A little late on this today…still smarting from that horror show that the Italians threw up against Spain yesterday.
It did get me wondering something, though. Is soccer the only major professional sport where the final teams actively play NOT to lose, instead of playing to win? We see this all the time in World Cup finals — for example, 2006 saw Italy and France basically just play to a standstill for all of the second half and extra time.
I honestly can’t recall a Super Bowl, NBA Final, World Series, or Stanley Cup Final where both teams (or, hell, even one team) seemed so paralyzed by potentially making a mistake that they just played it conservative the whole time. We might avoid that fate in this year’s Euro 2008 final, but I’ll have to see it to believe it.
Anyway, on to the links:
— An interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ray Ratto. (The Big Lead)
— Some thoughts on the USA-Barbados tilt from this past weekend. That’s soccer, incidentally. (That’s On Point)
— PNC Park has an “All You Can Eat” section? How did Milwaukee not get on this idea first? (Mondesi’s House)
— Miami and rain. Dogs and butt-sniffing. Nomar and the DL. (Can’t Stop The Bleeding)
— Bruce Weber says that Indiana basketball will suck this year. I’m guessing he said it in a really annoying, high pitched voice. (Inside The Hall)
— Is Bob Papa the new play-by-play guy for the NFL Network? (Awful Announcing)
Reds have an all you can eat section too. Don’t know if its every game, though.
Prize is if you eat one hot dog an inning you get Corey Patterson’s roster slot.
They should have cut that match off mid-broadcast and just come back for the PKs. Embarrassing. The worst part is that it was so blatant. The only team even remotely interested in scoring a goal were the Spanish, and only for the first half hour or so.
I did enjoy listening to Andy Grey (rightfully) rip on the Italians for diving. Too bad the ref didn’t seem to mind.
So we’ve got a sport where teams play actively for goal-less draws AND the players flop and moan at the slightest provocation. It hasn’t caught on in America? Really?
Finally did you see any of the second leg from Barbados? Apparently they gave a camcorder to one of the players’ moms and asked her to film it.