US Loses To Germany 1-0, But Shows The World USA Soccer Is For Real

ESPN ^ | June 20,2002 | Self

[Illbay]

Nothing much to add. I saw only the last fifteen minutes of the game.

Germany went ahead on a header that'd have been nearly impossible for any keeper to ward off, and the US nearly came back and tied it--it was literally a matter of inches.

At the end of the game the German keeper collapsed to the ground.

This was a case of fighting one of THE premier teams in the world to a near standstill.

We come away from this tournament with elevated stature in international soccer.

Thank you, Team USA, you did your country proud!

USA! USA! USA!

[connectthedots]

As I said in my post, I did not see the match, so my comments addressed only the possibility that it was unintentional or inadvertant. If it was as blatant as you seem to be indicating, a penalty kick would have been in order.

[RamsNo1]

Why are we being told and pushed into liking soccer? It's a UN globalist, socialist sport. It parades it's diversity but the only true diverse sport without throwing race around is hockey.

[Sam's Army]

I love these "communist sport" diatribes against soccer...

Never mind the fact that baseball, not soccer, is the national sport of Cuba; and that George Bush Senior was captian of the soccer team at Yale.

[LenS]

In this case even a loss is a victory.

This is exactly why soccer is not big in the US for adults. Soccer fans accept losses as victories. While that's understandable for most of the world in that only seven countries have ever won it, here in the US we expect more. That's why Tiger makes $69 million in endorsements and not Phil Mickelson.

The team failed. Like a non-medal winner at the Olympics, they will be forgotten (assuming they don't attack anyone with a club like Tonya Harding's goon).

[longshadow]

Correction:

Here's the rule: "An indirect free kick awarded to the attacking team in its opponents' goal area is taken from the goal area line parallel to the goal line at the point nearest to where the infringement occurred."

Since the handling of the ball was not deliberate (he didn't reach out and swat the ball away with his hand), the only foul that can be called is an indirect kick.

The ref has the discretion to not call unintentional fouls.... particularly if it has no material bearing on the course of action. This DID materially affect the course of action, and thus, if he the ref saw it, it should have resulted in the aforesaid indirect kick, taken from the goal box line.

[StockAyatollah]

Thank God soccer will go back underground (where it belongs) for another 4 years. But I should have taped some of these games as I am sure they are a great insomnia cure.

[Sam's Army]

ROFLMFAO!!!!

That was so funny I nearly headbutted by monitor!!!!

Please tell us when you are performing in Vegas...

[RamsNo1]

That's why this is a socialist sport because even the losing team wins in some respects. What glory is there in winning when this happens? The losers overseas understand the vagueries of rewarding losses but we are better than that on this side of the atlantic and pacific.

[baseballfanjm]

Oh.

[Sam's Army]

Yeah, were all socialists. How'd you find us out after all our attempts to brainwash you?

If wasn't for you meddling kids....

[cahergowan]

Ok, so I’m from Ireland and have a bias in favor of soccer. To fans of “football?
Why is it called football when only 2 players at most kick a ball with their foot on a team?
I don’t care much for American Football. Some of my reasons:

- I don’t like a game you know you have players who can go through a whole pro career without ever touching the ball
- Its a 60 minute game that takes over 3 hours to
- A key matchup between stars such as Marino V Aikman is considered huge. But these players are never on the field as the same time.
- A team is rewarded a field goal for failing to advance the ball! (Yes I do think this is pretty stupid!)
- If these guys who play football are considered so tough, do they really need to wear so much equipment?
- 6 teams are needed to play one game (offense, defense, special *2).
- When a team finished their work, they come off for a rest and let the other team take over..
- As for baseball, don’t get me started about the whole “World” series thing. Including two teams from Canada doesn’t add up to the rest of the world. In Ireland, they play hurling, a team game that is not played anywhere else. The championship is called the All-Ireland Championship, not the World Championship!

I could go on and on. I do respect the athleticism and skill of football players, pitchers etc but a lot of the anti-soccer crowd in the US really doesn’t get it…

[ameribbean expat]

dear dumba$$, if you had bothered to read the entire post you would have detected satire in my pronunciation of "commmunist round ball". that is assuming you understand what satire is. the first person who described soccer as "communist round ball" to me was a first sergeant in 3-187th INF (ABN) Rakkasans while that unit was located in Panama. So take your superfluous judgment and insert it. I've played soccer since I was 10 and I still play in a damn-we-can't-move-like-we used-to league every Sunday morning at 8 a.m.

[RightWhale]

Seems like a lot of the kids are taking an interest in soccer. This could be viewed as a form of rebellion by the youth. Rather than metal studs in various places of the anatomy and jello-died hair, now they are ignoring their parents wishes by playing soccer or watching the world cup at really bad TV hours. What is the world coming to?

[general_re]

"Unintentional" is the key word here. A direct kick can't be awarded on an unintentional foul, only an indirect kick.

No, no. There is no indirect kick for handball, even an unintentional one - it is always a direct kick, even if it is unintentional. The only discretion the referee has is to call it or not call it - if it is unintentional, and it doesn't affect the course of play, the referee is justified (indeed, encouraged to) in allowing play to continue. But if it materially affects the course of play - e.g., it prevents the ball from entering the goal, even if unintentionally - it should be called and a direct kick awarded.

See this article from FIFA Magazine for more, and you can download the FIFA "Laws of the Game" here (1.3M .PDF file) - the relevant rule is Law 12.

[Sam's Army]

Well Hell: when I'm wrong, I'm wrong!

Accept my apologies, please. And it's nice to have another freepin USA Soccer fan around!

[j_accuse]

Thank God soccer will go back underground (where it belongs) for another 4 years. But I should have taped some of these games as I am sure they are a great insomnia cure. 86 posted on 6/21/02 9:07 AM Pacific by StockAyatollah

Try those 5-hour long baseball games intead ...

[Benrand]

Gotta thank you for getting The Hitman off our hands. He's a great run stuffer, but those knees of his are shot.

Good luck during the season, but really, The Stillers are Super Bowl bound this year.

I apologize so profusely for defaming the great soccer things and that stuff...yawn. Gotta take a nap after watching five secoinds of a damn soccer game...

[ameribbean expat]

no problemo. let me buy you a drink, http://www.themacallan.com/. look, i've been playing soccer since the ft. lauderdale strikers (okay, think ny cosmos, pele, franz beckenbauer) were around. my first coaches were gordon banks and david proctor. Gordon friggin'Banks, type that one into any England world cup database. Throw Ron Newman into the mix and, well at least you've got a damn good party.

[Sam's Army]

Whats a secoinds???

[SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch]

I'm sorry, I watched because my fellow Freepers said I should. All I saw was a girlie-man running around waving yellow post-it-notes at everyone and jotting down nasty comments in his wee little notebook. All I could think of was Al Gore and his PDA.....

Did Al invent this "sport"??????????

(I still wanted the USA to win)