Football, She is a Cruel, Cruel Mistress

Well, I was enjoying this World Cup...For the past month I watched every game, save for three qualifiers and the third place game. I savored the final match between France and Italy; A French side that had been playing strongly, behind Zinedine Zidane; An Italian side that was playing impenetrable defense and patient, condfident football. It was going to be a match that would not be beautiful, but would be thrilling to the final whistle.

The complication came in my daughter's soccer tournament, in which her team reached the finals, which was being played at the same time as the match in Berlin. My theory was that I could preserve the excitement of the final if I could just avoid hearing the score and make it home to watch the match which I had taped on the DVR.

It looked good on paper.

My daughter's team went down 0-1in the first 5 minutes on a very questionable PK call. They stormed back 10 minutes later to equalize on a long-distance shot. The rest of the match went back and forth, with our team gaining dominance but not able to penetrate the goal or get the same kind of charity in the box to which the ref had offered the other team. We continued through two overtime periods and then to penalty kicks. After 2 rounds we had a 2-1 lead and then the bottom fell out. The girls lost 4-2 on kicks. At this point, I was feeling somewhat deflated but still thinking I at least had the World Cup ahead of me. Then a parent from the opposite sideline walks by, and because he is inflated by his daughter's team's victory, is talking very loudly: "Italy won on PKs too."

Now, I'm crushed. Both my teams have lost, and in the most cruel, underserving way that the soccer gods can conjure. By the time I arrive home, the interest in 120 minutes of World Cup Final watching has left me like Englishmen fleeing a pub that has run out of ale.

In the end I watched the highlights on FSN. I still have the game taped. I may watch it, but I don't know. What happened with Zidane truly marred the game. And the PK round holds no interest, only sadness for me. In the last 2 days, at this tournament, I saw 5 games decided by the PK shootout and I've just lost the excitement in that specific brand of torture.

So, Italy won. Read about it here and here and here. Zidane sent off for violent behavior. Read about it here and here. Unfortunately, this World Cup was defined by cards and fouls, more than it was by football. Jamie Trecker and Nick Webster Weigh in as do the BBC pundits.

Playing football, or being a fan, is a lot like being in love with a very, very beautiful woman who is at turns loving and extremely cruel. When she is good to you, you can't imagine why you do anything other than play or watch football. When she is cruel, you condemn yourself for your foolishness at playing and/or watching a game with such depths of cruelty and injustice. You tell yourself that you will change that, but deep in your heart, already you know that you can't.