Not So "Swede" Sixteen*
* Admits to totally stealing the name of this post from the ABC Sports broadcast.
OK, so I'm not a sports fan. But the biggest thing in sports right now is the Football World Cup. Look, if this news has filtered to down to me - a single American woman - then it REALLY is a big deal. How can I ignore it? Especially on a Saturday when I have a little bit of time to sit around and watch the world's most popular sport.
I watched Germany play Sweden. I began watching knowing that soccer games usually aren't high scoring. I thought I probably wouldn't make it through the whole thing, but I'd give it a whirl. Boy, did I really not know a THING about football! So here's what I learned about the game:
1. Time Outs are for pansy American sports. The football match (it's not really called a game) only stops for medical emergencies - men lying on the ground. Otherwise, a match consists of 90 minutes (94 minutes in the game I watched) of non-stop running up and down a long field. If the coach wants to direct his players, he just stands up and yells from his place on the sideline. If a player loses a shoe, he has to put it on while his team keeps playing. He better be able to lace up quick like. Ultimately this means that the match will not really go over-time. That's part of what I hate about American sports. You never know how long a game will last.
2. If a player is ejected from a match, the team can't replace him. I have heard of hockey players being put into the penalty box so that their team has to play without them for a few minutes, but this seems harsh. The match begins with 11 players on each team. The refs have yellow and red cards. I'm not sure when a player gets a red card, I thought it was after racking up a certain number of yellow cards, but that doesn't seem to be indicated in the "Laws of the Game." Regardless, a red carded player is ejected and can't be replaced. So if a team has one red carded player (as Sweden did), they are then playing with only 10 on the field. I think they can get down to as few as 7 players and keep the game going. Can you imagine American Football playing by similar rules? No way. Pansies.
3. Once a player leaves the match through substitution, he can't come back in. OK, so baseball has the same rule. This was surprising to me, since the game seems to play like American football or basketball. But it was not completely foreign to me.
4. Goalies are not called goalies, they're called Keepers, as in Goal Keepers. As a stoopid American, I have been using the wrong terminology my whole life.
On to notes about the actual match...
I wasn't sure who to root for. Here are the completely girlie reasonings that went through my head:
I had a lot of Swedish friends when I lived in Russia. So I could root for Sweden (1). But I have one current German friend now. So I could root for Germany (1). I usually think Swedes are better looking, but there are lots of hotties on this German (2) team. Sweden's uniforms are uglier than Germany's (3). English is descended from German, so while I can't speak either language, I feel a little more kinship to the German (4) team linguistically. Germany (5) scored before I had made up my mind and everyone likes to root for a winner.
So with 5 - 1 reasons to root for Germany, I decided to go Deutch.
Sweden has a phenominal Keeper. He seemed to be the only player on the Swedish team taking his job seriously. The rest of the Swedish team would sit back and let the Germans kick from anywhere on field. If it had not been for the glorious blocks (saves) of the Swedish Keeper (who was significantly better than the German Keeper), Germany would have blown Sweden out of the water. As it was, he was only able to hold them to 2 goals.
Germany scored their only two goals within the first 12 minutes of the game, but the rest of the match was still interesting to watch. Both goals were scored by the same youngun - Podolski. He was so happy. ABC got a great shot of him sliding across the field on his knees, screaming after he scored the second goal. It was easily the "cover" shot for a newspaper. This shot, but from seen from the front so you saw his whole face and body with some of the field behind him.
For some completely unknown reason, the Swedish fans were doing the Tomahawk Chop. I have no idea what it was about, but it looked just like the famous (to me, at least) Braves' fans arm motion. I half-expected them to begin singing the war chant too. But none of their chopping could keep their team in the tournament.
Next match? Mexico vs. Argentina. Supposed to be two really good teams. So far they are tied 1 - 1, and it's almost the end of the first half.
My only real regret is that my first soccer game didn't include TEH Becks. But it looks like England is playing tomorrow morning. I will tune in ... or tape it. I can't count my football experience as complete until I've seen Mr. Posh Spice play.
OK, so I'm not a sports fan. But the biggest thing in sports right now is the Football World Cup. Look, if this news has filtered to down to me - a single American woman - then it REALLY is a big deal. How can I ignore it? Especially on a Saturday when I have a little bit of time to sit around and watch the world's most popular sport.
I watched Germany play Sweden. I began watching knowing that soccer games usually aren't high scoring. I thought I probably wouldn't make it through the whole thing, but I'd give it a whirl. Boy, did I really not know a THING about football! So here's what I learned about the game:
1. Time Outs are for pansy American sports. The football match (it's not really called a game) only stops for medical emergencies - men lying on the ground. Otherwise, a match consists of 90 minutes (94 minutes in the game I watched) of non-stop running up and down a long field. If the coach wants to direct his players, he just stands up and yells from his place on the sideline. If a player loses a shoe, he has to put it on while his team keeps playing. He better be able to lace up quick like. Ultimately this means that the match will not really go over-time. That's part of what I hate about American sports. You never know how long a game will last.
2. If a player is ejected from a match, the team can't replace him. I have heard of hockey players being put into the penalty box so that their team has to play without them for a few minutes, but this seems harsh. The match begins with 11 players on each team. The refs have yellow and red cards. I'm not sure when a player gets a red card, I thought it was after racking up a certain number of yellow cards, but that doesn't seem to be indicated in the "Laws of the Game." Regardless, a red carded player is ejected and can't be replaced. So if a team has one red carded player (as Sweden did), they are then playing with only 10 on the field. I think they can get down to as few as 7 players and keep the game going. Can you imagine American Football playing by similar rules? No way. Pansies.
3. Once a player leaves the match through substitution, he can't come back in. OK, so baseball has the same rule. This was surprising to me, since the game seems to play like American football or basketball. But it was not completely foreign to me.
4. Goalies are not called goalies, they're called Keepers, as in Goal Keepers. As a stoopid American, I have been using the wrong terminology my whole life.
On to notes about the actual match...
I wasn't sure who to root for. Here are the completely girlie reasonings that went through my head:
I had a lot of Swedish friends when I lived in Russia. So I could root for Sweden (1). But I have one current German friend now. So I could root for Germany (1). I usually think Swedes are better looking, but there are lots of hotties on this German (2) team. Sweden's uniforms are uglier than Germany's (3). English is descended from German, so while I can't speak either language, I feel a little more kinship to the German (4) team linguistically. Germany (5) scored before I had made up my mind and everyone likes to root for a winner.
So with 5 - 1 reasons to root for Germany, I decided to go Deutch.
Sweden has a phenominal Keeper. He seemed to be the only player on the Swedish team taking his job seriously. The rest of the Swedish team would sit back and let the Germans kick from anywhere on field. If it had not been for the glorious blocks (saves) of the Swedish Keeper (who was significantly better than the German Keeper), Germany would have blown Sweden out of the water. As it was, he was only able to hold them to 2 goals.
Germany scored their only two goals within the first 12 minutes of the game, but the rest of the match was still interesting to watch. Both goals were scored by the same youngun - Podolski. He was so happy. ABC got a great shot of him sliding across the field on his knees, screaming after he scored the second goal. It was easily the "cover" shot for a newspaper. This shot, but from seen from the front so you saw his whole face and body with some of the field behind him.
For some completely unknown reason, the Swedish fans were doing the Tomahawk Chop. I have no idea what it was about, but it looked just like the famous (to me, at least) Braves' fans arm motion. I half-expected them to begin singing the war chant too. But none of their chopping could keep their team in the tournament.
Next match? Mexico vs. Argentina. Supposed to be two really good teams. So far they are tied 1 - 1, and it's almost the end of the first half.
My only real regret is that my first soccer game didn't include TEH Becks. But it looks like England is playing tomorrow morning. I will tune in ... or tape it. I can't count my football experience as complete until I've seen Mr. Posh Spice play.
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