displacedbeatnik

For the past two years, every time the FIFA rankings come out, someone gets on here and blabs that Italy should be #1 because they are the World Champions.

Has Euro now shown all of these people that winning the World Cup doesn't necessarily make you the best team on the planet?

Frankly I think any neutral would rather get a root canal.

So I was watching Sky Sports News here in the United States yesterday and realized for the first time that the Conference is now known as the Conference Premier.

This means that the 1st division (Premiership), 2nd division (Championship), 3rd division (League One), and 5th division (Conference Premier) all have first division sounding names.

Let alone a lot of the 7th and 8th tier leagues have Premier or 1st in the title.

Is the ego in English league football that big that almost every division has to have a first tier name or somehow the national psyche is broken?

I'm just joking of course but it just seems odd when the rest of the world uses things like La Segunda right at the second tier.

p.s. I know why the Championship is the Championship, because it's the top tier of the League structure with the Premiership having it's own deal with the FA and all that. Don't bother explaining.

Los Angeles has now put together a collection of talent not seen in MLS since the first couple of seasons and yet is still one of the worst teams in the league.

In half seriousness, could the Los Angeles Galaxy field a Premiership team and still be the bottom of MLS just because they're the Galaxy?

In full seriousness, why are the Galaxy consistently bad no matter who they put on the field when Houston and New England can make it work with much less talent.

Are the Los Angeles Galaxy just the Red Bulls with a couple more MLS Cups in their closet?

I'm driving from Chicago to Washington D.C. at the end of April and early May and I want to get off the highways and see some tourist trap type attractions.

I've been to roadsideamerica.com and the like so I know about some of them but I was wondering if anyone knew of any sites so weird and wonderful that they're not even on there.

My trip will take me through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia so any tourist traps in any of these states would be wonderful.

I know it's in the NFL rules that games can be cancelled due to dangerous weather and I seem to recall it happening in Buffalo a couple of years ago but my memory could be faulty.

Also, does anyone know how many NFL games have been cancelled in the past five years or so (not counting the weeks post-9/11)?

I know most years Fulham is pretty deserving of all the stick they get up through February when they come alive but this year they've already beaten Newcastle on the road and tied Bolton at home. Sure Chelsea and Manchester United wiped them off the pitch but those are their only two losses.

Why is it then that everyone still says they're favorites for relegation and that Chris Coleman will be the first manager fired?

What will Fulham have to do to shut up the pundits?

Is there a good handicapping service that lists odd angles to bet on a game with?

For example, ones that list facts like, "when playing on October 19, the New York Jets have only won once and then by 32" or "the last time San Diego won north of the Mason-Dixon line after October was November 21, 1997" or "The Cleveland Browns have never beaten a team who had a player named Deion." [All three of those facts are completely made up]

The BBC does something like this for soccer and I see it all the time for NCAA Basketball but I've never seen it for NFL. Anyone seen a site that does this?

With the European friendly season coming up and matches like Celtic v. D.C. United on the books, I was wondering how Major League Soccer (the top United States league) had faired against non-United States teams. I was able to find such stats as D.C. United is 14-5-3 against non-U.S. competition but that's as far of a breakdown as I could get. Does anyone know where to track down a list of all international friendlies that MLS teams have played and what the overall records of the individual teams or MLS as a whole is in these matches?