I need to learn to take a day off, so I am forcing myself to not post anything today. In unrelated news, I think I saw for the first time the reason soccer is so popular everywhere in the world except the United States. That Algeria-United States game was dramatic, I think the entire United States willed Landon Donovan's goal in there after so many close misses. I think the United States hit the goalpost 3,297 times or maybe it just felt that way.
I was going to be pretty hard on the U.S. if they had lost to Algeria because they should have won that game. Also, there was another bad call in that game and I would have been upset if the U.S. had lost because of it due to the fact they played well the entire game and didn't give up any goals. I probably wouldn't have ranted against the entire soccer world like Peter King, but I still would have been upset. Anyway, that was a great soccer game and I am teaching myself the tough lesson of taking days off. So enjoy not having to read my marathon writings and read the JoeChat post below if you haven't already.
5 comments:
you picked a good day for a day off.
although on Around The Horn (I know not the best place for enlightened sports discussion), Bill Plaschke started playing the smarmy iconoclast and downplayed the moment by saying that the U.S. should have beaten Algeria (like how England should have beaten Algeria, Spain should have beaten Switzerland, Italy should have beaten New Zealand, and so on), which I guess shows that he didn't watch a single minute of the game. I watched the game from the start (7 am out here) and my heart was racing the whole way through. when Donovan scored me and my friend went nuts. it honestly reminded me why I actually enjoy following sports.
and even the late games were exciting when Australia went up 2-0 and suddenly somehow had a chance of advancing to the next round (with another goal from them and another goal by Germany against Ghana). if anyone doesn't want to watch/get caught up in the World Cup, it's their loss.
ivn, I watched the game from the get go too and my reaction when the US scored the goal was roughly the same as the reaction I had when Parise scored to tie the Olympic gold medal hockey game up at 2 with 20ish seconds left.
There are moments that even fans of the sport can get excited about, this was certainly one of them.
Yeah, it was a good day for a day off. I need to take more of them because I actually think it helps me write better...as good as I can write.
The US should have beaten Algeria, but that moment can't be downplayed like that. The US had been spot-on the goal all day, missing a few shots here and there and even getting a bad call against them, and then with 3 minutes left they scored. Come on, how can't you love that? I was watching at work and was not happy with the US team.
That goal was the reason I watch sports. I didn't think they would pull it out and then they did. That's what I love about sports.
Rich, that was another good moment. I think that moment was on par with a lot of other great games. I am just very excited I actually get to see the Ghana v. US game live on Saturday.
Anyone who tries to downplay that goal is just being an asshole...which means Mariotti will try to downplay it tomorrow.
Yeah, I recorded the game and tried to stay off the internet all day at work so I wouldn't know what happened. It didn't quite work: I knew the final score, but didn't know when it happened. By the time we got to the end, I was convinced I'd misheard, or that the person I'd overheard was somehow counting the disallowed goal. Crazy.
I gave up on trying not to find out about the score. Everyone I work with was secretly watching it and then talked about it afterwards.
I thought for sure they had lost that game. I was emotionally prepared to see the United States not make the round of 16. Now they have avoided Germany and have Ghana, which isn't easy, but also isn't Germany.
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