The women’s World Cup final on ESPN between the United States and Japan garnered an 8.6 overnight rating, surpassing the men’s first-round World Cup matchup between the United States and England, which drew a 7.3 on ABC. The top five markets for ESPN’s Sunday afternoon broadcast of the final in Germany were Baltimore (12.3), San Diego (11.8), West Palm Beach (11.7), Washington D.C., and Norfolk, Virginia.

The 1999 women’s World Cup final, won by the United States, drew a 13.3 overnight rating, but that game was played in the United States, no doubt contributing to higher numbers.

College football fans take their teams seriously, what with poisoning iconic trees on a rival team’s campus and general stupidity on the majority of Internet message boards, and yet it’s tough to imagine Nick Saban resigning as coach of the University of Alabama because of death threats from fans. But that’s what happened to Frank Schaefer, soccer coach of Cologne of the Bundesliga in Germany, who called it a day with three games left in the season after spectators – worried that losses might relegate the team to a lower division – left this charming sign in Cologne’s practice area on Monday: “If you go down we’ll kill you.”

Yeah, those Europeans take their soccer a wee bit seriously. But hey, they don’t have capital punishment over there, so they’re obviously more civilized than us…

(Source: UPI)