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FTW

13
Vote

by user Fornelli

So the World Cup dreams of the United States were ended this morning after a 2-1 loss to Ghana.

Was anybody really surprised by this?

The US sucks at soccer, let's face it. I think it's time we cut ourselves loose of this sport. There's been a campaign here for years trying to get Americans into soccer. It hasn't worked yet, and it never will. The sport just isn't made to the American fans' sensibilities.

It's too slow, it's low scoring, and to us it's just plain boring.

So lets get rid of it all together. Ban it. There should be a federal law passed banning soccer in all its forms from being played within the United States. We already have baseball, football, basketball and an entire cadre of other sports to fill our time. We need to stop embarrassing ourselves on a global level every 4 years.

I'm sure that with enough motivation the Bush Administration can prove without a shadow of a doubt that playing soccer helps fund Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world.

Let's look at where we stand in the eyes of the world. Anyone who has watched an actual US game this World Cup has been made witness to the disdain of America from our European counterparts. Why continue to give them more fodder to sling insults at us?

We are basically the equivalent of the real nerdy kid that the cool kids invite to the big kegger on Friday night for no other reason than to make fun of him, and probably beat him up. Instead let's just stay home and play some Dungeons and Dragons with our friends.

Screw the cool kids.

It's not just soccer either. Major League Baseball started the World Baseball Classic this year, our national pasttime, and we couldn't even win that. Hell we didn't even get to the second round.

Over and over again we embarass ourselves on the global sport platform.

As Americans we're all so full of ourselves that we really don't need the rest of the world anyway. So let's just pretend they aren't even there.

Let's ditch the Olympics too. We already know we're better than the rest of the world, so why give them a chance to shatter our fragile egos?

We'll start our own Olympics. Call them the Microsoft (or whoever the hell wants to sponsor them) Olympics and have each of our 50 states, and even Puerto Rico if they're game, form their own teams in the same events that we have in the Olympics.

I mean do you get really pumped when you see Shaun White win the Snowboarding gold over some Norwegian? Who the hell cares about Norway? Half our population probably couldn't even tell you where Norway was.

How about beating a rival state? If you're from New York, wouldn't you want to revel in your recent victory over New Jersey in beach volleyball?

What's the point of being better than someone if they aren't around for you to constantly remind them of that fact? Next time I'm out and I run into somebody from Indiana, or Michigan, or Wisconsin, I want to be able to puff up my chest and elocute on how superior Illinois is in basketball. "Congratulations on your big win over Wyoming. That must have been tough. Excuse me while I go sleep with my trophy."

Am I the only one excited at the possibilities here?

Screw the cool kids party, let's throw our own. One with more kegs, and better looking girls with looser morals.

http://tomfornellisportsblog.blogspot.com

Date

Thu 06/22/06, 2:58 pm EST

Enable Comment Auto-Refresher
Anonymous Fanatic #1
1256 days ago
Score -3+-
I wonder if we will continue to get better at the sport. Where I grew up, everyone played soccer, and I can't imagine that trend going away. Its a fun, easy game for kids to play. I bet if MLS made a push to expand soccer into urban areas, the quality of U.S. soccer would increase exponentially.
Permalink | Reply
Alex HolowczakHall of Famer
1255 days ago
Score 0+-
Or he wrote the three letters backwards... I think Christof is right.
Permalink
DNLLegend
1256 days ago
Score -1+-
What's "FTW"?
Permalink | Reply
ChristofMVP
1256 days ago
Score 4+-
I think TW is "the world." use your imagination for what F stands for.
Permalink
PeanMajor Leaguer
1256 days ago
Score 4+-
man, i thought this was a "Fire Tim Welsh" article
Permalink
Alex HolowczakHall of Famer
1255 days ago
Score 0+-
Ooh ooh ooh! I know what the F stands for! Feed! As in the song Bob Geldof came up with at the original Live Aid. I had no idea Fornelli liked The Boomtown Rats so much!
Permalink
DNLLegend
1255 days ago
Score 1+-
The thing is, I've always used "FTW" to mean "For the win." So... it's confusing.
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SteaksammichRed-Shirting
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
Works for me! I know where Norway is, but I still don't care.
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Phillyfunk
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
stupid, i love sports on the global platform, i love the fact that america plays somewhere and actually loses. the summer olympics are amazing you can't argue that, winter olympics is debatable. the world baseball classic might be a good idea, let them try out again at least. the world cup is greatest single sporting event, usa should be happy to be able to participate and america should be motivated to play better and make it to the championship.
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XinophDraft Pick
1255 days ago
Score 0+-
I can argue with that. The Summer Olympics are boring as sin. There, consider it argued. There are two or three sports that I actually care about in each Olympics, and the rest can get tossed. I think the Summer and Winter Olympics are about equally boring.
Permalink
Patrickburke1980All-American
1256 days ago
Score -3+-
piss poor article.
Permalink | Reply
FornelliTee-Baller
1256 days ago
Score 1+-
What'd you really think?
Permalink
LPAnderson
1256 days ago
Score 2+-
this made me laugh really hard... very funny piece... then i laughed even harder when i saw some people taking it seriously. (except for the part about norway. i'm figuring you were dead serious about that. where is it, anyway?)
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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer
1255 days ago
Score 1+-
I think that the USA are not that bad at football. Getting to the Finals put them in the top 32 in the world (according to FIFA), which out of 200 or so isn't bad. (Admittedly, Aruba, Honduras, and Tonga are some of those 200, but they still deserve to count). The US routinely win the Olympic Medals Table, although I think that is down to individual success (e.g. Athletics, Swimming), whereas the team success is limited to basketball, baseball and perhaps the 4x100m relay (if you're lucky). I think that Shaun White and co. were delighted about his Gold medal, even if his people were not, so you ought not to mock him. I actually like the state Olympics idea... But how would you run an American Football tournament with 50 states? It would takes months to complete, outlasting the NFL season (I suppose a Chess-style Swiss format might work, but that would need 6 matches). Also, it would be hard to prise players from their teams. An American sport is on all-year round, so no players would leave the $millions they get from their franchises. I think international competition is all about bragging rights however, and it's a shame that the USA has not many neighbours, it's different in Europe and other continents. Also, war rivalries are still big (e.g. England-Argentina, England-Germany) During the Cold War everyone cared about USA-USSR, even Brits cared about that!
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SteaksammichRed-Shirting
1255 days ago
Score -1+-
Well, his plan isn't to start a 50 state tourney with soccer. He wants to ban soccer entirely and start the tourney with sports that Americans care about. America might be respectable, but still, absolutely no one cares about it. The World Cup coverage gets buried in the back of the paper and you should hear the sports talk radio guys talk about it. Most of them can't help but laugh when they try to say something serious about the sport and those who can hold back their laughter don't know what they're talking about. "Here's my lock! The US will beat Uganda in the soccer game today.", said one of them. "Chuck, they're not playing Uganda". "Well, whatever. These things are usually low scoring right? Then the US will win, 3-1"....And all the while you could hear the other guys chuckling in the background because he's talking about soccer. To us the sport is a joke and a kid's game. Having a respable team will never change the fact that we just don't care.
Permalink
Alex HolowczakHall of Famer
1255 days ago
Score 1+-
By American Football I meant NFL football, not soccer... my fault, I ought not use Football to mean two things in one article... Sorry also, I misinterpreted, I thought he'd put sports into the US Olympics that they watch day-to-day, NFL football. My mistake.
Permalink
JuTMSY4Legend
1255 days ago
Score 2+-
I know this isn't news but...We already have this state olympics thing, its called professional sports. Basically different regions play eachother and we create rivalries in different sports. Even if we did the state thing w/ other sports, no one would care...
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