Tag: russia

world soccer

Best World Cup ever? Three reasons why it wasn’t

Posted on by Beau Dure

The just-concluded World Cup is being hailed as many things — great, the greatest in a while, the greatest ever.

It was certainly unique, as Soccer America’s Paul Kennedy says: an unusually high number of own goals, an unusually low number of red cards and fouls. (Granted, you could attribute the latter to the notion that holding is now basically legal.)

At The Ringer, Ryan O’Hanlon argues that this World Cup was the best in decades because of its unpredictability: “There was something so refreshing and so thrilling about sitting down each morning and not having any clue about what might play out.”

At my former employer USA TODAY, Martin Rogers was impressed: “(T)here was a treasure trove of treats to keep a worldwide audience occupied and wove a gripping narrative over the course of a month and more.”

All good points, as is the lack of scoreless draws, but here’s the counterargument I’d make:

1. Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but now is simply not the time to normalize Russia. 2022 probably won’t be a good time to normalize Qatar, either, unless we get proper investigations of the people who are literally working migrant workers to death and unless Qatar liberalizes its LGBTQ policies (among other things). We’re not going to have a World Cup worth rooting for until 2026. (Maybe not even then, the way things are going in the USA and Mexico right now.)

2. Defense now has the upper hand (literally — again, refs, please blow the whistle when a defender has someone in a bear hug) over possession soccer, resulting in few goals from the run of play. O’Hanlon’s piece at The Ringer actually reinforces that point, showing how France succeeded with a defensive mindset and managed to score four times against Croatia while barely possessing the ball in the final third.

You could argue that’s a fun thing to watch — Mexico’s blistering counterattack was consistently thrilling — but we don’t want soccer to become a sport in which you only need to watch the counters and the set pieces. And seeing Spain flail helplessly against the Russian defense was one of the most frustrating experiences of the World Cup, especially given Point 1 (normalizing Russia / giving Putin more time in the spotlight). Also sad — Harry Kane was brilliant on set pieces but, like his England teammates, simply couldn’t find the net from the run of play.

3. Maybe too much unpredictability isn’t such a good thing. The World Cup is supposed to reward the best teams. When the group-stage chaos left us with a lopsided bracket, a lot of terrific teams (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico) were dismissed from the action all too soon.

We did end up with a worthy champion — and, though Croatia didn’t win a knockout-round game in regulation, a worthy finalist.

The atmosphere was terrific throughout. And this Cup broke so many records that the Guinness site had to create a long roundup to account for them all. But the USA still holds the attendance records:

1994: 3,568,567 total, 68,626 average

2018: 3,031,768 total, 47,371 average

North America will break that record in 2026 — at least the total, given the expansion.

Let’s hope national teams have learned how to score from the run of play by then.

 

 

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world soccer

World Cup anthem parody lyrics: Russia-Saudi Arabia

Posted on by Beau Dure

I’m probably starting too late in the game to make this work, but here’s the goal — I’m going to provide parody lyrics so you can sing along with each nation’s anthem in the World Cup.

We start with the opening game between two totally democratic and peaceful countries, Russia and Saudi Arabia!

RUSSIA

We’re hosting the World Cup
It’s too late to stop us
You say that we’re despots; we say “yo’ mama!”

Our dear shirtless Putin
(This line is redacted)
At least our great leader knows our anthem’s words!

Hooome-laa-annd, home-land
We sing ou-ur praise here
Almost as good as “The Americans” (singing note: stress that last syllable!)

Thank you for casting Keri
But, Sarah Palin, please shut up
Or we will hack all of your xBox games

Yes we wrote an anthem with changes in meter
That should teach you all to leave our (bleep) alone
Our hooligans fighting in woods south of Moscow
It’s better than flying to Vladivostok

Weeeee gave the world Tchaikovsky
And great writers like Tolstoy
So get the hell off all our freaking backs! 

Yes, it is really cold up here
You try living in permafrost
FIFA won’t let us play all the rest

(Actually, they probably won’t even get that far. But it’s in Russia, so who knows?)

SAUDI ARABIA

(Instrumental intro — note where the singing starts in the clip above)

We are free, assuming you are male …
If you aren’t, could you please wear a veil?

Our biggest fear is the electric car (boo, Elon)
(skipping this line)
Oil is ours!

Desert heat … prepares us for the next World Cup
And remember ’94 — that goal! Owairan!

Guns and planes, we’ve got ’em by the ton
And we’ve even got some Cinnabon

Our biggest fear is the electric car (boo, Elon)
(skipping this line)
Oil is ours!

All our team … plays here in our domestic league
Can we sign somewhere that’s cooler — hey, PSG!

 

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Women’s ice hockey, Switzerland-Russia

Posted on by Beau Dure

A classic goaltender’s battle: Russia’s 20-year-old Anna Prugova vs. Switzerland’s Florence Schelling, the two-time Hockey East player of the year at Northeastern University. Prugova was nearly perfect. Schelling was better.

Date: 15-Feb

Sport: Women’s ice hockey

Event: Switzerland vs. Russia

Score: Switzerland 2, Russia 0

What happened: A tense scoreless affair for 30 minutes until Switzerland’s Stefanie Marty scored halfway through the second period. Russia couldn’t convert four power plays through two periods.

The host country came out hard in the third and peppered Florence Schelling, outshooting the Swiss 19-7. But the Swiss did a nice job of clearing traffic so Schelling could see the shots coming.

Russia pulled goalie Anna Prugova with 90 seconds left and piled on the pressure. But the Swiss defense blocked a couple of shots and sent Lara Stalder the other way with the puck. The Russian defense retreated in front of the open net, but Stalder calmly buried her shot to seal the game and a semifinal date with Canada.

Ominously, just after the final horn sounded on the Russian women’s Olympic hopes, the men conceded a go-ahead goal to the USA.

Stats

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, day 1

Posted on by Beau Dure

The U.S. teams had a rough start and the Russian fans partied and squealed as if Justin Bieber was throwing the rocks as curling finally got underway in the 2014 Olympics.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Day 1 of group play, men’s (two sessions) and women’s (one)

How U.S. fared: The men had a bye in the morning session, then fell in a deep hole early against Norway. John Shuster was visibly and audibly annoyed with his last shot in the third end (out of 10), which gave Norway an opening to shoot for three and a 5-1 lead. Shuster calmly drew for two in the fourth to cut it to 5-3 and held Norway to one in the sixth, but a missed double takeout attempt gave Norway a steal* of one and a 7-3 lead. Shuster wound up needing to steal three in the 10th, and that wasn’t happening. 7-4 final.

The women faced Switzerland (coincidentally, at the same time the U.S. women’s hockey team faced Switzerland). Erika Brown’s rink had lost four times to Mirjam Ott’s Swiss, but Ott was cold early, letting the USA lead 2-0 through three ends without having the hammer. A Brown blunder, both in tactics and execution, let Ott take three in the fourth. That gave Brown the hammer for the first time, and she missed twice, giving Switzerland a steal of two and a 5-2 lead. Ott took care of business the rest of the way for a 7-4 win.

What happened: Minor surprise in the morning session (men), with China taking down Denmark 7-4. Two favorites rolled — Britain got four in the sixth end and beat Russia 7-4, Sweden clinically beat Switzerland 7-5.

Canada, by far the biggest curling country, had a matchup that turned surprisingly dramatic at the end. Brad Jacobs’ rink had a comfortable 9-5 lead over Germany after seven, and Felix Schulze had to make a tough shot to claw one back instead of giving up three or four in the eighth. But Jacobs gave up a steal of two in the ninth to cut it to 9-8. Canada nailed things down in the last end to win 11-8.

In the afternoon (women), Canada made quick work of China, winning 9-2. The marquee matchup was Sweden and Britain, where the Swedes eked out a 6-4 win.

Russia, cheered by boisterous fans (perhaps disrupting the USA’s Erika Brown at times), took a 4-1 lead over Denmark but let the Danes steal a couple to tie it at 4-4. Young Russian skip Anna Sidorova had a shot in the ninth that could have gone for four but wound up with two. Russia nearly ran out of time in the 10th end but limited Denmark’s chances, actually stealing one for a 7-4 win.

The evening session, the second of the day for the men, had three fascinating games:

– Sweden beat Britain 8-4 in a matchup of medal contenders, scoring four in the eighth end to break open a close game.

– Canada found itself in a cagey matchup with Switzerland. After four blank ends, the Swiss scored three in the fifth. Canada answered with two, and they traded singles until the 10th, where Canada had the hammer and a 5-3 deficit. Canada’s Brad Jacobs was left with a takeout in which his rock had to stay in the house to score two and force an extra end. He made the takeout, but the rock … just … trickled out. Switzerland with a 5-4 upset. Please console your neighbors to the north.

– Russia’s men kept the cheers going by stealing three in the second end to go up 5-0 on Denmark. The Danes fought back to tie it 7-7 after seven ends. Russia took two in the eighth but whiffed on a big takeout attempt in the ninth, leaving two Danish rocks in scoring position. Danish skip Rasmus Stjerne Hansen made an easy draw for three to take a 10-9 lead into the 10th, by which time all the other games had ended.

And that game kept going, as Alexey Stukalskiy made a pressure-packed takeout through traffic in the 10th to force an extra end. But Denmark frustrated Russia’s efforts to take charge of the house, and when Stukalskiy’s last draw fell short, Russia conceded Denmark’s final shot.

Still a long way to go — they’ll play a full round-robin of 10 teams each before going to a four-team playoff. Maybe Russia’s fans will gain a bit more curling knowledge to go with their enthusiasm by the time we’re done.

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, track and field

2012 medal projections: Old Cold War battles, Jamaica heat up women’s running

Posted on by Beau Dure

Olympic athletes don’t just show up out of nowhere in an Olympic year, except maybe in a few secretive nations. Next year, we’ll have world championships in virtually everything, giving us a good chance to project what might happen in 2012.

We’re not waiting until then. We’re setting up some projections now, then revising as new results come in. It’s FiveThirtyEight with less math and no Rasmussen.

Today, it’s …

ATHLETICS: Women’s running events

We’re not Eurosnobs. Really. But isn’t “athletics” less awkward than “track and field”?

Besides, the marathon uses neither a track (except at the very end) or a field. And the shot put can be held anywhere.

The year’s top performances for each athlete are given in parentheses, but remember that some top athletes (Usain Bolt springs to mind) didn’t put much emphasis on running in a year with no Olympics or World Championships. (Source: IAAF)

We’re going to split this into running events and non-running events, then split it further by gender. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Continue reading →

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