The Cosmos are Back in Town

For the last several weeks, New York City became World Cup Central (Park) in America.

All the watering holes were stuffed day and night, there was unprecedented media coverage not seen outside of USA'94, and record TV ratings. For the first time in history fans even gathered at a jumbotron in Times Square for the USA-Italy game -- and did so again a couple weeks later for the Final.

Plus you could get laid by simply telling a girl you were Cristiano Ronaldo's fourth cousin-in-law, no verification asked.

Apparently the appetite for soccer (and sex) in the Big Apple wasn't so different back in the crazy daze of the New York Cosmos. The fine-stein folks at Miramax have weisely released a new documentary this week about said club.....

(if the iFilm clip doesn't work, just click here)

Gallagher. On Tevez.

One of the very few interesting areas of the suprisingly low-fi (though hard-hitting) official FIFA World Cup website has been the mercurial 'VIPs Love Football'.

Fittingly, one of the final installments of that section sees two of this publication's favorite people coming together.

Noel Gallagher. Carlos Tevez. 


Now talk amongst yourselves.

the+neck+of+Carlos+Tevez

Ever since this site brought up the minor concern of cameramen zooming in on the ravaged neck of Argie bulldog Carlos Tevez, there's been a growing number of people stretching from every corner of the world who've come here after Google'ing about a certain topic.

So if you're here now after their victory over Mexico, and want to find out what the hell happened to his cervix, here's a brief story about Carlitos.

Rest assured they are not hickies.

Ding-Dong Diplomacy

A couple of interesting events happened simultaneously this past Friday.

Two of God's foremost Chosen Ones, U.S. President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, each held ceremonies honoring their respective country's beloved football teams.

Lord, what a difference a century makes.

The last time both Iran and the USA qualified for the World Cup our planet seemed to be in a much more peaceful state. Of course, this was a long, long time ago -- 1998. France. Before all the demagoons took over.

Then, not only were the two teams grouped together (now that's real divine intervention), but prior to the match cool overtures were made. Iran, then headed by a (relatively) pragmatic head of state, splashed out with gifts, flowers and kisses for their counterparts. Meanwhile then-U.S. Prez Bill Clinton recorded a hyperbolic speech and even uttered a couple of words in Farsi prior to the match broadcast.

Ah, cross-cultural engagement. The good ol' days of geopolitics.

Here's a friendly reminder. When one sees headlines in the media like the ubiquitous 'U.S. Wants to Mess With Iran' and 'Iran Tells U.S. to F*ck Off' (paraphrasing, folks...) we're just hearing about feuding governments, not people.

Therefore its annoying to hear the talk about protesting Iran's presence at the World Cup. Especially when it's spearheaded by supporters of a peculiar government that calls itself "the Jewish State" yet avoids The Ten Commandments at every opportunity. Quite sketchy, no?

This 'Iran' we'll see on the field has a lot more to do with actual Iranian people than the 'Iran' we read about virtually all of the time. Time to start taking notes, 'America'.