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Friday, May 12, 2006
Disgrace for the ‘Old Lady?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was going to start this entry with some various World Cup news, but Thursday’s shock resignation of the entire Juventus board with the club needing only a point to win another Serie A title is too hard to ignore.
This is usually the time of year Italian soccer conspiracy theorists are ranting and raving about how ‘Juve’ pulls off so many titles — by having matches fixed. But the soap opera appears to be more than just melodrama this year, after Juventus general director Luciano Moggi was heard on taped phone conversations discussing referees with the league’s head of officials.
On Friday, police raided the offices of the Italian soccer federation, with AC Milan, other other Serie A powerhouse, Lazio and Fiorentina also being probed. Juve is the famed grand ‘Old Lady’ of Italian soccer, with such splendid players as Nedved, Del Piero, Vieira and Ibrahimovic leading the way for club, as well as country in the World Cup.
It’s a scandal that may prompt little more than shoulder-shrugging over here, but the fact that big clubs — not the Cagliaris, Lecces, etc. are getting seriously looked at could be a watershed in Italy, where match fixing, financial scams and generic corruption is a part of the soccer fabric.
I’m getting to the Brewhouse early Saturday for the F.A. Cup final, my first at that hallowed hall of footy splendor in the heart of helmetball land. Liverpool goes for its seventh crown in this esteemed event against West Ham. Didn’t think the Reds would have any steam left after starting in mid-July, but a great finish in the Prem and getting to this final compensate for crashing out in Europe. And even Stevie G says this has been his best year.
Update: Yes, Chris, there may be bigger trophies out there, but good God, what an incredible performance by Stevie G! West Ham thoroughly outplayed Liverpool, but if he’s on your team, you’ve always got a chance.
The Brewhouse crowd got a cameo appearance late into extra time from none other than Elvis Costello. And he looked every part the Little Five Points denizen: dark black, almost dyed hair, with a black trenchcoat and wide black-rimmed glasses. He had a show with the Atlanta Symphony Saturday night and it seems he’s a West Ham fan, since he bounced out of there with fellow Hammers as soon as Reina turned away Ferdinand’s PK. But at least he knows where Mecca is when he comes to Atlanta.
Road Wanderers FC, aka the Atlanta Silverbacks, continue their away slate Sunday at Miami, where Romario has made an appearance on the field, and probably mucho more in South Beach.
The U.S. World Cup camp has begun in the teeming metropolis of Cary, N.C., which means the boys are getting a bit of ink and air time. It’s still just a trickle, but the quadriennial Footy 101 lessons have begun.
My pal Grahame Jones of the L.A. Times had some fun earlier this week picking apart comments from the Commander-in-Chief to a German magazine. I normally don’t like to link to sites that require registration, but this read’s a hoot. Key quote from Dubya:
“A lot of us grew up without any connection to soccer — me, for example,” Bush told the newspaper. “But there is a new generation that has grown up with soccer. They obviously have a great interest in the World Cup.”
Pish, posh, says Grahame, pointing out that Clint Dempsey, a kid from Nacogdoches (aka, Naca-damn-nowhere, I’ve been there) in the ex-governor’s own state, will be playing in the World Cup for the good ol’ USA.
The first part of that remark reminds me of something I read in Soccer America during the 2000 presidential race, when some soccer-playing school kids in New Hampshire hit Bush up for an answer about his favorite MLS team.
“Well, uh, fellas, I’m kinduva baseball guy,” Bush said, in that now-famous heh-heh snicker. Fast forward six-plus years to reveal the progress of one man’s soccer education.
“Some of us older fellas are starting to understand how important the World Cup is for the whole world,” Bush told Bild (the magazine in question.)
If not starting wars, occupying other countries, setting up secret prisons and wiretapping the home folks, yedy yedy.
I’ve got the perfect soccer book to send to the White House: Pete Davies’ hilarious ‘Twenty-Two Foreigners in Funny Shorts,’ which is just as relevant now as when it was written, for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.
And chock full of heh-hehs. Even for a fella who doesn’t do a whole lotta reading.
