No Figo-ing way!

American coverage of non-American football sucks. Case and point is this AP article about the Iraqi men's soccer team's victory over Portugal yesterday at the Olympics. While the Iraqi victory is a still big upset the article makes it seem like more than it really is by hyping the fact that Portugal made it to the Euro 2004 finals last month and leaving out the fact that this Portuguese team is not the same team!

The men's soccer in the Olympics limits teams to only 3 players over age 23, because FIFA could careless about the Olympics and doesn't want it tarnishing the uniqueness of the World Cup. There is only one players from the regular Portuguese National team on the Portuguese Olympic team; Cristiano Ronaldo. No Luis Figo, no Rui Costa, and not even the awesomely named Deco. The Portuguese Olympic team does have a player named just Danny which is pretty cool. But it's not the same team!

BTW I really think American sports should adopt the one name thing. That shit is cool. Thus far we only have Ichiro, but why not have just Barry or just Markus or just Terrell or just LeBron or just Carmello?