J.T. vs. World Cup

I must rant, I can't help it. Before I start, let me state that I recognize that the U.S. didn't play as well as they should have.

That said, the U.S. had to play against the refs as much as the other team. I cannot believe the complete failure that was FIFA (F***ing Idiot Football Association). In my opinion, the U.S. won the Italy game- Period. An absolutely defenseless red card in the first half and an arguable 2nd yellow at the beginning of the second half. Even after the unbelievable ejection of two U.S. players, the U.S. scores a goal. The ref calls it offsides and pulls it back, despite the fact that McBride (the supposedly offside player) didn't touch the ball. People who argue that he blocked the view of the keeper deserve to have their eyes gouged out and donated to people who will actually use them. So, down two men for highly questionable reasons and a gift offsides call to Italy, and we still earned a tie.

The Ghana game wasn't quite as terrible. Claudia Reyna made a mistake and lost the ball, leading to a goal. Ouch. But the U.S. turned it around on Ghana right before the half. Boom - tie. In stoppage time, an indisputably wrong penalty kick was given to Ghana. Absolutely wrong. There is not one human being, probably not even the ref who made the call, who believes that was the right call now. All of that momentum was immediately sucked out of the U.S. team. Ghana sat back and defended the lead for most of the rest of the game. U.S. loses.

There is now a rather sizable break in the door of my bathroom. Oops... I thought the wood was stronger than that.

There's a lot for me to talk about regarding Korea, but I'm just too mad right now. A crucial bad call in the Ghana game and a ref who thought he was the star of the second game are just too much for me to handle. I give massive credit to Ghana, though; they've played great soccer. Group E = group of death, no doubt. Four strong teams; everybody was at risk all the way to the last game. I don't mind losing in such a massively difficult situation, but I would at least like to see the game based on the actual ability of the players. I am certain that this set back the American soccer program deeply. This isn't because of the game play; the players played some good soccer. It's the feeling that, playing on the biggest stage of the world, FIFA can't be bothered to find refs that have seen a game of soccer before. If they can't organize a game worth playing, the U.S. fans won't want to see it. The U.S. team could have played harder, I disagree with some of coach Bruce Arena's calls, but the real failure of these games has been FIFA. Pathetic.

Okay, I'm done complaining now. Also, on the World Cup theme, look at this statement by Rush Limbaugh. I cannot believe that he, Anne Coulter and Bill O'Reilly are the cheerleaders for the Republican party. Actually, that doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that people actually defend what these obvious racist, lying idiots say just because they are vocal Republicans. These three people are a huge part of the potential collapse of America we will see if things don't change soon. I honestly believe that the incarceration and isolation of these three people would do more to benefit America than any group of three terrorists you could find.

[edit] As it turns out, the Rush Limbaugh link I posted was just "satire." After I posted it, the author had this to say:
"FP, are you the only one with a brain around here???
To all the knuckleheads who think Rush *actually* said these things, and even funnier, that it was *actually* Al Franken reporting it...wow, I am speechless.
It is *satire*, folks. A piece that pokes fun at all kinds of idiots. I won't spell it all out for you, as some of you are the butt of the joke and need to get it for yourselves, but one target was racists. I used a few of the racist, or at least *perceived* racist sports comments from past years to try to create a funny yet pointed piece.
And to the clueless: Rush is in no way racist. This isn't even debatable."

I would like to point out that, if you want to write some oh-so clever "satire," you need to actually say something that isn't believable. Otherwise, it's just libel. The man was fired from ESPN for racist statements, not to mention a host of other famous racist comments he's made. He tells a black caller to "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back," plays "Movin' on up" when he talks about the first black Senator in the U.S., and says, "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies." Yet, this blogger doesn't understand why people believed his statement and, further, he actually says that Rush is "in no way racist." Ignorance at this level would be hilarious if it weren't supporting such dangerous Republican demigods. I suppose Anne Coulter isn't racist, either. (Here's the Wikipedia article on her. There's not enough Internet for me to even begin listing her blatant racism.)