I will start this column out by stating that I am not much of a soccer fan. I am a sports fan, and I can watch anything competitive, but soccer is not something for which I have any kind of real appreciation. Still, it’s World Cup time, and I would not be doing my job as a sports columnist if I completely ignored this event that is dominating the sports news and likely will for the next month or so. No, I won’t be watching Ghana play Serbia, but I can certainly follow the U.S. team and see if they can make a splash at this level. On Saturday, I sat down to watch the American team play England, a country for whom soccer is a national obsession. Watching this match revealed a number of things to me, and very few of them were positive.

First, why doesn’t anyone score in soccer? I am not one of those people that can’t appreciate defense. I have openly mocked the football teams of the Big Twelve conference in recent years for playing no defense whatsoever. The first seven games of this World Cup tournament had a total of eight goals scored, though. That’s ridiculous. That’s boring. Second, although it was great that the U.S. was able to manage a draw against England, that draw was accomplished because of an atrociously bad play by England’s keeper. Again, I don’t watch soccer, but I have to imagine bad goals like that are not scored regularly at this level.

The main thing that bothered me, though, was an infernal noise that lasted throughout the entire match. It sounded like a million bees all buzzing constantly from the beginning to the end of the broadcast. I was so irritated by the sound that I nearly muted the television several times. It turns out that the noise was coming from horns called vuvuzelas that are used during most soccer matches in South Africa. I know that many countries have their own sporting traditions, and events like the World Cup should be helping to honor those traditions, as opposed to banning them, but I cannot hold this position in this case. The use of those things needs to be prohibited right away, at least during this tournament. I want the person who invented them arrested. If I had any intention of watching a significant number of these matches, I would certainly start watching with the sound off until something was done about it. Is there really someone out there who enjoys this sound? I read that the sound coming from the horns can exceed 130 decibels, which is astonishingly loud.

The good news is that there has been some discussion about banning the vuvuzelas. Tremendous idea. Someone tell me when it is safe to turn up the volume.

Bad sports, continued:

2) Former University of Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, already suspended for next season after having been arrested for burglary, has been kicked off the team just days after being arrested during a traffic stop. I would think that if you had pot in your car and had a suspended license,  you might make sure that you stopped at all crosswalks. This kid is a disaster.

3) Since I have previously mentioned teenage sailor Abby Sunderland and her attempt at sailing around the world, I feel the need to highlight the abrupt end to which her journey came this week. She had to be rescued by a French boat after her sailboat was knocked over by rough seas and she had to activate some emergency beacons and wait for rescue. Maybe allowing your high school kid to sail around the world alone is not such a good idea.

Good sports:

1) College football is having quite the tumultuous time right now, and I am enjoying every minute of it. My assumption is that anything that shakes up the establishment is good for college football, since the establishment could really use some changing (I am looking at you, BCS). Two Big Twelve universities jumped ship this week, with Colorado joining the Pac-10 and Nebraska bolting for the Big Ten. It would appear that more changes are on the way as well. Let’s hope it somehow leads to a playoff system.

2) In what has to be one of the most anticipated sports debuts in years, Washington Nationals rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg came up huge, striking out 14 batters on his way to beating the Pittsburgh Pirates. Strasburg was masterful, giving a performance that was totally worthy of the praise it received.

3) Yankees catcher Jorge Posada had grand slams in consecutive games this weekend, both against the Houston Astros. That’s not something you see very often.

Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday

• Author Bio
• Latest Posts

Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02

Latest posts by Alan Spoll (Posts)

• Pereira comments on “Philly Special” a total waste of time - February 14, 2018
• BSGS News Brief: Tom Brady beats the NFL - September 3, 2015
• BSGS News Brief: Geno Smith gets his jaw broken by a punch - August 16, 2015
• BSGS News Brief – Oh, Vanderbilt. Really? - August 6, 2015
• BSGS News Brief – Sheldon Richardson hits the Bad Sports wire in a big way - July 31, 2015

Tags: bad sports, good sports // 4 Comments »