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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| usama on mexican soccer team |
| 2004-02-11 |
| The boos nearly drowned out "The Star-Spangled Banner," and a few dozen fans chanted "Usama! Usama!" as the United States was eliminated by Mexico in Olympic men’s soccer qualifying. A loud anti-American crowd yelled the first name of Usama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, as Mexico beat the United States 4-0 Tuesday night in the under-23 tournament, claiming a berth in the Athens Olympics. As U.S. players left the stadium for their bus, several fans -- some clutching beers -- chanted "Usama! Usama!" Police in riot gear held back the crowd and urged people to calm down. "I think the fans here in Mexico are terrific; I think their patriotism and support of their team is terrific," U.S. coach Glenn Myernick said. "But unless I missed something, not one of them came down on the field and kicked the ball. We were beaten by a better football team tonight, not by the fans." For Mexico, the game partly avenged a 2-0 loss to the United States in the second round of the 2002 World Cup, a far more important tournament involving national teams. The U.S. men will miss the Olympics for the first time since 1980 -- when the entire American delegation boycotted the Moscow Games. Mexico also ended the United States’ 19-tournament streak of qualifying for every FIFA men’s outdoor event, including the World Cup, the Olympics, the World Youth Championship for players under 20 and the Under-17 World Championship. While both Mexican national television networks broadcast Tuesday’s game live in Mexico, there was no television in the United States, where the game was broadcast on closed circuit to about 190 restaurants. leave it to chainey to be looking on the wrong continent |
| Posted by:muck4doo |
| #17 Cornishman 1 - staple!, you mean you had metal!. We used to dream of metal! :) JDB - absolutely agree with you, both on not going to the Olympics, and secondly that the Olympic title pales next to the World Cup. SH - lgs and Anonymous have laid it out well (although there's no way *I'd* call a league player a pussy!). You'll also have noticed that the 6' 5" guy gets an assist from his mates on the ground, thereby putting him into the stratosphere. I'd have thought that with all the guys playing American football, that the interest in rugby would be on the increase, and certainly some of the guys I've heard about would be ideal - very fast guys for the backs, the linebackers (huge buggers used to block tackles - I think?) would be good for the various places in a scrum etc. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-2-12 1:43:45 AM |
| #16 Tony, Watched a few games at Navy. Many guys that dropped off the football team picked up Rugby because they liked the contact. My bother's roomate got cut from the basketball team his senior year and joined the rugby team. He was evidently very good and continued playing for the USMC after graduation on and off through flight school. Evidently having a 6 foot 5 inch guy to jump when the ball is tossed in from teh sideline was a valued commodity on a rugby team. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-11 9:40:21 PM |
| #15 In the 1970 Sydney Rugby League grand final, South Sydney v Manly, John Sattler (Captain of Souths) had his jaw broken by a punch immediately after the start of the game. He stayed on the field and played out the match, which Souths won 23-12."I just went in harder. If they knew I was hurt they would have targeted me" League is for pussies, indeed. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-2-11 9:05:01 PM |
| #14 SH, union is the original version, league is for pussies, no scrum, set number of plays before the ball is turned over |
| Posted by: Igs 2004-2-11 8:30:32 PM |
| #13 Tony, aren't there two kinds of rugby (league and union?) What is the difference? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-11 8:20:55 PM |
| #12 I have very mixed feelings about not qualifying. Because I'm a huge soccer fan and proud American, I'm disappointed. (I'm bummed about the baseball team, too.) On the other hand, I think the Athens Games are going to be a disaster on many levels and the likliest target for a major 9/11-style terror attack. We've had successful (meaning safe and secure) World Cups, Olympics, Super Bowls, etc., around the world since 9/11 but only in countries that are prepared to take security seriously. For myriad reasons, I don't think Greece is one of those countries right now. If I were an athlete (if pigs could fly...) I'd be nervous; as a fan, I wouldn't even consider going. The Athens Games will be horrible and I'm glad our future soccer stars (Adu, Donovan, etc.) won't be there. PS--I'm sure Tony UK will back me when I say that an Olympic title is nowhere near as prestigious as the World Cup anyway. |
| Posted by: JDB 2004-2-11 7:41:37 PM |
| #11 Well at least 'e 'ad thread. In my dad if we didn't honore debalzak we 'ad to use a staple. |
| Posted by: Cornishman 1 2004-2-11 7:35:08 PM |
| #10 Ok urban legend coming up here; (oh, and an 'ouch' alert!) I heard about an "All Black" rugby player (NZ national side) that was involved in a match where his scrotum was ripped (this can happen as it's legit to step on blokes when they're on the ground and not getting away from the ball quick enough). He went off, had it stitched up and carried on until the end of the game. Err, seems it is not an urban legend. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-2-11 7:01:37 PM |
| #9 Back in my high school here in the U.S. we used to call Rugby 'Butcher ball'. Too bad it isn't taken more seriously it is far tougher then 'american Football' even was. Rugby players have balls of steel |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-2-11 6:09:24 PM |
| #8 Where to begin? :) TT: Yes, footy fans can be totally unreal - compare and contrast with Rugby fans (my game actually), where the players beat the living crap out of each other - then shake hands at the end of a game, but the fans can be tanked up at a match (common to have people drinking hard liquor from hip flasks) and you still get no aggravation. Capsu78 - it is the qualifiers for the Olympics after all, so it's a real shame that it wasn't shown. LOTR - too true!. There is something about football :) that can bring out the worst in people (and countries). South America has some of the worst examples of that, although there was the Heysel stadium tragedy in 1985 which was brutal. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-2-11 5:54:54 PM |
| #7 Tony (UK) - When the US starts taking soccer ;) seriously then the Mexico's and El Salvadors of the world better hope we don't take their other habits seriously, like starting wars over games (ala Honduras - El Salvador in '68). |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-2-11 5:30:45 PM |
| #6 I actually read yesterday that the Osama cheer started the last time US played in Mexico. These are just "2 teams that don't like each other very much". I would mention to Tony (UK) that I live in a major TV market and get 120 stations on my TV,and interest in this game was so high, not one station carried it! There was an interesting public television broadcast documentary on, however, called "watching paint dry". PS Whatever became of Bulldog? Still out there? |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2004-2-11 5:30:30 PM |
| #5 Soccer fans behaving deplorably. Whoever heard of such a thing????!!!! |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2004-2-11 5:18:05 PM |
| #4 I heard that some US sponsors are not going to Athens. This might be for the best. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-2-11 5:10:55 PM |
| #3 Let's see: Misspellings - check. Lack of capitaliztion - check. Reference to 'Faux' News - check. You might be a troll if... |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-2-11 4:45:24 PM |
| #2 The main thing that comes through from this story for me is how much of a gentleman Mr. Myernick is. Oh, and the commentator is right - it's *far* better to beat Mexico to get into the World Cup than to not get into the Olympics. Far far better... :) As an Englishman, and therefore feeling some pride in bringing football (sorry my American friends, but it's football, not soccer!) to the world (yes, I know we don't win the World Cup anymore), I do wonder what will happen when the Americans decide to take football seriously... |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-2-11 4:38:00 PM |
| #1 So muck4doo, let me get this straight? Your take on this story is that you think Usama Bin Laden is actually playing for the Mexican National soccer team, right? No...No...this is too easy.... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-2-11 4:23:57 PM |