At the risk of having the whole sporting world mad at me, I will make some newbie-World-Cup-fan observations about football/soccer. My preface – I am only an end-of-season grid-iron football fan, as antics of US players are just too annoying for me, so perhaps age has thinned my skin. My focus here is on the rules, drama, and cheating, and how futbol reflects the world stage. I claim no providence, and I‘m sure some life-long futbol fans will set me straight, no problem.My wide-angle lens observes that the Africans and upper Europeans play a similar rule-based game, while lower Euros and Latinos, play trick-the-ref, and see futbol as a way to break into soap drama (All My Children). Between faking mortal wounds and claims of innocence drenched in bloodstained-guilt, I think I’m watching Kobe and Paul Pierce. And don’t get me started on certain religious members making the sign of the cross after, and/or, before they have tripped their opponent onto his face. I suppose this is done with the foot of God – God’s hand is a different topic.
Early on, I dismissed the correlation between a country’s adherence to the rule of law and their on-field behavior, as it did not explain the good behavior of the Africans. However, upon inspection, all the African teams, save Algeria, have outrageously expensive Euro-coaches who, I would expect, threaten to yank players immediately if they fall into smarmy field antics, which would embarrass the paler folks back home. So the rule of law does apply.
Moving on, how can one referee be expected to keep track of all these guys running around on such a big-ass playing field? The players wait for the lone ref’s distraction to safely get in the first opposing pop, hoping that he sees the retaliation and whips out the red card. I pulled this crap on my sister everyday of my early childhood, until mom and dad teamed up and busted my scrawny ass.
The killer for me is the out-and-out cheating. The handballs, by way of flailing arms, to trade a sure-thing goal for a penalty kick. WTH! Ghana got severely robbed by Uruguay. That was not the hand of God that stopped that ball, but rather the cheating hand of Luis Suarez. Granted, the rules worked as designed, but Uruguay shamelessly exploited a gaping loop-hole to send Ghana packing. Somewhere above God is saying, “leave me and my hands out of it”! In futbol, cheaters can and do prosper.
OK all you futbol fans, let me have it (English preferred or Pontiff (pseudo-sanitized) Latin).
James C. Collier
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Technorati Tags: Ghana Suffers Futbol’s Folly, World Cup, South Africa, Handball, Rule of Law, Acting White
5 comments:
Bro,
the World Cup ended on an emotional level the moment Ghana got knocked out. The South Africans I could have done without since they are not as tough, uncompromising or as daring as their West African brothers, but losing a host of West Africans was too much for me!
Now we are left with a virtually all-white world cup in Africa with not even the Brazilians to add a dose of melanin!
Shame.
Menelik Charles
London England
Take a look at this youtube video, which starts with the play just before the Uruguayan hand ball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ1AS9N6TBg
It looks like the ref blew a call which led to the kick and the hand ball.
It does not look like the Ghanaian player faked anything to get the ref to make the bad call. Just that he tripped, and the ref blew it. So your ethnic/cultural analysis is not contradicted.
So:
a) the rules give players the wrong incentives: hand ball in the box leads to penalty kick rather than awarding of the goal. In basketball, the analog would be to give a pair of free throws in return for goal tending, rather than, as b-ball actuall does, awarding the basket.
b) what the Uruguayan player did seems a bit less outrageous in context, i.e., when the blown call is seen.
"the World Cup ended on an emotional level the moment Ghana got knocked out."
I hope you realize how incredibly racist this statement is. A supposed Londoner, rooting for the black team just because they're black. I wish more Europeans were exposed to this kind of sentiment, to see how deleterious it is to bring Africans into their societies. And from this particular person, who claimed that British soccer programs held him back because of his race! A would-be Kevin-Prince Boateng, angry that a European country would not expend their limited resources on him so he could fully realize his potential for the African country to which he is truly loyal.
On this specific incident, I find the outrage over Suarez's play ridiculous. He did not violate the rules, he simply made a play that resulted in his ejection and a penalty kick. He followed the rules by leaving the pitch after that play.
Analogies to basketball goaltending are misguided. Goaltending is a fairly subjective call by the referees, but we accept it because one score in basketball is usually trivial. The basketball goal is also such that it is rarely possible to determine if a shot would have gone in without interference. Goaltending is a bad strategy because even good shots are likely to rim out.
In the case of Suarez, however, the goal (and the loss) was a certainty if he hadn't acted as he did. His deflection would have been a great save for a goalie, let alone a striker! The rules in place granted the other team an excellent chance for a goal and a win, but they squandered it. I doubt there would be any controversy over Suarez's "sportsmanship" if Gyan had scored on the PK, or even if they had won in penalty kicks. Thus, the outrage is entirely over the outcome rather than the action.
The controversy now is whether the rules should have granted Ghana the goal instead of a PK. I have no opinion on this. If FIFA wants to prevent these situations in the future then the rules should be changed. It's not unlike Wilt Chamberlain dunking his free throws, intentionally fouling at the end of a basketball game, football teams kneeling the ball in the final minutes, or baseball teams intentionally walking dangerous batters. "Unwritten rules" must become written rules if they are to make an impact on the way the game is played. Suarez played to win the game. All true athletes do.
"the World Cup ended on an emotional level the moment Ghana got knocked out."
I hope you realize how incredibly racist this statement is. A supposed Londoner, rooting for the black team just because they're black. I wish more Europeans were exposed to this kind of sentiment, to see how deleterious it is to bring Africans into their societies. And from this particular person, who claimed that British soccer programs held him back because of his race! A would-be Kevin-Prince Boateng, angry that a European country would not expend their limited resources on him so he could fully realize his potential for the African country to which he is truly loyal.
On this specific incident, I find the outrage over Suarez's play ridiculous. He did not violate the rules, he simply made a play that resulted in his ejection and a penalty kick. He followed the rules by leaving the pitch after that play.
Analogies to basketball goaltending are misguided. Goaltending is a fairly subjective call by the referees, but we accept it because one score in basketball is usually trivial. The basketball goal is also such that it is rarely possible to determine if a shot would have gone in without interference. Goaltending is a bad strategy because even good shots are likely to rim out.
In the case of Suarez, however, the goal (and the loss) was a certainty if he hadn't acted as he did. His deflection would have been a great save for a goalie, let alone a striker! The rules in place granted the other team an excellent chance for a goal and a win, but they squandered it. I doubt there would be any controversy over Suarez's "sportsmanship" if Gyan had scored on the PK, or even if they had won in penalty kicks. Thus, the outrage is entirely over the outcome rather than the action.
The controversy now is whether the rules should have granted Ghana the goal instead of a PK. I have no opinion on this. If FIFA wants to prevent these situations in the future then the rules should be changed. It's not unlike Wilt Chamberlain dunking his free throws, intentionally fouling at the end of a basketball game, football teams kneeling the ball in the final minutes, or baseball teams intentionally walking dangerous batters. "Unwritten rules" must become written rules if they are to make an impact on the way the game is played. Suarez played to win the game. All true athletes do.
as an avid fan of the real futbol i respectfully am contrary to ur statements. yeah Ghana supposedly got robbed but das the rules of the game: Handball-PK in this instance. Regardless Gyan should have made a PK that an 8 yr old could have scored dat was on Ghana period dot. There are several refs but with the vast field of play there will be inevitable human error but.. so what itz the beauty of the game untainted by ur thingamagigs called technology lol(replay to be exact).
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