I've been enjoying watching lots of World Cup the past few days. Seeing the last goal taken away from USA today in their match against Slovenia, however, was very painful. Eventually I had to stop watching the clip on youtube over and over again because it was just working me up into a frenzy. There is clearly no off-sides foul occurring. In fact, if the referee wanted to make any call he could have chosen from 2-3 Slovenian players who had full bear-hugs around American players at the time of the kick. Frustrating.
Two thoughts from today:
1) Nicole says this poor call by the referee is part of why Americans will never embrace Soccer in it's current form. We are big fans of justice, equity, and fairness here in the States and a sport that embraces human error and rejects any semblance of instant replay or official review is hard to swallow for Americans. FIFA has gone on record as wanting to preserve the human-error element of Soccer and rejects calls for instant replay or a "fourth official" with the ability to quickly view video evidence and alter game-changing calls on the field.
2) This afternoon on NPR I heard a brief interview with David Brooks from the NYT. His comment regarding soccer was funny to me and helped assuage the pain of our stolen win from earlier today: "soccer is agony." You can find the audio clip (~6 minutes) here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That's an interesting theory that Nicole put forward, but I think that aspect of Soccer is shared by America's Past Time. Look no further than the recent blown call by the umpire during the perfect game a couple weeks ago. Maybe it's not to the same degree as soccer, but the human aspect is something that has always been praised by baseball fans. (Even if it occasionally takes away a home run by your favorite team.)
I think that aspect of sport is the calling card of the conservative elements. They believe that human error is a part of the game just like any other strategy.
Soccer can never be popular until the best athletes in America are playing it, and that will never happen until it's the most popular (and highest paying) sport in America. It's a vicious cycle.
But you're right, it's been fun watching the World Cup, I just wish it was more like watching the Summer Olympics: United States dominance. Haha..oh well.
Post a Comment