Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo of Brazil - Shameful

Rooney, pathetic as always on the pitch, the most overrated player in the history of the game, personification of the spoiled brats that are most England internationals (certainly not Gerrard, who's always been classy, at least what little we've seen of him) - did the unspeakable today. He actually stomped on an opposing player's groin area - penis, testicles, etc. That's your Rooney for you. That dude should be banned from competitive soccer for life.

Our second despicable act of the day goes to Ronaldo of Brazil. He took a dive at the top of the French box as the clock was ticking down. The ref - the same as the U.S./Italy refs - calls everything, every dive, everything - gave the kick to Ronaldo even though nobody touched him. The Brazil free kick went over the crossbar, and the end result of the game was not changed, but Ronaldo shamed himself, his team, his country, this Cup, and the sport of soccer. May that dive forever disgrace his name, his record, and overshadow anything he's every accomplished on the pitch - especially having the most goals ever in the World Cup. Good riddance to Brazil and the Brazilian Ronaldo.

As to England's exit - bravo! Think of all the pathetic hooligans across the globe who are turning cars upside down and terrorizing innocent people as we speak - just because their side once again proved to be a bunch of whiny-ass-titty-babies. Beautiful. Losers. Feel bad for some of the players, who seem to be decent people, but the sense of entitlement the players seem to have, but especially the fans - it's outrageous. And the hooliganism/terrorism needs to stop. England should be banned from all future World Cups until they fix the problem. On that note, Spain should be banned from all future cups until they fix their racism problem.

On the English team and racism, after watching France take care of racist Spain, I started to think, "Where is Shaun Wright-Phillips?" Wright-Phillips, of course, is black, and the last time I remember seeing him play, he was alongside my man Claudio Reyna, and Wright-Phillips was awesome - which is why he got called up to Chelsea. Now, why was Shaun Wright-Phillips not selected to the England team? Most of France are black. Most of racist Spain were white. Most of England were white. An incredible black English player is not selected to the national team for the World Cup? Why not? I wondered if Eriksson might not be comfortable with black people, considering how he grew up, presumably, in Sweden. Is it possible? It wouldn't be a crime to be uncomfortable around a person of a different race, but to not select them to the national team because you don't feel comfortable around them? That would be a crime - a moral crime.

Supposedly Wright-Phillips has been warming the bench for Chelsea this season, having scored no goals in several apperances coming off the bench. I can't argue with that. It just seems to me that the more opportunity there is for black players to show their class on the pitch, the more they continue to dominate. Ghana were the latest example, taking the attack to Brazil, even though they ended up losing 3-0. Lennon, a black player for England, finally got another chance today, in place of Beckham, I believe, but Beckham only left the game because of injury. Does one have to be white, or at least light-skinned (Fernando), to be called up to the England national team? Is England really that devoid of black athletes? I know France has a close history with African countries and all that, but why is the England roster filled with perfectly ordinary players like Beckham, who wouldn't impress on an American college side, never mind an international side? Who are the rest of the boring white players in the England squad? I have no idea. I can't remember any names. Almost none made a name for themselves. The only white player to show up today for England was Hargreaves, who's never played in the Premiereship. And maybe that's another key to England's continued international failure - their players are, by and large, spoiled brats. They play in the Premiereship, tell themselves that it's the toughest, most competitive league in the world, and then they're shite when they get on the pitch with real players.

To reiterate this post:
* Rooney: Pathetic. Shameful. Should be banned from competitive soccer forever.
* Brazilian Ronaldo: Pathetic, shameful dive. Go eat some Twinkies.
* England: Spoiled, entitled players and hooligan fans. Shameful all the way around.

p.s. Cheers for France in all their multicultural glory for dropping the Brazilians from the tournament. To hear the shock in some people's voices after the game ("What?! Brazil lost?!"), you'd think Brazil just had to show up to collect the Cup. And the American announcers - whew. JP Dellacamera - heard near halftime - "Well, you'd have to say that France are holding their own." Ummmm....JP, buddy, France has controlled the game since after the 60-second mark. They've had more possession, more shots on goal, more creativity, they're controlling the flow of the game, they've committed fewer fouls, etc. Nobody was 'holding their own' - Brazil was looking beaten, and in the end, that's what happened.

In fairness, I actually thought Henry or someone else might have been offsides on the cross that Henry scored from. But, a deserved win. Just puttin it out there.

Be interesting to see if England can get Hiddink to coach them before the next Cup. Hiddink is scary coaching any team, must less a team with some World Cup history. I hope he doesn't do it.

...p.s. As to Rooney, I thought I heard one American announcer, on watching a repeat clip or review of the England/Portugal game, I _thought_ I heard the announcer describe Rooney's groin-stomping action as a 'mistake' - something to be overlooked. They said stuff about Rooney being 'young' and 'inexperienced' and all that. This, to me, is the ultimate in passive racism. If Rooney were a black player who'd done this, _all_ the papers in Europe tomorrow would be digitally lynching his ass for being any number of horrible things - and most of those descriptions would be correct, but for Rooney, who is white, you will see very little if any condemnation, and lots of defenses of the 'young' and 'inexperienced' lad.

Let's address how 'young' that fool is. He's 20. Sure, that's pretty young, but he's not a baby. He's an adult who's been doing adult things around the world for year. Exactly how 'experienced' is he? Well, let's see - his first international for England was in February 2003, when he was 17 years old. So, that's three full years of international experience, with the Euro 2004 tournament his coming out party where he played several full internationals. He went through world cup qualifying with England. For several years he's played for Manchester United, either the first or second most popular soccer club in the world. Does all of this experience qualify as what certain commentator's would described as 'inexperienced' - i.e. a general lack of experience? I would only say that if Rooney was still inexperienced by the beginning of this Cup, then I would like to know what, if anything, would actually qualify a player to be 'experienced', besides a World Cup experience itself.

To sum up, with Rooney's play in the 2004 Euro Championships, his coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, compared his impact with England to that of Pelé with Brazil. When asked to compare Rooney and Pelé, Portugal's current coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said, "One is black and one is white."

Scolari may have been more insightful than he realized.

...on the offsides comment, I saw the goal again, and it was taken from a free kick on the left-hand side of the field - Zidane. Can't be offsides on a free kick. So, it looked like about three French players were goalside of the English players who were supposed to be marking them - one of them was Henry, and no English players bothered to pick him up at all. That's pathetic. But, that said, a lot of the in-the-box marking in this Cup has been atrocious - starting with the Americans. Blah.

...this article contains a great quote about Rooney:

His frustration, a product of his impotence in an unfamiliar role, resulted in the stamp on Ricardo Carvalho.

The 'stamp' on balls wasn't something that Rooney did, proactively - it was just the 'result of frustration' - i.e. it couldn't be helped - i.e. he's just a young lad - i.e. he's white, it's really no big deal.

...'Jeu Admirablement'? 'Play beautifully', or 'joga bonito' in French? si? oui?

...violence in France after the win. Pathetic. Where does the blame go? Sucks.

...England keeper Paul Robinson is listed at 6'3" or 6'4". And I'm Pelé. It's not the end of the world to see a player stretch his actual height by 6 or so inches. A little bit ridiculous? Sure - I mean, 6 inches? That's more than most NBA point guards stretch their heights, but whatever. In World Cup penalty shootouts, however, height can make a difference. I dunno - I'm just not crazy about short goalkeepers, and listing Robinson as 6'3" or whatever is just a bit absurd. My guess is that he's pushing 5' 11", on a good day, after waking up, after a night on the stretching board. He didn't do anything to help England in the shoot-out. Why am I all over this guy? I dunno - probably just because I hate England, and their drunken, violent, hooligans. And their violent players - a la Rooney.

...one other thing. If you plan on crying for 15 minutes after you lose in a shoot-out, please make sure you leave everything on the field during regulation and overtime. Is that too much to ask in return for some compassion? To me, it looked as if England were coasting, willingly, towards the shootout. Why? I mean, you _know_ someone is going home crying - why not do what you can to prevent the shootout. It's just difficult to have compassion for a bunch of players who were dogging it through most of the match. Sorry. Some players weren't dogging it - Owen Hargreaves - but most were. And the coach is included in that, too, of course. He, above anyone, has the most control over the situation - whether or not a team decides to attack, or if a team decides to make it to the shoot-out and pray for a miracle.

...parish priest calls Rooney a thug.