If AC Milan star Mario Balotelli is best known for anything it’s being an amazing soccer player. After that, it’s probably being a bit of a skirt-chasing party animal and his relationship(s) with Raffaella Fico. And a close runner-up to that is being the target or horrific, inexcusable racial hate at the hands of opposing fans and media outlets. And then maybe his ridiculous camouflage Bentley, because that’s what I always think of when someone mentions his name.

Then again, some people might also suggest that he’s best known for being a headache and malcontent with a history of strange behavior, but he has almost always shrugged that off. Perhaps he’s also shrugging off this weekend’s latest run of headaches, which included a yellow card, tantrum and a probable fine from the Italian government.

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This is basically what I look like when I’m watching ‘The Wire’. Somebody draw this guy a warm bath for Christ’s sake. (via Awful Announcing)

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We have another incident involving a fan running onto the field of play…pitch…whatever they call it in soccer. I say that it’s our country, and we call it a field. Cool? Cool. Anyway, AC Milan were in Chicago last weekend when their star player, Ronaldinho, was approached and to some degree molested by a fan who had run out onto the…surface.

To his credit — or perhaps complete disregard for his own personal safety — he let the fan kiss him on the cheek and even exchanged a few friendly gestures with the man that will surely fuel his pursuer to complete the Ronaldinho-sized jar in his basement. –Dirty Tackle.

And that was when
I’m of the mind that anyone that wanders onto a field deserves whatever they get, but this is just excessive. Where the hell was that guy 30 seconds earlier? Eating a donut? What needs to happen is a staggered approach to field jumping: one guy jumps out, and then when he gets tackled, a friend jumps over the rail to his rescue. Get it together, unruly fans. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I try to follow soccer. I really do, but some of the player movement just doesn’t make any sense to me. Transfers, I can figure that out. It’s just a stupid word for “trades.” But the concept of loaning out players–quality players that have such a finite shelf life as it as–that just boggles my GD mind. So if any of you have any insight about this David Beckham going-to-AC-Milan-and-then-five-months-later-returning business, by all means, jump in. One fan tried to do just that in Beckham’s MLS return to LA last night:

At halftime, Beckham walked toward the L.A. Riot Squad section and motioned to a fan to come closer. A man jumped down from the seats and was subdued by security before being taken away.

“One of the guys was saying things that wasn’t very nice. It was stepping over the line,” Beckham said. “I said, `You need to calm down and come shake my hand,’ and he jumped over.”

The man was arrested by Cal State Dominguez Hills police for trespassing because he left the seating area, a Home Depot Center spokeswoman said. via.

So Beckham leaves LA to play in a league where he wanted to play all along (I presume), comes back to MLS to fulfill his contract, and then gets his ass booed off the entire game. Like I said, I don’t really get it. Obviously, the Galaxy faithful are a little bent that Beckham left. I’m just amazed that fans in LA were able to get to the game before halftime. That’s more commitment than Beckham seemed to show to LA.

Noted immigrant David Beckham appears to be gone from America, at least for now. And it is good. But this isn’t an anti-soccer rant or an anti-foreigner rant, or even an anti-hey-he’s-better-looking-than-me rant, because I could do those all day. No, it’s good because he just packed up his fish and chips and got the hell out. He didn’t sit around and complain about how he was stuck with his Scientology friends every day or how all the men in California act like little girls or why there was cocaine everywhere. Contractually, he seemingly has the right to leave. He just uneventfully got on a plane and left, and frankly, I admire a man that can handle his business with a quietly firm hand.

ASYLUM POLL: Is David Beckham giving MLS the shaft?

The LA Galaxy doesn’t seem to be as eager to part. They’ve probably called him and left sad, annoying messages on his machine. You know, the kind where the person on the line was crying so hard that their nose started running. They probably told Beckham to come back and pick up his stuff and he was all, I don’t really want it, and they were all, But you have to, and he was all, No, I think I’m good. And then maybe ten or twelve years from now they’ll be facebook friends and leave “How long has it been?” sort of messages on each other’s walls, and then browse through each other’s uploaded photos, and that’s how it’ll end. And that’s okay.

There’s gonna be a lot of disagreement about this one, but daaaaamn Victoria Beckham looked good at the opening of the new Armani store in New York.  A lot of people say that she’s too skinny or looks like a Fembot, and they mean it like those are bad things.  No way.  I dig the sassy short dress and the super-high heels and the fact that her hair and makeup probably took hours.  She gives off an air that she’s way too good for me… and that only makes me want here more.

More pictures of her below, and for you ladies out there I added some of her husband shirtless after a recent AC Milan game.  Hubba hubba or whatever.

And just so we get some sports discussion: it’s looking more and more like David Beckham will never return to MLS, something that doesn’t really matter to American soccer fans (both of us).  But it’s a good opportunity for the media to crow about Beckham’s failed American experiment.  “GRAWRRRR! He failed to meet the overblown expectations that we created by overhyping him!  Now we hate him!”  Well played, sports media.  Well played.

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