I’m not sure how long this blog has been around, but it’s pretty darn useful. “Football (Soccer) on Canadian TV”: is not the most original name, but who cares? The listings are as comprehensive as I’ve found and a one-stop shop certainly beats wading through various websites trying to sort of out what’s on when.
And look at that. Now I know I can stay up until 2 a.m. to watch Medellin v Real Cartagena in the Futbol Profesional Columbiano on Gol TV.
I don’t know about you, but in terms of the teams still vying for the World Cup there’s not a lot about Paraguay that excites me. Ghana has the underdog factor and is the romantics’ choice because it represents Africa’s last hope; Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have their huge followings and star players, while Uruguay boasts an impressive if distant history of its own.
But Paraguay? It’s like if Indiana became a country. Just nothing there to get the pulse racing. Until now. Read more »
Shortly after the World Cup groups were announced last December, radio commentator José Ramón Fernández unfurled a torrent of controversy in Mexico by saying on air that El Tri was the “ugly duckling” of its group and that because it barely qualified out of Concacaf, expectations should be kept low.
He argued that South Africa had the “host” factor going for it, that France was a generally powerful team and that Uruguay boasted experience and toughness.
Of course Fernández didn’t account for South Africa choking or France immolating itself. But his bleak assessment of Mexico looks depressingly close to becoming reality.
Our copy of Globe and Mail writer John Doyle’s new book – the world is a ball – finally arrived* in the mail this week. And while we plan a full review once we actually read the whole book, I thought I’d comment on the chapter that immediately caught my attention: August 28, 2008, Toronto Canada 1, Jamaica 1.
A survey published earlier this week asked North American soccer fans what they would give up if it meant “their” team would win the World Cup. After gritting my teeth I read on.
All the expected answers – job, sex, food, home – as well as some unexpected (body part… holy shit!) showed up, but the poll was clearly described as being “tongue in cheek.” After pondering this for a day I arrived at the unavoidable question of what, in all seriousness, I would actually give up to qualify Canada for the World Cup?
Whenever I go on vacation I try to come away with a stupid story loosely connected to the sport of soccer ( see here, here, or here), but try as I might during a recent stag party in Las Vegas I couldn’t dig up anything but the lamest of anecdotes to hang a blog post on. So instead I cobbled together some soccer-related observations and proceeded to some hasty generalizations.
So do these two observations illustrate the larger theme? Soccer has come leaps and bounds in terms of exposure in North America, but once you pull yourself out of the blogosphere, the Guardian football pages and your circle of soccer-obsessed friends for a few days, you see that the game still has a long way to go here.
After almost two years of blogging under the monikers Squizz, Grant and Jamie, Some Canadian Guys Writing About Soccer have decided to lift the cloak of anonymity and reveal our true identities.
I’ve mentioned several times on this site that I’m a referee, and will usually step in to defend refs against unfair criticism; I’ve even spoken in a general sense about the necessity of accepting the occasional error as an integral part of any sporting event that is officiated by human beings. So my intent here is not to throw Mark Geiger — the man in the middle from yesterday’s Toronto FC/Columbus matchup — under the bus, even though his performance was, as one pub patron within earshot of me put it Saturday, “really bad, even by MLS standards.” Read more »
The MLS season is starting tonight! Toronto FC starts their season on Saturday! In Columbus! Well, two out of three ain’t bad. (I kid, I kid… King’s Pizza is marvelous at 3:30 a.m.) Unfortunately, things are looking dire in Toronto FC land. After the most catastrophic season finale possible in 2009, optimism isn’t exactly running high for Reds supporters. In fact, it’s running quite low for a lot of people. So as the season prepares to get underway, I’ve prepared a quick and handy guide to maintaining your sanity over the coming months.
Calm the fuck down and cheer the fuck up. Remember back when we weren’t even sure there was going to be a season at all? You should, because it was less than a week ago. And regardless of your views on the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, the reality is, we as supporters have now got an on-schedule season to look forward to, which means we won’t have to resort to horrible alternatives like speaking to family members or learning to play the ukulele. Has Toronto looked like shit in the preseason? Sure, probably, but the preseason is as accurate a gauge of the regular season as your awkward first sexual experience is an indicator of who you’ll eventually marry. So chill out, folks. There’s a season to be played. Read more »
Well, it’s been a while since we last popped over to FIFA executive committee member and one-man frat party Chuck Blazer’s blog to see what’s up. As usual, Chuck doesn’t disappoint. Read more »
(Cross-posted to The Daily Squizz)
All of the hype, all of the merchandise sold, all of the drama, and all of the moistened panties worldwide… and it all comes down to this.
It’s an ignominious end to a fascinating career, and an especially heartbreaking one for Beckham himself, who wanted nothing more than to represent England one more time at this summer’s World Cup. Now, to be clear, even though Becks may yet again be physically capable of playing soccer again (he is under contract to the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer through 2011, after all), his career — his time at the top (conceptually, if not necessarily in on-field performances) of the world footballing landscape is done. Read more »
In a piece in the Lancashire Telegraph today, Junior Hoilett has a lot to say about his ascent to the first team at Blackburn Rovers, and how homesickness for Canada made life hard for him. Since he offers precious little as to his international ambitions, I’m going to see his comments (about his life in Canada as encouraging signs that, if he suits up for anyone, it’ll be Les Rouges. It’s not much to go on, but what the hell, eh?
…well, wait a second. Further info from the Telegraph suggests that, as much as we’re waiting with bated breath for Junior to declare for Canada, he’s not going to offer an answer any time soon. “I am still trying to cement my place in the first 11 at Blackburn Rovers,” he said. “I am really not focused on the international scene at the moment. Hopefully that will all come later. Right now I am focusing on my future at Blackburn. I will have to make a decision at some stage but I don’t believe we are at that stage yet.”
So, it’s still a waiting game, I guess.
This video was run out front on the Wall Street Journal homepage Wednesday evening. (As an aside, I find that the Journal has some of the best and most prominent soccer coverage amongst major U.S. dailies.)
I had no idea that the legality of so-called “paradinha” – in which the player stunts his run-up and/or initially fakes his kick – was at the discretion of individual referees? That seems kind of like a recipe for disaster, although I can’t recall an instance where I’ve seen a ref annul a kick because of such a move.
But nevermind the legality of the kick… is it actually that effective?
If, like us, you have nothing better to do but keep track of how long it is until the 2010 World Cup begins in South Africa, you’ll know that today marks 100 days until the tournament kicks off.
Yes, we’re that excited. And that pathetic.
As much as we’d all like to forget Canada’s friendly against Macedonia last November, it’s in the news again. The Bulgarian referee, one Anton Genov – who seemed especially disposed to award a penalty kick whenever any attacking player so much as looked at the 18-yard box – has been acquitted of match-fixing charges by UEFA.
While Canada certainly didn’t prosper from the at-one-point-allegedly dubious penalties (I think that might pass legal muster against libel), there were allegations that Genov may have been implicated in some kind of horseplay involving betting on the final outcome of the game, including the number of penalty kicks taken. Now that UEFA has taken a good hard look at thing, it seems that he’s not a crook, but just a crap referee – even through the grainy, stop-motion internet feed some of those four penalties looked absurd.
This is all a part of a sweeping investigation of over 200 league and international matches, in four countries being conducted by German police. So far a Ukrainian ref and a Croatian ref have each been susepended.
Such luck was not with the unfortunately named Bosnian ref Novo Panic, who has been banned from “football activities” for life by UEFA. I mention this for three main reasons: “completeness,” I guess; so I can mention that Mr. Panic isn’t really a name that inspires confidence in someone trying to slip something past the authorities; and that I like the idea that “football activities” can be taken in the broadest sense, and that, five years from now, Panic will get spear-tackled by a UEFA secret policeman while having a kick-about in the park with his kid.
CBC soccer The Guardian football
Grant
Jamie
squizz