Your Thugs have grown up.  We are now the Yanks.  Why the Yanks, you ask?  It was pretty simple for us.  The second we walked into a pub wearing our respective jerseys, we felt judged.  Not in a stereotypical way, but in the way that makes you question if you belong.  Every time we strolled into a different pub it almost felt as if the entire room looked and pointed at us and yelled, “The Yanks! The Yanks are here!” even if it was only because of the way we looked.  We have been judged and this is how we respond.

Yanks Call it Soccer is our way to channel America’s judgment of the beautiful game and turn it into something that will prove our worth as fans.  We have the same amount of passion, love, knowledge as anyone across the pond.  We live and die each match day and bleed the respective colors of our team.  This is a collection of writers that have been joined together for one purpose.  We hope you enjoy the change.

We’re confident you’ll enjoy what’s to come.

Be sure to make the switch, reset the bookmarks, and update the RSS to our new home at: Yanks Call it Soccer

United States head coach Bob Bradley is being considered for a career-defining move to the English Premier League with Aston Villa!!!!

Oh, and screw Martin “Shizzah eater” O’Neil!!!

Our away kit, which was just released, is the complete opposite.  Black and orange? Are you kidding me?  Are Chelsea going to be playing in AYSO this season?  I hate, hate black as a jersey color.  It’s meant to look tough, but it just looks dumb instead.  And orange?  Where exactly is that coming from – are we trying to recruit Wesley Sneijder or something?  Hopefully the third kit will be a step up from this.  Last years 3rd kit was f***ing sweet – (hint for any Thugs looking for a last minute Christmas gift for Markie).

Hull City here we come!

Bert van Marwijk, the coach of the Netherlands, has asked his team to unite and come together when they face Brazil on Friday. This order came from the reports that “Nancy Boy” Robin van Persie had a hissy fit for being taken off the pitch during the 2-1 win over Slovakia. Little Robbie felt that midfielder Wesley Sneijder should have been the one taken out instead of him.

Robin had this to say after the match:

“I wanted to finish the game. I thought they would take risks in the last 10 minutes and I wanted to exploit that, I could see spaces opening up and I wanted to use them, so I was a bit shocked when I had to go off.”

OHHH…..too…..many…..comments……to…….say…….must……get…….help!!!

You won the game Nancy!! Stop bitching!!

My friend, “Man U Sean”, started a trend of renaming the Chelsea bandwagon bitches “Poo” and/or any variance on human feces, and I want to make sure it stays strong. So this is just your friendly Aston Villa reminder to never again use the filthly word ”Chelsea.” From this day forth they are known as Poo/Poo Mongers/Mr Poobody/Poo Diddy Combs/Pooma/Will work for Poo/Vegan Poo/etc… I apologize that this is all 3rd grade material but there is just something about Poo/Chelsea that makes me want to eat glue, wet myself, and clean chalk board erasers.

*Pic was taken when Drogba was on vacation in Hawaii and didn’t want to walk the 15 feet to the head… I hate Drogba.

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (center) is the president of Nigeria and has a pretty powerful approach of inspiring his country’s national soccer team. Since Nigeria failed to advance out of their group and since they were one of the heavy favorites out of the African teams in the World Cup, Goodluck has felt it necessary to take matters into his own hands and use his powers as president to lead, encourage, inspire, and demonstrate his love for the beautiful game by……….suspending the entire Nigerian national soccer team from competing in any international competitions for two years due to the embarrassing and horrific performances during World Cup play.

The BBC reported:

Nigeria’s president has suspended his nation’s football team from international competition for two years after a poor showing at the World Cup.

Special presidential adviser Ima Niboro told reporters the decision by Goodluck Jonathan will “enable Nigeria to reorganize its football.”

He said: “This directive became necessary following Nigeria’s poor performance in the ongoing World Cup.”

Uhhhhhhhhh am I missing something? Does this make any sense to anyone? I understand that the country needs to retool its program but not allowing them to compete at the top levels for two-years!?!? I almost find it harder to believe that the president of Nigeria actually has a name like Goodluck Jonathan.

Well, good luck to you Goodluck…………Good luck.

O captain, my captain.  What defines the best footballing captains in the world?  A man who can be in the high-profile position of England’s captain, sitting at the foot of a humiliating defeat, and respond with a statement of this quality.

I am definitely not one to pay compliments to any player on Liverpool, but this Stevie G is one class act.  After the humiliating loss to Germany (even with the goal that should have been allowed) the captain of England was front and center taking the beating like a man.

“Everyone in the dressing room was hurting afterwards, the coaching staff and the players. We’ll go away in the summer and analyze things personally and as a team.

“Who is to blame, the manager or the players? Everyone is to blame. We came into this tournament with big togetherness and it would be very unfair of me to pick out individuals. For me it’s the group. If we’d have won we’d have all got pats on the back so we have to take the responsibility and the grief ourselves.“

That’s exactly what I would like to hear my captain say.  “We” this and “we” that. No fingers were pointed, no excuses made, he simply said we should have done better.

I agree that they should have, look at the squad, but it takes a man to say what he said.

But it takes a man’s man, a true leader, a legitimate captain to go on and say this:

“If you look at the game as a whole we’ve been beaten by the better team.  We had good parts of the game where we passed the ball well and got into good areas. At 2-1 if Frank’s goal would have counted it could have been a turning point in the game, but we can’t use that as an excuse. They’ve scored four goals and we only got one, which tells it’s own story. We made too many mistakes as a team. Germany were more organised than us and were clinical.”

England at least has one thing to be proud of and that is their captain.

Actually it was just seven replica trophies stolen. The Associated Press released the breaking story today that the FIFA headquarters had in fact been broken into and seven replica world cup trophies had been stolen. There was no sign of break in and officials think that it may have been an inside job.

Gen. Bheki Cele said at a security briefing Tuesday, “We know that there was a burglary at the FIFA offices where they took seven replicas of the World Cup.”

Cele says official FIFA clothing was also taken.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5339028/ce/us/world-cup-trophy-replicas-stolen-fifa-offices-south-africa?cc=5901&ver=us

In a related story World Cup referee Koman Coulibaly (the referee that called the phantom foul on the USA vs Slovenia) was seen entering a Hooters restaurant in Paris France were witnesses said he had presented a number trophies to some of France’s larger than life players. When asked what he thought he was doing, Koman simply replied, “I thought France had won. That’s the way I saw it and I call em like I see ‘em. I saw them win and saw them conduct themselves with the up most class. Team France are winners.”

Hmmmm interesting.

I know it was a disgrace, but after having countless discussions on Sunday, I am sticking to my guns and backing FIFA.  My initial reasoning was as follows:

“Football is meant for you and I.  If I can’t have one aspect of the rules of the game in my backyard, then the professionals shouldn’t either.  That is how you keep the game right where it should be, with the fans” (Read the rest of the post here).

To restate what Sepp Blatter stated before the World Cup began:

“The universality of the game: one of the main objectives of FIFA is to protect the universality of the game of association football. This means that the game must be played in the same way no matter where you are in the world.”

When I tried to explain this point I was met with stern and compelling opposition.  The point that I was consistently faced with was of substantial merit.  The World Cup changes the fate of nations, the morning pick up game at the park does not.  With this much on the line, FIFA should assure that they do everything in their power to make sure that mistakes of this magnitude do not happen.

I agree my friends, but my point is this.  It is a game of the people and for the people.  If I can’t institute a FIFA ruling in my local league game, then the professionals will not have the same luxury.

Blatter was quoted after this incident:

“No matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being.”

I am not opposed to using technology, I write for a blog, I have just attached myself to this defense.  It protects the purity and integrity of the game.  It is a part of the game, good, bad, or indifferent, and it is something we all have to adapt to as fans.  I guarantee Germany is happy there is no video replay or goal line technology.

I also am not saying that everything is perfect and we should all just hold hands and sing “We are the World”.  I think something must be done. So where does the advocate of technology and the president of FIFA find common ground?  In the use of goal line referees? Maybe, but something must be done.

All of you who are crying foul now, remember this feeling, and in the next match where a call like this goes your direction know that “the grass is always greener on the other side” especially on the pitch.