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Iraq-Jordan
This is your brain on football..
2005-06-30
I need to call Rummy. The Pentagon needs to drop everything and implement the midnight basketball league ASAP.
Former Iraq football coach Bernd Stange said in an interview the United States could have done a lot of good in the war-torn country - if they had dropped metric footballs soccer balls instead of bombs. "I thought the Americans would perhaps send a plane with footballs and football shirts instead of bombs, but that never happened," the German Stange told Stern magazine in an interview made available ahead of Thursday's publication.
Can someone get me some cheese? This whine sounds familiar.
Stange said that football was the "only sport that unites all Iraqis. The national team consisted of Sunnites, Shiites, a Christian and a Turkmene but that was not important at all," he said. Stange quit the Iraq job in July 2004 fearing for his personal safety in the unstable country.
I don't understand, Bernd. You should have been perfectly safe. Iraq had tons of soccer balls in July 2004. I know, 'cos I paid for a few of them myself.
"I would have probably made myself immortal in Iraq football if we had qualified for the World Cup. But I would have likely not survived," said Stange, saying he had a lucky escape in an attack by masked men once during his reign there.
Masked men, you say? With weapons and Korans at the ready? I'm sure this was all some terrible mistake. You should have offered to let them take a penalty kick.

Proof positive that heading a soccer ball too many times causes brain damage. Just say "no" to soccer. Do it for the children.
Posted by:Seafarious

#19  Iff they had the NFL or Street football, neither Saddam nor any other despot would have lasted so long - in my day soccer was either a girls'-only game, or what boys played as a warmup to other sports or iff no other ball was available. Soccer = safe for Girls and thats why as per Politics and Geopolitics the Despots can and did take over.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2005-06-30 23:22  

#18  I like 2b's better...
Posted by: tu3031   2005-06-30 15:48  

#17  How 'bout one of these:
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-06-30 15:47  

#16  
I think it's nice. In the spirit of goodwill, I say we drop some of these beautiful cranes over known jihadi homes in Iraq so that we can have peace.
What sort of crane? Demoiselle or common?
Posted by: Korora   2005-06-30 12:07  

#15  Mia Hamm: Yummy!
Posted by: Matt   2005-06-30 11:54  

#14  Soccer sucks.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-06-30 11:12  

#13  2nd try
cranes of peace

Posted by: 2b   2005-06-30 10:15  

#12  Dropping cranes? Don't be so cynical. I think it's nice. In the spirit of goodwill, I say we drop some of these beautiful cranes over known jihadi homes in Iraq so that we can have peace. '>cranes, beautiful works of art
Posted by: 2b   2005-06-30 10:09  

#11  That's what I was gettin' at, BH! Thanks, haven't had coffee yet!
Posted by: BA   2005-06-30 09:53  

#10  Why footballs? Can't we get our hands on some f*cking origami cranes?
Posted by: BH   2005-06-30 09:46  

#9  Oops, Bill Gates is me!
Posted by: BA   2005-06-30 09:39  

#8  Wait, was he also behind the idea of dropping flowers or paper airplanes on the jihadis in Indonesia (I think it was)? If so, he fits right in with the Germans and probably will receive a medal from Schroeder any day now.
Posted by: Bill Gates   2005-06-30 09:39  

#7  If you have a war and no one shows up, then women and children get raped and the male population is slaughtered. But it's ok, cause the daisy's will grow tall above their graves and be blow'n in the wind.
Posted by: 2b   2005-06-30 08:18  

#6  Never underestimate the power of soccer football.
Posted by: Howard UK   2005-06-30 04:25  

#5  He would have been hired by that lunatic psychopath murder Uday who imprisoned and tortured members of losing soccer teams. He was almost certainly complicit, which makes his stated reason for leaving Iraq highly suspect.

Indeed, the former team Captain, who played under Herr Strange, has reported being brutally whipped and then tossed into a vat of human excrement to guarantee that the wounds would become infected, all because his play had displeased Saddam's Lion Cub. Link
Posted by: phil_b   2005-06-30 03:50  

#4  What a squirrel. The whole wide world viewed through the lens of a fool. We could offer to drop him, on Berlin.
Posted by: .com   2005-06-30 01:36  

#3  and ponys and pocket liners and John Skerry war hero books.
Posted by: little red dog   2005-06-30 01:17  

#2  Gee, I hope he wasn't coach for the national team. It would be a shame to see him hang for war crimes....NOT! Bastid.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2005-06-30 01:04  

#1  Strange could have reasoned with his attackers if he only had a soccer ball. Bossom buddies if he autographed it.
Posted by: ed   2005-06-30 00:20  

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