Get goosebumps.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Also, check out this piece by ESPN’s Jeff Bradley, brother of USA coach Bob Bradley and uncle to the crazy man in the picture above.

Of course the vuvuzela has a twitter page:

And in more moral malarkey, this sign appeared yesterday during the Brazil-North Korea match (Brazil surprisingly only won 2-1), which apparently was attended by a lot of Chinese volunteers.

The sound vuvuzelas make is annoying. Their constant, buzzing drone over the 90 minutes of World Cup games makes my ears bleed a little bit, and I’m just watching on television. I can’t imagine what it’s like in person. Anyway, the significant backlash against the noise-making instruments caused FIFA to issue a statement that the vuvuzela would in fact, not be banished because doing so would be un-African or something. Along those lines, someone of course created a t-shirt. I couldn’t be prouder.

This about sums it up.

I hate to throw a baseball post in here amongst the anticipation of USA/England but as the residents Pirate expert I thought this was too interesting to pass up. I typically don’t like Pirates bashing because a lot of it, nay, most of it is illogical. However, when I saw this post on Sabernomics, (one of the best sabermetrics sites of all time – although it has evolved a lot since inception) I had to chuckle. In light of the inevitable ‘Pirates Skid’ in which we are now fully entrenched, I figured this is as good a time as any to poke some fun. The study reported on in the post says that the odds of winning back-to-back baseball games against the same team (described in the article as ’similar circumstances’) is just slightly better than 50/50. So, ordinarily the odds of beating a major league baseball team twice in a row is pretty much a crapshoot. Certainly, that is, unless you’re playing the Bucs. It has to be easier. They defy ordinary. After a quick glance and calculation (that sounds like something you get at a seedy casino in Vegas), seven times this season the Bucs have lost back-to-back games to the same team.  That’s not the worst though. Kansas City has done it 12 times, Houston 11, and Baltimore, ugh good God are the Orioles bad, have done it 17 times.  Food for thought on a World Cup Saturday mornin’. Let’s go Yanks…er hem…these Yanks:

U-S-A!

I really love what I refer to as real football. Ya know, the football played with your feet. I’ve never been super into international football, but as a Yank I vociferously pull for the Stars & Stripes for as long as they are alive in the tournament. I will be at my highest volume this Saturday when the US takes on our old imperial big brother, England…but not because I have lingering anti-Red coat sentiments that still echo within my personal ether from ancestors that fought for our independence. No, I dislike the English national team because many of their players are reprehensible douche bags. Despite this the United States mural from ESPN below works for me. It gets me pumped. I love seeing thousands clad in red, white, and blue screaming for our boys. And nothing fuses Yank fans more than Yank fans coming together, just like we did 234 years ago to boot these red coats (shirts this time around) right back onto the boat (plane this time around).

Then we have the French mural highlighting what appears to be my favorite footballer of all time’s left hand with a glorious Batman *WHAP* style bolt. Obviously, this was done because Mssr. Henry used that very hand to help ensure French qualification. I say ‘to help ensure’ because if the Republic of Ireland really wanted to make it to the World Cup they would have scored more goals over the two legs. He cheated. We know. He admitted it, which is more than any Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian diver has ever done. Get over it.

Hand of A God

Not a whole lot going on tonight in the sports world, not on television anyway. While the country waits for March Madness to begin on Thursday, while baseball players play meaningless games in the Florida (and Arizona) sun, while the NBA and NHL trudge through long regular seasons, and while NFL teams lie and pontificate about what they will do while eventually doing the opposite, we bring you something that, in my opinion, trumps them all.

The World Cup.

Read more »