tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62066626446217093482011-07-08T04:46:56.860-07:00Football (the round kind).Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-24904844854897372192009-12-06T06:27:00.000-08:002009-12-06T10:47:20.362-08:00

There are no circumstances under which it is acceptable to abuse someone based on the color of their skin. None.Even if he plays football for a club whose own fans have a history of racial abuse, it's not acceptable.Even if you don't approve of his behavior, it's not acceptable.Even if he's an asshole, it's not acceptable. No, not even then.No one asks to be racially abused, no matter how they

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-30912029868749890092008-10-09T05:03:00.000-07:002008-10-09T14:06:47.481-07:00

In the Unites States, Lou Gehrig is the face of ALS. It's not even ALS anymore -- it's his disease, imbued with memorability and dignity by that sorrowful, preternaturally composed speech the still-healthy Gehrig gave when he told the world about his illness. In the consciousness of most Americans, ALS is the stuff of old movies: Shot in black and white, poised, impossibly handsome, and shrouded

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-87656066208698008222008-06-11T07:23:00.000-07:002008-06-11T08:39:43.973-07:00

My blogging mojo is sadly limited absent these days, but I did participate in the Ladies ... Euro preview roundtable with a bunch of other chick football bloggers, in whose virtual company it was an honor to spend a few hours.I'm late in linking to it, but not so late that you can call me an idiot quite yet for defying logic by loving Romania and picking Spain to win. (I just hope Ricardo

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-59960389608355346012008-04-02T15:36:00.001-07:002008-12-08T16:33:54.036-08:00

I hate Manchester United. Have for as long as I can remember (Though I'm pretty sure Ryan Giggs was my first ever football crush. Teenage me had very odd tastes.), and I wasn't even yet paying attention when they caught Kevin Keegan's Newcastle, and he never got to love beating them. (I shudder to think of the levels of my impotent rage if I'd have known that was going on at the time.) And Sir

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-20987389688639204382008-03-31T16:27:00.000-07:002008-03-31T16:50:34.115-07:00

A Parma Ultra was run over by a coach full of Juve supporters yesterday at a rest stop, and the Juve-Parma match was called off. A guy got hit by a bus, so a game was called off. I understand that it's (as usual) unclear what exactly happened -- whether there was fighting at the rest stop before the incident, if the bus driver was trying to get out before Parma supporters got close enough to

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-12556438805911827652008-03-18T06:40:00.001-07:002008-12-08T16:33:54.261-08:00

Italian-speakers have informed me that the Italian media's lip-reading of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's "insult" of Roberto Mancini (Or was it Luis Figo?) Sunday night hinges on Zlatan having a firm grasp of how to use the subjunctive tense in Italian. This news makes me almost deliriously happy, though I can't quite put my finger on why. (Zlatan's grammar skills? The incredible seriousness of the media?

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-60516100537916537442008-03-13T15:51:00.001-07:002008-03-13T15:58:11.085-07:00

Fiorentina were absolutely awful last night (apart from the saintly Sebastian Frey, whose brain fart on the first goal was made up for in triplicate in the subsequent hours and hours and hours of play). Dario Dainelli did a jaw-droppingly good impression of an old-time English centerback, booting the ball into Row Z every time he got anywhere near it. Midfield anchors Zdravko Kuzmanović and Marco

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-21299877017931719932008-03-11T14:45:00.000-07:002008-03-11T14:49:25.869-07:00

Not good enough, not disciplined enough, guided by manager with great hair who makes team decisions based on tarot cards -- take your pick, any of the three seems a plausible part of the explanation for Inter's toothless 180 minutes against Liverpool.[And, as I type this, Mancini gets Pele ready to go on with 15 minutes left. Pele. I rest my case.]Inter had three great chances, but they didn't

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6206662644621709348.post-18772415834797142752008-03-06T07:31:00.000-08:002008-03-06T09:30:23.627-08:00

It doesn't matter how carefully he tucks in his shirt, or how fiercely he yanks at his socks before a match. By the 30 minute mark, Rui Manuel César Costa is an absolute mess: Socks at midshin, shirttails flying, mud somewhere on his body, even when the sky is at its most blue.And no matter how hard he tries -- more often, it seems, as he's gotten older -- to act jaded and reserved before the

Marthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981791129920948168noreply@blogger.com1