Soccer stuff

Klinsmann to coach the Galaxy?

Beckham arrived, the Galaxy are still terrible, and people are getting frustrated.

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Bigoted chants from Newcastle fans towards Ahmed Mido, an Egyptian striker playing for Middlesborough:

"I just think this was ridiculous. Maybe some of them were drunk," the 24-year old Mido said. "It made me want to score goals. I was very delighted to score once and wanted another."
The Egypt striker ran toward the Newcastle fans after he scored, motioning toward them to be silent. He was yellow-carded for the celebration.

I saw Mido score for Tottenham against Middlesborough back in 2005, when my father and I went to White Heart Lane (we went because we couldn't get tickets to the Chelsea game). We had to sit in the away section because those were the only tickets we could get, and Middlesborough lost 2-0. Everyone around us was depressed and drunk, aside from some tourists like us (Chinese and clueless). I remember Mido's goal - he took a shot from the corner of the 18-yard box and slipped it under keeper Mark Schwarzer, who really should have stopped it. Jermaine Defoe scored an excellent goal that game, dribbling it on a counterattack and scoring from about 25 yards. I found the video of the two goals - between 30 seconds and 40 seconds in this video.

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Anger over 'blasphemous' balls, BBC.

Americans gave soccer balls to Afghan kids. Problem - the soccer balls had flags of different countries on them, including the Saudi flag. The Saudi flag has the name of Allah on it. The perception was that Americans were telling Muslim children to kick Allah:

Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: "To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world."

Cultural ignorance - somebody didn't do their homework.

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Soccer: Paradox of sport - It's good for you, yet it kills - IHT

Antonio Puerta, a Sevilla midfielder, collapsed during a game and died shortly thereafter. When this happened I remembered Marc-Vivien Foe, the Cameroonian player who collapsed and died during the Confederations Cup in 2005. My dad sent me an article in the International Herald Tribune showing that this apparently is not an uncommon occurrence.