World Cup Soccer: The Mania Hits The Homeland

World Cup Grips the Homeland

USA 2 - Ghana 1
USA 2 - Portugal 2
USA 0 - Germany 1

USA 1 - Belgium 2

I had no idea what to make of all those men in short pants running around a ridiculously lush green lawn last week. It was World Cup Soccer, a sport I know zip about. In spite of the zipness of my knowledge of the game, I got really pumped when Team USA rushed the opponent’s goal…and equally tense when the opposition attacked the US goal. Watching seven or eight players in a scrum in front of the goal, with the ball being kicked around or bounced off their heads, and the goal keeper making miraculous saves, is as adrenaline pumping an experience as any sport I’ve witnessed.

It was all the maneuvers in the middle that I couldn’t follow. What’s a yellow card? How do the referees tell whether a player was fouled or is making a phony “flop” after contact with an opponent? Why can’t a coach substitute players whenever he sees an advantage? Why aren’t there time outs?  (Not even TV time outs for sponsors to sell us stuff and I can go to the bathroom?) I still don’t know the answers but it didn’t deter me from being glued to the game.

There was a game of strategy and finesse going on right before my eyes but I couldn’t explain it better than I could a chess match. I had no idea what the white lines painted on the lush green grass mean. The announcers now and then talked about midfielders and strikers. What? The goalkeeper job, yes - at least one job I understood - keep the other team from booting a ball into the net behind him.



How can you possibly play a sport in which you can’t use your hands? Ha! The players successfully use their heads (literally) to redirect a ball into the goal or pass it to a teammate. The fancy footwork required to move the ball without allowing a defender to kick it away requires the agility of a, dare I say this of a macho sport, ballet dancer. And being able to boot the ball a country mile or get it to curl around a goal post and into the net for a point? Blew my mind.



World Cup stadiums are gigantic state-of-the-art architectural facilities with mega-jumbotrons that capture the action. If you stuck the entire 33,000 population of my little Watertown, MA, into one of those behemoth edifices, we would rattle around like a pebble in a ten gallon pail.

The millions of people feverishly watching know the game like catechism. Their entire national identity is invested in their team. They travel over time zones and hemispheres to become spectators, to will their team to victory with their zeal. A defeat is a crushing blow. A victory is one step closer to the Holy Grail, the World Cup.

As Americans, we are loyal to the teams we love. Futbol fans? The word fanatic comes to mind. They can be unruly, boorish, homophobic and racist - behavior that would not be tolerated at any national US sporting event. 



Games are often decided by one goal, scores of 1-0 or 2-1 are as common as pennies in your change purse. The athletes are in super-human physical shape. When they sprint to catch up with the ball on a field the size of a small prairie, it looks like they have afterburners in their legs. It was estimated that USA player Michael Bradley ran a total of 26 miles during the three games the US played. Can you imagine an American baseball, football, or basketball player doing that?



The American team was a not expected to survive the first round containing the toughest teams in the world, the so-called “Group of Death” round. That description tells you a ton about the seriousness of competition. The red white and blue stunned the world by advancing to the next round. They were defeated by Belgium in the second round but their spunky play and spirit won over fans like me who never watched a soccer game in our lives.

Soccer’s a team game but one big reason Team America advanced was the wow factor of goal tender Tim Howard, a one-man highlight reel all by himself.

I’m not hooked on the sport yet but I'm watching the final games, even though the USA has been eliminated. I’ll have snacks ready and be prepared to watch each of the two non-stop, 45-minute halves of the game. Bathroom breaks? That’s why I’ll have the game on DVR, the first lesson I learned after watching with my legs crossed during the “Group of Death” games.

 

 

Comments

[Jeff]

Ditto to all head scratching rules and characteristics of the game you mentioned. You may remember our first introduction to soccer was at St Mike's when the college started a team. I remember Norm Roy being one of the players. My best moments are the Kia commercials. The best one is watching the face of the black guy in the garage when the Brazilian model walks away!

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr aka pt at large]

My junior year roommate Bob Tobin was one of the kids who signed up to play on the team led by Dr. Citarella in 1960 when A.D. "Doc" Jacobs asked him to start a team and to coach it. http://www.smcathletics.com/information/halloffame/citarella_armand
A successful opthomologist, Dr. Bob Tobin established the "Doc" Citarella Scholarship for scholar-athletes with his classmate Richard Endrelunas, Esq. (SMC '64) to honor Professor Armand Citarella who was a highly regarded classics scholar and the first soccer coach at SMC. Some of the kids who made the team had never played soccer before!

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr aka pt at large]

That's another thing about the soccer matches so far - no commercials during the game, keeps you glued to the tube. BUT here's the one you liked, certainly gets attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Aa0IA21wk
Here's another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHhFGu4ZuTc
KIA thinks strategically, huh?

[Mary Seppi]

Nice writing, Paul!

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr aka pt at large]

Thanks, Mary! I know you see lots of soccer in Chile, who lost a tough match against Brazil I think.
World Cup soccer is making a pretty big splash in the USA.

[Mary Seppi]

I wasn't so into it before either, but what a thrill to see the best athletes in the world with no note of steroids...
Even my mom is into it.
Again, nice article!

[Bill Ives]

Paul - Great post we were in Amsterdam just before the Dutch played Spain in the opening game. this represented a rivalry that goes back centuries as were leaned in several museum there. The Dutch threw off the domination of Spain in the 1600s. The local feeling was they would have less luck this time. Then they went on to beat Spain 5 -1 while we were flying back. The city was draped in Orange as we left so there must have been a lot of beer drinking after that win. We will now be cheering them on this afternoon. Look forward to seeing you on the 15th.

[Ann Baker]

A great article. Now if you had been watching with someone who had grown up in the sport, you'd still be writing . And we watched some of the games on the Spanish channel. A whole other flavor than the US. Including TV commercials. And there is more to come…………..

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large]

I just finished watching the match between Costa Rica and the Netherlands...two extra time periods then a Shoot Out, the first one I ever saw. Whewwww. I see what you mean.

[A Friend]

Dear Paul,

So glad you're enjoying the WC.

No time outs, except those by the referee, usually to deal with injuries or more likely fake injuries; he adds time (known as "stoppage time") at the end of the half--usually 1 to 5 minutes--to compensate for minutes lost to time outs. No ads. Professional players worldwide have their shirts covered in ads, but they don't do that at the WC.

Most difficult rule to comprehend, and the one most often invoked, is the offside rule. In its most simplistic form, it says that unless you (the player) have the ball, there must always be at least one opposing player (i.e., defender, not including the goalie a/k/a "keeper") between you and the opposing goal. If you're approaching the other team's goal without the ball, and a teammate behind you with the ball kicks (passes) it to you, you cannot be past the last defensive player (again not including the keeper) when the ball is struck.

You have to be at least "even" with that last defensive player when the ball is struck. The sideline (in soccer it's called the "touch line") referees have been very good about making the correct calls throughout the tournament.

Also, the offside rule does not apply during a corner kick.

Fake injuries are part of gaming the referee, and are a plague on the sport. They're the reason a lot of Americans (rightfully so) don't like watching. Brazil's Neymar had his back broken last game; I thought he was faking. And NO FOUL WAS CALLED.

Brazil's strategy--disgusting, technically illegal, and very un-Brazilian--is to rough up the other team as much as they can, and dare the refs (cowed by a rabid pro-Brazil crowd) to yellow card (or "book") them. If a player gets two yellow cards in a game, he's out and the team plays shorthanded. Yellow is a "caution" card. A red card is given for egregious fouls and results in instant expulsion; again, the team plays shorthanded.

Brazil got away with it (sort of) vs. Colombia, where they pounded with impunity (due to poor refereeing) on James, the Colombian striker and rising world star. As Colombia started to fight back, Brazil's own star striker, Neymar, paid the price for their brutal tactics, which came around against them when a Colombian defender accidentally (on purpose) kneed him in the spine.

Unlike Colombia, which was trying to play the game the way it should be played, at least in the first half, Germany will gladly match Brazil foul for foul. However, give the endemic corruption of FIFA, the referee may well penalize Germany more because Brazil is the host country, and the Brazilian fans may well riot (and/or lynch the ref) if their team loses.

The best offensive player (or "striker") on most every team wears the number 10. Lionel Messi of Argentina is considered the best striker in the world, and has been for at least 5 years. And yeah, he's number 10.

In case you didn't see it, one of the greatest goals in World Cup history (and one of the greatest single achievements in any sport) by Dutch striker van Persie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tS0swOhqBM

Note how careful he was to stay on side (see the white players between him an the goal line) when the ball was struck. By the time the ball reached him, he was two yards ahead of the nearest defender.

Best all-around player in the world, IMO, is Netherland's Arjen Robben. Not the most prolific scorer but so dangerous with the ball, creating plays and dishing passes to open teammates.

FIFA (which puts on The World Cup) is corrupt beyond words, but these are a good start:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I&list=TL1SVGbt22opI0tYUzvdCUJ1H3LoQw-P2L