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If you are like me, the few
times you actually pay attention to soccer is when there is World
Cup action. As we are all fair-weather fans when it comes to this
sport, the World Cup for Women will have to do for this
year.
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As usual, the
United States team figured to be in the running, as they were the
ones who pushed for the concept of having a World Cup for Women
because they thought they were better than most of the world at the
time. Kind of like when we thought it was a good idea to bring
baseball and basketball to the Olympics, only to see over time that
some of the other countries, thanks to our generosity, have started
to kick our butts.
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This time
around, when the U.S. reached the finals everyone stopped what they
were doing to see if the good old U.S.A. could win the whole thing.
The TV rating would be more than strong, and it would be a time for
us to wave the flag and all that good stuff.
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Enter the
Japanese. A team that was a heavy underdog. A team that had not
beaten the U.S. with any regularity in competition. A team that
gave the U.S. all they could handle, even though they were badly
outplayed most of the game.
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But wait, the
Japanese scored late to tie and went on to win on penalty kicks. An
upset of great proportion. I was happy.
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I was happy
because four years ago the current U.S. goalie Hope Solo came out
and said after the U.S. lost to Brazil in the World Cup, “If I were
playing in goal today, I would have made those saves and we would
have won the game.” Strong words for a person who was nowhere near
the status of then-U.S. goalie Brianna Scurry, a World Cup and
Olympic champion.
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So here we
are four years later, and Hope Solo is the goalie in the biggest
game of her life. And what does she do? Allow the game-tying goal
and then give up one on penalty kicks.
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found it disingenuous that so many media pundits would give Solo a
pass on her play and sweep her comments under the carpet as if the
shoe were never on her foot. I wonder if Scurry had made those
comments about Solo, would the media have turned on her?
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As for the
team, they accepted Solo for what she was and now they can live
with it. She became a selfish diva, and poetic justice was
served.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>HBO Boxing down for count “font-family: Verdana;”>
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In case you
didn’t hear, Executive Producer for HBO Sports Ross Greenberg
stepped down this week. Or should we say was forced out.
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Greenberg
oversaw the booking of fights for the network for the last 20-plus
and had made it the voice and face of boxing. Word around the camp
fire is that Greenberg and boxing promoter Bob Arum had a falling
out over champion Manny Pacquiao not fighting on HBO. Arum took his
fight to Showtime, as Greenberg was not interested in airing a
pay-per-view event that would have the Pac Man fight unless it was
against Floyd Mayweather Jr. A fight that has yet to be agreed
to.
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Arum and
Greenberg had been at odds for a while over this issue, as
Greenberg had been accused of climbing in bed with Oscar De La Hoya
and Golden Boy Productions and the stable of fighters they have,
which meant that Arum and Don King would have been on the outside
looking in.
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The last
straw ironically came a few weeks ago when Greenberg in spite took
a Don King fighter in Devon Alexander and invested somewhere in the
vicinity of $5 million. The fight and the event were disappointing
at best, as the decision-makers at HBO now feel that Alexander is
no longer the shinning future star of the weight class. Greenberg
paid in part for the misjudgment, as Arum had the ear of the
higher-ups who thought maybe it was time for a change.
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Fighters who
are not in the right stable now will have a tough time finding
their way to HBO – unless they have a premium cable
subscription.
