2011 Dec 23 Talking Balls: Festus's Festive Folly, Yao's Funny Videos & Soccer Shockers
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Well, it is for everyone who is not known as Festus Baise. The football player (who sounds like Festivus to the rest of us) has found worldwide infamy over the last week for the most unfortunate of actions – scoring an own goal. He did it in a Hong Kong first-division game and his Sun Hei side ended up on the wrong side of a 3-2 reverse at the hands of Citizen AA. Merry Christmas, everyone. Here’s your present.
From the unfortunate to the pantomime villains of sport, those teams that you love to hate. China Sports Review introduces Talking Balls to a new sports term, i.e. the "Evil Empire." Their article goes onto explain that the New York Yankees (understandably) and Manchester United (a lazy comparison) are examples of Reagan-speak. It’s worth a read despite its lack of football nous as it picks the Chinese teams that are most likely to rile opposition and neutral alike. Treat yourself to a read and pick some new sides to hate for the New Year.
As if right on cue, Manchester United are exonerated of their Evil Empire tag by none other than the Chinese courts. The Red Devils were mentioned in the ongoing football corruption scandal – but only because the guilty ref in question admitted to taking bribes during their 2007 friendly against Shenzhen FC. No one has claimed that the Old Trafford side had anything to do with any wrongdoing whatsoever. There’s more on the trial here and here.
Yao Ming is a very silly man. He’s been making jokey videos about copying his classmates' homework. The Ministry of Tofu covers it all here. Silly Yao.
Before the news in short, here’s another Christmas gift for you. It’s last week’s “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in Chinese Sport” from our heroes at China Daily. Remember, a WHAWNICS is for life and not just for Christmas.
In short
- China Sports Review focuses on Liu Wei, Yao’s compatriot in the Shanghai Sharks 2002 championship winning team.
A San Diego doc has said that Chinese people can play in the NFL. Off you go, then. Good luck.
After recently sending young players to Liverpool, China is now sending kids to Spain. Villareal, Atletico Madrid and Valencia are the host clubs.
Japan’s former coach, Takeshi Okada, is the new manager of the CSL’s Hangzhou Greentown. There has been no further word on the speculation linking Jean Tigana with Shanghai Shenhua.- Li Na took some famous tennis players around Wuhan. Talking Balls hopes they went to Sugar F**king Daddy’s bar. That’s a highlight of Wuhan.
- On the same trip, Pete Sampras backed Li Na to come back strong in 2012. Do it, Li Na.
- Super Dan, or Lin Dan as we prefer to call him, has won all of the badminton ever. Read all about it here.
Photo: The Sun
You might also be interested in :
Talking Balls: A Smoking Rocket, Marbury Mania & The Olympic Underground
The Olympics are around the corner, or should we say, further along the line. Transport London, which runs the capital's world-famous Tube, have decided to cash in on the Olympics. They've released a map with a twist: All of the stations are now named after famous Olympians. We admit that it's better than the 2012 mascots but as merchandise goes, it's still pretty bad. There are 13 Chinese Olympians on the map:
Talking Balls: Shame On Shanxi, Ghastly Guoan & Some Sports Shorts
The Beijing Ducks and Shanxi Brave Dragons have gone to game five in their CBA playoff semi-final. The game was originally set for March 14 but was postponed until March 18 so that everyone could enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. No, actually it was put back because of a near-riot in game four. Shanxi’s fans also took that meeting as an opportunity to shower the court with debris. They've been fined nine times for similar incidents over the last four years. They have just added another RMB 60,000 to the CBA's Christmas party fund. You stay classy, Shanxi.
Talking Balls: Ducks Flying, Guoan Too Green & This J-Lin Stuff Gets Silly
Good evening, sports fans. Let's get right into it. The CBA playoffs are at their semi-final stage and Beijing Ducks are back in the series after winning game two. Stephon Marbury dropped a colossal 52 points to send them on their way to besting Shanxi by 132-123. Thanks to NiuBBall for the alley-oop on the video you'll see below. Don't forget to check out the 2011-12 NiuBBall Awards. Spoiler alert: Starbury gets what he deserves.
Talking Balls: CSL Madness, CBA Badness, Le Sulk's Gladness & Yet More Jeremy Lin
Another week and another deluge of Jeremy Lin coverage. It's about time that you became a fan as he's going to be the subject of a lot of column inches for the foreseeable future. You can say what you want about the boy (and some people notably have) but he's got people talking about the Knicks for the first time since Patrick Ewing. Here are some of the Lin stories from the last week: China Sports Review wonder whether he's on CCTV enough, the Guardian get their right-on knickers in a twist on behalf of Asian Americans and China Daily have wrapped up all of the coverage on Jeremy Lin ever (and it is in Comic Sans).
Talking Balls: Lintelligent Puns, The Elk's Arrival & Games Galore
What another lincredible week for Jeremy Lin. He’s gone from "novelty to Knicks star" in almost a linstant and now there’s lots of linterest in him on the linternet. His name is also the kind that the media love in their sports stars – it is very easy to bend into very bad puns. Wordplay aside this young man has got game. Just not as much as Yao according to NBA supremo David Stern. There’s lots more coverage of JLin all over the web. There's USA Today’s article on Asian stereotypes in coverage of the Knicks’ guard, another on Lin being happy to smash stereotypes and the news that people are already trying to turn this hype into profit. Hell, it's even got to Beijing Boyce. Anyway, here's Jeremy larking about off the court ...
