Our latest visitor from a country that hadn't clicked on our site until now is Bulgaria. I have fond memories of Bulgaria, because they were the Cinderella team of 1994, when the World Cup was held here in the United States. They had the classic "Golden Generation" of players that year and ended up in fourth place in the tournament. Everybody was fussing about Hristo Stoichkov, but my favorite player on that team was Yordan Letchkov. When his bald head scored that goal against Germany in the quarterfinals, I was thrilled.Stoichkov was the one who brought his intensity to Major League Soccer, playing with the Chicago Fire and DC United. He coached Bulgaria's national team for a while, but resigned in April of this year.
Turns out that Mexico isn't the only team nicknamed for the colors in the flag- Bulgaria's squad is known as the Tricolors, as well as the Lions. Bulgaria's national team is now captained by Dimitar Berbatov, the Tottenham Hotspur striker. Manchester City's Martin Petrov is also a top player for them.
Bravo? For what? they're out of the Euro 2008! And tricolors aren't france and italy and so many other flags tricolors?
ReplyDeleteUm, I meant the nickname that they're known by - Italy is called the Azzurri, aren't they, and France Les Bleus, or something?
ReplyDeleteSo far, the only teams that I know of that are called by the number of colors in the flag are Mexico (El Tri) and Bulgaria (Tricolors). Nowhere did I say they're the only countries with three colors in their flag. Heck, that could apply to the U.S.
I believe Ecuador is known as LA Tricolor as opposed to EL Tricolor.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mexicans don't really have fond memories of Bulgaria.
I have nightmares of Bulgaria. Remember when they scored that one winning goal in the WC 94 and they all duck piled on each other, well one player did something nasty to another player's behind. Why Bulgaria, why?
ReplyDeleteOne thing I find funny about Bulgaria is that many of their players (at least the national team's) have a last name that ends in -ov.
ReplyDeleteStoitchkov
Letchkov
Berbatov
Petrov
Ivankov
I guess it's kind of like a lot of Mexican/Hispanic surnames end in -ez
Gomez
Perez
Hernandez
Rodriguez
Bueno... um, well, a lot but not that one :)
I didn't know Berbs was the captain. That makes three national captains in the Spurs squad, along with Robbie Keane of Ireland and Paul Stalteri of Canada.
ReplyDelete(Younes Kaboul is the France U21 captain, so I guess it's three-and-a-half ;) ).