What? The British are not cheering for other countries? What shock.
Anyway, perception of favoritism for host nations have been around since the invention of the wart. It's no different in London. Although, I do get the feeling they're getting some homer calls. France certainly thinks so.
Medal hauls always tend to be very high (except when you're Canada) with the host nation usually well above a nation's historical average.
The most blatant homer calls I've seen actually involved Korea - twice. The first was in 1988 when Roy Jones jr. beat the shit out of a Korean and three corrupt judges gave the win to the Korean. Poor guy. I wonder if he even looks at the medal if he has any sense of honor.
It's a shame because Park has to carry that mess next to his name for the rest of his life. My friends and I remember watching that fight and looking on in utter disbelief when the winner was announced. Park shouldn't even have been in the fight to begin with as Vincenzo Nardiello of Italy had him beat in the earlier rounds.
The other boxing scandal was in 1984 when Italian Francesco Damiani pummelled American boxer Tyrell Biggs. That one too was hilarious in its outright cheating.
The second incident involving Korea was at the 2002 World Cup. I never saw such blatant cheating and corruption in the flesh. Korea reached the semi-finals when they clearly were not a semi-final caliber team. They had their lunch handed to them by Italy but somehow the ref gave them not nine, but ten lives in that game which ended when Tomassi scored in extra time. But the goal was called on a phantom off side. The shenanigans didn't end with Italy as the same thing happened against Spain in the next round thus fans were deprived of a possible Italy/Spain against Brazil final. Either side would have been better than what Germany put us through in that final won by Brazil.
That World Cup could have been Italy's 4th World Cup (giving them five) and Spain's first as both teams were capable of beating Brazil.
***
Speaking of corruption - or claims thereof. Canada regrouped and won the bronze medal 1-0 over France. Good for them. Now I just hope everyone can stop whining about what happened against the Americans.
I keep hearing local pundits on the radio who know soccer about as much as I know botany, go off on their usual inferiority complex driven "opinions."
On the balance, Canada got lucky too. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Canadians played rough. And prove of this was seen on replay when Tancredi stomped on an American player's head and was fortunate to have her butt kicked off the field. That's a serious, very serious, offense in soccer. The ref's call has nothing to do with the Americans, but Tancredi's actions are hers alone.
I don't see Canadians talking about that. If they go down to 10 men, that's a different game folks.
The USA is a better soccer team. The Canadian girls, as well as they played, didn't seal the deal. The call, while questionable on some level, was an unfortunate fact of sport. I doubt there was any "cheating" going on.
The other fact is France was all over the Canadian team but couldn't capitalize. Canada emerged the victor in any case.
What is it, yin and yang or something?
On the balance, Canada got what it deserved and what it got was a fabulous bronze medal.
Good for them. It's a medal worth being proud of.
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