Weekend Junk Pile: Unadulterated Joy in Honduras, Footballers Drip in Color, and Other Stuff I Couldn’t Pass Up

Here are a few of the things that caught my attention over the past few weeks, none of which was quite enough for a full post.

Spotted this over on Kickette and…um… Wow. Words fail.

Joy. Pure Joy.

There are videos all over the place this week of Hondurans declaring their love for the United States.

Why is that? What did the US do? Did they get involved in the coup to stop the political turmoil? Perhaps offer humanitarian aid?

Nope. They scored the equalizer against Costa Rica in the 95th minute (!!), thus denying CR the three points and giving Honduras its first trip to World Cup since 1982.

The one above is good and professionally produced, but this is one of my favorites; with “We Are the Champions” playing and a baby crying in the background while the handheld camera catches the action on TV, I thought it was just delightful in its heartfelt simplicity. I don’t understand much Spanish, but I do understand “Viva US por siempre.” I also understand the much-repeated phrase in this radio broadcast: Estamos en el mundial. (The fun starts at about the 20th second.)

Buena suerte en 2010, Honduras!

And speaking of Jonny Bornstein, the 95th minuge Hero of Honduras, Jen over at LA Galaxy Offside has a fun “Caption This” photo up right now.

Go on. Take your shot.

There’s another Caption This photo over at Athletic Bilbao Offside — part of their weekly “Caption This” event.

And this is disturbing as hell, yet ultimately harmless

On the topic of “Wow, that’s disturbing,” this was originally posted on Lyon Offside but it didn’t get a whole lot of press elsewhere.

Lyon player Bafetimbi Gomis collapsed on the field during a France National Team practice before the recent World Cup qualifiers and was out cold for several minutes. This created a panic on the pitch, given that it hasn’t been all that long since Antonio Puerta and similar tragedies. And closer to home, former Equipe de France players Lilian Thuram and Steve Savidan have recently had to give up their careers due to heart defects.

Fortunately, the news is much better for Gomis. From Lyon:

“Since 14-years-old, Bafe has been the subject of such vasovagal episodes, comparable to a drop in blood pressure, as a lot of people could experience,” said Ohrant.

“At St Etienne, he used to faint. We got his whole medical file, and I can testify very exhaustive medical examinations have been made, and he has been put under extreme monitoring.

“The final conclusion is there is no contraindication to high level sport.

Excellent news. But I’d still be a little afraid to be his teammate.

And finally, last but not least, this was swiped directly from Bundesliga Offside, simply because it made me laugh out loud. If you don’t visit there regularly, you should. If you do, you should visit more often.

Photo: Evolution of Man

Hoffenheim’s Vedad Ibisevic, Carlos Eduardo and Luiz Gustavo put on their football boots.

(Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

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Category: World Football