Little bit of a recap of last nights games
1. The penalty call.
I hate to harp on the officiating, but people who get paid to write about this are doing it, so why can't I. The officiating is awful. Sure, Lucas Neill should never have gone to ground, as he stood a better chance defending the ball standing up, but since when is it a foul to lay on the ground. The Italian player then jumped over him, left his left leg on the ground, and fell, on his own accord. Just not a penalty, especially so late in the game. Awful.
2. Penalty Kicks.
In an overwhelmingly unexciting game (besides some great Ukrainian hairstyles), Switzerland and Ukraine went to penalty kicks for the first time in this years world cup. Ukrainian superstar and Filthy new Chelski player Andriy Schevchenko was stopped by the often shaky Swiss keeper Zuberbuhler, but then 3 straight swiss players missed. Two shot the ball about a foot left or right of the center of the net leaving extraordinarily easy saves to make, while the other shot the ball high and hard only for it to hit the bar.
When I played my 2 years of JV soccer at BMHS, we'd have a bit of a penalty kick contest. And the winning team (we'd play the varsity) would have to run less than the losing team. Now I know this doesn't seem as stressful as the world cup, but it certainly was stressful for a fatkid like myself who would rather not have to run 2 miles at the end of practice.
ANYWAY I scored one goal in my two year stint, but when we did this penalty kick shootout vs. the varsity I missed once in 2 years.
And the one I missed was because I tried to do something different, I got cocky. Normally, I would do one of two things...Aim for the inside left post low and hard or aim for the right post low and hard. The one time I tried to trick the goalie by shooting down the middle he saved it.
So why do Penalty takers try to be too tricky? I don't get it.
You are looking at a huge net, from 12 yards, with someone probably not all that much bigger than you to try to stop it. Hit the net!
I will give props to the Switzerland team though, and will paraphrase what Double Deuce friend Alex said. The swiss team did not have a superstar, but they played a strong team game. And this was what led to them finishing the tournament haven giving up a total of 0 goals. Sadly, this led to them not scoring very often, and not performing at the penalty spot, but hey, I give them credit, and look forward to seeing them in 2 years, when some of their young players mature into a solid team when they host with Austria in 2008.
I hate to harp on the officiating, but people who get paid to write about this are doing it, so why can't I. The officiating is awful. Sure, Lucas Neill should never have gone to ground, as he stood a better chance defending the ball standing up, but since when is it a foul to lay on the ground. The Italian player then jumped over him, left his left leg on the ground, and fell, on his own accord. Just not a penalty, especially so late in the game. Awful.
2. Penalty Kicks.
In an overwhelmingly unexciting game (besides some great Ukrainian hairstyles), Switzerland and Ukraine went to penalty kicks for the first time in this years world cup. Ukrainian superstar and Filthy new Chelski player Andriy Schevchenko was stopped by the often shaky Swiss keeper Zuberbuhler, but then 3 straight swiss players missed. Two shot the ball about a foot left or right of the center of the net leaving extraordinarily easy saves to make, while the other shot the ball high and hard only for it to hit the bar.
When I played my 2 years of JV soccer at BMHS, we'd have a bit of a penalty kick contest. And the winning team (we'd play the varsity) would have to run less than the losing team. Now I know this doesn't seem as stressful as the world cup, but it certainly was stressful for a fatkid like myself who would rather not have to run 2 miles at the end of practice.
ANYWAY I scored one goal in my two year stint, but when we did this penalty kick shootout vs. the varsity I missed once in 2 years.
And the one I missed was because I tried to do something different, I got cocky. Normally, I would do one of two things...Aim for the inside left post low and hard or aim for the right post low and hard. The one time I tried to trick the goalie by shooting down the middle he saved it.
So why do Penalty takers try to be too tricky? I don't get it.
You are looking at a huge net, from 12 yards, with someone probably not all that much bigger than you to try to stop it. Hit the net!
I will give props to the Switzerland team though, and will paraphrase what Double Deuce friend Alex said. The swiss team did not have a superstar, but they played a strong team game. And this was what led to them finishing the tournament haven giving up a total of 0 goals. Sadly, this led to them not scoring very often, and not performing at the penalty spot, but hey, I give them credit, and look forward to seeing them in 2 years, when some of their young players mature into a solid team when they host with Austria in 2008.
posted by fuge at 2:13 PM
2 Comments:
I still feel sick..... thank god the Euros are only 2 years away.
Switzerland was impressive. You should be proud of your team, Alex. With all that young talent, you've got to like your chances to go far in 08.
I agree that the Italy PK was not a foul. defender has to be able to make a play on that ball. it's not his fault that the Italian decided to do the Worm over him.
As a former high school goalkeeper, you're basically schooled to pick a side and dive. if you see the ball going straight down the middle on the ground you can try to stop your momentum and flail your legs back, but if it's higher than 3 or 4 feet and with any real pace to it, you're fucked. Unless you didn't dive, but you've been schooled to dive, so you probably dove. The only thing tougher than that shot is an upper 90 shot - but most kickers won't attempt those because of the humiliation factor if you don't get the shot on net.
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