LA Galaxy, Paul Robinson do their part to Advance Diplomatic Relations

By: Bob | December 7th, 2006

Other than the adrenaline rush that came from the perpetual threat of nuclear holocaust, just about the only thing I miss about the cold war is the sporting competitions. It was always exciting when the Soviet Union sent their hockey team to the United States to play teams from the NHL. There was something endearing about watching steroids filled East German women compete against the free world in track and field. Who could ever forget Rocky Balboa kicking commie ass in Rocky 4? Legendary. Politics and sports rarely mix well together, but during that era sports often were politics and sometimes that wasn’t a bad thing.

There are reports out of Iran today that Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy have invited Iran’s national football team to play a couple of friendlies in Los Angeles in early 2007. This is of course big news since the governments of the two countries get along about as well as Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger. Some details still need to be worked out including the whole issue of whether the Iranian players will need to be fingerprinted before being allowed to enter the U.S. and whether the players will be able to bring all their wives or if they can adopt Landon Donovan’s wife during the visit.

Considering LA’s large Iranian population, a friendly between the US and Iran at the Rose Bowl or some other venue would have the potential to be amazing. Here’s hoping that politics don’t get in the way of making it happen.

The other big diplomatic news of the day is that England keeper Paul Robinson has single handedly helped to improve relations between his country and Croatia through his epic goalkeeping blunder a couple months ago.

The British embassy in Zagreb has offered the Croatian government framed photographs of the infamous incident which occurred during a Euro 2008 qualifier two months ago, said the daily Vecernji List.

“We have decided to remind you of the early Christmas gift from Paul Robinson to Croatia, since we believe that was the key moment in relations between the two countries in 2006,” it quoted British ambassador to Croatia John Ramsden as saying.

Perhaps it is time to send Robinson to Northern Ireland.