Stop Me Before I Flop Again!

My World Cup 2010 experiment is still going strong. I honestly did not think I'd still be watching and following a week later. Granted the majority of my watching has been done via ESPN Gamecast since 90% of the games broadcast take place prior to me leaving work, but still, I'm following and interested.

Lots of tie games so far this World Cup, a lot of 0-0 finishes, it seems if you want to score goals you have to play against North Korea. Portugal whooped them 7-0, I think Portugal needs to watch the skies for incoming nukes now. The massive amount of tie games really hasn't taken away from me enjoying the matches, what has driven me nuts is all the flopping.

The last time I played soccer was during middle school gym class. I'm sure that if you are running down the field with the ball and a guy comes with a sliding tackle you may get tripped up and fall. However, guys have been throwing themselves on the ground like children. Guys are flying all over the field, tumbling to the ground and grabbing various body parts like they have been split in two. They look around to see if anyone is buying their act and if not they spring back up and sprint down the field.

I understand the idea of selling a foul, though I don't agree with it. The only time you should hit the turf and grab your femur is if you have a piece of it poking through your leg. The biggest offense was some player from Greece getting kicked in the leg. The other player was clearly in the wrong because he did straight up kick the Greek, however, after the kick he looked down at his leg, looked back up at the other player, grabbed his leg in pain and threw himself on the floor. It was horrid acting, and embarrassing.

I know soccer doesn't care whether or not they make fans out of the Americans, but if they do care, they should inform the world that a country that loves its NFL doesn't appreciate flopping.

I Got the Fever! (maybe)

World Cup Fever is in the air people, catch it while it's hot! Now I'll be the very first to admit that I have spent the majority of my time telling people that soccer sucks. I complain about the rules, the positions, the inability to use your hands, and the low scoring. However, all that aside, I'm going to try my hardest to come down with a case of World Cup Fever this year.

Soccer is "the beautiful game" or so I have heard. The entire world plays soccer, and if an alien race ever landed on Earth and challenged us to 1 game to decide our fate, you'd have to believe it would be a soccer match. Still, America rejects the sport, even going so far as to redub it soccer and invent another sport and call that Football. I don't want to hear about the fact that millions of kids play it in the US, it is easily the 5th most popular sport with the AFL nipping at its heels.

My reasoning for trying to catch the fever is based primarily on the fact that it gives me something to watch. Hockey and basketball are playing their respective finals. Since I'm a Ranger and Knicks fan, I usually don't have a rooting interest this time of year. Football is still a few months off, and you can only read so many articles devoted to the minutiae of your team (Pay Revis as much as he wants!). Lastly baseball is still chugging along in the pre All-Star break portion of the season. For many teams this is an exciting time of hope and possibilities. As a Yankee fan this is merely pre-postseason, I'll sit in front of a game with a beer and get pissed at every loss, but the real deal doesn't start into August.

But I digress, the World Cup starts June 11th and I'm going to try my hardest to get into it. I'll read the articles, catch the breakdowns, follow the scores and watch a few matches. Well, at least I'm going to try to do all that. Go USA!

Safe?

By now if you follow sports you know all about the call at 1st that cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Instant replay clearly showed that the ball hit the glove well before the runner made it to 1st, however Jim Joyce called the runner safe. It seems to me every year a controversial play leads to the public outcry of instant replay being a full time part of sports, and in my opinion the fact this is even up for debate is ridiculous.

Sports in America (I'm looking at you MLB & NFL) see themselves as almost religious institutions. Ballparks are referred to as cathedrals and the media and fans wax poetically about the halcyon days of the past. Sports figures are revered as saints, there deeds retold from generations to generation. The purity and sanctity of the games most be upheld at all costs! Enough is enough!

I understand that from the beginning of time umpires and refs were given supreme rule over the sporting arena, but times change. You can't honestly believe that to uphold the purity of the game is to have an umpire blow an obvious call and maintain that call even though seconds after it is made the entire stadium and nation were clearly able to see he was wrong. Football has instituted a two challenge rule that I'd explain in detail if it wasn't for the fact that I'm sure you all know what it is, and baseball now does it for controversial HR calls, but why stop there?

I understand that instituting across the board instant replay would slow down the pace of the game, but getting the call right is more important and it isn't like every call would need to be reviewed. It is re-donk-ulous to use the length of game argument, because it is an argument that goes out the window when your team loses a game because the refs and umps blow a controversial call.

I'm a Yankee fan and I realize that with across the board instant replay the phantom Jeter homerun might have changed Yankee lore forever if they were able to check the tape and see that Jeffrey Maier interfered with that play. It has come to the point where it isn't about individual teams but about the sport in general. Times change and sports need to change with them.