Weekend Junk Pile, OR Why My Favorite Post of the Week Has Photos of Naked Women

Some things that caught my attention this week and/or made me smile, but which weren’t enough for an entire post.

First, photos and stories from Inara over at the excellent Lyon Offside. In the post, she talks about how the US women’s league, WPS, was able to sign some of Lyon’s best female players, mid-season, and about how Lyon (in this story the David to WPS’s Goliath) decided not to take this lying down. Ultimately, it’s about how this might end up being a good thing for French women’s football — at least in the long run.

I’m hoping that anyone with an interest in women’s soccer/football will stop by and read the post, because it’s an interesting view of a side of the game that we rarely get to see.

But that’s probably not why most of you are here, is it? So I’ll let Inara tell you about the rest of it.

[S]ome people have gotten so tired of women’s football not getting attention in France that they are taking matters into their own hands. They want to prove that hot women in football isn’t just synonymous with being a WAG – female footballers can be hot too (see below for proof). They hope that photos like these (many of which contain female OL players) will convince more people to show up at games.

What do you think? Beautiful photos? Great publicity? Or demeaning to the athletes? Or perhaps all of the above?

More photos in Inara’s post.

Pity the poor gents of Southampton in the English Championship. Not only were they sitting in 22nd place going into this weekend (yes, that would be the relegation zone), they were also forbidden from enjoying the…um…company of females prior to the games. For two weeks. From their coach:

“The players have to really live like monks — they have to sleep in the kitchen and drink only water and very good other liquids and have proper food. I tell the players to send their wives to a resort and have a very good sleep. They must focus only on football.”

And the worst part of all? It didn’t even work. Birmingham 1-0 Southampton.

I was visiting all the photo sites, looking for a photo of Cedric Carrasso’s (Toulouse) hideous puce goalkeeper kit. Couldn’t find any, alas, but I did find this adorable one of Andre-Pierre Gignac celebrating Toulouse’s 3-0 win over Bordeaux with his son.

All together now: Awwwwww.

Also, while I’m on the subject, I’m looking for photos of the most hideous and/or interesting goalkeeper kits you’ve seen. Any photos in your collection? Send them to me at laurie[at]theoffside[dot]com.

And while we’re on the topic of players with adorable kids, how about Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o with his son:

Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images

And my final favorite photo of the week was this one, stolen from the Barcelona blog, of backup goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto as he saves a penalty against Real Mallorca:

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Category: World Football