The Cup Runneth Over

Sunday, July 09, 2006

I have several thoughts about the soccer, or futbol as the rest of the world calls it. I respect the tremendous amount of interest people have in the game, but I just don’t get it.

The final game was on today, and I started watching around the start of the second half.  The score was 1-1. I watched for about 5 minutes, then I realized I had forgotten about the Nascar race, and promptly switched back. It was an exciting race. During one of the cautions, I switched over to the World Cup, and the score was still 1-1. At some point, the second half ended, and the game went into overtime.

Fast-forward to the end of overtime, and the score is still 1-1. So what happens now? They don’t go into second overtime. No, the game is decided through penalty kicks. This is how the winner of the World Cup is determined. Whichever team kicks the most balls into the goal wins the world title, and almost $20 million in prize money.

Maybe i’m the only one feeling this way, but, I feel scammed. True, I don’t have anything invested in the game. I don’t watch it, and don’t really know anything about the teams/players/countries, but seeing it come down to this just seems wrong. After working so hard to get to this point, it only seems right to let the game continue on, and let the players battle it out on the field.

I understand fatigue sets in after running around 2+ hours, and players probably don’t have enough stamina or energy to keep going. But isn’t that part of the game and shouldn’t that also be a factor? Wouldn’t this determine who the better team is rather than a series of penalty kicks? It doesn’t seem like the proper way to end.

Someone help me understand.

Speaking of the proper way to end, I was fortunate enough to be watching at the moment where French captain Zinedine Zidane got into some trash talking with Italian Marco Materazzi. Zidaine didn’t like something Materazzi said, and he straight-up head-butted Materazzi in the chest, throwing him back. Zidaine, apparently considered to be one of the greats and playing his last game, was thrown out. Here’s the incident:

What the hell was that?! Great way to end your career Zidane.

Back to Nascar.

Awesome race today. With about 10 laps to go, Kenseth had about a 1 second lead over Jeff Gordon, but Gordon was closing fast. At 4 laps to go, Kenseth was in traffic behind the lapped car of Casey Mears, and Gordon was right behind Kenseth. Gordon was clearly faster, but Kenseth couldn’t go anywhere with Mears in the way, and slowed down enough to let Gordon make contact unintentionally, sending him spinning. Awesome! Kenseth didn’t wreck, but was now way behind in the pack.

Adding to his misfortunes, Kenseth ran out of fuel with about 2-3 laps remaining, and after the checkered flag, he got into it with another car and spun again, this time crashing into the wall. Crazy!

Jeff Gordon took the win, and all the Matt Kenseth and Dale Jr. fans in the stands, unhappy at seeing Gordon with another win, promptly threw watter bottles, beer bottles, and whatever else they could find onto the track. Show some respect ya morons!