Saturday Soccer Thoughts

Ever have one of those days? At yesterday's tournament game, my daughter's team dominated the other team, rained down shot after shot on the opposing goal...and came away with a 0-0 tie. It felt like we couldn't score if we put the ball in a truck and tried to drive it across the goal line. Oh well, if they win today, they'll finish top of the table and play in the semifinals.

Pele is predicting a classic final match tomorrow. Alan Hansen gives Italy the edge. The AP Solidly favor the Italians. I don't disagree. Italy has a slight edge and it is up to France's stars - Zizou, Henry, Patrick Vieira - to deliver a game of inspiration and genius to grasp the victory away from the Azzurri. Defensive affair? No doubt. The first question France will have to answer will be can they score against Italy from the run of play.

I don't understand the criticism of the quality of play in this cup. It's been an oustanding tournament with plenty of exciting games. No, they haven't all been high-scoring affairs but it you want scores, then go watch arena football. For my money, you can't beat the excitement and energy of this tournament. There's been some great free-flowing soccer (France-Brazil, Australia-Brazil, Germany-Costa Rica, etc.) along with a number of nervy, defensive games (anything with Italy in it), but they've been great fun to watch. There's been a number of last-minute shock victories (Australia-Japan, Italy-Germany) that'll last in memory. When you compare this tournament with some of the professional sports in America, where the dominant teams are as few as the surprises, the World Cup has been wide open. We easily could've seen a number of teams go through to the Finals.

MIchael Owen is taking Sven Goran Ericksson to task for his decision to play Wayne Rooney as a lone striker. What else can I say but, duh!SGE is to coaches what Fabien Barthez is to goalkeepers. Playing Rooney as a lone striker is but one of many strange and/or stupid decisions of Ericksson. England will probably never win a World Cup again. Nonetheless, their future looks brighter with the coach gone.

France-Italy facts and figures from the Hindu Times. Some local World Cup flavor. I don't know about their trash-talking; pretty lame, actually.

...and finally, the perennial question: Will the World Cup help ignite soccer here in the land of obesity? TV ratings are up...but who cares, really? We don't need to be obsessed with soccer becoming a mainstream professional sport in America. We will only ruin it. Look what we've done to baseball, basketball and NFL & NCAA football. Once ABC is regularly televising MSL games with Brent Musburger announcing, and television time-outs, the game will be dreck. And hey, ruining soccer is FIFA's job. Let 'em do their work.

In the meantime, soccer - the game - is firmly rooted in America as the most popular youth sport and a highly popular sport for adults to participate in. Sounds to me like it ain't broke. Now, I'm going to Redmond to watch a couple of girls teams duke it out!