The Beautiful Game

I think co-blogger James has fallen asleep at the wheel, so to speak, so I'm going to create this post that I'll periodically update with my thoughts on the World Cup.

So far, not even 1/3 of the way through the opening round-robin of play, a few things stand out.

1.  Ball is just fine.  No controversy here.  Move it along.

2.  Ah yes.  The Italians (and to a lesser extent the Argentinians and Portuguese).  These teams offer such dramatic performances, you'd think it was a production of Puccini's Turandot at La Scala.  (Translation:  These teams are up to their old tricks of diving at the slightest hint of contact.  Or as the witty British ESPN announcer said, "even if there's a puff of wind").  Thankfully, SLATE will be awarding "Dive of the Day" throughout the WC.

And if you're not a soccer fan and wonder how players can get away with this, the answer is referees.  There is only one ref for the entire pitch, though he does have two assistants.  But in general, given the speed of the game it is difficult to catch the dives in real time.  The solution?  Ex post facto video review by FIFA and game bans.  It's unsportsmanlike conduct and has no place in the game.

And in case you have doubts about where I stand on the matter, the following poster hangs in my office.  

3.  Knock on wood, but so far the teams have demonstrated sportsmanship and the referees have not screwed anything up too terribly.

4.  Raise your hand if you predicted the Brazil v. N. Korea outcome?  Yeah I thought so.


UPDATE:

UPDATE 2:  And in this video you can see the North Korean news reporting on the glorious 1-0 victory against Brazil.  Definitely waiting to see the People's Republic of Korea Sports Center Top 10 plays of the day from the Portugal match earlier today.  [Upon further analysis from Korean colleagues, the captions are made up...but still funny].

UPDATE 3: Well, I simply cannot imagine ANYONE claiming soccer is boring after watching THAT game. A goal ruled an offside, two goal posts, several near misses, and a game (and group) winner in stoppage time. Yeah, sometimes it does seem scripted. A few quick thoughts:

-- Bob Bradley looks like a genius. More accurately, Bradley is magnificently managing a team of players who rarely play with each other on the greatest stage for soccer (contra, France). His son still had some good touches too.

-- Donovan has come a long way since 2002. Much more mature, and much better at reading the D.

-- We won't know who we face in the Round of 16 for a few more hours. That determination really depends on the outcome of the Germany v. Ghana game and the Serbia v. Australia game. The likely opponent will either be Ghana or Serbia as runners up in the group. Neither one is an easy opponent, but better to face them than Germany.

-- I am definitely glad I am not a recent grad studying for the bar.

-- On the goal disallowed because of offsides: Offsides in soccer is probably the most difficult rule to enforce in all of sports. Even the infield fly rule is relatively simple. As written, an offside requires two things:

(a) a player must be in an offside position, which occurs if "he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent." Generally the goalie is the last opponent, meaning you have to be even or behind the last defender. And...

(b) the player must be involved in active play when the ball is played.

Translated, this means that when the ball is passed forward, the attacking player cannot be cherry picking in front of the goal. He must be even or behind the last defender. On a lot of the free kicks, you can see this dynamic. If they are too close to the goal, they are offsides. If the defenders move too far away from the goal, then they give the attackers a large space to time a run to the goal the instant the ball is played. This also means if two attackers are on a breakaway, and attacker with the ball passes it forward to the other attacker, then it is offsides. Notice that when a player gets a good run they always make that last cross go backwards to avoid any offsides call.

If you look at the video of the Donovan goal, embeded below, Edson Buddle Clint Dempsey is clearly in an offside position. He is closer to the goal line than any defender. In fact he is on the goal line. But when Donovan strikes the ball, Buddle is not interfering with the play. So no, offside call.

Back to the disallowed goal. The referee's assistant ruled that Dempsey was in an offside position. He clearly interfered in the play because he scored a goal. Review showed the instant the ball was played, he was even with the second to last defender, but then stepped ahead to get a better position to score the goal. It's that split second, when the ball is played, that the assistant must get right. Most of the time, they do. But it's very hard to see the position of the attacker, the player playing the ball, and the defenders, all at the same time. So, calls like this happen. It's not an outrage, but a part of the game. The call in the Slovenia game was an outrage because clearly the ref did not see a foul yet he called one.