Bush says he's learning fast about World Cup

[kskiska]

BERLIN, May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said in a newspaper interview on Sunday he did not even know what a soccer ball looked like when he was young but a new generation of Americans was catching up with the rest of the world.

"As a boy I never even saw a soccer ball," Bush said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "Where I'm from soccer wasn't played. The sport just didn't exist. So there is a generation of Americans who really aren't soccer fans."

Bush said a lot of Americans did not even realise until recently how important the World Cup is. Germany is hosting the tournament from June 9 to July 9.

(snip)

"Of course the U.S. is my team," he said. "I've been told that we have a good team. But who knows whether it's good enough to win."

more…
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=AkjBhpiwYqz8ZA_IntEALwwmw7YF?slug=reu-worldbush&prov=reuters&type=lgns

[babylonsister]

1. Is learning fast anything like werkin' hard? nt

[C_U_L8R]

2. that's such BS

Growing up in Preppie CT ??
Going to Andover and Yale ???

[daleo]

60. According to their website, Yale has had Men's soccer since 1908

http://www.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/yale/sports/m-soccer/auto_pdf/year-by-year

They had a 4-1-0 record in 1908, and Raymond McNulty was the team captain.

[xxqqqzme]

77. I played soccer all thru school

& I'm only 2 years younger than chuckle-nuts...Girls always played soccer during the PE section when boys played football.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. OMFG, war, deficit, corruption, indictments, investigations and all he can

talk about is that he never saw a soccer ball as a kid.

How much more moronic bilge must we be subjected to? MKJ

[primavera]

40. Be grateful

Given that whenever der Fuehrer turns his attention to a subject, the inevitable outcome is more mass death, destruction, and suffering, we should be exceedingly thankful for every instance in which his attention is diverted to harmless topics such as soccer and mountainbiking. Although, knowing the shrub, he'll probably find a way to turn even soccer into a casus belli.

[Crankie Avalon]

4. Since he's such a sincere fan, they should have asked him which other...

...countries are in the U.S.'s group.

Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana, by the way, and for the reason of the first two alone, the US has no chance of getting even into the second round, let alone "winning." "Who knows whether it's good enough to win?" Sounds like he's about as on top of this subject as he is on anything else.

[brentspeak]

22. I don't know about that

There's nothing written in stone in any sport, including soccer. The US was supposed to be crushed by Portugal in 2002, remember?

[Telly Savalas]

72. Speaking of Portugal...

how many pundits at the beginning of Euro 2004 picked them and Greece to make it to the final game?

The U.S. has a fair chance of making it out their group, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to answer the oft-asked question "Why do you hate America?"

[LadyAziz]

83. Very True....

The World Cup is up for grabs by any country, the game football is very unpredictable.

Back to the subject... Ok, he is the most powerful man on the planet and he did not know about the WC? Not that i except him to know anything but COME ON the event has been building up for almost four years. And the competition has been going on since 1930. Who in the world has never seen a soccer ball? :wtf:

[bdamomma]

5. bush is so ignorant

that one line "The sport just didn't exist", and "So there is a generation of Americans who really aren't soccer fans".

Ugh, igorance at its highest heights.

[oldtime dfl_er]

15. really

as if his "ex-puryences" extrapolate to the rest of a "generation"?

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1386797

[LiberalFighter]

42. I wonder which generation he is talking about.

They should had asked him when soccor came into existence.

MAYBE the reporter did report but the article was censored... but they didn't have to print everything to make dimwit look stupid.

[stanwyck]

81. Um, we didn't play soccer when I was

growing up, either. Well, not at the public schools in the Midwest. Some of the private schools played soccer.
But I became a soccer fan when my son started playing at age 5. And continued through high school.
I miss watching those games. My husband and I both became big fans of the game.
Oh, well. Someday I'll have grandchildren and maybe one of them...all of them...will play.
Until then, I can watch the World Cup with the rest of the world.

[LiberalFighter]

82. We played soccer in the small parochial school (grade school)

at recess time during the late 60's and in phy ed in the early 70's. This was in upper midwest.

That is at minimum of 35 years that the dimwit had a chance to be exposed to the sport. Even being drunk and/or snorting coke during that time he couldn't avoid soccer.

[Botany]

6. Never saw a soccer ball?

Please ..... that logo & ball is known world wide.

What a diplomat! "Where I'm from soccer wasn't played. The sport just didn't exist. So there is a
generation of Americans who really aren't soccer fans."

Way to tell a country that loves football aka soccer that you don't give a shit about what they like.

[gratuitous]

11. In total fairness to Bush

I grew up in a dink town in Oregon, and soccer wasn't a big sport there when I was growing up in the 1960s.

However, your point is well-taken: If you don't genuflect at the altar of NASCAR in the United States, the GOP won't hesitate to tar you as an "elitist." But it's okay for Boosh to tell the rest of the world that their favorite sport doesn't make a blind bit of difference to him.

[tibbiit]

28. I hate reading In "fairness to bush"

No one ever needs to be fair to him after all the shit he's done. I grew up in the 50's in the midwest. We played soccer every winter after baseball (this was in elementary and jr. high). They put up the goal posts and it was a big deal cause everyone loved soccer. This was at public school.
tib

[gratuitous]

33. It kills me to be fair to Bush, too

But I'm under some pretty strict orders that way. :hi:

Why Bush has to brag about his ignorance is beyond me. It wouldn't occur to me at all to talk to a soccer fanatic -- I realize that most of the world beyond me and my little troubles is soccer mad -- and tell him that his obsession means very little to me. Wouldn't be polite, which I guess puts me one (more) up on His Chimpiness.

[LiberalFighter]

43. That would put you in the same generation as dimwit

And growing up in the 60's would also put me dimwit.

Does dimwit even know how many years a generation is considered to be?

[northzax]

45. like there weren't latino workers

in Midland, Texas?

[Bridget Burke]

48. Odessa was the "blue collar" town.

Most of management lived in nearby Midland. Still do, I think.

Bush did spend some time in Houston. The first shows I remember on our UHF stations were Mexican soccer.

[LostinVA]

53. He went to prep school -= he saw soccer balls

[MaineDem]

12. I can't disagree with him

As a young child I didn't know soccer either. He's a bit older than me but soccer (real football) wasn't a big thing when I was growing up. I can understand him saying that. However, the earliest I remember hearing about it was always associated with prep schools so, in that he attended schools like that, I would question his memory. Just another item to question among soooooo many.

[Botany]

20. He went to prep school in CT they played soccer there

and they played soccer @ Yale too.

I was in a small town in N.W. PA and I knew what a soccer ball looked like.

And I am sure his house got Sport's Illustrated at his Texas house, the summer cottage
in Maine, his frat house @ Yale, and so on and they covered soccer.

[MaineDem]

31. As a kid I didn't know soccer at all. That's the point.

It wasn't covered in Maine nor, I assume, in many parts of the US.

I can understand that he learned about it in prep school but I can understand him not knowing prior to that.

[LiberalFighter]

44. I didn't know SI had just pictures in their magazine

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

17. IIRC he spent a summer in Scotland as a boy

& I can't believe he wasn't exposed to football there. He certainly was exposed to Blair's oil buddy Bill Gammell.

[Up2Late]

34. Football Yes, but we are talking Soccer here. He was a Football...

... Cheerleader at Yale I think.:evilgrin: (just kidding, I know that, what we call Soccer, is what you call Football.)

Cheers :toast:

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

57. Lol -- I did a proper "bloody Yanks" grr when I read your post title! nt

[manic expression]

75. That would be quite a predicament

I could see him wearing a Rangers jersey to an old firm match...at Celtic Park.

[cobalt1999]

27. Hate to be sticking up for Bush, but...

Growing up in a small town in the south in the 60's, I didn't know what a soccer ball was, nor did I ever even see a game being played. To this day I don't know the rules beyond "kick it in the net" and "don't use your hands".

There are lots of things Bush says/does I will criticize, but I can relate to this.

[Art_from_Ark]

79. 1970, Arkansas

A practice gym teacher from the local university came to my elementary school and tried to get us interested in soccer ("the sport of the future"). One hispanic kid knew the rules, everyone else was wondering what the heck it was all about. To make a long story short, the game turned into a free-for-all, with the girls (and some boys) ending up watching from the side and the others getting extremely agressive and some even getting injured. Except for a few of the overly athletic types, everyone agreed that the game sucked, and the next day it was back to kickball as usual.

[LostinVA]

52. He went to prep schools -- OF COURSE he saw a soccer ball!

What a frigging fake he is....

[CottonBear]

7. He never even heard of Pele? What a supreme dumbass. n/t

[Tight_rope]

54. "What a supreme dumbass"....LMBAO

I use to just call him a dumbass...but I agree with you. He is a supreme dumbass!

[CottonBear]

59. I can't think of a dumbass who is more supreme.

Bush is the worst kind of supreme dumbass. He has out dumbassed all other dumbasses in the world.

[madrchsod]

8. why isn`t our flag on the team bus? mr bush?

"why oh why are we treated this o` way" mr bush?

[Igel]

32. Fear. n/t

[billybob537]

9. The sport I played in junior High

Didn't exist? Wow those 70's drugs really were something, all this time I thought I played soccer as a child from grade school in the late 60's in Mass. till 77? WTF was I really doing DOOOH!
Our wonderful Leader must be on LSD.

[Igel]

35. In my school system, soccer was introduced

in around '72 or '73.

They had to explain what soccer was to us; I liked it--I sucked at football and baseball, because I never participated in pickup games, but with games like lacrosse and soccer nobody had a skill advantage, so I held my own. If he went to school where I grew up, he'd have been out of school before that.

In other parts of the country, soccer was played more often. I assume it was introduced later in other parts of the country, and much earlier elsewhere. I'm not going to fall for the error of assuming my childhood was mimicked by everybody else's, both across the country, and across generations.

And if you read "It just didn't exist" in context, you'll see that it's comletely ambiguous between a reading in which the sport existed nowhere, and didn't exist where he lived. Grice, not just for scholars anymore: what used to be butt-obvious in the '60s now has to be carefully taught to adults.

[bottomofthehill]

10. Willing to give the pResident the benefit of the doubt on this one

Everyone here is always so negative when it comes to the Emperor. I am willing to give the Emperor a little slack on this one.

He Was A CHEERLEADER. They did not go to soccer games. The CHEERLEADERS went to the Football games so, it is possible to me that the CHEERLEADERS would not know too much about soccer.

Does anyone know if there was soccer when George Bush Jr was at Andover? and further does anyone know if George Bush Jr lettered in Varsity CHEERING? I would love to see that letterman sweater.

[Bill McBlueState]

13. What he says is true

There is a large group of older Americans who know almost nothing about soccer. What's lame, though, is *'s insistence on displaying his ignorance. It's typical of the Repub mentality where you're proud of yourself for not understanding something.

[ikri]

14. Does * understand the offside rule?

Because I'd love to watch him try to explain it }(

[bottomofthehill]

16. Now that he has Tony Snow I think it would go something like this...

Snow for Smirk, Our Glorious Leader has asked me to explain the offsides rule in soccer, now he is not exactly sure what the ball looks like and weather it is blown up or stuffed he cant actually define it but he knows that it is part of the stratergy of the game and like porn, he knows it when he sees it.

Further, the Big Dick, Conde and Rummy will be working to fill him in on the big picture on the game if they can get him off the coke, booze and pretzels long enough to watch a game.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

39. seriously. that would be hilarious. n/t

[manic expression]

76. ...

:rofl:

[Bridget Burke]

18. Soccer was played in Texas back then--but mostly not by white guys.

In fact, "soccer" has a long history in the USA, with plenty of ups & downs. At times, there was much "ethnic" influence: www.sover.net/~spectrum/overview.html

Even though I've NEVER played a sport, I've followed The World Cup for some time now. Would it HURT Bush to check out Soccer when he reads the Sports Page?
www.chron.com/sports/soccer/

[MessiahRp]

19. Heheheh

In Jon Stewart's Bush voice,
"I see all these guys playing soccer... latinos... I say, there's some more immigrant workers my friends can hire... heheheh..."

Rp

[Oversea Visitor]

21. Ouch

He for real, never even see soccer ball :rofl:

[Igel]

36. Ever see a lacrosse ball? n/t

[Oversea Visitor]

71. Yup

Like their glove good for catching ball and targeting the MONKEY, WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP

[Igel]

74. Gloves yes.

Catching the ball? That would be the goalie.

Else you just use the crosse, and hands off.

Soccer players may have bigger balls--and engage in handplay as much as lacrosse players do--but lacrosse players actually have sticks to go whump whump with. And they lack the foot fetish.

[brentspeak]

23. This is a lame topic to criticize Bush about

Whether he did or didn't know much about soccer while growing up is about the last thing anybody should be scrutinizing.

Go US MINT!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

41. the fact that he didnt know what the ball looked like for the most

popular sport in the world is pretty interesting though. Not surprising, but interesting. I mean, here's a guy who we've long since stopped expecting to knwo shit about the world - but these types usually know a LOT about sports (fish, baseball, fish-baseball). He's probably doing that downhome nationalist thing though where soccer is a faggy sport in their minds, to know what a soccer ball looks like would be to hate america.

[LostinVA]

55. It isn't , because it shows he lies about everything

He went to prep school in the NE -- he knew what soccer was... hell, he played rugby, which was more esoteric than soccer when I was growing up (60's, 70's).

[Ragin_mad]

24. Too bad he hasn't learned

anything about diplomacy.

[VegasWolf]

25. Guess Bush never heard the term "soccer moms." What a fucking liar. nt

[brooklynite]

26. Wasn't W the President four years ago...

..when the US had a team in the World Cup in Japan/Korea?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

38. yes he was. The games were on waaay past his bedtime.

plus, he was busy planning a war of aggression.

[bumblebee1]

29. Where was he in 1994?

That is the year the U.S. hosted the World Cup for the first time ever.

[karlrschneider]

30. His memory must be fried from all that coke & booze. I'm about

his age and grew up in Oklahoma not that far from Texas and we played soccer in school all the way up from the third grade (in 'gym' class, I didn't go out for any of the outside leagues. )

[SlavesandBulldozers]

37. Texas has been a youth soccer powerhouse for quite a while

i'm so surprised that he wasn't aware of that fact, since he was governor of the state. That's a joke, of course he's a fucking idiot.

[corporate_mike]

46. Soccer World Cup is the most watched sporting event on the planet

How can anyone on this planet not know what a soccer ball looks like?

[Telly Savalas]

73. Aren't you setting an awfully high standard...

to expect the president to be aware of importanat events that occur outside the U.S. borders?

[stillcool]

47. Amazing....all the posts starting with the...

"in all fairness"...going on to "I never saw a soccer ball"...and so many seem to confuse 'soccer and football'...in some parts of the world they are the same. Good thing nobody brought up 'rugby'. So much for ignorance not being an excuse.

[brentspeak]

50. ??

"so many seem to confuse 'soccer and football'...in some parts of the world they are the same."

What do you mean?

[stillcool]

66. meaning many call soccer 'football'.

football, any of a number of games in which two opposing teams attempt to score points by moving an inflated oval or round ball past a goal line or into a goal. Differing greatly in their rules, these include soccer (association football) and rugby, in addition to the games covered in this article: American football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, and Australian football. In the United States, the word football generally refers only to the American game; in other parts of the world it usually means soccer.

[LostinVA]

56. Football is soccer and vice versa

[Bridget Burke]

49. Bush hasn't been "young" for a long time.

Even though soccer may not have been big in Midland or at his prep school, he's apparently ignored everything that's happened since then.

After the World Cup before the most recent one, a Houston Chronicle sports writer bitched that soccer wasn't a Real Sport. One entire page of the next edition was filled with letters of complaint--from "soccer parents" & Houstonians from countries where Football has nothing to do with helmets & shoulder pads. (That's most of the world.)

The Chronicle now has several full-time reporters covering "soccer."

[genieroze]

51. I'm in my forties and I played soccer in grade school.

[Oreo]

58. Yale played soccer in the 1800's!

Check this out...
http://www.soccer-for-parents.com/us-soccer-history.html#college

The College Era, and Rules Consolidation, 1862-1875

Collegiate play resumed on a regular basis after the Civil War. Rules varied widely among different schools and communities; Princeton played with 25 players, some people even played a game with innings, with a victory going to the first team to score a fixed number of goals (a la volleyball). In 1866, Beadle & Company of New York published a set of rules for both Association Football (soccer) and the "Handling game" (Rugby). The first intercollegiate game using rules resembling modern game was played on November 7, 1869 in New Brunswick, NJ between Princeton and Rutgers (Rutgers won 6-4). This game used the London Football Association's 1863 rules which called for, among other things, 25 players, a field 110 meters x 70 meters, a 24 foot wide goal, movement of the ball allowed with all parts of the body (including hands, ball could be batted or held, but not carried or thrown). First team to score 6 points won. Interestingly, this same game is also generally recognized as the first GRIDIRON FOOTBALL game as well.

Soccer was also taken up at this time by Yale, Columbia and Cornell, and reintroduced to Harvard in 1871 in a hybrid form known as the Boston Game, a version which also allowed the throwing and carrying of the ball. At this time, football was still played by a number of different and conflicting rules. In 1873, inspired by the English Football Association's rules unification, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Rutgers met in New York to draw up a uniform set of rules based on the London 1863 rules. They established 20 players on a team, a field measuring 400 feet x 250 feet, 25-foot wide goal, 6 goals to win, and a point scored by passing the goal past the goal posts. Carrying the ball was prohibited. Shortly after the first game under these rules, a Yale victory over Princeton, an English team, the Eton Players visited New Haven and played Yale, to whom they lost 1-2, in the first Anglo-American international match. Yale was persuaded to adopt the English custom of 11 players to a side, and subsequently argued for its universal adoption, which was generally achieved by 1880.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

61. If something doesn't affect him personally.... it just doesn't exist.

[TheCowsCameHome]

62. He couldn't read the instructions anyway.

[karynnj]

63. This seems untrue - He went to an exclusive NE boarding school

They had soccer. In fact, John Kerry, two years older, played on his prep school's soccer team. Bush could have been a cheerleader in another sport.

[truthisfreedom]

64. he can't say anything that doesn't make him sound like an idiot. it's

totally amazing.

[geniph]

65. What a crock of crap

he's only a couple years older than I am, and we played soccer a lot in my middle and high schools. More pandering to middle-America. What a tool.

[KamaAina]

67. He already knows that the Hawaiian fire goddess Pele played soccer

before long he'll be "Bending It Like Beckham"! :evilgrin:

[ckramer]

68. And he didn't know where Iraq was on the map either

I guess.

[ckramer]

69. It's time to open a soccer field in the White House

Let kids play soccer in the White House!

[Kesha]

70. Here`s the interview on ARD TV...

...incl. the "soccer story" and other remarkable quotes:

http://rapidshare.de/files/19919664/Sabine_Christiansen__Interview_mit_George_Walker_Bush__07_Mai_2006.wmv.html

Download & have fun :-)


Kesha

[Weaksauce]

78. I hate competetive sports

So I guess I'm as dumb as b*sh cause I don't know how to play or follow the world cup?

Does anyone care about this really? I always thought soccer/football was a euro trash thing and competitive sports are one of the root causes w/ what is ailing our society anyway. More fake dreams for kids to waste themselves trying to acheive so they can be rish as god. Bad as the american dream fakery.

[Can o Beans]

80. Uhhhhh...GHWB was a soccer player. Lie Much?

Sheesh.