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Monday, June 18, 2018

Soccer in American Sports Culture

NST - Mexico, US don't deserve to host World Cup: Maradona:


NEW YORK: Former Argentine footballer Diego Maradona said he did not like the decision that Mexico, Canada and the United States will host the 2026 World Cup, decrying the lack of passion in the countries.

FIFA decided on Wednesday that the 2026 World Cup, the first to have 48 teams participating, would be split between the three North American countries, with 60 games in the United States and 10 each in Canada and Mexico.

The decision will make Mexico the first country to host the tournament three times.

"I don't like it," Maradona, 57, said.

"Mexico doesn't deserve it," he said on TV. "The Mexicans come up against Brazil or Germany ... and 'boom' they're out."


Kaytee's note: Mexico proved Diego wrong by just beating Germany 1-0, wakakaka.



FIFA Football World Cup 2018: Hirving Lozano scored the only goal of the match for Mexico 

Maradona, often considered one of the greatest football players in history, won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 when the tournament was in Mexico.

"The Canadians may be good skiers, and the Americans wanted to have four periods of 25 (minutes) for the advertising," he said.


Wakakaka, I have half a mind to deem Diego Maradona's statement
"The Americans wanted to have four periods of 25 (minutes) for the advertising," to be the BEST (sort of) political statement 2018 thus far, but alas it's not a political statement as such, but a dismissal of the American World of crass advertisements.

That was why one Frenchman sneered when asked to comment on American culture.



But alas, what Diego said about American commercial-driven wish to alter the structure of soccer game did happen to the game of badminton in 2002 and again in 2005-6, though it has to be said the Yanks were not involved nor interested in badminton.

The sets in badminton were re-organised from the original game of 15 points for men with a best of two sets and 11 for women etc.

But talking about badminton, it's strange that Yanks aren't seriously interested in badminton (other than as a backyard game to fool around with during barbecues) when we consider that some professionals consider an American, Dave Freeman, to be badminton's greatest player.



Wikipedia tells us: Freeman won the prestigious All-England Championship on his only try (1949) and remains the sole American to win the men's singles there.

In this one-time-only badminton stint in Europe he also won Thomas Cup singles matches against eventual champion Malaya, and captured the Danish Open.

In all, he won three matches each against Ooi Teik Hock and the very formidable Wong Peng Soon.

After apparently retiring from badminton in 1950 to concentrate on a career in neurosurgery, Freeman made a brief comeback in 1953. He won the four tournaments that he entered which concluded with the U.S. National Championships in Boston, and a victory in the very same hall where he had last lost a singles match fourteen years earlier.

He is the only American born male to be inducted into both the U.S. and World Badminton Halls of Fame.

But yes, soccer did nearly suffer from Americanism when it was first introduced in New York. The Great PelĂ© was then recruited (out of retirement) to participate and popularise the game which was played on artificial turf. 

But the Yanks didn't like a sports when people could oooh and aaah over a scoreless game. They prefer to see a soccer game with such scores as:

New York Cougars 113 - Washington Coyote 87

Wakakaka. Thus the yanks attempted to "amend" the rules of the game, like "someone" did frequently in the 1980's and 90's to our supposedly sacrosanct Constitution, by making the goalposts WIDER (wakakaka), abolishing the off-side rule, and various other Americanisms in order to inflate scoring potentials.

But thank goodness, FIFA told the Yanks to F-O.

Thus Diego Maradona saying "The Americans wanted to have four periods of 25 (minutes) for the advertising," is spot on regarding the American God of Sports which must be appeased by repetitive crass advertising.

Alas, the USA failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In fact, the USA lost 2-1 to lowly ranked Trinidad and Tobago in the final qualifying round for the American sector, where only Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama qualify.



But with a population of 300 million who love competitive sports and with humongous resources, the USA can be a real challenger to the traditional top dogs of soccer like Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, England, France, etc - that is, if the USA takes soccer seriously.

5 comments:

  1. Good for this cheebye kaytee.....Keep writing these type of articles and fuck off from Malaysia and south east asia political arena

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Liverpool FC had a great season with Mohammad Salah. Next season they will introduce another player, Nabi Kita.

    Nabi Kita & Mohammad Salah should prove to be a killer combination.

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    1. I wonder why this cheebye kaytee say nothing about socceroo.....pauline must be very mad of this 3"dick chinaman or izzit ah neh.....hahahahaha

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    2. Naby Keita lah not Nabi Kita.

      Delete