The Soccer Thread (Version 10)

There's a book where Robert Heinlein had a character refer to the World Series as "a commercially induced surrogate interest". The first time I read that it pissed me off. It was true enough, but it was an unpalatable truth. I've come to understand that's really what it all is, a grand entertainment occasionally lifted by exceptional athletic performances.

It's going to be really weird.

 

EPL postpones all matches until at least April 3.

 

Not shocking and completely necessary but damn a sporting distraction would be nice this weekend.

 

Why would they die? RTExpress says there's only like 14 cases in all of Mother Russia.

 

I giggled.

 

Got an email from Watford this morning essentially saying that the EPL will do its best to finish out its season, even if it means playing deep into the summer. Canceling Euro and Copa America helps with that.

 

This is kind of fascinating. Telemundo is showing the second leg of Valencia-Atalanta right now. It's being played in an empty stadium... but you can still hear chanting, clapping and people beating on drums. There was a PK 90 seconds in and that all stopped. You could actually hear players talking to the ref. Play resumed... and about two minutes later, so did the chanting and clapping.

I can't really tell if it's Telemundo piping in fake crowd noise or if it's actually being played at the stadium. I assume it's Telemundo. Either way it's bizarre.

 

So we were deprived of ESPN’s excellent coverage for Fox’s nonsense as a result of underhanded dealing. Knock me over with a feather.

Former Fox executives indicted in Fifa bribery scheme