Far be it for me to defend Italian soccer in general. Every stereotype your soccer-bashing friends throw in your face is prevalent in the Italian game — nasty fans, match-fixing scandals, bad hair, exaggerated injuries and, of course, diving.
But diving to imply a foul that doesn’t exist and falling down to draw attention to an actual foul are two different things. The first is reprehensible. The second is more difficult to judge.
In the first half today, New Zealand’s Tommy Smith had a good handful of Daniele de Rossi’s shirt. De Rossi fell. Referee Carlos Batres of Guatemala whistled for a penalty kick.
Those are the facts. The interpretations varied.
While it’s easy to pile on Italy and particularly de Rossi, whose most notable contribution to a World Cup is a rearrangement of Brian McBride’s face, de Rossi’s actions don’t change the fact that a foul occurred. De Rossi could’ve pulled out a guitar and vuvuzela for a new folk song decrying the injustice that had befallen him, and he may have received a yellow for unsporting conduct. But the PK was still justified.
It’s not as if shirt-pulling in the box is some newly outlawed activity. Remember 1998, when U.S. referee Esse Baharmast was vilified and then exonerated when evidence emerged that he had indeed seen a shirt pulled in the Norway-Brazil game.
Wouldn’t all rather see refs be even stricter on such plays? After a few days of discussing Slovenia defenders bear-hugging American players in the box, a stronger stand on such contact seems justified.
Batres, to his credit, made the right call here. And he ignored a lot of less justified Italian tumbles.
Now if only we could go back and get rid of the blatant dive that saw Italy past Australia in 2006 …
Going back to the chronological look at the weekend, after some …
HEADLINES
Rugby: NBC and Universal Sports will show the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. Huge step forward for the sport in this country. And the UK media will surely appreciate having another sport in which they can do stories about American ignorance — the soccer-ignorance stories are turning into more of a challenge these days.
Chess: Searching for Bobby Fischer is a terrific film. Exhuming Bobby Fischer merely prolongs the sad demise of a troubled genius. If you want a happier story, check this piece from the NYTimes‘ excellent chess blog on the post-chess careers of several phenoms who decided not to stick with it.
Poker: David Baker emerged from a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Erik Seidel to win the 2-7 Draw Lowball world title. Sammy Farha took an Omaha world title. The limit hold-em world title will be decided by the time we all wake up to watch soccer Friday morning.
MMA: A few days after competing in USA Wrestling’s team trials for the upcoming world championships, 2008 Olympic wrestler Ben Askren went back to MMA and won Bellator’s welterweight tournament over veteran Dan Hornbuckle. (MMA Fighting Stances)
Soccer: World Cup are also on ESPN Deportes, Univision and ESPN3.com. DirecTV also has countless broadcasts and re-broadcasts in several languages.
FRIDAY
7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Germany-Serbia. Germany routed hapless Australia 4-0 in their opener; Serbia lost 1-0 to Ghana and may need a miracle here or some help from Australia tomorrow. ESPN
*** 10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, USA-Slovenia. Can the U.S. men win a game they really should win? One that would go a long way toward seeing them through to the next round? Will soccer fans across the country collectively lose it? ESPN ***
2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, England-Algeria. The other two teams in the U.S. group are in action. Broadcast bumped from ESPN by U.S. Open golf. ESPN2
7 p.m. (highlights): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, seventh stage. The story so far: Fabian Cancellara showed his Swiss pride after learning of Switzerland’s staggering upset over Spain, but he abruptly fell out of contention in Thursday’s mountain stage (Velo News coverage). Lance Armstrong, gearing up for France (the Tour, not the underachieving soccer team), is in seventh place overall after a good showing Thursday. The race finishes with a time trial Sunday. Versus
SATURDAY
7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Netherlands-Japan. Numbers wizards Nate Silver now has the Dutch as the second favorite in the tournament after Brazil. Japan also has three points from its first game. ESPN
10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Ghana-Australia. No pressure or anything, but Ghana looks very much like the African team most likely to do something in this tournament. ESPN
2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Cameroon-Denmark. This was an odd pick for network TV. ABC
2:30 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup final, England Saxons (their B-team) vs. Canada, in Red Bull Arena. Universal Sports
5:15 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup third place, USA vs. France B. Universal Sports
** 9 p.m.: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter season finale. Court McGee faces Kris McCray in the tournament final. The non-tournament co-main event has two intriguing light heavyweights who aren’t quite in contention: Matt Hamill, a deaf fighter whose rise is chronicled in a long-delayed film, and Keith Jardine, whose fighting stance suggests a drunk swatting away flies. But the most-anticipated fight might be Jamie “Crabman” Yager vs. Rich Attonito, who won a hotly contested race to oppose the brash loudmouth who has shown a tendency not to back up his words. The card also has reliably entertaining fighters Chris Leben (vs. Aaron Simpson) and Spencer “The King” Fisher (vs. Dennis Siver). Spike **
10 p.m.: Boxing, Super Six super middleweight tournament, Andre Ward vs. Allan Green. Check the USA TODAY preview. Ward is 1-0 in the tournament; Green replaced Jermain Taylor. Showtime
SUNDAY
7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Slovakia-Paraguay. Each team drew its first game, though those games have been erased from my memory. Might still have nightmares about them. ESPN
10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Italy-New Zealand. Might ask the family if there’s anything else we can do. ESPN
** 2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Brazil-Ivory Coast. Ahhhhhh. Actual soccer might be played in this one. ABC **
5 p.m. (same-day delay): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, final stage (time trial). Versus
9 p.m.: MMA, WEC returns with a lightweight main event between former champion Jamie Varner and up-and-coming fighter Kamal Shalorus, who has had an interesting journey from a small town in Iran to an international wrestling career for Britain to mixed martial arts. The card also has two bantamweights with gaudy records — Josh Grispi vs. LC Davis. Versus
OLYMPIC SPORTS
Modern pentathlon: Margaux Isaksen and Will Brady are in the World Cup Final.
Volleyball: The U.S. men beat Finland twice in World League play last weekend to get their record up to 2-2. Egypt visits this weekend in the Charlotte suburb of Concord, N.C.
Track and field: Basically an off week before the USA Championships.
More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, badminton N.Y. Open
MISC
World Series of Poker: The most intriguing event of the weekend is the heads-up no-limit hold-em world championship, which starts with 256 and runs like a slow-moving basketball bracket. How to follow.
College World Series (NCAA baseball): ESPN, Saturday and Sunday.
Full soccer listings at Soccer America. (OK, it’s all World Cup right now.)
Through two games — not exactly a large sample size — it appears the second game for each team in the World Cup will be a bit livelier than the first time through.
And so the question being posed to me is this: Does this disprove your concerns about the ball and negative tactics as you watched the first 16 games?
The short answer: No.
Frankly, I’m in a no-lose situation in this argument, and I don’t say that to be arrogant. If teams are indeed adjusting for the second 16 games, that bodes well, but it proves that the concerns I had over the first 16 — which surely tried the patience of soccer fans around the world — were valid. If teams fail to adjust even when they’re facing elimination, the debate is surely over.
Here’s why:
– Tactics, macro level. I’ve been reading Inverting the Pyramid, and it has left me quite gloomy. From the historical point of view, it seems like we’ve been heading down a path toward overly cautious soccer for a long time, and I don’t see how it’s going to change.
To give an example: Some of the best attacking soccer we see these days is actually on counterattacks, particularly after corner kicks. What happens when coaches start to figure it’s not worth sending players forward on corner kicks? Suppose the risk of giving up a counterattacking goal is perceived to be too great?
– Tactics, World Cup microcosm. “But it makes sense to play for a draw in the first game and then play for a win.” Is that what we’ve come to now? You get to the world’s biggest stage and immediately try to kill the game? Perhaps it makes sense, but isn’t that sad?
– The ball. Overblown? Slightly, but it’s a legitimate issue. Can anyone remember seeing so many odd flights of the ball, misjudged crosses and flat-out bad passes at this level? It’s worth asking whether FIFA should reconsider introducing such a radical redesign so close to a major tournament. It’s a bit like showing up for The Masters and having Augusta National hand out balls that fly all over the place.
If the intent is to create more goals, it clearly backfires. For every goal that slipped through the fingers of Robert Green, we saw plenty of overhit passes and misjudged crosses, all to the detriment of the attack.
And several of the goals we’ve seen so far have been atrocious defensive misplays, not brilliant attacking plays. Is that what we want?
If teams are adjusting to it by Game 2, great. But doesn’t that prove the point that the ball was indeed an issue?
And the ball feeds into the tactical question. Would you play more cautiously if you’re concerned about the flight of the ball?
One observation from the first 16 games: I saw very little direct play. Some might say that’s a good thing — teams that rely exclusively on the longball can be dreadfully dull. But good teams mix up their play from time to time, and it creates more attacking options, particularly when play is bogged down in midfield. I may have zoned out and missed a few bits here and there, but I haven’t seen many long passes at all in this Cup.
Not all of the early games have been dreadful. South Africa-Mexico and USA-England weren’t bad. Germany and the Netherlands showed some attacking class in winning their games. And Group H — Honduras, Chile, Switzerland and the unfortunate Spain — produced better games than the 1-0 scores would indicate.
But it’s too soon to tell about the second time through. South Korea and Argentina, who just played a terrific game, were among the more positive teams in their first outings.
We can hope that Argentina and South Korea prove to be the rule rather than the exception for the rest of the tournament, and we can hope the knockout stages have little of the overcaution we often see in those games. But the long-term concerns will be valid no matter what. Negativity threatens the game. And FIFA should quit tinkering with the danged ball. What next — a ball that splits in half on the way to the goal? (Coaches would surely counter with the “sweeper-keeper” system, stationing a defender on the goal line.)
D.C. United could use, among other things, an attacking midfielder. As Black and Red United points out, the current options don’t really fit the role. Jaime Moreno was never really the best player for that spot, and he doesn’t have the legs for it these days. Teen phenom Andy Najar’s too green. Santino Quaranta is better elsewhere on the field, as is Clyde Simms.
Here’s the question: Does D.C. United need an attacking midfielder so badly that they should use one of the budget-busting Designated Player slots on a guy who won’t see any extra tickets outside Washington’s Montenegrin community?
(I’m assuming there is a Montenegrin community here — we have a community for every other country in the world. Then I’m assuming the Montenegrin community could name anyone on Montenegro’s national team, especially someone who appears not to be the captain. I shouldn’t rely on Wikipedia for such information, but I’m not relying on FIFA, either. Or UEFA, which followed MLS in expunging the “history” section when it revamped its Web site.)
Does D.C. United need an attacking midfielder so badly that they’ll use that DP slot on a guy who couldn’t get much playing time at Paris Saint-Germain five years ago and has been toiling in the obscurity of the Austrian Bundesliga since then?
So while it may be too early to cast doubt on the abilities of one Branko Bošković, D.C. United’s new attacking midfielder, it’s not too early to wonder if such a signing is what the league had in mind with the DP rule. It’s the “Beckham rule,” designed to bring well-known players who might lift the quality of play and, not incidentally, lift TV ratings and sell a few tickets. Beckham does that. Cuauhtemoc Blanco does that. Juan Pablo Angel’s impact is harder to measure, but he had enough of a name to make a few people take notice.
Also, there’s no harm in using the DP slot to retain or reclaim an American who might have designs on Europe, at least the lesser European leagues. Granted, United doesn’t have an American player on the roster who could fill a DP slot, though Najar might be worth it in a couple of years if he keeps up his rapid progress.
If Bošković had come in as a discovery player making $200K, few would’ve thought to question it. But the new guy might face a bit of pressure if he’s the big-deal United signing while clubs to the north, geographically and in the standings, are talking about Thierry Henry or Robert Pires.
The first pass through the field of 32 comes to a merciful close today. Starting at 2:30 p.m. ET, teams had better pick it up a bit, or they’ll be booking plane flights out of Johannesburg.
On paper, Group H (first two games) should bring us out of the offensive doldrums today. But games aren’t played on paper — they’re played in the midst of thousands of vuvuzelas.
Our hosts are:
Beau Dure, SportsMyriad.com / USA TODAY / Huffington Post
Honduras-Chile, 7:30 a.m. ET, ESPN
Spain-Switzerland, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN
South Africa-Uruguay, 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN (all on ESPN Deportes / ESPN3.com / Univision)
Two interesting posts from respected bloggers (well, *I* respect them) in the past 24 hours:
– At Pitch Invasion, Tom Dunmore takes the news of a spat between BigSoccer and Premier League pundit Ollie Irish as a launching point for an insightful look at the business of blogging.
– Fake Sigi, sounding curiously frustrated, says it’s time for a breather.
(For the record, FS, I didn’t “invite” Sirk but welcomed his company — same goes for you.)
The fundamental question here is what you can reasonably expect from blogging. And the answers are as diverse as the blogosphere itself.
The new MLS collective bargaining agreement has ensured one thing: No more stories in the media expressing shock that some players in the league are making $20,000 a year. (The shock wore off when this became an annual occurrence.)
We still don’t have full clarification of “developmental players” and how they may or may not fit into the MLS roster regulations this year, but as a salary class, that group is gone. According to the union figures released today, very player in MLS is making at least $40,000 except two: D.C. United academy signings Bill Hamid ($35,700, but $42,366.66 guaranteed compensation) and Andy Najar ($39,000, total $58,995.83 guaranteed).
We can tell from the figures that $40,000 isn’t just for developmentals. It’s not just for first-years, second-years or third-years. Among the $40K club: 10th-year Crew player Duncan Oughton.
Numbers of $40K players (including the oddball $40,008 players) per club:
Duresport.com 