The US beat Nigeria this morning (in soccer - there’s a Wold Cup going on right now, in case you didn’t realize it - showing games live at 5am certainly isn’t helping the ratings). They won their group, and are moving on to play England in the quarterfinals. Not that England, who has been having an excellent tournament and has one very dynamic forward, will be an easy game, but there’s not as much history there as there is with the defending champion Germany, the team the US would have faced if they had placed second.
Well, maybe I’m just tired, but I don’t find myself excited much at all. Maybe tomorrow (more on that below), but right now, I’m feeling irritated.
I’m irritated that the spying scandal has been so quietly covered up. I mean, two Chinese men were caught trying to tape the last Denmark tactical meeting before the China game (through a two-way mirror - Denamrk is lucky they caught them), and of course it’s just swept under the rug by China - no, of course we don’t know who they are, neither do the police, and we have no idea where they are now. And FIFA just closed the case. And then, after the China-Denmark game, the Denamrk coach is suspended two games, for supposedly pushing an official (she claims incidental contact might have occurred on the way on the field to get to her players) or alternatively for not shaking the Chinese coach’s hand, as is customary, depending on which news source you read. Of course, there is no footage of the push, and the handshake? That’s customary, not required. The Beijing Olympics are not going to go well next summer.
I’m irritated that the group the US plays next gets an extra day of rest before the quarterfinals. Those games were not listed in that timeslot on the TV guide, and I marked my calendar before the World Cup started, and it did not include any Monday games. I wonder when the times changed. (And yes, it could have been an error on my part and in the TV guide, and the US media didn’t mention it having changed, but in my opinion they’re being quiet about a lot of things.) This is a FIFA issue. I wonder what China is paying them.
Continuing my irritation with FIFA, the rules for the tiebreak procedure changed in the middle of the first round, with “fair play points” being added. I think it’s ridiculous that the rules have changed during the tournament. The men’s teams would never stand for it, and yet there have been no complaints from the media or the teams in this competition. And this rule does change strategy. Unbelievable. Oh, and how many cards did China have when this rule suddenly went into effect? 0.
I’m irritated that the US was told that the fields were going to be wider that they are. They were told the fields were going to be unusually wide, so they played their warmups on larger fields. Not a big irritation, though, as American players are used to adapting to playing in fields inside of tracks as well as larger, more spacious fields throughout college. Just another reason I’m irritated at China and FIFA.
I’m irritated that China decided to have to World Cup in the middle of Typhoon season (which generally runs May-November). They could have held it in April and had a much lower chance of having a massive storm hit Shaghai. The Shaghai field was already in terrible shape when the Cup began, and although it was much better this morning, it is supposed to be the site of the final on September 30. What a mess.
I’m irritated that the North Koreans have slowed down considerably since their game against the US. One of the announcers watching the game said that they looked like they had been doing fitness between matches. While he made it sound like a joke, given the Asian teams’ mentality, it is entirely possible that is the case. If Germany gets an easy quarterfinal because of it, I am going to be frustrated.
I’m really irritated with Abby Wambach. This is actually my biggest complaint, and the thing that has me most nervous. She is the star of the US team, and I have been so impressed with her throughout the start of this tournament. In 2003, she played every game and was able to score when the ball was put on her head, but she was gangly and easily muscled off the ball and quiet. And now she is strong and she trusts herself to use her feet and can score any way she needs to. She is a leader and she is constantly coming back to defend, and is a real presence. And yet, as this morning’s game wound down, she decided to join Lindsay Tarpley near Nigeria’s corner flag to do a little dancing with the ball and waste time. And just as Julie Foudy was commenting about how dangerous it is to play around with it like that, because the Nigerias will be frustrated and come in hard, and she almost lost some teeth doing it once, in comes a Nigeria defender hard from the side, stepping on Wambach’s foot and sending her to the ground. And she sat there rubbing, not her foot and broken toe, but the inside of her knee. She might have just torn some cartilage. And the fact that she got up to take some more (she didn’t learn, but kept playing with it, and the Nigerians almost scored on a subsequent counter attack) doesn’t mean anything. When I recently tore my cartilage, I got an initial sharp pain which quickly subsided, and it wasn’t until the next day that my knee was too swollen to bend. I’m going to be nervous until tomorrow on this one.
And while I’m at it, here’s my two-cents about the NFL cheating discussion:
In case you aren’t following it, the Patriots were just fined and lost draft picks because they were caught taping the Jets’ defensive coordinator’s signals. You’re allowed to have someone up in the press box with binoculars, a pen, and paper, and you are allowed to take pictures, but no video. Many people are outraged that the Patriots would be doing something like this. Now, come on. Not that it shouldn’t be punished, and it is against the rules, but don’t you think every team has some “fan” they put in row two to tape the other team’s defensive coordinator before they play that team, or some other strategy for getting those signals? That’s why some coaches don’t even try to hide what they’re calling. I’m sure it’s happening, and in fact all the past-coaches-turned-announcers are admitting it, and that’s why everyone is pushing so hard to put a headset into the linebacker’s helmet, just like they have in the quarterback’s, so that the defensive coordinator can call plays in directly rather than relying on hand signals.
Oh, and the Colts’ complaint that the field in Tennessee was sandier than it was the previous week when the Titans played the Saints? Boo hoo. It’s called home field advantage.
Seriously, I don’t have a really big problem with either of the above. The sand slowed down the Titans as much as the Colts. No one is using performance-enhancing drugs (or at least, that’s not the current issue).
OK, I feel better now. I’m off to mess with my fantasy team (I may be 2-0, but I don’t think I can depend on the Bengals and the Browns to have quite that much offense for the rest of the season).
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