Posted on 06/28/2010 3:19:36 AM PDT by Perdogg
FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa - Day 18 - Live Thread: Netherlands vs. Slovakia then Brazil vs. Chile
I watched my first world cup in Naples in 1970. The Italy-West Germany semi-final game was a classic. It got me hooked as I sat in a crowded hotel lobby with a huge number of Italian fans and my wife who is German and myself the only ones rooting for the Germans. The game went back and forth. End to end football at its very best. The Italians prevailed in the end, but it was a victory for fussball.
Ping
Thank God for the Dutch, and “Total Football”, which drove the final stake in the heart of Catenaccio.
I wish I could have been in Italy during a World Cup.
My dad was stationed at Aviano AFB from 1963-1965, and we lived off-base in Pordenone (the base was small back then, and there was no on-base dependent housing). The local kids taught us how to play soccer, and they always beat us.
I think to be good at kicking a ball, you have to start young. No matter how much the American kids practiced, we weren’t as good as the Italian kids. Conversely, it was hard to teach an Italian kid how to hit a baseball.
I agree with your comments about the Italians and soccer as well as most other countries in the world. It is instinctual versus the learned way we teach soccer in the US. Until we get to that point, i.e., an instinctual feel for the game similar to that we have for basketball, it will be difficult to be competitive and dominant at the highest levels of soccer. We already have the skills and techniques, but still lack the feel for the game. It is changing, but we are still not there yet.
Hey man. How was partying it up yesterday? You catch the game live or in a bar?
I was watching with some German friends here. What a classic match.
It should have been a classic match, but the missed goal ruined it. Mind you, probably Germany wins anyway, but still, if it were 2-2, things could have really gotten interesting. As it turned out, the rest of the match was rather dull, England didn’t do bupkis after that.
I wouldn’t say the incorrect call “ruined” the game. Bad calls like that happen all the time (unfortunately), it’s just the way it is. It would have been an ugly stain only if the result had been 2-1 for Germany or something. But 4-1, or 4-2, are clear enough. Of course, that won’t stop those who are so inclined from blaming the ref for the next twenty years or so, but frankly, that makes all the whining even more enjoyable for me :-)
Yeah, but I think you realize in soccer there’s a huge difference between being even and being a goal down. Teams become more vulnerable, because they commit more to the attack.
Does Germany score two more goals, if England takes a more defensive posture with the score tied? Does Germany take a different approach than they would of had the score been tied. We’ll never know.
With the momemtum England would have had after tying the game, could that have continued through halftime with perhaps England taking the lead. You can’t deny that the call took a lot of wind out of England’s sails.
Germany clearly deserved to win the game, based on the hands that were dealt, the English squad was a mess. But still, it’s a shame to not know what would have happened.
Missed calls are a part of the game, yes, but a ball one and a half yards beyond the line should never be missed, NEVER!
Speaking of missed calls, a clear penalty missed for Brazil.
Come on Chile!
1-0 Brazil.
GOAL
And another. That was too easy.
Ouch! Brazil sure woke up didn’t they?
It appears the standard script of the World Cup is coming together!
Looks like the “Joga Bonito” is back for Brazil.
Tying in to a few different posts on this thread, I was fortunate enough to have met Rinus Michels, The 1974 Dutch coach.
The gist of his philosophy was that there are an infinite number of variables in soccer situations that affect a player's decision process. The most affective decision can only be made by relying on vast experience. That experience comes from playing in the street for hours daily.
One of his premises was that Americans are accustomed to playing sports, such as football, where movement and decisions are made by the coach. He felt that was detrimental to their soccer success even though they are far superior athletically.
Gulati, the head of the USSF, has expressed disappointment that the US was eliminated in the Round of 16.
That suggests that there will be a new US coach. The question is, will Gulati finally relent, and allow Klinsi to have the control that Klinsi would demand to coach Team USA.
I was acquainted with a US national U level coach. He said that the difference in the speed in which the first touch is processed between his teams and foreign teams was incredible.
He had young sons and he would get little games going with my son and other neighborhood kids. He and I would play to maintain a structure in which a particular problem would need to be solved, in other worrds to stop them from kicking the ball as soon as they got it, etc.
There was no coaching, though. he wanted problems to be observed and solved. It was like he was forcing them to create an OODA loop while they were on the field.
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