This weekend, European Soccer has a break play, while theteams engage in National Play. Spain isplaying Albania and Israel, Italy is playing Macedonia and Albania, in short, the giants are playingthe midgets. Go midgets! Actually, the Spanish team has been in somewhat of ameltdown, as a result of the illegal referendum carried out by the CatalanGovernment, in support of Catalan independence, and republicanism. The Catalans, Republicans? What would Trump say? The issue of the autonomy of Barcelona hasbeen an issue, at least since medieval times, and rears its head periodically,every time they want to be treated specially, and not just part of a miniaturefeline kingdom. Although opinion pollsput only about 40 % of the entirepopulation in favor of "independence," and although Barcelona basedbanks are fleeing the jurisdiction, still the neo fascist prime minister forgesahead... This really only concerns us/webecause of the rift in the National Team, and the potential loss of Barcelonafrom La Liga, and an end to "el clasico," the greatest game insoccer. Period. Barca player Gerard Pique, hasspokenstrongly in favor of the vote, and has spoken strongly against the nationalgovernment, but declares himself neither in favor nor against independence,after all, he says, he would lose half his fans if he declares himself, one wayor the other. He also insists on playingfor the national team because, well, one must... and congratulations to the national team, wholast night beat Albania 3 nil, and has thereby qualified for the next World'sCup. Next up for their national team isIsrael, on Monday.
Across the Mediterranean, just retired Roma star Totti, hasjust been told he could never coach soccer in Italy at any level. This, because he has suspended his course ofstudies to be a coach, insisted upon by government and soccer regulators. Apparently he was bored by classes in basicsoccer tactics, and was unwilling to take the exams required about thosetactics. So, although he has playedsoccer professionally in Italy since he was about 14 years old, he will neverbe a coach in Italy. Italy is Italy, andpaperwork is paperwork and it must be in order... Maybeanother Italian speaking country could put him to work, were there to beone... MLS anyone? After all, experience has to count forsomething, somewhere. With all that,last night's game between the Italian national team and the Former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia ended in a 1-1 tie. A 1-1 tie. Perhaps they will dobetter against Albania on Monday. Where'sTotti when you need him? Italy is the site of one of the last two classics of cyclingfor the 2017 season. Saturday the northhosts the Tour of Lombardy, one of the most mountainous of the one dayclassics. Many of the stars of cyclinghave come out for one last time to compete in this UCI sanctioned race, an over200 km slog through northern Italy. Today's race runs from Bergamo, east of Milano, to Como, site of thebeautiful lake... Colombian RigobertoUran, fresh from his convincing victory in Thursday's Milan-Turin race, is aclear favorite, but many of the greats will be competing. Incidentally, it was good to see Milano Torinocontested again this year. A race datingback to 1876 should not be omitted just because the paperwork is not inorder. Italy. Sunday, cycling eyes turn towards France, forthe last event of the season, the Paris-Tours. This sprinters classic has been run annually since 1896, from theoutskirts of Paris to the Cathedral town of Tours. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 10/07/2017 12:03:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
