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.

Yes, the Big XII is a Joke

I'd been avoiding any discussion of college football lest it renew any bitter, hate-filled exchanges between Pac 10 supporters and certain Utah fans.  But a commenter asked, so here's a thread on the moving and shaking in the college football world.

1.  No, U$C, you cannot pay cash to your players to play for you.  And as a memo to your anonymous sources claiming that the sanctions are warranted if you're a UCLA fan:  The sanctions are warranted if you care about the integrity of college sports--95% of which offers no promise of 8-figure lucrative professional contracts, just the chance to get a great education for free.  The arrogance / chutzpah is just breathtaking. 

2.  Can we finally concede that the Big XII (and by association Mack Brown) are a joke?  One team is about to move and that sets off dominos where the whole conference IMPLODES.  If Nebraska, which hasn't been relevant in 15 years, is the glue that holds your conference together, then yeah, you've got issues. 

3.  Implications?  There's lots of internet chatter about what all is about to go down.  One prospect is Nebraska going to Big 10 (which now actually becomes 12 schools), and six of the Big XII coming to the Pac 10.  The Pac 10 would then have two, 8-team divisions (Arizona and ASU, the last two to join the Pac 10 would merge with the 6 Big XII schools).  At this point there's already several "If"s that need to happen so I'll stop with the hypotheses. 

What this is showing is the complete failure of the NCAA.  Raise your hand if you think these moves have nothing to do with money.  I thought so.  Clearly money is a huge part of college athletics (see no. 1 above).  It shouldn't be.  But it is.  The NCAA has been an ostrich in all of this...at least when it comes to football.  Long ago, the NCAA asserted its control over men's basketball and created the tournament that drives us all crazy in March.  Yet when it comes to football we have independent conferences governing play.  This is like 40 years ago the NFL and the AFL competing for TV/ticket dollars.  It's really time to end the charade.  Other than serving as a middleman between schools and TV contracts, I don't see the point of independent conferences.  Put all (the old D1A) schools on the same field.  Conferences become nothing more than geographic organization tools--no different than the conferences and divisions in professional sports.  Bowls can stay, but they now become regional battles like in the Men's Basketball tournament.  Winners play maybe 2 extra games to determine a national champion.  The argument that the NCAA cares about football players and therefore does not want to expose them to extra games does not wash.  If they gave a rat's ass about student athlete's they'd remove the archane rules governing scholarships.

There's lots to chew on since the Nebraska news broke.  Feel free to chime.  Did I mention the Big XII is a joke? 

Sportsmanship

News outlets are reporting that legendary Coach John Wooden is hospitalized in grave condition, though I'm hearing through the grapevine that he may have already passed [Revised per comment below].    As the token Bruin here, I feel obligated to say a few words.

Sure, he coached Alcindor and Walton, won 10 NCAA men's basketball titles, wrote countless books on coaching--in sport and in life, etc.  But even as a die-hard Bruin athletics fan, I think Coach Wooden's greatest accomplishment was his character.  There are far too many adorable and inspiring Wooden stories out there to share.  Let's just say when Detroit Tigers' Manager Jim Leyland sent Armando Galarraga out to deliver the lineup cards to Umpire Jim Joyce today, I thought the gesture sounded like something from Wooden's playbook. 

So, to honor Coach Wooden, I will take this time to reflect on how I can strive to be even fractionally more like Coach Wooden.  Maybe I'll even compose a love letter.  (By the way, good luck reading that piece without drowning in tears).

You are now with Nell, Coach.  Godspeed.

Olympic Hockey FAQ

1.  I'm seeing a lot of headlines about USA winning like the final game against Canada.  What happened?

The men's U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated Canada 5-3 in the final game of the preliminary round of play.  The Olympics began with three groups of four teams each.  Each team then played three games against each of the other members in the group.  A win in regulation resulted in 3 points, a win in OT or shootout resulted in 2, while a loss in either resulted in 0 or 1 point, respectively. As an aside, the points awarded in the preliminary round reflect a fair and accurate distribution of points based on the victory obtained.  In the NHL, you receive 2 points for a win (in regulation, OT, or shootout), but 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss.  This results in an extra point being awarded to a losing team--which rewards teams like San Jose and hurts teams like my beloved Kings. 

2.  So, you're saying this game was not that important?

No, that's not what I'm saying.  When Cal plays Stanfurd, the game is always important, regardless of the actual stakes.  Likewise, the USA-Canada hockey rivalry is storied.  In 2002, for example, the Canadians beat us on our soil to win the gold.  On top of that, Canada entered this tournament a favorite to win the gold (along with Russia).  To beat them 5-3 sends a strong statement.  We have 10x the population of Canada, but our hockey program is largely relegated to a few colleges in the midwest and northeast.  Canada has players entering the lower level pro leagues at 17. 

3.  OK, but aside from the sentimental crap about hockey minor leagues, there was nothing at stake in this game?

Au contraire.  By beating Canada, and by having a large enough goal differential, the United States is the number 1 seed and gets an automatic berth to the quarterfinals.  Teams ranked between 5 and 12 must play an additional game to move on to the quarterfinals.  Think of it as a bye in the NFL playoffs.  With the number 1 seeding, we will play the winner of the 8/9 seeded teams--meaning we play the winner of Switzerland/Belarus.  Neither is a hockey powerhouse, and neither has more than a few NHL players on their roster.  Not to put the cart before the horse, but the US has a good chance of beating either of those teams and advancing to the semi-finals.  In the semis, we will face either Latvia, Czech Republic, or Finland.  On the other hand, Canada falls to the sixth seed and must play Germany (0-3 so far) to advance to the quarterfinals.  In the quarterfinals, it will face Russia.  That means of the two teams favored to win, one will go home without a medal.  

4.  That means the US should waltz into the gold medal game?

I'd like to think so, but you can't completely discount the Czech or Finn.  I think the U.S. has a better team than either of those two countries, but there are a few subtleties of international play that can hurt us.  Most importantly, the rink is about 13 feet wider, which favors a less physical, more skilled passing style of play--the traditional domain of the Europeans.  Also, while team USA beat Canada, we did not exactly dominate them.  They controlled the puck more than the US and got far more scoring opportunities.  Thankfully, Ryan Miller made some remarkable saves.  Incidentally, it appears that Miller is single-handedly keeping Buffalo in the playoff hunt.  Yes, he's that good. 

5.  Screw hockey, when does the World Cup start?

Not soon enough. 

Toe Pick

Alright, I realize this may generate a lot of angry comments, Booo-urnses, rotten tomatoes, or immediate clicks to the HuffPo link in your bookmark, but I need to get this off my chest.

First, I may be slightly biased about the sport of figure skating because I think the greatest figure skating move around is two hockey players holding each other suggestively and spinning around the ice while bashing each others' brains out.  Plus there's an honorable element to that (50 seconds in).    OK, D.B. Sweeney moment out of the way. 

Second, as a product of the former Soviet Union, I've had to watch a bit too much figure skating than I care to admit.  In fact one of my earliest childhood memories is a Soviet couple winning gold by skating to Albinoni's Adagio in D (the couple on TV right now is dancing to Albinoni's Adagio in D).  And I've come to the conclusion that the sport is just like network TV...very uncreative.  (The limited song rotation in the sport is probably just another symptom of the lack of creativity).  I realize there are specific elements that they have to hit.  I get that.  I also realize the limits imposed on the sport by the laws of physics (you spin faster when you move your hands closer to your body).  But despite all that, the sport as a whole just borrows whatever move garners the max points at the present time.  For example, all the spinners grab their skates now because that gets a tenth of point extra or something.  Similarly, the jump du jour is a triple toe loop.  The axle is apparently too easy these days.  The phenomenon exists in other sports. The Miami Dolphins had marginal success with a new offense, and next thing you know, every friggin team is doing a version of the "wildcat offense." My earlier analogy to network TV is also appropriate because for every American Idol (a British show), you have America's Got Talent.  For Dancing with the Stars, you have So You Think You Can Dance.  For every successful season of 24, you have another season that takes the precise story arc, erases the penciled in recycled characters and "terrorist countries", and calls it a wrap. 

Third, the NBC announcers, for figure skating at least, are TERRIBLE.  "They're just savoring the moment right now."  Huh?  What the hell does that mean?  I just muted them and pretended John Madden was calling the skating:  "You know Al, if the Chinese want to take home the gold, they really can't afford to slip...and I might add, Brett Favre really looks like a kid having fun out there on the ice."

FIFA...It's Not An Accounting Term

Following soccer in the U.S. is a bit like a cult membership (along with hockey).  I suppose like all cults, we try our best to evangelize outsiders to the cause.  In that vein, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) just completed its grouping selections for World Cup 2010 in South Africa.  The US will play in Group C along with England, Algeria, and Slovenia.  [Bonus points if you can name the capital of Slovenia or the first NHL player to emerge from the country, without looking either up.]  Not to knock either of the other two teams, but I think U.S. and England should emerge from the group to go on to the elimination round.

Also, in years past, one group has been dubbed the Group of Death because of the high concentration of top quality teams.  This year, I think Group G is a possible contender.  Three teams are really good--leaving North Korea.  I guess they'll be playing for their lives, so they at least bring something to the moniker.  [Max Power's alternate suggestion was that DPRK is the country of death...there's a lot of room to play with here.]

Thoughts?  Just dying to come out of the closet as a fan of the sport?  Will the current 2Ls have the audacity to take a week off as summer associates to travel to South Africa to watch the matches as co-blogger Disco Stu did?  

Kiffin Me Softly

As avid football fans (or East Bay residents who try to avoid riding BART during Raider games), I'm sure you've already heard that Al Davis fired Lane Kiffin as the head coach, replacing him with Tom Cable, the current O-Line coach.

(a) Al Davis is a moron who doesn't know what he's doing and the sooner he croaks, the sooner the Raiders will do well.

(b) Cable sucks. When he was at UCLA, he managed to make Karl Dorrell's play calling seem ingenious.

(c) Davis is such a cheap, morally corrupt person that he's claiming to have fired Kiffin "for cause" to get out of paying the remainder of the contract. Anyone with half a brain knows the organization was leaning on Kiffin to resign to avoid paying the remainder of his K. Cheapos.