The sad thing about the World Cup, like the Olympics, is that it's so complete. So final. So far above and beyond any other tournament or level of competition in that sport.
Of course that's the beautiful thing about the World Cup, too.
It's just tough to think that players like Christie Rampone and Abby Wambach probably won't get another chance to hoist the trophy. It must be hard to get so close, and then have it slip through your fingers.
I thought the match started well. I applaud coach Sundhage's decision to bench Amy Rodriguez, and to start Megan Rapinoe, and it was clear, or at least it seemed to be clear, in the first half, that Japan was outmatched. We out-possessed them, we spread the field, and managed what seemed like endless opportunities. Yet we couldn't finish.
I could analyze the entire game for you, and talk about what I think went wrong, but I won't. Instead I would just like to offer a huge congratulations to the Japanese side. They played a dedicated and determined match, and the Japanese keeper, Ayumi Kaihori, should be especially proud for standing up in the face of adversity, and stopping those penalty shots.
Congratulations, Japan, now I have to go cry in the corner, and start looking forward to the Olympics.
I watched all 123+ minutes of the US women's soccer team's game versus Brazil yesterday, and it was one of the most exciting, breathtaking, infuriating, inspiring, incredible matches I've ever born witness to. The American side conducted themselves with dignity and creativity and in spite of the referee getting far too involved in the match, and playing 10 against 11 since the 66th minute, they persevered, and are going through to the semi-finals on a dramatic penalty kick shootout win.
That's poetic justice if you ask me because Brazil tied the game on a penalty kick after a red card. It was one of the most ridiculous calls I've ever seen. The original red-card wasn't that bad. Anytime a penalty in the box interrupts a goal scoring opportunity, a red card is almost required. But the first penalty shot was blocked by the US keeper, Hope Solo, one of the most beautiful women to ever play the game. The physics involved in blocking a penalty shot mean that it's almost impossible to do. I can't even really properly articulate how hard it is for a goal keeper to block a penalty shot, but she did it, and I was jumping out of my seat, thrashing around and screaming when she did.
Yet the referee got involved, beyond any expected level, and gave a second PK to the Brazilians for what all the experts agree, was no reason. The FIFA "law 14" says that the goalkeeper can move side to side on the baseline, as long as she does not step forward. The video below proves that there was nothing wrong with Hope Solo's poetic defense of that first penalty shot.
To be asked to defend a penalty kick twice is like ... well I have no idea exactly what it's like, but it isn't right.
And yet the US women played on, down a woman, and held Brazil into extra time. All seemed lost when the Brazilians scored in the first period of extra time, and then began to do everything they could to delay the match. Including at one time having a defender flop onto the ground as if she was hurt, wait for the medical staff to carry her off the field on a stretcher, where she immediately hopped off the thing, and trotted back onto the pitch. She wasted no less than four full minutes, and if you don't know Soccer, I can tell you that is a huge deal, because the clock never stops.
I wish I could find a video of that, because it's almost funny. It would be hilarious, in fact, if it weren't so infuriating. In the end it didn't matter though, because Megan Rapinoe came up with one of the greatest crosses from the left corner I have ever seen, in Men's or Women's Soccer, and the lovely Abby Wambach, the elder stateswoman of US Women's Soccer, headed it in, and sent the game to a shootout. Here is the latest goal ever scored in Women's World Cup Soccer, for your viewing pleasure:
Feel free to watch that a few times. I've been watching it over and over myself. The best part of the whole experience though? I watched the whole game with both my daughters, and afterwards we switched to sportscenter. I can't tell you how good it felt to have those ESPN talking heads discussing a women's sport for once.
Some of you may remember I discussed this novel (the first one) briefly a few weeks ago. I have since finished reading it and have now discovered that apparently, according to an Entertainment Weekly article, this trilogy is the "hottest book on the planet".
Admittedly I have only read the first of the three but I don't quite understand why. Don't get me wrong, the book is quite good, but it's not the best thing since sliced bread and its commercial success baffles me a little. I do wonder whether becoming a more and more experienced writer has ruined me as a reader. A few short years ago I probably never would have noticed the drawbacks, like the achingly slow beginning and the physical relationship between the two main characters feeling contrived and unnecessary. Now they stand out to me, glaringly so. I can't decide whether or not that's a bad thing.
There is an interesting twist to the real life story behind these novels. The author, Steig Larsson, died before even the first one was published. He left behind only a girlfriend (common law wife) of 30 years, his father and his brother. There is now a legal battle over his estate, which with the success of his novels and the forthcoming Hollywood films (there are already Swedish language versions) is quite large. Sweden has no community property laws that would support the girlfriend's case but she holds a unique trump card, or at least claims to: She says she has an unpublished fourth book saved on a laptop that belonged to Larsson when he was still alive. It will be quite interesting to see what happens with that.
If you like crime thrillers go ahead and pick this novel up (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). I haven't read the other two but will probably pick them up even if I was slightly underwhelmed by the first.
Meanwhile some updates:
I've joined twitter. TH Mafi made me do it because she doesn't spacebook. Find me @MatthewMRush.
Speaking of Tahereh her guest blog post will be going up tomorrow morning. It's going to be epic so don't forget to come back for that. In the meantime go read her blog.
The US have made it though to the knockout round in the World Cup, which isn't a huge surprise unless you consider how hard the referees were making it for our side.
What this means is that I'll be at the bar on Saturday afternoon swilling beer with my male friends and getting surly.
Speaking of US soccer our team needs a better nickname. We're known as "The Yanks" which is really lame compared to other teams nicknames like: "Three Lions", "The Azzurri", "Le Bleu", "Bafani, Bafani" and so on.
And just to beat a dead horse regarding the World Cup I saw this in twitter yesterday: This World Cup is working out like WW2 - France have forfeited, the USA turned up late, and England are left to fight the Germans!
Have a great day everyone and don't forget to come back tomorrow!
Today I'm going to talk about soccer, or rather futbol. Most of you have probably never heard of Andres Escobar:
But you might remember Carlos Valderrama, or at least his awesome hair:
Both men were members of the Colombian national soccer team in the early 90's that was favored to win the World Cup in 1994. I figure this is an appropriate topic for the times since we our about to move out of the group stage and into the knockout round of this year's FIFA World Cup.
Andres Escobar was a simple family man. A devout Catholic who excelled on the pitch not only in skill but in his composure he was known as El Caballero del Futbol which means the gentleman of football. He was a kind and respectful person who cared deeply about his country and its people.
He was not related to the Colombian Druglord Pablo Escobar but their paths did cross. In the 80's the rise of the popularity of Cocaine for recreational drug use in the United States was so steep that the Colombian producers and traffickers were getting rich, fast. Any criminal organization with that much money is going to have to find a way to launder it. Club Soccer is big business and matches in places like Colombia at the time could deal with millions of dollars: in cash.
To make a long story short Pablo Escobar eventually bought the club team Atlético Nacional of Medellin that Andres played for. Pablo apparently loved soccer and went around the poor communities building fields for the children to learn the sport on. Pablo Escobar actually did many great things for the poor people of his country with the money he earned from the Cocaine Trade but let us not forget that he was a gangster and a ruthless murderer.
With the money that was coming in Colombian Soccer became suddenly relevant in the late 80's. They had the money to keep their best players and to bring in some others from around the world. Colombian Futbol had never stood up to powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina but now all of a sudden they mattered. With these resources Atlético Nacional won the Copa Libertadores in 1989. The Copa is the most prestigious tournament in South American Football, one of the most widely watched sporting events in the world, and essentially equates to the European Cup.
In 1994 the FIFA World Cup took place in the United States. Colombia entered the tournament ranked fourth in the World, heavily favored to make it deep into the tournament. Life back home in Colombia was going crazy. The whole country was in turmoil. Pablo Escobar and many of his empire's soldiers had been murdered by new, even more ruthless gangsters after he had finally stopped murdering politicians in order to change the constitution and eliminate extradition to the U.S. Violence was rampant and the fervor over the national team's chances in the World Cup was at a fever pitch.
Andres was the Captain of the team and the pillar of its defensive back line. They were an excellent side with stars like Midfielder Carlos Valderrama and Striker Faustino Asprilla, but they had just lost their amazingly athletic keeper René Higuita when he was arrested for visiting Pablo Escobar in prison earlier that year. In fact the entire team had visited Pablo and played soccer with him on the prison's field, but only Higuita was caught by the media.
The loss of the star goalkeeper and the violence in Colombia combined with threats from gangsters and gamblers who wagered astronomical amounts of money on the Colombian side's chances in the cup combined to place an insurmountable pressure on the team, its players and especially its captain, Andres. There were death threats coming in and one player even received news that his brother had been murdered. All of the pressure piled up unfairly on the team and caused them to lose their opening match to Romania.
Things got worse and the violence mounted back home. Children were kidnapped, murders continued and more threats were made. Then the unthinkable (in the eyes of futbol fans) occurred. The Colombians lost to the far inferior and lower ranked United States Team when Andres accidentally scored on his own goal by trying to deflect a shot by U.S. Midfielder John Harkes. The team never made it out of the group stage and returned home in shame and terror.
One night soon after Andres went to a club with some friends trying to show himself to the people and atone for his mistake but he was murdered, shot to death in his car by gangster Cocaine Traffickers who had lost large sums of money gambling on the matches. He was only 27 when he died. He had been engaged to be married and was being considered for transfer to AC Milan in Italy, one of the wealthiest and most prestigious club teams in the entire world. His life was cut tragically short.
So sometimes it really is a matter of life and death. Can you imagine being murdered for a mistake you made in a sporting match?
