myopiclunacy.com

Questions arose, recently, about the biases of one of world soccer’s most popular information sites, Goal.com. Specifically on whether it’s used as a mouthpiece for clubs and players in South America without any even handed treatment of the facts.

Take the case of Gregory Sica’s article on Brazillian Marcio Amoroso’s problems in Greece:

Former Brazilian international Marcio Amoroso dos Santos claimed that his house in the Greek city of Salonika was ransacked by the directors of Aris Salonika, his former club.

Amoroso, 34, arrived at the Greek club in the pursuit of titles in January 2008, but at the end of June he terminated his contract in protest of three months of delayed wages. He then advised FIFA about the situation and pressed charges against the club.

This didnt go down well for the Aris directors, and their reaction was to invade his house and confiscate objects with a value of close to 300,000 euros, said the player in declarations to Globoesporte.

“Marco Aurelio Aris defender, Thiago Gentil midfielder and Wellerson goalkeeper trainer called me this week to tell me that the Aris directors broke into my house and took some of my personal belongings without my authorization,” explained Amoroso.

According to the player, the directors “took” six watches, two files, his wifes jewelry, and video games that belonged to his kids. “From one hour to the next, I lost 300,000 euros,” stated the striker.

The Brazilian admitted that he is afraid to return to Greece to solve the situation: “The worst thing is that I cant recover the stolen items. Im afraid of returning to Greece and suffering further loses from the directors, because they can put the people against me. My kids are traumatized, they are receiving psychological help after all of this.”

A harrowing tale when told by a player looking to get publicity for his cause. The problem is that none of it has been verified.

According to sources familiar with the situation, when Amoroso came to the team he wouldn’t train and wouldn’t play. He lost a labor case and has been ordered to pay money back to the club for neglecting his duties, according to the European courts. When he decided to leave the country and never return for training (even though he had a contract) he never bothered to empty the apartment the team was renting for him. It was emptied by the team and a court representative, who took his belongings under court order as the dwelling had to be rented to someone else.

One source commented, “Aris is one of the incredibly few reliable and respectable clubs in Greece, and that is for the world to know. If Amoroso thought he would get the treatment he expected from Olympiacos or Paok or panionios, he has another think coming.”

Amoroso has had problems in the past working with teams. Borussia Dortmund cut ties with him in 2004 after tiring of his act. At age 35, Amoroso is probably coming close to the end of his career. One can only speculate if this frustration as well as his history is behind his wild claims.

At this time, it is not known if Goal.com’s Sica will post a retraction or a clarification of the alleged facts in the story.

Popularity: 8% [?]

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s only one Samir Nasri

Popularity: 8% [?]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Goal of the Century from this weekend

better than his goal in Euro 2004? maybe

better than his goal for Ajax? Possibly

reminds you of this Roberto Mancini (Lazio) goal back in the day:


Mancini goal

Popularity: 5% [?]

I used to think people were crazy to complain that foreigners in the Premier League were killing the England national team. But now I think they’re right - only it’s not the foreign players, it’s the foreign owners that are to blame. The massive influx in money (highlighted by the recent madness at Manchester City) has created a culture in the Premier League where winning and staying in all competitions is important not just for the fans and players, but also to the long-term financial health of the club. Meaning that trivial things like World Cup qualifiers and even cup games are given second-class status to Premier League weekend games and European competition.

Take the example of Steven Gerrard’s latest injury. It seems that Gerrard has been playing on a groin injury for a while, even after further aggravating it in a midweek Champion’s League qualifier that Liverpool had to win. So what does Manager Rafa Benitez do? Asks him to gut it out for the weekend Premier League game and then schedule surgery for the international break - which, as you can imagine, did not initially sit well with England Manager Fabio Capello.

Rafa Benitez insisted he had made his peace with England coach Fabio Capello yesterday and dismissed claims of a breakdown in communication over Steven Gerrard’s latest injury absence.

Gerrard will have the second of two minor groin operations today and will miss Capello’s first two competitive games in charge, as England begin their World Cup campaign against Andorra next Saturday and Croatia four days later.

Capello was reportedly unhappy at being kept in the dark over Liverpool’s decision to arrange surgery for their skipper in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifying round win over Standard Liege.

Now it seems that captain John Terry, Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves, Wes Brown, and Ashley Cole will also miss one or both international games - which leaves me wondering how England is expected to get a result against Croatia - the team that will most likely be their toughest competition in the group - in a competition where, unlike Euro 2008 qualifying, winning the group is paramount to qualification. I know it happens on-and-off already, but is this going to get to the point where clubs will start to come up with all kinds of excuses to keep their best players out of all international games?

I suppose the good thing is that some non-regulars like Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard will get a chance to impress Capello. But without some kind of continuity in Capello’s system, how can the team be expected to play as a unit? Some would say Capello should drop the overpaid regulars and give the young England stars more consideration. But Capello seems to have a fondness for a more grizzled England team (see:David Beckham) with Michael Owen the only notable exception.

I say instead of picking an England All-Star team, just send Aston Villa. They seem to be the only Premier League team stockpiling young England talent (Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, Gareth Barry, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Curtis Davies, etc.) and there’ll be no worries about not playing together. I suppose they need to find someone to replace Carew, Laursen, Friedel and a few others, but it would certainly have saved them from paying both Shteve McClaren and Fabio Capello all that money when they could get the guy (Martin O’Neill) they probably should have hired after Sven left. Of course we’ll look past the fact that Villa’s owners are American and their manager is Irish!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Paul Scholes brought his volleyball game to a soccer match on Friday - trying to help Man United come back from a 2-1 deficit to Dick Advocaat’s Zenit St. Petersburg. His silly decision will now cost him a game suspension in the Champions League. Oooops.

As you can expect, his manager was completely livid at him blatantly violating a fundamental law of the game:

Manchester United crashed out of the Uefa Super Cup to an efficient display by Zenit St Petersburg. The Russian side had the better run of play in the first half and deserved their lead going into the break.

United worked harder in the second half, managed to claw back one goal, but a rush of blood and a hand of God saw Paul Scholes pick up a second caution as he punched the ball into the opposition net.

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to ITV Sport as Zenit partied on the pitch: “We played our best football when we were two-nil down, it was a warm night, we had tired players, but both teams did well.”

Regarding Scholes’ dismissal, the United manager sympathised: “When someone gets sent off by punching the ball… it’s a bit unfortunate, it was an instinctive thing,” when it was brought to the Manchester United manager’s attention that the player would receive a European suspension valid for the Champions League, his face visibly dropped, but he added: “It happens.”

Singling out specific players for praise, Ferguson said: “I thought Tevez was outstanding, he was our best player.”

Did I say livid? I meant hypocritcally rationalizing. Good thing the referee wasn’t, though unless he was Howard Webb, any referee not seeing that blatant handball needs to have his eyes checked!

Here’s some wildcat video of the incident:


Hand of Scholes
and if that doesn’t work …


Hand of Scholes

Here’s a recap of the game:


Uefa Super Cup

Popularity: 4% [?]

Thanks again to NBC for their tape delay strategy. They sat there on the set of the Today show, where all the news and even the cultural exchange pieces are more watered down than the soda at Magic Johnson’s theaters (allegedly), and talked about “tonight’s closing ceremonies” when they were either happening behind them at the time (8pm local time) or they had pre-taped the entire Today show. God help them if Joe Biden had punched Barack Obama in the mean time - their transitions to and from the news desk would have been way too cheery. Or maybe they taped a “sad” transition too.

Anyways … on to the show - almost a reverse of the Hong Kong handover!

Beckham sets ball rolling towards London 2012

BEIJING, Aug 24 (Reuters) - China unveiled an extravagant farewell to the Olympics on Sunday and David Beckham, the world’s most famous soccer player, said hello by kicking a ball to start the countdown to London 2012.

The appearance of Beckham on top of a red double-decker bus that unfolded into a hedge-clipped silhouette of London sent 91,000 fans into a frenzy in the futuristic Bird’s Nest stadium.

A grinning Beckham kicked the ball off the top of the bus into the hands of a delighted Games volunteer.

The London segment was woven into a spectacular closing ceremony that wrapped up a $43 billion Games designed to showcase China’s might, modernity and sporting prowess.

… as well as their authoritarian rule, communist culture of cheating, and their opposition to free press and protest.

A ring of fireworks exploded round the rim of the stadium. Two giant drums were hoisted into the sky with two pairs of suspended drummers thumping out a hypnotic beat.

The stadium was turned into a kaleidscope of glittering colours with 200 acrobats taking giant leaps and somersaulting across a stage on spring-heeled stilts.

Launching a huge party to wrap up the greatest sporting show on earth, thousands of athletes poured in from all four corners of the stadium, blowing kisses and waving flags.

The towering figure of Chinese basketball player Yao Ming was seen grinning from ear to ear.

Beckham, brought up in east London, hailed Beijing’s success but told Reuters before the ceremony: “I’m sure we will be better than them, without a doubt.”

From what I understand, while the organization was crisp and the visuals were stunning (in some cases, unbelievable - literally), the place was dead. There was no party atmosphere that you might have found in Barcelona or Sydney. So in that respect, I’m sure the world’s new financial capital will excel. It’s hard to party with secret police everywhere and the threat of being sent for “re-education’ at a labor camp more apparent than the smog.

Britain’s eight-minute chance to tell the world what the London Games would offer the world in 2012 featured guitarist Jimmy Page, who launched into the riff from “Whole Lotta Love”.

He was joined in the Led Zeppelin classic by TV talent show winner and chart-topping singer Leona Lewis.

Queen Elizabeth also sanctioned a choral version of “God Save The Queen” backed by lush string arrangements.

otherwise known to me using the lyrics of ol’ Samuel Francis Smith:

My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

USA! USA! USA! … err … I mean … Come On, London!

Even though I was glad to see the Jamaican sprinters, our men’s and women’s basketball teams and our women’s soccer team (despite adversity) win gold , as well as Misty May (yum), I’m hope to never have watch another soccer game or basketball game on NBC. I mean, does it really hurt to have the score up in the corner all the time? That was 1997 technology, for pete’e sake!

Popularity: 3% [?]