My last soccer-only post for a while

A few things about soccer...

My view on the World Cup final. Italy deserved to win that game, but not the World Cup. They played like a bunch of diving bitches. However, since they got to play easy teams in the elimination rounds they win. To get to the semi-finals: Australia, Ukraine, and then Germany (who were a surprise semi-finalist). I call bullshit. France did not play their game and Fabbio Cannavaro played out-of-his-ass defense. I also think he deserved the gold ball (W.C. MVP) more than Zidane. He was the reason they won. In the end, I feel a little cheated from this World CUp, which is a difficult thing to deal with since I have another 4 years to wait.

Italian soccer scandal. The decision was handed down and some teams are going to eat shit. Juventus, probably the most famous team in Italy, was demoted to Serie B. They have been in the top flight since 1897. (Most world soccer leagues have several levels. The top 3 teams in lower levels move up a league while the bottom three drop - imagine if the last place teams in MLB were relegated to AAA) In order to get back into the top-flight, they will have to place in the Top 3. Normally, this would be pretty easy for a top team like Juve, but they were also docked 30 points, which it takes 10 wins to accumulate. Essentially, this is like telling a major league baseball team that they will start the season with 40 losses and they have to make the playoffs to stay in the league. Truth is, they deserved more. Fiorentino will be demoted and docked 12 points while Lazio (favorite of Italian fascists) will be demoted and docked 7 points. AC Milan gets to stay in Serie A, but will get docked 15 points and will not be allowed to play in European tournaments (this is a big deal). Many of the major players on these teams are rumored to have clauses in their contracts that allow them to opt out if the team is relegated to a lower league, so that could make it even tougher on some of these teams. Again, I think they all deserved to be relegated to Serie C and docked 30 points. We'll see what happens.

The Galaxy are back in form. Lots of changes including dumping Steve Sampson. Who would have guessed that the coach that led the U.S. to a last place finish in the 98 World CUp would be a shite coach. We've also got back our National Team players, Landon Donovan and Chris Albright. We're out of last and looking to kick ass tonight on our cross-town rivals, ChivasUSA, tonight. I think I am allowed to say "we" since I now have 2 yellow stars tattooed on my arm to commemorate the Galaxy's two MLS Cup titles. I'm telling you, soccer does funny things to a person.

Anyways, there's a lot going on in the world outside soccer that I forgot about once World Cup started. Did you know that the U.S. is fighting in Iraq still? I was surprised too. Oh, and something about violence in the middle east involving Israel? Shocked! I'll talk about it later.