The World Cup is happening now in Brazil. To those of us in the United States, that’s soccer. To the rest of the world it’s football. What we know as football, is called American football to the rest of the world. I love football, but only American football.
It’s still hard to ignore the World Cup, since hardly any other sports are happening, now that hockey and basketball have ended, and American football won’t start again until September. Yeah, there’s baseball, golf, auto racing, tennis, and some other sports, but that doesn’t do it for me.
I assume the rest of the world doesn’t understand American football, because that’s the only excuse for not being interested, in my opinion. Major contact sports, like American football, hockey, and basketball, to a lesser degree, are the sports I like.
I realize the global appeal of the World Cup. Every country can produce a team of guys that can run and kick a ball. So every 4 years, 32 teams qualify for the World Cup. There are 8 groups of 4 teams each. The top 2 teams in each group move on to the next round, which consists of 16 teams, like the hockey and basketball playoffs. This round is referred to as the knockout round, because it’s single elimination, so if you lose, you’re knocked out of the tournament.
My problem with soccer, is the extreme boredom of watching the games, along with the fact that so many guys end in ties, let alone scoreless ties. Since these teams aren’t but maybe twice a week, make them play until a winner is declared. Soccer is a little bit more fun to play than watch.
Spain won the World Cup in 2010, but after just 2 games, both losses, they are already eliminated. The United States, was said to be in the “group of death“, with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana. They weren’t supposed to make it to the next round. But if they tie Germany in their next game, which of course happens a lot, they will earn a spot in the knockout round.
The country versus country aspect of the World Cup is the best part of the tournament if you ask me. But I’d rather watch the Olympics, especially the Summer Olympics, where you can pick from several different sporting events, rather than have to suffer through a 90-minute plus scoreless soccer tie.
By the way, why doesn’t the teams actually know when the game is going to end? All of a sudden, the game is declared over after the added time expires. No one has ever thought of actually stopping the clock, so that when the 90 minutes are up, both teams know when the game is over. I assume this is still the way it is, because I of course haven’t spent any time watching these games.
I don’t even know how they break ties in the knockout round. Do they keep playing sudden death, or do they do penalty kicks, or something else? I tried to find the answer, but all the articles I found were about breaking ties to qualify for the knockout round.
Anyway, enjoy the World Cup if you like it, but it’s not for me. The thing I’m really looking forward to is the start of the next American football season.
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Sports With Frank Thomas
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