A Different World Cup Roundup

So now that World Cup Fever has mostly subsided, Deadly Tango will be (not-so) fashionably late to the party. Mostly, I just needed an excuse to share the following graphic found in the sports page of Washington Hispanic ... it speaks for itself even without text translation.

I saw this posted on a bathroom bulletin board and nearly busted a gut at the time. I guess pithy remarks (or bad puns -- take your pick) are not the exclusive province of the New York and London daily tabloids.  Add to the festivities with the Philly "vs" NYC fun that is Badminton Stamps and their musical pun-ditry selections. Or hop on over to YouTube for the adidas "+10" commercials, and other sites for more on the song used in those spots, "Eanie Meany" by Jim Noir.

Going back to the first knockout round, I would agree with Cousin Creep -- although the man taking the dive was Fabio Grosso and not Francesco Totti (who converted from the penalty spot), the play at the end of the Australia / Italy game was likely the worst call I saw during the World Cup.  Instant replay for the 2010 Cup, anyone?

Finally, some muted kudos to Bill "Sports Guy" Simmons for talking about football/soccer, despite his misguided need to badmouth the sport at the same time.  What surprises me most about Simmons adopting a Premiership side is that he has previously disavowed himself of any interest in hockey. 

The parallels are obvious -- the dump-and-chase bruiser styles exemplified by the Philadelphia Flyers and English national team, the "beautiful game" of speed and precision passing and puck/ball handling espoused by the Swedes / Finns / Czechs in the NHL and the Brazilians (when they're not mailing it it as happened this year), the pathetic "play not to lose" strategies sucking the life out of the game as exemplified by the neutral zone trap and the new World Champions, Italy. It's so clear that I'm waiting for someone to drop that science in a future Sports Guy Mailbag.  Finally, I don't need Simmons' half-hearted justifications to his "manly" readership ("it's something to watch at 7:30am west coast time") -- stick to the game itself and keep working on getting relegation adopted in US major sports.