FOOTBALL IS COMING HOME » Serbia

Serbian Surf

David Patrick Lane — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:42:18 +0000

There are few teams in Europe who have been as consistent in qualification as Serbia. Only one defeat, away in Paris. Serbia have won every one of their other fixtures.

Serbia are virtually assured of advancing, and with two home fixtures to come they should be confident of qualifying as Group 7 winners. France can change that calculation, but the French seem strangely content to wait for Laurent Blanc.

Serbia are not expected to be serious contenders in South Africa. Recent devotees of the game will quickly reference their 6-0 demolition by Argentina in 2006 as proof of their being the poor man of Europe.

But the Serbs are perennial dark horses for a reason. The Danubian School may provide a nice bit of historical multi-media for football commentators, but the Serbs differ from most of their up river neighbours in their application, passion and the passing on of proven partizan techniques to subsequent generations.

Serbia (like the former Yugoslavia) may not provide fashionable performers a la Ronaldo, but they are always a well cut outfit with a penchant for the occasional dab of flair. Always in the top ten of the charts.

We hope not to miss the French Nouvelle Vague, but if you’re in Durban next summer, you may run into some Serbian surf. The blond dude on the surfboard will be Miloš Krasić. Watch out.

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Did Stephen Colbert play himself?

Sean Jacobs — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:22:48 +0000

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Is it Time to Care About Soccer?

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jeff Goldblum

Like a number of other US commentators, comedian Stephen Colbert, who plays a faux-Bill O’Reilly on his show, had to discuss the future of football in the United States. As he describes soccer in the video, above: “.. The sport that [Americans] are the world champions at ignoring.” The US’s success in the Confederations Cup (against all expectations they made it to the final where they lost, after leading 2-0, to Brazil on Sunday), leads Colbert to mock-ask: “Is it time to care about soccer?” What follows is a send-up of American caricatures of football: rioting, David Beckham and warm beer. It’s satire after all. But then Colbert asks his producer to show some “thrilling soccer highlights” and we see video of players of a team in blue passing the ball around sort of aimlessly. The camera then cuts back to Colbert snoozing.

The thing is, unless Colbert or his producers (and his audience?) were in on the joke, they made fools of themselves with that clip as they missed one of the greatest goals of all time: a 25-pass move that resulted in a goal for Argentina against Serbia in the 2006 World Cup in Germany:

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