It's soccer sunday and I got sauce stains on my shirt!

I can't help but give a grin to all my proud friends who shit on my soccer loving ways. "You can't even use your hands." "I can't get interested in a sport that can end in a 0-0 tie." All I respond with is, "Take a set of cleats to the knee or ankle and holla back, youngin". Sure, that 8 out of ten times you see a soccer player hit the ground he's completely full of shit. Can you blame him though? He's trying to give his team the advantage and, furthermore, have one of the opposition sent back home to sulk in his own agony. It may get a little too spicy for my taste when some twat falls to the ground and holds up the game for ten minutes, grabbing his face like he just took a shot from Noah Flusterfist, DDS with poor depth perception. Meanwhile, they've showed the replay twelve times and no contact was made. I get it, no self respecting, American athlete would ever do anything to compromise the integrity of his sport or club or his own legacy. Right?

My inspiration for today came when watching some of the post game commentary on Fox Soccer and even though they weren't the team featured in the match, my boys in Napoli were the story. The commentators praised the team's success this season and apparent return to some small amount of glory. Growing up, we were always paying attention to the Italian channel on Sunday. Napoli were a force to be reckoned with, year in and year out. Two league titles, an Italian Cup, a Super Italian Cup (served with capicola and prosciutto) and a UEFA CUP. All these between 1986 and 1991. The most successful southern Italian team in history. The main focus through these years was the fact that we had Maradona, my #2 player of all time. You could call me a homer for this and I'll admit that if he'd played with Milan or Juventus he'd probably be as far down as #7 or #8. His arrival brought the first championships to a team south of Rome. He was almost as big as Jesus over there and for those of you who haven't been, JC and the crew are pretty big in that area.

Unfortunately, the team completely fell to shit after a string of tough seasons. They lost all the big names. Maradona, Gianfranco Zola, Daniel Fonseca, Ciro Ferrara and the Corleone Family. They went back and forth between the first and second league and in 2004 they went flat ass bankrupt with a debt of over 70 million euro. Nice. The pride of possibly the most culturally and socially picked on city in the country was squashed. Not that the city didn't deserve a little bit of the shit that was thrown at them but, have a run in with an Italian from any other part of the country then claim to be from Napoli, watch the reaction. Next to the Sicilians we got quite the rep. When Maradona signed with the team in 1984 a Neopolitan newspaper printed this fine piece of journalistic savvy regarding the city's problems and the big addition to the soccer team. " We have no mayor, no housing, no schools, no busing, no money or ideas but we have Maradona."

There is much speculation as to how the team came to be so far down shit's creek without a paddle or boat that there actually was no team at one point. Considering the city they represent had the same problem due to incompetence that would make George W look like the next Field's Medal winner and corruption that strengthens the stereo-type of Italian morals, it shouldn't be hard to figure out how a legend dropped from the face of the planet for a few years. But guess who's back?

Napoli spent two seasons in Italy's third league, Serie C1. They were promoted to Serie B after a strong showing and it only took them one season to get back to Serie A. In their first season they finished eighth. Keep in mind there are twenty teams and the bottom three get dropped to a lower league. They qualified for a European Tournament the following season and thanks to a strong performance, qualified for the UEFA Cup a year after that. As I sit here, they stand strong in third place with five matches left. No championships will come this season but I can't help but notice friends and family who live there, posting on FaceBook and Twitter regarding the team and how they are doing an entire people proud. They're the type of team everyone wants to love. No quit, high energy, no added baggage...yet. They score over a third of their goals within the last fifteen minutes of a game, having crushed many giants this year, listen closely for northern Italian sobbing, and have a shot at the Champions League for next season. Forza Napoli! Now don't go and fuck it all up again.