It was quite an enjoyable game yesterday, even if I'm American enough to think that a tie is like kissing your sister. My soccer aficionado friends tell me that there's a decent shot that we'll move on to the next round (just don't lose to Germany).
The local pub was packed - literally standing room only It was mostly a young crowd, which bodes well for the future of the game in this Republic. Most of the players seem genuinely American, which is nice - we mostly don't import our World Cup team.
Letting Portugal score in the last 30 seconds of the game is, as they say in New England, a pissah. Not a Wicked Pissah (which is good), but a plain jane Pissah (which is bad). I don't make the rules on New England lingo, I just report.
I've actually learned enough about the offsides rule to realize that Portugal had five players offsides at one point during the last two minutes. Five. That's like half the team or something. I guess that Futbol doesn't have a technical foul rule.
I'm actually looking forwards to Thursday and the game against die Deutsche Volk. Given that Team USA's coach is German, this could be interesting.
My impression so far is that it's more like baseball in the tension you get, but more like basketball in the action (everyone is always running). The tension wins, which makes it a better spectator sport than basketball.
The idea that the referees can add time to the clock is gay. And I only say "gay" to redeem my man card after doing a post about soccer ...
7 comments:
Wait, so you're telling me that the most important soccer event, that happens once every four years, allows for a tie?!
This sums up my feelings on the sport. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KeG_i8CWE8
Your man card is fine and renewed for another year. I enjoyed the game too.
I started to appreciate metric football more when I realized how much like basketball it is. You swing the ball side to side faster than the defense can react; fast break is good; look for a back-door cutter; play defense with your feet. If you appreciate fundamentally sound basketball played below the rim by mere mortals, I recommend women's college ball, believe it or not.
Still, this tournament is a placeholder until the real World Cup, which will be played next year. ;-)
Go USA Eagles!
My dad lost his man card day-before-yesterday.
He is 84.
He told me (in a too giddy voice) that he loved soccer, when he was a kid.
I did not know that Euro excuse for a sport dad invaded Texas (of all places) that far back in history.
For Pete's sake! He was a REAL cow-chasing cowboy on the Mexican border as a young man.
I was disturbed by this revealed "love" of soccer.
What else don't I know?
Seems like a lot of games are like baseball, about as exciting as watching grass grow... :-)
Yes, a tie is allowed in the first round. A tie has brought down many great teams because they did not manage to get enough points to go to the next round and allowed cinderellas move forward. Than and scored goals (favor & against) makes the first round about strategy if your team is not full of super players.
IRRC, the next round will not dispense with the niceties of ties, but will transpose to overtime (two 15 minutes periods) and even if then you can't get a winner... the penalty shoot-out..... and it will still be shorter than a regular Football game!
It does not get any better than that.
I’ve come to the realization that my dislike of soccer isn’t the fact that it is kind of boring to watch, although it is.
I think my biggest reason for disliking it is because of all of the preening douchbags that like it as obviously as possible, because it is so “European.” Or rather, “not American.”
There is a large group of people out there that will look at anything European and automatically assume that it is superior simply because it is European, and that grates on me for some reason. Because it is so glaringly obvious that so many people in American pretend to like soccer because of what liking soccer says about them, I have a marked dislike of the sport.
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