It’s The Day For Early Scoring…
…as Mexico electrifies their fans with a goal in the sixth minute. Argentina, is, of course, heavily favored in this 2006 World Cup Round of 16 match…
UPDATE 2:10 p.m.: Argentina answers quicky early in the 10th minute – but was it an own goal from Mexico? The replay is not conclusive…Regardless, 1-1…
UPDATE 2:51 p.m.: The many of you (most of you?) who aren’t fans of the Beautiful Game can amuse yourselves with this ignorant but nevertheless funny attack on the sport:
Most soccer matches end in scoreless ties (or nil, nil in soccer parlance), 1-1 deadlocks or 1-0 victories. A final score of 2-1 is regarded as a veritable outburst of offense, an avalanche of goal scoring that leaves exhausted fans shaking their heads and pining for the old days when teams knew how to play strong defense. A score of 2-0 is said to be a crushing victory (or defeat) of Carthaginian proportions rendering national shame and humiliation and potentially resulting in coup d’etat, or even war.
In truth, soccer could be played without using a ball at all, and few would notice the difference. The game consists of 22 men running up and down a grassy field for 90 minutes with little happening as fans scream wildly. When the ball actually approaches one of the goals, the fans reach fever pitch and the cheering becomes a deafening roar.Of course, these infrequent occurrences in which the soccer ball approaches the end zone–where goaltenders wile away their time perusing magazines, trimming their fingernails or inspecting blades of grass–rarely result in a shot on goal. Most often the ball ends up high over the goal, missing everything by 20 or 30 feet. These “near misses” typically send the fans into paroxysms; TV announcers scream themselves hoarse. Then the players mill about the field for another 20 or 30 minutes or so and the goaltenders return to their musings before the ball returns, like Halley’s comet in its far-flung orbit, for another pass in the general vicinity of the goal.
UPDATE 3:54 p.m.: 1-1 it stays, and into overtime we go…
UPDATE 4:06 p.m.: No golden goal, perhaps, but an amazing effort nonetheless – Argentina grabs the 2-1 lead in the 98th minute…
UPDATE 4:32 p.m.: The first quarterfinal match is set; it will be Germany and Argentina on Friday, and a great match it should be. Congrats to Mexico, who gave Argentina all they wanted and more in a losing effort…
If there is a sport, where a sudden loss/burst of effort can bring victory or defeat, at a level of incredible physical effort for the baseline….
A track and field event’s outcome are mostly predetermined, but in soccer, one man’s will lifts and another’s diminshes in the slightest, and the outcome changes.
“In truth, soccer could be played without using a ball at all, and few would notice the difference.”
This slight may actaully be true, when effort is secondary to the ball. too bad the writer can’t see past the ‘pretty bouncing ball’, because that is what soccer is all about.
And for a different take on the subject, there’s this:
http://kurlander.blogspot.com/2006/06/soccer-is-gay-i.html
First in a series, best read (in IMHO) in the order in which they were posted.
Hehe, that was amusing. Now back to the pitch.