General Sports Thread

i accepted it years ago that every great home run hitter juiced...including griffey. i'm just waiting for selig to void all records from 1994-2005

haha not griffey he was injured to much for roids

and i dont think pujols is on the juice

idk man, everybody thinks that cause he's been good his whole career, but who says he hasn't been on steroids since high school? A-Rod was, and everyone thought he was one of the clean ones too

Thats very true man but nothing of anything has ever came out about him and he seems to good of a guy to juice up

and plus before a rod got busted there were whispers because canesco metioned him before, but i have been wrong before man

im so fucking happy that the rangers are a acutally in august battling for a playoff spot and not last place

and cant wait for the usa mexico soccer game wednesday

since the indians and mets suck this year, and all baseball players cheated anyway, i've barely even followed baseball this year. at least someone's happy about it

and yeah, USA's about to give Mexico their first loss at home

I can't wait for the world cup next year!

Yep, World Cup will be awesome. Domestic football starts this coming weekend, meaning weekends now have a purpose again! Who does everyone thinks gonna win the World Cup then?

I know so little about soccer/football, it's embarrassing. The most exposure I ever get to it is on the Spanish channels. And that's mostly "El blah blah blah, la blah, blah blah, blah.... blah.... blah!..... BLAH....., GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!"

Spanish football commentary is brilliant. As you said after a goal you just hear a players name, then GGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL then occasionally, the word GOAL repeated a lot, but cos of the language its more like GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL for like 5 minutes. I love it so much I changed my FIFA 10 game on the PS3 to Spanish commentary.

Cases in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7NIZifWVqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7vlaUkQ2dk&feature=related

I cannot believe Mexico won I felt USA played a lot better

Beckham's a hack. he was never anything more than a role player in England. sure, his free kicks were good, but there's a reason he doesn't start for the national team. he didn't do anything for U.S. soccer either. the Galaxy are terrible, and even LA fans hate him. Beckham's too full of himself to care about the team, and he needs to be a star so bad that he'll never be happy in America, where soccer isn't that big a deal

as for the U.S./Mexico game, we did the same thing we did against Brazil. get a lead early, then blow it later. we can't keep up with elite teams for 90 minutes, and Mexico's not even an elite team. next year's World Cup is gonna be another disappointment

Beckham clearly went to LA 'cos his wife persuaded him too- just like she was part of the reason he left United to go to Real Madrid. He started against the Dutch for England on Wednesday and was unimpressive.

What are you expectations with the US going into the World Cup? In England the papers always build the team up so that they've won it before they even get to where it's being played! We go to every tournament thinking we've got a god given right to win it when inevitably we'll get to the quarter finals at best.

In the US soccer is a joke. Our World Cup chances are slightly higher than Latvia's. I support the hell out of US soccer and I want us to do the best we possibly can, I just don't think our best can beat Brazil, France, Italy or England

Presume your english Tomaldo? Glad you're aware how ridiculous the hype surrounding the English team leading into any World Cup/Euro championship, makes me want them to lose(being Irish is probably another reason for that).

As for this World Cup I don't see any team being the obvious favourites although it seems most think its Spains to lose. It'll probably be the usual heavyweights in the reckoning anyway, likes of Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, France and England. I'm in love with Italian football so it kills to admit that I can't see the Azzurri going far in the World Cup. Potential surprises could be Russia and maybe Holland.

I played netball today.

We won by 3 goals.

Thought you guys would just love to know

I don't think Spain will win it tbh. Their players haven't had a proper rest in ages, with the Euros and the the Confed Cup this summer. My guess is their top players will be burnt out/injured.

Russia to win

Portugal are struggling to qualify as it is, can't see them troubling anyone too much especially with no strikers. I read/heard(i think in the guardians football weekly podcast) recently that the climate will suit the russians, something to do with the fact that it'll be summer in russia in the build up to the WC.

I can't see Brazil winning it, they've been hyped up before every world cup but their last decent performance in WC was 94 and even then they were very lucky to beat Italy. I'm discounting 02 because it was the worst world cup ever and poor refereeing throughout cost some of the big guns(Spain, Italy) which meant Brazil coasted to the final without ever really being tested, and Germany offered little resistance in the final. Personally if it can't be Ireland(some chance of that) or Italy then i hope its Argentina, they've got the best player in the world and some outstaning players all over the park, Milito, Aguero, Mascherano, Cambiasso and hopefully Riquelme.

Brazil have lost their big guns, Rivaldo, Ronaldo (the real one), Denilson, Dida, Cafu, Carlos etc.

Spain and Holland are my bets, in theory Holland easily have the talent but never show it in big competitions, France I can see having another 2002, that leaves Spain, Germany, England.

Although Argentina must be a good bet, I'm English but hope in some way we don't win it, I don't really give 2...about international football, and the hype and sensationalism if we win the thing will be unbearable, even being an avid football fan and english.

I don't think I could stomach players like Ashley Cole in a world cup winning team, let alon John Terry getting his paws on it. Would never hear the end of it. Club before country.

Thing with Brazil is they can always replace their big guns, with some unknown/little known player. France I could see going either way- if the big guns- Ribery, Benzema, Ben Arfa etc.- fire they could get to the last four- if not it will be a disaster. I'm confident they won't win it though.

Holland, despite being a good unit, lack that star quality needed to win a world cup. They don't seem to have one truly World Class player who could make the difference, and as they found out at the Euros last year, that's needed. Look back and every world cup winning team more or less had one megastar- Italy last time out maybe the exception to the rule.

The smart money is on Argentina, but with el Diego at the helm I see it being one hell of a ride- they're always liable to a good hiding now and again- I think it was Bolivia who gave them a 6-0 thrashing a couple of months back.

Should be interesting...

So we can't really pick a winner.... so lets try and pick some players who we think will shine. Refraining from the obvious, e.g. Messi, Ronaldo, Villa, Buffon etc. is probably best...

I don't Believe Cole, Terry or Ferdinand give 2 shits about the world cup to be honest, they're too busy flashing their cash to theirs wives.

I think people will be more wary of Russia this year so don't see them repeating their 2008 sucess, perhaps Portugal can finally step up, they've been threatening too although losing Figo and an off form Pauleta/Nuno Gomes won't help.

You can't look beyond Argentina, Spain, Brazil or Holland for me.

As for stars of the next world cup, Iniesta (althouh he may count as a star, although highly forgotten about), Ashley Young perhaps, Huntelaar, Pogrebnyak, Podolski normally does something in the big championships.

I'd disagree about Italy not having any megastars, surely Buffon and Cannavarro are/were megastars, Cannavarro was robbed of the player of the tournament award, purely on the basis that he was a defender.

Can't see Holland winning it, shaky defense and physically unimposing. Argentina would be my tip but its really hard to call it, who knows what kind of injuries could be picked up before the WC.

Possible stars: Giorgio Chiellini, Gianpaolo Pazzini(if he's picked), there's a few Russians whose name I can't remember, Aguero, Diego. There's always 1 or 2 players that nobody really knows who shine at a tournament.