An eventful Monday began just 10 minutes after noon, when João Pereira brought down Mario Götze in the Portuguese 18 yard box, conceding a penalty and drawing a yellow card for his troubles. A little over fifteen minutes later, Portugal’s striker Hugo Almeida grabbed his hamstring and exited the match, swiftly followed by another German goal — this tally from Mats Hummels — and then, well, Pop covered this yesterday: What you can’t see from that angle is the referee staring directly at them as it occurs, nor the incident that preceded it, for which this was...
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Anatomy of a Goal (and Day Five Previews)
Before we get to anything else, we need to talk about this: [this space used to be filled with a gif of a goal but sadly has fallen to internet rot] I know, it happened on Friday and there have been eleventy billion matches between then and now. But try to remember. Try to remember when Spain and the Netherlands were playing one another in a tense and competitive soccer match, rather than Iker Casillas’ nightmare and a “performance that sang of the glue factory.” Before this moment, it looked as if Spain was going to head...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Over the Line, Mark It Zero!
This weekend might have been the end of the American soccer boom that many pundits and fans had predicted would result from a deep Yank run combined with a serious push by ESPN/ABC to market the matches. The ratings are up tremendously over 2006, which was played in essentially the same time-zone, over the same month. It is possible that Americans are growing to love soccer, but I doubt it. I had a conversation with a friend, who is a once-every-four-years viewer: Captain: You must be happy now that 2/3 of the World Cup audience in America...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: US v Ghana
With this morning’s methodical victory over Good Korea, Uruguay become the Cup’s first Quarterfinalist, and the US’s potential opponent should the Yanks get past Ghana’s Black Stars this afternoon (but more on that later). First we need to take a look at how the teams that got this far did so, and how some teams ended up watching this morning’s action from home. This tournament has been anything but pain-by-numbers, with upsets and intrigue galore. Having a group stage like the one just concluded — outside the first go-round where teams were still adjusting to each other,...
Continue reading...Mea Copa: Group D, Where D Stands for Death
I came late to soccer. I never played it, aside from whacking a ball around in friends’ yards, until I got to college, where it was more an excuse to get out and enjoy the fall than it was anything like an athletic pursuit. But because I didn’t grow up with it, I tend to analogize things for myself using the prism of baseball, which is the sport I did grow up with, and which still holds a place deep in me. Players and teams in soccer become baseball teams: Real Madrid is the Yankees. Barcelona is...
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