It’s obvious to observers of the beautiful game in the US that Freddy Adu wasted too much time screwing around in the MLS and finger banging JoJo. He should have gone to an Italian, Dutch or French soccer academy where he could have developed his game at a top level as opposed to starring in a league that doesn’t do anything for players of his age and raw, undeveloped skill.

Adu’s been unable to secure a starting place in Portugal or France let alone regular playing time. Could this be the end of the boy wonder? Four Four Two takes a look at the premature demise of Freddy Adu.

Take Giuseppe Rossi of Villareal. Not only does he start for a La Liga (Spain) team but he’s also made his way onto the Italian national team. No small feat for a kid from Teaneck, New Jersey. His parents sent him to Italy in his teens and the results speak for themselves.

Adu’s not finished yet but he needs to establish himself somewhere and fast as opportunity is quickly passing him by. If his run of poor form and bad luck continues, he won’t even be able to bag a Kardashian. It’s not all bad. He’ll always have Ja Rule.

The San Fermin Festival kicked off on Monday in Pamplona, Spain. Tuesday started with the running of the bulls at 8:00 AM. Surprisingly no one was gored but several runners went to the hospital with minor injuries. The running of the bulls also means the mascot version isn’t too far off. The annual Mascot Grand National goes down in early October. Feel the furry.

Photo: AP Photo/EFE/Jesus Diges

I’m not generally much for the soccer or futbol or football or footy or whatever you wanna call it. I usually leave that up to Mustafa to cover up here on the Deuce. A funny thing did happen while watching USA actually compete and ultimately lose to Brazil 3-2 in the championship game of the Confederation Cup however…I watched.

And i didnt just watch when we got into the 2nd round and beyond, I actually watched us lose the first couple games. Not sure why either. Maybe i was just bored, working from home and in desperate need of something interesting on the television. Well, i did indeed find interesting television, great drama even, and it made me keep watching, even when USA was losing. I watched and for the first time saw what the rest of the world sees when it watches soccer…that it is actually a pretty enjoyable sport to watch.

No offense to the MLS, but, it just isnt as interesting. The players arent as good, plain and simple. Brazil and Spain were all-star teams, USA as well to a much lesser degree, but they competed and showed that USA soccer might just be beginning to turn a curve in international soccer. USA can now show up with the best of the world and, at the very least, compete for 90 minutes…and sometimes even win.

This is what USA Soccer needs to do if it wants people like me, the non soccer fan, to watch their games. I didnt grow up playing soccer, it wasn’t on tv when I was a kid, we had crappy indoor scocer as our local “pro” teams that came and left quicker than swine flu, so it has taken me quite a bit to warm up to thinking that soccer is a real sport that I would think about watching. 2 things were needed for me to really care about the game: 1) Have a team to care about; and 2) have that team be interesting to watch.

Sure, I could watch the DC United play, they would be my local team by default, but the quality of play in the MLS is so much lesser than, say, the Premiership, that it’s like watching the XFL…and we all remember how much that stunk. I could watch Premiership soccer like Mustafa, but I’ve never been to England and could give 2 shits about what is going on in that country’s soccer leagues. In reality, I just want to watch good, American soccer, because I am a gigantic homer. Now, I actually can…sorta…at least in international play. I cannot wait until the World Cup games.

So, congratulations to the USA Soccer team. They did more than just not embarrass themselves and they bought themselves many new fans of soccer. Its ok that they didn’t win, they were interesting. They competed and they did so with energy and passion. For that, I thank them. They were a joy to watch.

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

If it’s not making monkey noises at African players during soccer matches, making fun of Chinese facial features during the Olympics or wearing blackface to racially insult Lewis Hamilton, it’s just not Spain.

You can always count on the Spanish to do something horrifically racist while screaming that they aren’t racist as much as you can count on the sun rising and setting. Someone in Spain has set up a website called “Burst Hamilton’s Tire” in English that “encourages visitors to leave ‘virtual nails’ on a mock-up of the Brazilian racetrack where he hopes to win the drivers’ championship this Sunday”.

A nice feature of the website allows fans to leave comments and they haven’t disappointed.

More than 16,000 racist messages using terms like “nigger” and “half-breed” have been posted on a Spanish website.

One, calling himself David, left a message saying: “—- you ——-. Monkey.”

Another, dubbed Hamilton a conguito – a type of chocolate sweet with racist overtones – and wrote: “Conguito, you are going to die.”

One message on the site, from a man calling himself Carrillo, says: ‘Half-breed, kill yourself in your car.’

Another, from ‘Alberto’, says: ‘I hope you run over your dad in the first pit stop, Hamilton.

Let’s not leave out the messages calling for Hamilton to kill himself.

It’s not clear what’s more amazing about the phenomenon of racism in Spanish sport. Is it the acts of racism or the absolute denials of it by the Spanish? Cesc Fabregas, Rudy Fernandez and Pau Gasol among others have all come out denying that the Spanish are racist. Not once have we seen any athlete or person in charge of sport condemn the acts of racism that are almost too many to count. One would think Spanish basketball players that ply their trade in the NBA or soccer players who play on multi-national club teams would be a bit more sensitive to racism but then again we’re not dealing with astrophysicists here.

Don’t count on the sporting associations such as F1, FIFA or UEFA to do anything. They’re too busy rollin’ like playboys and coming down on countries and teams they don’t like. Even when they punish teams, the fines are laughable or they reverse themselves as seen in the Athletico Madrid-Liverpool Champions League match this season. UEFA banned the match from being played in Madrid after racist taunts during the Athletico-Marseille match but they reversed themselves and the game went on as scheduled.

Nothing will change until Spain is held to account and they are made to suffer by taking away sporting events and imposing heavy fines and bans. Here’s to Hamilton winning the title and destroys the field in the process. Hopefully, he’ll follow that up by dumping whatever tranny he’s dating from the Pussycat Girls and finds himself a nice girl like that Gabrielle Union. Gabby will give it up to any athlete any time, anywhere. That girl fine! I’d tell Gabby about my college lacrosse career but I just can’t deal with having Jason Kidd’s sloppy seconds. There have to be some sports blogger status hoes out there. We’ve not above getting some Bill Cosby/Sebastian Janikowski time in with you. What’s that? No, baby. That’s not a roofie. Email us at the Deuce if you’re in the mood for some sexual healing. Chimp’s off the market. Sorry, no hot monkey love for you.

It’s interesting how my friend Don Francisco Dos (He’s a Don Francisco imitator) has nothing good to say about Argentina. They think they’re better than everyone else. They’re wannabe Europeans. In their defense, there are quite a few Nazis down there so they can claim Europe or the Sudetenland at the very least. They do try their hardest to emulate Europe whether it be the constant protesting of the French or not-so subtle anti-Semitism of the whole continent. Sometimes they anticipate trends like the Spanish commitment to racism.

The four ladies above posing with the slanty eyes are members of the Argentina women’s Olympic soccer team. The picture was used in a sports paper to accompany a preview of their first Olympic match. It was taken about a week before the infamous Spanish basketball and tennis pictures.

The Argentines haven’t gotten any beef for the pictures yet. Maybe the Spanish took most of the heat especially after their refusal to understand why the poses were so racist. Former Spanish national soccer team manager Luis Aragones heard about the pictures and called with a message for Argentina. “Tell those amarillas de mierda [yellow shits] that you are much better than them. Don’t hold back, tell them. Tell them from me. You have to believe in yourself, you’re better than those amarillas de mierda!” They lost all their games including their last one against China 2-0.

This is an advertisement for a courier company, which took out a full page in the country’s best selling newspaper Marca…showing Spain’s Olympic Basketball team in full “slanty eye” mode. Apparently they thought no one would mind this. Anyone get the feeling that someone else might be gettin stabby while out there in China?

Via the Guardian UK

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Running with the bulls? Kid’s play. Bullfighting? Amateur night. We’ll see you bull jumping. Let’s see your cojones now, pendejo.

It’s been a couple weeks since Spain won Euro 2008. Keeper Pepe Reina (Liverpool) is probably still waking up in the middle of the night yelling, screaming and scaring the shit out of little kids and old people.

The players and coaches weren’t the only ones to get their party on. I don’t know what airline the Spanish national team uses but American sports teams need to find an American equivalent. Here’s video (via Who Ate All The Pies) of the flight attendants getting down for the team. Just skip to :22 for the PG.

I don’t know if I can accept this or any Macarena. They just don’t seem like they really mean it. In the words of Ice Cube, “I can do it, put your ass into it“. We need a dirty, grimy, freak nasty strip club version. Then again can the Macarena ever be sexy? I just don’t see it.

I do know one thing. These troopers put those mom shorts-wearing Southwest flight attendants to shame in spite of their half-ass Macarenain’.

Spain backup keeper Pepe Reina desperately needs his own variety show. Here he is moving the crowd like Rakim at Spain’s celebration after winning the Euro. Be afraid, Don. Be very afraid.