FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[BDB]

I actually rather enjoy watching the other Team USA. 

[badgerwarhawk]

US loses 1-0, Portugal wins 2-1 but the US advances on a tie breaker.  Now the populace can pretend like soccer matters for another week or so. 

[OzJohnnie]

http://www.11alive.com/story/sports/soccer/world-cup/2014/06/24/uruguay-edges-italy-1-0-to-advance-at-world-cup/11317633/
Corrupt referees, players biting each other, I am "all in". 

And this in a nutshell is why I don't like soccer.  Navels will be gazed at with fierce gazes and many "tut-tuts" will be tut-tut-tutted, but Suarez will not be sanctioned to any consequence.  No meaningful action will be taken; it's his third bite after all.  And soon the leaders' of the sport will turn their conversations to how it's come to pass that nothing has been done.  And they'll all stand around looking at each other with their best fourth-grade "who me?" faces, wailing at the lack of authority they have being in authority.

It's an utter farce.  And it's a reason that sports like UFC have risen so quickly in popularity.  The tut-tutters like to say it's the common people's base blood lust that attracts them to the sport.  But I think it's the raw mano-a-mano nature of the thing.  It's beneath corruption.  It is honest and unpretentious.  It's the spirit of old time hockey (Eddie Shore!!!).

[/high horse dismounted]

EDIT: Old Time Hockey!  P**s on Eddie Shore!

EDIT II: The Hansons take the ice

EDIT III: I'm listening to the f*****g song!

Ok.  I'm setting aside two hours this weekend for a special screening of Slapshot.

[OldAuggie]

Our German soccer team lost to THE German soccer team but we are still playing in the World Cup

[OzJohnnie]

Looks like I was wrong. Suarez got a four month suspension.

Still don't like soccer all that much. Guess I have to find a new anger to drive my preference.

[retagent]

Hey, OZ! Washington Capitals draft Nathan Walker in the 3rd Round of the NHL Draft. He's the first Australian ever drafted by an NHL team. He was playing for the Caps AHL Affiliate, the Hershey Bears. He had gone undrafted for 2 years, and the Capitals had to draft him to secure his rights. I don't get it, but that's what I read.

[Texas Ole]

I enjoy soccer now.  One of my friends I met in Iraq is a huge Manchester City fan.  We would go to the bar to watch games after work.  It was great except if City started screwing up.  The beer bottles would fly at the TV.  I actually grew to enjoy the sport.  I now watch quite a bit of soccer and am part of the City fan group.  There have been a few times where I have gone to the bar to start drinking and watching the game before heading to church.

The Premier League is starting to get more physical than the NFL.  You can barely touch someone in the NFL without getting a penalty.  Even though it is old now I still love watching the Ted Lasso video.

[OzJohnnie]

Hey, OZ! Washington Capitals draft Nathan Walker in the 3rd Round of the NHL Draft. He's the first Australian ever drafted by an NHL team. He was playing for the Caps AHL Affiliate, the Hershey Bears. He had gone undrafted for 2 years, and the Capitals had to draft him to secure his rights. I don't get it, but that's what I read.

Australia is a very small place and events like this tend to re-enforce that truth.  There is a hockey-mad guy at work and I swung by his desk to ask if he new about Walker.  Turns out he coached his own son against Walker in the Pee-wees.  At that age Walker already dominated the ice.  He left Australia to play in the Czech Republic at 13.

A very small place is Australia.

[OzJohnnie]

If anyone is itching for an AFL game to watch, here's one from the weekend that wasn't too bad:

Port Adelaide v Adelaide: 1st half; 2nd half

[AO]

I'm with Pat.  After watching the Jeff Jones press conference, it would have made a lot more sense if they had the students cheer for their fellow classmate who was accepted to Carleton or Harvard.  The coach gave a talk before Jeff's announcement mostly about how lucky Jeff was to be born with this athletic talent and he should be applauded for doing the bare minimum in the classroom to become eligible for a scholarship.

I believe you mean "to nearly become eligible"... things I'm hearing say his academic side isnt exactly eligible (ACT score) but the family was told "no need to worry about that. It can be taken care of."  Try imagining Gags, Caruso, Fasching, Johnson, etc saying that--- impossible!

I heard he needs another .2 on the GPA and 1 point on the ACT.  He should be able to do that just by showing up every day to class, but that seems to be a big struggle for the youth in Minneapolis based on the strib article from last year defending giving bus passes to all the kids.

UPDATE: Jeff Jones has failed his ACT again and will likely have to go to junior college.  Glad I don't worry about that with most D3 recruits.

Also not necessarily unrelated, Linneman admitted on the radio yesterday that he, like Manziel, might have had trouble staying eligible if Twitter existed during his years in Collegeville.  Maybe he broke the visitation hours at the girls' dorm while studying for tests.

[AO]

one more chance to jump on the bandwagon. 

[OzJohnnie]

one more chance to jump on the bandwagon. 

Ha!  I only watched the first five seconds but that made me laugh.  Tough guy voice.  Steel guitar.   "Group of Death".

[OzJohnnie]

[D O.C.]

Studied a bit in the girls dorm myself.

[hazzben]

Just finished re-watching The Pacific by HBO. I've read With the Old Breed by Sledge a few years back and was talking about it with a guy at the gym. Then I saw that the mini-series was a now free with my Amazon Prime membership so I tuned back in.

Man, just so sobering to watch the hell those men went through. Like one character and airborne vet puts it in the mini-series: the european theatre vets at least had liberties in London and Paris. All the Marines got was mud, rain and trench foot.

My greatest thanks to our servicemen and women from that conflict all the way up to the war in Afghanistan. I'm simply grateful, and well aware how insufficient words are compared to what you endured on our behalf.