Bittersteel Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 and a stereotype is born (black) South Africans are criminals, Jamaicans are junkies, Chinese are brainwashed communists etc. Seriously, people shouldn't travel if they are afraid of their own shadow. Not sure that this is a stereotype - in my eyes, it's a legitimate concern. South Africa does have a statistically high crime rate, and there is little precedent for such a troubled country being tapped to host. Remember that Colombia vacated the '86 Cup because of drug-related violence. Now, I'm sure that South Africa will go out of its way to provide for security (management of these things typically devolve into international pissing contests), but rape/theft is an issue. I personally do not worry about crime when traveling, but if I had a family in tow, I might think twice about a place like South Africa. Especially if I could not afford the pricier hotels/areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celtigo Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Day of days for American soccer fans with a qualifier against the hated Mexicans and 105,000 of their fans at the Azteca. Costa Rica visits Honduras in a game that could see CR basically go through or significantly tighten the top of the group. El Salvador visits Trinidad and Tobago in whats basically an elimination game. T&T got a boost by adding Bobby Zamora (who is sadly a step up from their former options up front). UEFA has a few games, probably the most intriguing is Scotland-Norway with the Tartan Army in spitting distance of the playoff spot with a win. other UEFA qualifiers: Faroe Islands vs France Slovenia vs San Marino Azerbaijan vs Germany Belarus vs Croatia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Scotland are going to hammer Norway tonight. :smash: Six points from the final three games might be enough for Scotland to get into the play-offs. This does leave the Scots in the rather peculiar position of having to support England against Croatia and Ukraine so that Scotland end up as one of the eight best runners-up. So here goes... ENG-UR-LAND! ENG-UR-LAND! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elrostar Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 It'll be interesting to see how the US does against Mexico tonight. A tough place to play, certainly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Yeah, securing the eight play-off places will be hugely important, especially considering we're stuck with the world champions Italy in our group. We're ahead, at the moment, but with 3 games still to play (1 in September, 2 in October) things could still go awry. Thankfully our two real decider's against Italy and Montenegro are at home. I'm confident we'll qualify! Just a boring friendly against the Aussies tonight in preparation for the Cyprus qualifier in two weeks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 In the home game against Italy the Republic will enter injury time in the lead and then concede two dodgy goals and then end up third in the group because Italy are DIVING BASTARDS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Referee in this Scotland game is fucking ridiculous. Every time the ball is played forward by Norway, John Carew is jumping around waving his arms like a clown or he's tugging on the defenders shirt and leaning into them. He commits about 10 fouls, the referee books him once. Gary Caldwell commits 2 fouls, he's off. And I'm just after seeing the other Caldwell fella get booked for one foul...oh well, there goes the second goal for Norway. If Carew keeps it up, the ref might send off another Scot and that'll be that. A rout... And Norway aren't all that good, either. A shame. It was a really good, frantic game for the first 30 minutes, as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 RT @JozyAltidore17 Yall already know. And if u don't shame on you. Game time! COME ON YOU YANKS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted August 12, 2009 Author Share Posted August 12, 2009 Referee in this Scotland game is fucking ridiculous. Can't argue with that. His decisions goes wrong both ways though, but with the red card for Cadwell followed by a lucky goal on the following free-kick the Scots deflated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Dear God (if there was one). That was terrible. Gary Caldwell had big John Carew (who is the most un-Norwegian looking person ever) in his back pocket for the first twenty minutes then he makes a stupid challenge on someone he's not even marking and the shirt-tug on Carew was damn unlucky. Carew had just as much of Caldwell's shirt but I suppose that from where the ref was standing it looked like Caldwell was doing the fouling. The team just fell apart after that. I feel sorry for David Marshall, who's waited for years to play in a competitive match for Scotland and when he gets his chance it all goes wrong. I have to feel sorry for George Burley as well because he's going to take a lot of stick for this but once Gary Caldwell got sent off the inevitable happened. I do have to question his team selection though: Graham Alexander isn't an international holding midfield player and McFadden would normally start ahead of Kris Commons. When Christophe Berra (good Scottish name eh?) was brought on I was surprised that 20 goals last season Ross McCormack was taken off. On the holding midfielder subject I think Darren Fletcher is Scotland's best option for that role, which he's performed excellently in for Manchester United before. So, when does qualification for Euro 2014 start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Sigh. Congrats to mexico. There is apparently some controversy about the officiating, but I won't judge that when I haven't seen the game (I kept track via text updates). It sounds like Mexico dominated possession and deserved the win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Sigh. Congrats to mexico. There is apparently some controversy about the officiating, but I won't judge that when I haven't seen the game (I kept track via text updates). It sounds like Mexico dominated possession and deserved the win. Mexico did dominate possession, though the US had a golden opportunity to go up 2-1 midway through the second half -- Holden put a perfect cross in that Davies dove just too soon to head in. The officiating was uneven. For example, in the space of 5 minutes, identical fouls resulted in a yellow given to an American player and no card for a Mexican player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 The US should still be good enough to qualify though, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 The US should still be good enough to qualify though, right? Yeah. It would be a disaster of epic proportions if we didn't. It should be pretty smooth sailing through our qualification campaign from here. No one wins at the Azteca, its not just just us who have trouble there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devotee Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I remember finding John Carew´s sister hot about 10 years ago (she was a classmate of a friend of mine). Other than that.. Go Norway? I was hoping they would lose, because this everlasting "hope" for advancement is ticking me off. A loss tonight would kill even the theoretical hope, but no, they had to keep Drillo´s (my grandmother used to babysit that guy) statistic of not losing at home going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 The closest I can come to those connections you have is that one of Burnley's players used to go to my school and is capped ay Under-21 level for Scotland. He used to play for Dundee FC and is probably a twat. It's probably a good thing that Scotland lost because it saves them from further humiliation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 It's probably a good thing that Scotland lost because it saves them from further humiliation. What are you talking about? There was no football game last night. It was a collective hallucination. Had to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celtigo Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Sigh. Congrats to mexico. There is apparently some controversy about the officiating, but I won't judge that when I haven't seen the game (I kept track via text updates). It sounds like Mexico dominated possession and deserved the win. Such words will never leave my mouth. The debris projectiles after the goal was the typical classless behavior from "el Tri" fans. I still hold out hope Mexico will be forced into the playoff spot. We have one game left that worries me and thats at Honduras. I'll be happy to get out of there with a draw in October. We just need to take care of business at home against El Salvador and preferably win at T&T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Such words will never leave my mouth. The debris projectiles after the goal was the typical classless behavior from "el Tri" fans. Yeah, that's pretty low of their fans. But it also shows what a great job our boys do at our "home" games. Consider the fact that they never get roucas support even playing at home. I'm always depressed to see away fans packing the stadium at our concacaf home games. Yet, usually we get the win. This isn't to diminish the great work and passion of Uncle Sam's Army. I just wish there were more of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celtigo Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Yeah, that's pretty low of their fans. But it also shows what a great job our boys do at our "home" games. Consider the fact that they never get roucas support even playing at home. I'm always depressed to see away fans packing the stadium at our concacaf home games. Yet, usually we get the win. This isn't to diminish the great work and passion of Uncle Sam's Army. I just wish there were more of them. A National team really doesn't have much place in American culture historically. Football (am.) and baseball (outside the WBC's lackluster attempt at a baseball "World Cup") never really had national teams. Basketball and Hockey have a history, but hockey (like soccer) is well behind the big 3 in support (and basically only plays 4-6 important games every 4 years) and for the most part the Bball team is expected to just roll into Barcelona/Atlanta/Sydney/Athens(oops!)/ Beijing and dominate. A team that requires support in multiple tournaments over multiple year cycles? Unheard of. I can just see the average American fan being overwhelmed with the US playing in the Confederations Cup, Gold Cup, and now qualifying over a two month stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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