Haggis and kilts? No Yanks

[McClef]

Sounds like it was a case of:

Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face
Great Chieftain o' the Sirloin race!

[Chas]

Seems rather pointless to me to go to a Burns Dinner and then not partake of a Burns Dinner.

I suppose all publicity is good publicity.

Regards

Chas

[OC Richard]

As a US citizen I take great pride in our footballers playing at the highest levels overseas. It's a mark of us starting to "grow up" as a nation in the field of sports and beginning to take a place alongside the other nations of the world.

For too long our sports have buried their heads in the sand and acted as if only the USA (and to a lesser extent Canada) existed as sports nations.

We love our native sports, sports that evolved here and which until recently were pretty much only played here: American football, Baseball, and Basketball. I listen to US sports talk radio fairly often and to hear the way they talk, these are the only sports that exist. It's very common for these commentators to hail an American Football team that's had success as "the greatest team in the history of the world of sports" or an American head coach/manager who has had success as "the greatest coach in the world" etc etc. These people have never heard of Sir Alex Ferguson or Manchester United or any other non-US coaching figure or team. One sports radio show does a daily feature called "spanning the globe" which, of course, only spans the US. Mention soccer to most US sports fans and they'll roll their eyes and call soccer a "sissy" game because their only exposure to it is 1) seeing their kids play it (it's the No1 Youth Sport in the US) and 2) seeing highlights which dwell on "simulation" where players who are barely touched sprawl on the ground writhing in fake agony.

We US fitbaw/soccer supporters have a long uphill fight on our hands.

Actually, one of the best matches to show an American, to show off soccer as a gritty physical battle with no "simulation" going on, was the English Premiership match played a couple weeks ago in the freezing snow. (This was the day that all but two Premiership matches were cancelled due to the weather.) Early on, the Match Official made it known that he would not abide by any "simulation" and the result was a match full of the sort of body "checking" usually only seen in Ice Hockey, strong tackles worthy of Rugby or American Football, etc. That day it was "play on" regardless. One of the best matches I've ever seen.

By the way the SPL is difficult to see here because the matches are not broadcast on any regular network. They can only be seen in special Rangers Supporters Pubs or Celtic Supporters Pubs, of which we have several in Los Angeles. You get charged $20 per match at the door.

Also, why are so few keepers English? The EPL is full of US, Danish, Icelandic, German, etc etc keepers. What about the SPL?

[Jimmy]

Sounds like it was a case of:

Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face
Great Chieftain o' the Sirloin race!

Brilliant last line, you should take up poetry