Euro 2008

[adam]

For those who don't know, Euro 2008 is going on. Its like the World Cup (every 4 years, similar qualifying rounds, and tournament play) but for European teams only. In my opinion, the competition is better, there are fewer great teams v "barely qualified for the tournament" teams, and the play is much more interesting. 

It is already coming out to be a great tournament. The World Cup Champions (Italy) lost yesterday 3-0 to the Netherlands, Germany is technically awesome and dominate with the ball as usual, and so many more skill teams to watch in the C and D groups.

Final game is June 29.  I call Germany v Netherlands.

[Dave Holt]

I say the Fascists will beat the Communists in a thrilling nill-nill tie decided only by a 3-4 shootout (after 120 minutes of intense nothingness) in which one goalie ends up guessing right at the right time to send his Fascist country into a rioting victory frenzy and the loosing goalie will be strung up during the looting frenzy set off by his incorrect guess at the PK attempt.  Finally the insanity calms when someone finally realizes the one good thing the soccer pitch is created for and steps out on the grass to do some barefoot running!  Oh... and of course the French just roll over and take their group play loss like the solid "Cheese-eating surrrrrender monkeys" that they are.

[adam]

As long as the French know their role, it's all good

[Superfly]

Dave that was some really interesting, and  descriptive writing there about the not so interesting game of footie. Adam I think we had this conversation before about how soccer is a cancer to American society. It's actually a cancer to the rest of the world to- they just don't know it. I think you should re-name this subject: Good parents don't let their children play footie!

[Tim]

I watched (ok so sorta watched) the US play Argentina on Sunday and I think they need to change the rules so they can't tie.  They only play each other once every few years and the best they can say after the game is they tied.  That's why I like running, there is no tie even if I win or lose by a milisecond I still know who is better.

[adam]

US-Argentina was a "friendly" exhibition match, and doesn't matter for anything. For that reason it was left 0-0. It was a good US team (ranked #121 in the world) v a 2nd-3rd string Argentina (who is ranked #1 in the world).

The fact is that national teams play each other very, very often during the year-but since there is no "world league" you often get 2nd string guys playing against each other (with the top notch pros busy playing in their respective clubs). Its alot like running in the sense that at US XC Nationals we get our top runners to come out, but in International XC you get the 6, 7, and 9th place US guys competing. Not necessarily the best v the best. This is why tournaments like the World Cup or Euro's is so good to see. The top guys ARE playing for their national teams. No B team stuff.

In games that actually matter you can go into overtime, then shoot-out. In tournament play, it is based on a points system, initially. You start in your group of four teams, and play them all. 3 pts for a win, 1 pt for a draw, 0 pts for a loss. Top two teams go on to quater, then semi, then finals, etc just like any other kind of tournament. After the initial group play the rest of its goes overtime, shoot-out.

Sadly, there is no answer to soccer or "footie" (thats a scary name) being a "cancer" statement. We could sit and debate about it all the time, for as long as we want, but is the same when a person who does not like football much can't understand why we crave college ball, love our teams, and truly hate the BCS with a passion. Or how a person who does not watch or care for NASCAR complains it is full of drunk rednecks or about it being on TV for 4 hours straight on Sunday for most of the year (despite the fact that more than 120,000 people show up to races every week, and that doesn't include all the RV cities outside the stadium). Or why the NBA playoffs go for long. People don't understand or care for running just the same. They talk about how the players aren't really athletes or no skill is involved. But we who love these sports can watch them, understand the reasoning, and get so deep into them without any kind of problem.

I truly believe that once anyone puts in a true hearted effort to understand a sport, its players, its systems, and watches it with knowledge they fully appreciated it more. Don't like it after a true effort, thats fine too. I can say that I love watching every sport I have done this with. I've love watching baseball, basketball, football, hockey, track, soccer, Nascar, Aussie rules, Rugby, cycling, lacrosse, and even odd winter sports like curling. Tennis and golf are still a bit hard to watch but, I still follow who's who and what's currently going on and don't hate on them. But none of these sports is a "cancer" and none will every truly be a better sport than another except in our own minds. That's the only reason I started this thread--because I thought people wondering why ESPN is covering so much soccer lately would like to know what is going on. Just like anyone who randomly catches the OT 5k in the next few weeks may want to understand why it is significant.

[Superfly]

Adam sorry to bag on the "beautiful game" as it is sometimes called. I too love watching about every sport on T.V. By the way NASCAR is not a sport. Anywho I lived in England for two years and footie is all they played or cared about. I was even there during the world cup in 98 when France won at home. I just got totally burned out on the game. It's just got some issues and I personally wouldn't mind seeing it stay a European/ South American dominated game.

[adam]

It's understandable. Some things are probably meant to be dominated and craved by the countries that created them. That's why running is by far the true "beautiful game". Nobody made it, and anyone can dominate at some point.

Though, I've sometimes not understood why we get to consider MLB, NFL, or NBA championship teams "world champions".

And, NASCAR's not being a sport is a whole 'nother debate, for another time and place    

[Dave Holt]

Adam, sorry I didn't follow your post (the latest one).  I lost focus, as it was as long and boring as a soccer match.
Totally just kidding!  I really don't hate soccer (despite what everyone who has ever met me thinks), JUST QUIT STEALING MY XC RUNNERS!

[adam]

I was the complete opposite! XC took me from soccer!

Granted, my soccer coach was also my first XC coach, so it was his own fault. He wanted his players to be able to run in the spring so he took the job, and I discovered I was slightly decent at it. Never regreted it.

In fact, when I first got into XC it was because all the good soccer players in the city were doing it. The majority of the teams fielded one or two pure runners and the rest of their scorers were soccer players who ran. We had XC in the fall, soccer in the spring.

Do they do the seasons different where you are, or do you mean soccer is stealing your XC runners from track?

[Dave Holt]

Girls in Fall and Boys in Spring, so they steal during that season which is bad enough.  But during the opposite season, they are all playing club leagues and the club coaches are even harder to work with than the school coaches as far as sharing and doing both sports, which really could go hand-in-hand.

[adam]

Some club coaches are ok, some are tough to deal with because they think theyll see more development in their players by not letting them out to do other things.

Then they also realize that if their player gets hurt while playing something else or turns completely away from the club, they'll lose a significant amount of money (from monthly coaching fees, club fees, travel fees, uniform fees, etc).

It's business all about protecting "their" investment, which is unfortunate because a majority of their players will never make it to play college or higher, many are quickly forgotten when they quit the club, and they (the players) get sucked out of money for years.

[Maria Imas]

Ha! I live in England now, and some of my colleagues (granted, I work in heavily male dominated field) can't stop talking about Euro 2008, and the Champion's League before that. I don't mind watching a game or two, especially since I understand soccer better than American football or baseball, but c'mon - there has to be more topics for conversation at lunch time!

[Jon Allen]

Holt- I played soccer for 12 years before quitting for cross country.  Now I've been running for 11 years.  I knew I wouldn't make varsity soccer at high school but was one of the fastest at the 1.5 mile run we had to do for tryouts.  So I switched.  What you should do is watch the soccer tryouts for the guys who have good endurance but non-varsity skills and recruit them to your team!

[Dave Holt]

The problem is that down here every coach thinks he can develop someone with some running ability into a soccer player (when they need to realize I am the only coach who can develop someone! - for example, Ruth made the soccer team as a Freshman, just because she could clearly run, but just as clearly could barely chew gum and walk at the same time let alone try to play soccer!  Sorry Ruth, but it is true! - or if its not the coach, its the parents, who see soccer as much more distinguished sport so they keep pushing their kid even when he/she obviously has no future in it (or maybe its just because they don't want all those thousands of dollars spent on camps, clubs, etc... to go to waste).