day because Paraguay scored on itself. They scored two goals on T&T only in the last ten minutes of the game, when T&T were getting tired. This was supposed to be an "easy" win for England, one that would allow them enough points to advance to a top position in their group before the final round of matches. But Trin&Tob (I'm revising that shortened name, as "T&T" sounds like a strip club; see last entry) really held their own against Sweden the other day - no one scored. Since Trin&Tob were given something like a 1/1000 chance of winning the World Cup, it would be nice to see them do well. Especially when going up against that arrogant bastard David Beckham.

It would be nice, also, for just one of these African teams (of which there are several this year) to stick it to The Man. An example: Angola, formerly terrorized - oh, sorry, colonized by Portugal, played the Portuguese team the other day. I was hoping Angola would win, and thus stick it to The Man. But they lost - two nothing? - as did Tunisia to Saudi Arabia (who are now twice The Man they used to be, since they're big FOBs [friends of Bush]). But Tunisia tied SA in the last minutes of the game - on injury time, I think - and even though they wound up losing, what a great moment for them. Take that, The Man!

Can't wait to see the Ghanaian team play again. They do love their soccer. I remember running out of Black Star Square in downtown Accra a couple of years ago since a stadium, over-packed with people attending a big-time West African game, just erupted and shook because of something going on inside. I was afraid the thing would burst at the seams or that rioting fans would spill out into the street, and since our consulate clearly warns Americans to "avoid joining any street demonstrations" in a wide variety of countries, I patriotically obeyed.

But is a soccer riot a street demonstration? It certainly is a street brawl. They should revise the copy to say "brawls or demonstrations". Then everyone would know precisely what to avoid "joining". I should check on that regarding Tunisia. It would be good to know since we're traversing the whole country all by ourselves, and are bound to be tempted into street demonstrations here and there. What's a vacation without a picket line, anyway?
Better get to planning that, we leave in a few weeks. Oh, but those soccer games...Sweden v Paraguay comes on soon. Besides, word on the street is that Tunisia is so easy to navigate that you'd feel silly for planning months ahead. But then that's what I heard about Morocco, too. Hmm.

So I'm off to read and watch more games. Oh, and in case you were wondering, our (US) team is poo. The only good soccer teams in the US (in the context of global soccer ratings) are women's soccer teams. Which totally sticks it to The Man.

xoxo