Hypocrisy
I am guilty, 100 percent guilty. Of what you might ask? I'm guilty of hypocrisy. For years I have done nothing but bash the sport of soccer, i called it boring, easy, slow, and always had the mindset that it was a sport for Europeans and fags.
I used to run a website called tradepaugasol.com (may it rest in peace) and would get into arguments with the Spanish posters on the message boards over soccer. They would talk about the skill level needed to play soccer, scoff at the American players, and glorify the European players. To be honest, the only reason I cared about this particular thread was because I didn't want a bunch of Spaniards thinking they were owning a bunch of Americans on a message board. I tore soccer to threads, didn't have one positive thing to say about it. I explained how it was just too boring to compete with football, baseball, basketball, and even went as far to say that I'd rather watch NASCAR than a soccer game.
I kept these sentiments until June of 2006. What changed my mind? I actually watched a World Cup match. It was Croatia vs Brazil, and I happened to be in Croatia during the match. The city was just electric, imagine being in Cameron Indoor, but with more intensity. These people worship soccer, it can't be justifiably compared to any American fan base in sports. But the atmosphere wasn't the only reason I enjoyed the game, for the first time in my life I realized that soccer was, i can't believe I'm saying this, fun to watch. I immiediately became a World Cup addict, I watched just about every game for the rest of the World Cup. I picked my teams, either America or Croatia, however, neither was able to make it out of group play despite fantastic efforts against big opponents. These efforts ended up being misleading because both teams played abysmal in their final matches of group play.
I'm going to back up and explain the game that got me really into the World Cup. It was the United States vs. Italy. It started out bad early, Italy got an early goal and seemed to be on their way to an easy victory, however, lady luck was generous to the U.S. and italy had an own goal on a moronic play. The U.S. seemed to have the advantage now, but Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope recieved Red Cards which gave Italy an 11-9 advantage. About midway through the 2nd half, the U.S. had a break away (remember it was 11-9) and scored on a Brian Mcbride goal. I lost it, I was up screaming and high fiving the people around me, but when I looked at the TV for the replay I was informed the goal did not count. DeMarcus Beasley was called for offsides, a close call but the correct one, which made Mcbride's goal void. It demoralized me, I had gone from ecstatic to extremely pissed off in a matter of seconds. I never thought soccer would do that to me, I don't think I've had that kind of reaction in any other sporting event besides Grizzlies basketball or Ole Miss football. Anyways, the U.S. managed to hang on and tie the eventual World Cup winners with 2 less men, it was a great match and the match that got me addicted to soccer.
Ok, since my two teams were eliminated I chose Argentina as my new team in the World Cup because I really liked the play of Hernan Crespo. I don't know why, but I liked watching him play. Argentina was able to make it the Quaterrfinals before being eliminated by Germany in PKs thanks to a great game by German goalie, Lehman.
The semi-finals came and went, and I was left with a terrible predicament. Did I root for the Italians who I had recently had many bad encounters with in Italy? Or do the unthinkable and cheer for the Frogs (France)? To this day I don't know why I chose to, but I decided to root for Le France. It was a great, high intensity World Cup Finals. France got the early lead off a Zidane PK. Has there ever been a team get more crucial PK opportunities than France did this year? However, Italy later tied it and the score remained that way until the end of 90 minutes and stoppage time. The game went into OT and neither team had scored with about 10 minutes left to play in the match. Around this time, something amazng happened. In case just don't watch TV and haven't heard/seen this yet, French all-star Zenedine Zidane (My favorite player on the team) turned around and head-butted Italian player, Marco Materazzi.
I'm going to talk about the head-butt for a second here. Not only was it one of the most amazing events in sports fights history, it was one of the funniest things I've witnessed in a sporting event. Zidane just turns around and head-butts the guy. Unfortunately, we will never know how hard he actually hit Materazzi thanks to his Oscar worthy performance after the hit. That's one thing I absolutely love about soccer, the players roll around on the field, call for the stretcher, begin to get carried off the field and then hop off the stretcher like nothing is wrong and run back on the field. To me, it is just funny to watch. Anyways, after the hit/acting job Zidane recieved a red-card and was ejected from the match. This would be like Jerome Bettis knocking out Shaun Alexander in this past Super Bowl. There's just no idea what was going through Zidane's head.
Alright, so France is out its two best players now heading into PKs, Henry was inexplicably taken out during OT by the French coach, leave it to the French to f@#$ things up for themselves. To make a long story short, Italy won 5-3 in PKs. If Zidane and Henry were still in everyone would have been bumped down two spots in the PKs, which probably would have caused a much different outcome in the PKs, however, thanks for the dumbassery of Zidane and the French coach, this was not the case.
So, why else did I become a fan of this sport? I think one reason is because of the element of surprise that exists in the game. You can never tell what will happen next, whether it be a Zidane headbutt, a beautiful trick pass by Christiana Ronaldo, an amazing set from Beckham to Rooney, or Ronaldo doing what Ronaldo does for Brazil. There's enough entertainment that you will keep watching, and there's just enough not there so you can multi-task while watching a match.
This past week has even changed my favorite sports to watch list. Soccer has moved into third, yes third on that list. It looks something like this now:
College Football
Pro/College Basketball
Soccer
Baseball College/Pro
Pro Football
Golf
And to think two months ago I was making fun of soccer fans, now I am becoming one myself. I am glad the World Cup taught me the error of my ways and i will be looking forward to the next one in South Africa, until then I need to find myself a Premiere Club to follow, the MLS just doesn't cut it.
I used to run a website called tradepaugasol.com (may it rest in peace) and would get into arguments with the Spanish posters on the message boards over soccer. They would talk about the skill level needed to play soccer, scoff at the American players, and glorify the European players. To be honest, the only reason I cared about this particular thread was because I didn't want a bunch of Spaniards thinking they were owning a bunch of Americans on a message board. I tore soccer to threads, didn't have one positive thing to say about it. I explained how it was just too boring to compete with football, baseball, basketball, and even went as far to say that I'd rather watch NASCAR than a soccer game.
I kept these sentiments until June of 2006. What changed my mind? I actually watched a World Cup match. It was Croatia vs Brazil, and I happened to be in Croatia during the match. The city was just electric, imagine being in Cameron Indoor, but with more intensity. These people worship soccer, it can't be justifiably compared to any American fan base in sports. But the atmosphere wasn't the only reason I enjoyed the game, for the first time in my life I realized that soccer was, i can't believe I'm saying this, fun to watch. I immiediately became a World Cup addict, I watched just about every game for the rest of the World Cup. I picked my teams, either America or Croatia, however, neither was able to make it out of group play despite fantastic efforts against big opponents. These efforts ended up being misleading because both teams played abysmal in their final matches of group play.
I'm going to back up and explain the game that got me really into the World Cup. It was the United States vs. Italy. It started out bad early, Italy got an early goal and seemed to be on their way to an easy victory, however, lady luck was generous to the U.S. and italy had an own goal on a moronic play. The U.S. seemed to have the advantage now, but Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope recieved Red Cards which gave Italy an 11-9 advantage. About midway through the 2nd half, the U.S. had a break away (remember it was 11-9) and scored on a Brian Mcbride goal. I lost it, I was up screaming and high fiving the people around me, but when I looked at the TV for the replay I was informed the goal did not count. DeMarcus Beasley was called for offsides, a close call but the correct one, which made Mcbride's goal void. It demoralized me, I had gone from ecstatic to extremely pissed off in a matter of seconds. I never thought soccer would do that to me, I don't think I've had that kind of reaction in any other sporting event besides Grizzlies basketball or Ole Miss football. Anyways, the U.S. managed to hang on and tie the eventual World Cup winners with 2 less men, it was a great match and the match that got me addicted to soccer.
Ok, since my two teams were eliminated I chose Argentina as my new team in the World Cup because I really liked the play of Hernan Crespo. I don't know why, but I liked watching him play. Argentina was able to make it the Quaterrfinals before being eliminated by Germany in PKs thanks to a great game by German goalie, Lehman.
The semi-finals came and went, and I was left with a terrible predicament. Did I root for the Italians who I had recently had many bad encounters with in Italy? Or do the unthinkable and cheer for the Frogs (France)? To this day I don't know why I chose to, but I decided to root for Le France. It was a great, high intensity World Cup Finals. France got the early lead off a Zidane PK. Has there ever been a team get more crucial PK opportunities than France did this year? However, Italy later tied it and the score remained that way until the end of 90 minutes and stoppage time. The game went into OT and neither team had scored with about 10 minutes left to play in the match. Around this time, something amazng happened. In case just don't watch TV and haven't heard/seen this yet, French all-star Zenedine Zidane (My favorite player on the team) turned around and head-butted Italian player, Marco Materazzi.
I'm going to talk about the head-butt for a second here. Not only was it one of the most amazing events in sports fights history, it was one of the funniest things I've witnessed in a sporting event. Zidane just turns around and head-butts the guy. Unfortunately, we will never know how hard he actually hit Materazzi thanks to his Oscar worthy performance after the hit. That's one thing I absolutely love about soccer, the players roll around on the field, call for the stretcher, begin to get carried off the field and then hop off the stretcher like nothing is wrong and run back on the field. To me, it is just funny to watch. Anyways, after the hit/acting job Zidane recieved a red-card and was ejected from the match. This would be like Jerome Bettis knocking out Shaun Alexander in this past Super Bowl. There's just no idea what was going through Zidane's head.
Alright, so France is out its two best players now heading into PKs, Henry was inexplicably taken out during OT by the French coach, leave it to the French to f@#$ things up for themselves. To make a long story short, Italy won 5-3 in PKs. If Zidane and Henry were still in everyone would have been bumped down two spots in the PKs, which probably would have caused a much different outcome in the PKs, however, thanks for the dumbassery of Zidane and the French coach, this was not the case.
So, why else did I become a fan of this sport? I think one reason is because of the element of surprise that exists in the game. You can never tell what will happen next, whether it be a Zidane headbutt, a beautiful trick pass by Christiana Ronaldo, an amazing set from Beckham to Rooney, or Ronaldo doing what Ronaldo does for Brazil. There's enough entertainment that you will keep watching, and there's just enough not there so you can multi-task while watching a match.
This past week has even changed my favorite sports to watch list. Soccer has moved into third, yes third on that list. It looks something like this now:
College Football
Pro/College Basketball
Soccer
Baseball College/Pro
Pro Football
Golf
And to think two months ago I was making fun of soccer fans, now I am becoming one myself. I am glad the World Cup taught me the error of my ways and i will be looking forward to the next one in South Africa, until then I need to find myself a Premiere Club to follow, the MLS just doesn't cut it.
posted by Jason Smith at 12:26 AM
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