Someone Doesn't Take Criticism Well

Last week I discussed my uneasiness with all the new-to-the-sport soccer "experts" popping up during the first round of the World Cup and insisting that the sport must adopt instant replay, at least for goals. It's just not our game and as of Saturday afternoon most of America went back to ignoring the sport as a whole, so demanding that the rest of the world conform to us was rather off-putting. However, when a goal call was clearly blown in a game between England and Germany on Sunday and bad offsides call was made during the Mexico and Argentina match, the International calls for replay were ratcheted up a notch. The Mexico game was especially rough as the side judges had to avoid both rowdy fans and pissed-off Mexican players. However, rather than say that given the circumstance discussing replay wasn't the worst idea ever, FIFA decided to go the other way - announcing that they would just stop showing replays to the fans in the stadium. Yeah, because the best way to grow fans in this handheld technology age is to give them less information. When someone can watch a replay in high-definition from their phone, taking it off the big screen is less of a deterrent and more akin to saying your taking your ball and going home just because the other guy is winning.

To FIFA's credit, they have since backed off that statement and said they would at least think about it during the next round of meetings, but I wouldn't count on them adopting replay, even if it would just be for goals. I've always been a big believer that your initial gut reaction to a situation is what you really want to do and when their first reaction to replays showing they got something wrong is to take away more people seeing those replays, you have to figure that adding more technology to the sport is not something they are comfortable with. Going with the "any press is good press" philosophy, the head of FIFA has actually said thinks that all this controversy is good for the sport. Sure, because how could screwing over a team that won't have a chance to make it right for four more years just because you fear change possibly be bad? At least people are talking, even if they're talking about how much of an idiot you are. My guess is that they're saying they will open up to the possibility of replay while quietly hoping that everyone forgets about this for three and half years and by the time someone brings it up they can say they are too close to the World Cup for rules to be changed now. (I would like to point out this is the same philosophy lots of parents use with their children.) Now, because we have so many other things to catch our 15 second attention spans, that probably would have worked if it was just the United States, but the rest of the world is unlikely to let this slip their minds. Guess being the "world's most popular sport" has its drawbacks.

-Can you believe the story of 10 Russian spies being arrested over the weekend in Washington, DC? First off, I can hardly believe that Russia still has the money to pay spies. I thought all their free money was going into the next round of Winter Olympics. But, the more amusing thing I read was that these spies have been over here for 10 years. What exactly was their plan? Were they waiting for us to collapse on our own, or was this a deep, deep cover mission to have four or five kids while here with the hope that one of them would grow up to be President, then stage a communist coup from inside the White House? Hell, one of the spies had a Facebook page and a LinkedIn account. You could even be her friend, if you're one of these people who go around "Friending" people without seeing who they are first. Just remember, if a man in a long trench coach comes to your door, say nothing without a lawyer.