World Cup News and Notes...

You don't have to convince me that soccer (or futbol for the rest of the world) is the world's most popular sport: I have been living in Argentina for the past couple of months and I'm pretty sure that some bathroom stalls have been painted blue and white in support for the team. The team gets more press than the 200 year anniversary of the country's independence, and while at an exhibition game against Canada a week and a half ago, I saw two separate fights break out. Let me repeat that. The fights broke out at an exhibition game against Canada. Not exactly a soccer powerhouse. So yeah, anxiety and anticipation are probably pretty high right now for most soccer-crazed countries in the World Cup. We'll get to an actual preview of the tourney a little bit closer to its' June 11th starting point, but let me just say that the players and the rest of the team are already acquainting themselves quite nicely to being in Johannesberg.

Among some of the more ludicrous demands listed in the article are Brazil pre-ordering cookies and hot chocolate (and then having the New York Times declare that chocolate for the team was outlawed), and demanding that the hotel pool be kept at 32 degrees for the team (Who knew that monitoring the pool's temperature could be such a stressful job?). On the flip side, good call by the Brazilian coach for forbidding any sexual activity on game day. The players should be rested in every sense of the word.

Then you have the New Zealand Team, which has set up golf lessons as a way to unwind. I don't know about if this is a team of avid golfers, but why the hell would you want to get lessons in another sport while you are playing in the biggest tournament in the world? Jeez Louise New Zealand, leave the golfing until after the first-round exit (too harsh?).

But no team has as ridiculous demands as Argentina and their charismatic-is-an-understatement coach/legend Diego Maradona. He is essentially forcing the place that the team is staying at to remodel both of the bathrooms in his room so that they can accommodate two "state-of-the-art bidets". Are you kidding me Diego?! Your having the whole bathroom redone so that you can put in your high-quality butt-wiping machines?! And why the hell do you need two?? Do you substitute bidets like you do soccer players? In addition to Maradona asking for ridiculous personal demands, he has also demanded for the team among other things white walls (again, WTF?), at least three pasta sauces at every dinner, and no fewer than three desserts. Hopefully Maradona knows what he's doing and has ordered these requests because he thinks they will provide an advantage on the field. If they don't, both Argentina and the South African hosting committee will be disappointed that all the hard work was for nothing.

In regards to other countries, I can't fault the Italians for bringing their own pasta, nor the Slovakians for an electric dartboard (getting injured by actual darts would be prettyyy embarrassing). As for the US, they are keeping it classy with authentic poker tables, DVDs, and a whole lot of Gatorade. But. BUT(t). They won't be having any of these bad boys: