Spain has done so well for so long that they did not have to focus on building for the future. Now, they will but it will take time. I hope I am wrong.
C'mon~! None of you mentioned Andres Cantor with his son driving the Volkswagen. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL~!
Looking for that Gatorade commercial led me to this: Memories!!! I'd forgotten about the France 98 one with the faces in the crowd. Still a cool effect.
ESPN just published an article about the extent of Christoph Kramer's concussion during the WC final. From the referee's official match report: "Shortly after he'd been struck by Garay, Kramer came to me, asking 'ref, is this the final?' "I thought he was joking so I asked him to repeat the question, and he said: 'I need to know if this is really the final.' "After I said 'yes', he was a bit stunned and said: 'Thanks, that's important to know.' "I informed [Bastian] Schweinsteiger and they replaced Kramer."
That's crazy. I know it's only been within the last few years that American sports have changed, but it seems like the rest of the world is running far behind on this. I think a big problem is the value of substitutes. No one wants to use one in the first half of a game, especially if it's a key player. Maybe they need to create a head injury special case scenario. If the ref stops the game for a head injury, the player can be taken off and replaced for up to ten minutes for evaluation. After that amount of time, the player either can come back on and nothing happens, or stay off and it officially counts as a substitution. Not perfect, but it'd at least slow down the decision making process.
weighed against the value of your health? and I am not talking about a bruise butt here. something that could render you useless or even cost you your life. make the goddamn sub if in doubt!
would be some pretty bad luck if a sub is immediately made and it turns out the player is completely fine.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just saying why it happens. Managers are always going to be reluctant to take a player off, and player's are their own worst enemy. There needs to be some way to slow the process down and evaluate players.
There's been talk about having a "head injury" type sub, where you can put someone on temporaily in certain head injury situations and then make the assessment. If all is well, the sub comes off and you don't lose one of the 3 substitutions. Something like that could work, but what I don't get is what is the urgency to play-on when there is obviously a bad collision invloving someone's head?? I mean, currently if a guy breaks a leg, or injures his neck, there is typically at least a 5 min break in action while care is taken to immobilize the injury and the player is then cautiously loaded into the stretcher. Why isn't the same care and consideration taken on the field to address an obviously severe blow to the head right then and there? If you mess around with a head injury the guy could die tomorrow. Or even on the field. What's the rush in continuing the game at this point? Let the doctors address the injury on the field. Does the game really need to continue simply because they guy can stand up (wobbling at best)? The game can wait. Assess the player on the field. What's the rush? Treat the situation with the type of respect it deserves.
That's part of the conundrum though -- there's no way to know that they're completely fine in a 10-minute window.
I'm not a doctor, but I believe the protocol doctors use in the NFL to assess a player on the sideline for a head injury can be administered in less than 10 minutes. You may not be able to determine the extent of an injury in that time, but I'd think you could determine if a player is fine or not in that amount of time. With this type of injury, I don't think you care what the extent is. You don't put the player back on the field unless they are fine.
I think the problem is that with a broken leg, everyone knows what has happened. Ramsey wasn't going to get up and try to play on with his leg snapped in two. With head injuries, the player often is the one to hop up and say he's fine, let's play on. The referees aren't in the position to make these calls; it's up to the team doctor. The referee can't be expected to police the work of the team's doctor. The head injury sub makes sense. It's not my idea by any means - I've heard people suggest it a few times here and there. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I know Taylor Twellman said it takes about 8-10 minutes to do a proper evaluation, and I'll trust his experience. In baseball, every team has to designate a head injury "expert" to evaluate any potential head injuries. And then they have to submit their report to the main MLB doctor to clear the player to return. I think that makes sense, and could be adopted to soccer. I don't know how other sports work, but I'm sure they have procedures now after the NFL had to dish out millions of dollars in their lawsuit.
If FIFA mandates that an on field evaluation is required when a significant blow to the head occurs, the situation you mentioned becomes a non-issue. Everyone knows that play is going to stop and the player is going to be assessed. I'm not talking about every time theres a head bump, mind you. I'm talking about the times when somebody has clearly gotten their bell rung. Lloris, the Uruguayan, this German kid in the WC final. I dont think anyon would dispute that these 3 incidents warranted some further assessment right then and there.
I don't agree with this. Stop the game for ten minutes? Head blows happen a lot. We don't need 21 players standing around...that's just awkward. Unless there is a medical need, the player should leave the field just like in every other sport. Let the doctor evaluate them without a crowd of players surrounding them saying come on let's go and a stadium full of supporters giving abuse. Even the players would hate that. "Okay Ozil, I know you say you're fine, but sit down now. Where's my german translator? Come on Arsene, get out here and translate." Injuries are part of the game. We just need to find a way to make sure head injuries are treated and not just dismissed.
Yeah have to agree here. I find the NFL unwatchable because of all the breaks for plays, and commercials. 10 minute breaks everytime someone grabs their face would destroy the game. The league that implements that first loses tons of money for sure.
The lack of subs isn't the problem though. You can give an extra sub, but that's not going to make a manager take off a star player in an important game.