Friday Video Premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

We've done a fair bit of follow-up on Wednesday's Champions League final, but it can't hurt to go a little further.

This week's video is a shoutout to (1) stupid idiot dumb thoughtless red cards by great players in big games; and (2) unlucky penalty kick slips. We'll give you the most famous three boneheaded red cards in reverse chronological order, starting with Wednesday's:



I kept telling people throughout the game that Drogba is the best forward in the world. Well, here's an example of why he'll never play for Arsenal.



This was the most tragic moment of Zidane's career, and, sadly, the only moment that so many Americans will remember. ESPN had a field day with this highlight (along with struggling to pronounce the really quite simple "Zinedine Zidane" without saying ZiDAYNE...) and it's sad because Zidane was one of the greatest players ever.

The fact that when you search his name on YouTube, the headbutt is the first result is a shame, but definitely worthy. He cost his nation the World Cup, and it was a classless act besides.



This is of course Beckham's most famous moment in England, the day in which he lost the favor of an entire Island. Alas, he did win it back with his free kick against Greece, and now he lives to tell it all in Adidas commercials.

And you really do have to feel bad for John Terry--he is Chelsea through and through, and to slip so unluckily in the single most gravitous moment in his Chelsea career.



But hey, Beckham can relate:



Alright you JJ folk--have a great weekend, and don't forget to read at least one dramatic and emotional newspaper article about soldiers in honor of Memorial Day.

from russia, with love--again.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

We've discussed the Champions League final ad nauseum, and I can't guarantee we won't cover it again, but we haven't discussed the city that hosted this year's final--Moscow. Now officially the largest city in Europe (well, I guess determining what Europe is exactly is relative), Moscow was not able to handle all of the visas that fans were going to want to come into the country to watch the game. The finalists happened to both be English teams--and England and Russia aren't exactly on speaking terms. Fans were told to stay away from the nation because they wouldn't be allowed in if they didn't have a visa, even though Russia admitted that it couldn't handle the number of fans that were coming.

So, why exactly was the city allowed to host the final if it wasn't going to be able to process the visas of the supporters? Shouldn't one of the main planning issues been "well, can we get everyone into the city?" Additionally, the city did not have enough hotel rooms. Fans were told not to come if they did not have somewhere to stay. Some people flew into Belarus and Slovakia and drove into Moscow--not a fun trek. Many stayed on party boats converted to house fans. And the traditional pre-game match for British fans of fish and chips? It cost 50 GBP. Yes. One hundred dollars.

Finally, though, the Kremlin relented and allowed groups of "special people" to enter the county visa free. And, yes, soccer fans were included. "We have acted like a civilized state," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the temporary visa-free regime. "The attitude of a country towards the conditions on which participants in international events may visit it shows how civilized it is.


What a great quote. "We have acted like a civilized state"--it's like admitting you deny freedoms and human rights. "I have acted like a respectable human being" will soon be the new catchphrase of men hitting on women at bars.

-----
And, lastly, the Russian military will be getting a makeover. No, they're not getting new commanders--they're actually getting new uniforms.

Quite an interesting read, actually--and the best part is this quote: "Thank God the army now understands that image is just as important as technical issues," Valentin Yudashkin says. Yes. Form over function--spoken like a true clothing designer.

building the beautiful game.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Yesterday's Champions League final, contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, was amazing. In fact, the last four have been exceptional matches, even if the rounds preceding them are exercises in sterile soccer. Last year, we had a goal fest and a near comeback from Liverpool almost as exquisite as their incredible victory in 2005--and Arsenal almost pulled out a victory in the 2006 final, even though they were down a man for 70 minutes.

I'm not going to talk about how I despise both teams who played in yesterday's match--because the game itself was incredible. Both teams opened up and had great chances--and the number of shots that went off the posts made for great dramatics.

ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb said people who consider themselves American sports fans were foolish if they skipped watching yesterday's match, since it was on when nothing else was showing and was two of the world's greatest teams playing in the the world's biggest club soccer match. I couldn't agree more with him. It seems that all of ESPN's biggest names hate the game for no reason--Jim Rome, Scott van Pelt and Colin Cowherd talk so often about how much they hate the sport. I just don't understand how commentators at the world's leading sports conglomerate can hate the world's biggest and most relevant sport.

ESPN/ABC was smart to purchase the rights to the World Cup, Champions League and UEFA tournaments, because the biggest problem with soccer not catching on in the states is the lack of exposure. So many more people would watch the sport if they could see players of the highest caliber playing week-in, week-out. Judging on the conversations I have had based on my kits, I can tell more and more Americans are watching soccer. We can only build on MLS if the general soccer knowledge of Americans rises. I mean, baseball would not grow in England if they only showed English baseball, would it? It's like hoping a sport grows by showing third and fourth level leagues--it simply is not going to inspire kids to play or for people to pay for tickets.

To hear two of my friends who don't really care much about soccer talk about the game yesterday was huge for me--I got excited that they wanted to talk more about soccer afterwards. And, to hear Michael Wilbon say that if he could go back and cover whatever beat he wished and hearing him say that he would cover international soccer, one has got to think that by continuing to show's the world's premiere players, leagues and cups, the game will only grow, and maybe the US will actually have a shot to win the World Cup by 2022.

celebrity look-alikes

People often pride themselves on looking like celebrities. Today, we highlight celebrities that look like each other.

First up? Manchester United/Argentina soccer player Carlos Tevez and Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.






Second? Lil' Wayne and Animal from the Muppets





Cheers!

Friday Video Premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

As I said yesterday, things are a bit hectic at the Collective this week. For this week's video, therefore, we'll keep it light.

Sorta:



Keith Olbermann, ladies and gentleman. He'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitresses.

Seriously though, every once in a while it is good to see an articulate and measured criticism of the Bush administration. Too often these days we only see cliched phrases like "Bush is stupid," or parting shots like those that any lame duck weathers, and which we see Obama, Clinton, and McCain use just about everyday.

But we at JJ pride ourselves on looking at controversial situations with basic common sense. Not being famous or terribly talented has its worth, you know, and it applies here--we don't have anything to lose by being common-sensical.

For example, although Bush probably could have used his words better, saying that he heard from "people" that Iraq had WMDs is not such a controversial statement. Presidents don't do much investigation themselves. In supervising the executive, they simply have too much to look after. So it's not so outrageous, despite what Olbermann says, that Bush would refer to others' reports. It's what Presidents do on everything.

What is the bigger issue is that the "people" that Bush and his "people" put into power have failed. It is the President's responsibility to avoid people who aren't capable to do their job and serve their country well. So in my opinion, the biggest statement of the ineptitude of the Bush administration is the disgraceful way in which Rumsfeld, Gonzalez and others have served.

It might seem like a minor point, but it's important that when we look at how Bush is criticized we make sure the arguments are real. That Bush gave up Golf is irrelevant. Sort of funny, yes, and also a little pathetic. But irrelevant. That he made critical errors in appointing his inner circle is relevant. It's the sort of thing we need not merely criticize--we must look at ourselves and at the future potential presidents and ask how they would go about appointing people, making decisions, and shaping the world as we know it.

In any case, I hope you enjoy Olbmermann. The guy used to be an ESPN personality...



You can kind of tell that he was heading out to the political television realm. I mean, how could anyone say "Brett Favre" that seriously?

Happy weekend!

Shtuffz

I thought this story about a robot conducting the Detroit Symphony was pretty cool. I know. Not really Earth shattering, but interesting.

I also thought these Obama shoes were kind of neat.

------

That's all for now. Jhuff is en route back to Hawaii, and I'm trying to find a place to live. More soon.

AP Photo/Paul Sancya from here.

Obama shoe photo from here.

quick sunday post

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

I know that not a big number of our readership are big English Premier League fans, but I just wanted to give a few of my thoughts on the season, which concluded today.

I am happy that Fulham stayed up. The team--comprised of Americans Dempsey, McBride, Johnson, Bocanegra and Keller-- has most of the American's playing in Europe's best league. It would have been a shame for all of these players to have to play in the Championship next year, but their victory today means that they will be playing with (and against) the big boys next year.

Manchester United deserved the title. One cannot argue with that--they were clearly the best team. The beautiful thing about English soccer is that it's a grind--one result matters as much as the rest, and even if you do well against the big four (which Arsenal consistently do better than any other teams, including the other teams that comprise the big four), you still have to get results against the teams that make up the remaining sixteen spots in the table (which Arsenal consistently does NOT do). We all know bsto and I love Arsenal and despise Manchester United and Chelsea, but these teams found a way to play week-in, week-out. It doesn't hurt that they're willing to spendspendspend and have two world-class players at every position (while Arsenal don't have one at many positions), but such is life.

Chelsea's (soon to be ex?) manager Avram Grant said that he feels that the title should have been decided via a play-off should Chelsea and Manchester be equal on points. Chelsea ended up drawing their final match--so this plea was null--but I believe that this would have stood for everything the title is not. The EPL is a grind, and having a one-off play-off negates the importance of every game played from August to May, which is the core ethic of the league (well, other than revenues).

Grant cited the Italian league, where a play-off is held in the event of a tie--but do we really want the EPL to be built like Serie A...where corruption is rife?

Yes, Manchester clearly had the best team. The interesting thing is that they're behind on their interest payments on the loan that Malcolm Glazer took out to finance his buy-out of the team. Basically, Glazer thought he could have re-financed the terms by now, but because of the global credit crunch, he can't find a lender who will let him re-finance at a more desirable rate. The result? Huge net losses. The team will have to use it's money from winning the EPL and appearing in the Champions League final to pay-off debts.

Betting on future results is what Glazer is doing...but it's risky. A few years back, Leeds signed a bunch of incredible players and did so by taking out loans based on the the club getting payments from predicted participation in the CL. However, the club did not finish high enough in the EPL and did not do well enough in the CL and subsequently went bankrupt.

Obviously, Manchester United is not going to find itself in this hole, because the EPL is structured around the top four. The fact of the matter is that these four teams are consistently in the top of the table at season's end, so they're consistently getting better payments (and valuable Champions League positions) than the other teams.

However, one must also also remember that were it not for a certain Russian oil billionaire with KGB ties, Chelsea were also going to be bankrupt, on the verge of entering administration, and being dropped into a lower league. Fortunes change quickly, especially with billionaires, but it's important to remember that these billionaires leave just as soon as they come. Once they've got what they wanted, they'll discard old toys in search of new ones. Chelsea ended up $200 million in debt for the third straight year--you've got to ask how long it'll be before Abramovich decides he's sick of pumping money into Chelsea. There's already talk that he wants to buy an American football team, so only time can tell how serious he is about Chelsea.

----
Arsenal lost one of the players that became sort of a revelation this year--Mathieu Flamini. Flamini left for AC Milan. While this has been covered to death, Flamini said today that he was disappointed by Arsenal's collapse in February and March and their subsequent loss of the EPL title.

Hleb may also be on his way out--to Inter Milan. The sickening part is that, while in Milan in February for the Champions League fixture against AC Milan, Hleb met with representatives of Inter on the night before the game.

Remember Mighty Ducks Two, when the coach went out for ice cream with "the iceland chick" the night before the game? YEAH, something like that.

These two players can moan all they want about wanting to win things, but they need to take that desire and use it for motivation. You can't just walk leave because you don't win trophies.

We have a word for that: quitting.

How can Flamini talk about wanting to win when the club he went to play for is only going to finish fourth in the table...and was knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal..THE VERY TEAM HE LEFT?

I just don't understand how you can promise to re-sign with a team and then bolt the next day. It's a lack of loyalty and it's quitting--plain and simple. Flamini gave his heart for the team, and if he wants to move on, it's fine. Just be honest.

It's disheartening, because neither of these players lived up to their promise until this year. They didn't come on the cheap, but the manager had faith in them. It's a bit telling of one's character to leave a coach who blindly trusted your ability in order to get a bigger paycheck.


---

right, then