World Cup Fantasy League (Spoilers Ahoy!)

[Copenhagen Fan]

Cope (hi dude!) wrote:

And speaking of injury, I thought it was hysterical when Buffon used one of his players as a ladder, and the medical team comes out and sprays the guy's ass down. What is that stuff? And what did they use to make McBride quit bleeding so fast? I need some of that in my house.

That was Rock Hard Erection spray.

[verbal gymnastics]

Cope - and you know that because...

I had a good week on the Fantasy Football although I transferred in Casillas in place of Lehmann which cost me four points. I was relieved that Van Nistelrooy got a net strike. Awesome

[Who Shot Sam?]

Whew - Kewell cleared to play against Croatia. Thought I'd made a major mistake adding him late yesterday, before I'd heard anything about his possible suspension.

[mood swung]

Well done moody - selecting Raul as captain!

Thanks! I had no idea he had played! My matchtracker had him as Ral Gonzlez Blanco, so who knew? He was one my 12 y.o. picked, and that kid has gone to camp, so back to the bottom of the heap for me.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Big day for Pole - 27 points from the Germany game by naming Klose as captain and the odious Lehmann keeping a clean sheet. And to top it off, Poland get a win against Costa Rica - small consolation I know.

[invisible Pole]

The win against Costa Rica was a very small consolation, WSS, as the performance was poor, and the game can arguably be called the most boring match of the tournament so far.

I was thinking about making Torres captain, but I'm glad I finally didn't do it.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I'm going all out for Ghana, with a clean sheet. Appiah in as captain, the mighty Kingston in goal. USA better not screw things up for me! Hope I don't regret selling 6-pointer Schweinsteiger for Appiah...

20 minutes till kick-off! C'mon boys, you can make it happen.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I'm going all out for Ghana, with a clean sheet. Appiah in as captain, the mighty Kingston in goal. USA better not screw things up for me!

Oh God I hope they do! Ghana are missing a few players are a result of yellow cards, so I could see the US making things interesting. Our losses to suspension - Pope and Mastroeni - may actually help, as Pope has been woeful in the first two matches.

[mood swung]

Don't really have a dog in this fight, but, hey, I hate to see a 40 year old (???statistics and facts are not my thing) tradition carelessly cast aside.

Loss of Pablo will hurt. I will, however, selflessly do my all for my team: I will stay home from work and watch the game; I will not wear my DTOM tshirt; I will eat pizza for lunch. These charms have worked before.

[Who Shot Sam?]

What a strike by Joe Cole - he's been excellent. Beckham, as usual, standing out on the right and waiting for free kick opportunities. England are amazingly one-sided when he plays - he has absolutely no desire to dribble or take players on.

[Mechanical Grace]

Dang, I was really pulling for an England win. And clearly it's time for me to ditch Robinson, no matter how sexy I may find him, agile bruiser that he is.

It would appear I'm unfolding a lawn chair and setting out my cooler here in the bottom rungs of the FF ladder. Well I'm still havin fun watching!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Will surely be one of the goals of the tournament, and a good assist. Well played. Poor Owen, two shit games and now he's buggered. Should have brought Defoe instead. We should definitely make the Quarters at least.

Win or draw made no odds other than the fact that I'd predicted 2-1 and was comfortable preserving my lead in the prediction league until that tedious second goal.

[Who Shot Sam?]

We should definitely make the Quarters at least.

You keep lucking out - first an amazingly easy group, then Ecuador in the first knock out match. It's papering over a lot of problems IMO.

[Otis Westinghouse]

And then we'd meet Portugal or Holland and probably go out, so don't worry. Maybe we can rise to it a bit more. If Rooney's fully match fit and creating things, if Cole and Gerrard can get on the end of stuff. If a Beckham free kick can make it in. If Robinson can do his job properly.

It's a cliched observation, and nothing to do with football, but it really is a peculiar American English obsession to refashion one part of speech as another. So a verb becomes a noun ('a big ask'), a noun a verb ('to luck out'), an adjective a noun ('my bad'), etc. Linguists have made cod-sociological points about it representing the dynamism and creativeness of the American spirit. I always wonder how it passes from being one individual instance of someone deliberately fucking around with the language and into widespread usage. I both love and hate it. People here tend to want to get in on the act, show they're up with the winds of linguistic change, all of which we think blow across the pond at us, and self-consciously drop these things into conversation.

There - that made a nice interlude, didn't it?

[Who Shot Sam?]

Well, "luck out" is a pretty common turn of phrase over here, so in this particular case it has nothing to do with inventiveness and everything to do with habit.

For the record, I kid because I care. I'd actually like to see England to do well (in spite of Sven), because I understand how much it would mean to a lot of people I know and like. At the same time, there is just that little bit of schadenfreude I experience at seeing them struggle with fairly easy opponents, probably as a result of having a number of them tell me that Americans don't understand the sport and that we will never be able to compete with the top European and South American countries. Small-minded media (e.g. The Guardian) persist in perpetuating these stereotypes, which really annoys me.

[verbal gymnastics]

So what happened to us? We played well in the first half and then reverted to type in the second game. Joe Cole had a fantastic first half and hardly saw the ball in the second.

At least we proved - if there was any doubt - that we can't defend a lead. Our defending from corners was appalling. Sol Campbell was dreadful, Rooney looked happy to be substituted , and Robinson, I hope, had an off night. It seems to be a case of "Give the ball to David and he can cross it". Beckham has become a different player by playing in Spain. He doesn't take players on whereas he used to at Man Utd. When he tries to take players on now, he can't beat them because he's lost the pace he had.

England will luck out (just keeping the Americans amused Otis!). What will happen is that Eriksson will be in a match in a position that he has a last throw of the die, he'll put Walcott on in desperation, Walcott will save the game, Eriksson will say that he was saving Walcott and will then be hailed as a genius.

And my Fantasy Football team this round is destined for very poor things

[PlaythingOrPet]

C'mon people, where's your lookalikeeees?

Cristiano Ronaldo


Pob

[Who Shot Sam?]

So what happened to us? We played well in the first half and then reverted to type in the second game. Joe Cole had a fantastic first half and hardly saw the ball in the second.

Except for the cross for Gerrard's goal, that is!

[mood swung]

Otis, I think that it's not so much American inventiveness as it is American laziness - that is, to say "my bad" is much easier than saying "I'm sorry I wrecked your car, but you really shouldn't loan it to me after I've been drinking." And cheer up, at least you guys are going on. We'll be packing our bags with nothing but the dvd of the Italy game to keep us company for the next four years. I am hoping for a shirts and skins final.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I wanna know this - why do all of you Englishmen wear bowler hats and say "Dear boy"?

[mood swung]

it's a little more obvious when Dempsey smiles, but I can't find a picture of him doing so.

[Who Shot Sam?]

There's something slightly psychotic about Dempsey. I like it!

He has been one of our better players so far IMO. Now if we could just get a shot on goal.

Oh, and here you go moody...

[verbal gymnastics]

So what happened to us? We played well in the first half and then reverted to type in the second game. Joe Cole had a fantastic first half and hardly saw the ball in the second.

Except for the cross for Gerrard's goal, that is!

Exactly - they should have given Joe Cole the ball more often - at least he looked dangerous when he got it.

I wanna know this - why do all of you Englishmen wear bowler hats and say "Dear boy"?

I say. Steady on, old chap. It is simply not the done thing to mock an English gent. I should poke you with my umbrella don't you know. However, I shall do so after having a spot of tea and tiffin.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I say. Steady on, old chap. It is simply not the done thing to mock an English gent. I should poke you with my umbrella don't you know. However, I shall do so after having a spot of tea and tiffin.

That's more like it!

[mood swung]

Thanks, Sam. Looks good, plays better.

P.S. to MG: all the cool kids are down on the bottom. It's the new back-of-the-bus.