Can anyone explain why Boca's eyes rolled into his head and he looked up after challenging Ghana's forward on the 2nd goal? I've watched the clip over and over and at first it looked like he was looking up in frustration for having missed the shoulder charge. . . But, now I see him losing consciousness - or something physical happening - blackout etc. . . Am I crazy? It doesn't look like anybody knocked heads - but how else do you explain Bocanegra's head tilt/eye roll it's totally unnatural and in my view involuntary.
I don't know why he lootked up. He may have noticed that all of a sudden Demerit was between him and Gyan instead of being in front of Gyan and the only way he could challenge would be to go through Demerit. So realizing there wasn't anything more he could do looked up to the heavans and prayed. It was strange.
He was shielded from seeing the ball by the opposing player. He didn't see it on the ground so he thought it had popped up in the air and was looking for it. At least that's what it looked like to me when I first saw the replay.
From the first replay I saw this and am still wondering what happened there. I'd like to hear from Boca on why he thought the ball was in the air.
Funny to find this thread. I was talking about this this morning at geezer ball - i couldn't figure out why he just pulled up like that. It's not Boca's MO to just quit a run because he can't get position on the guy - or at least I've rarely noticed it. He seemed to just stop - not even continue back to cover for Howard. The explanation that he thought Gyan somehow popped the ball up - like he thought he tried an instride sombrero kinda makes sense, I guess. But like the OP I thought his face looked weird. My assumption was he was just so gassed he quit, but that's just because I couldn't figure what else was going on.
I figured that Boca was thinking that if he didn't pick up a yellow earlier in the match, Gyan's arse would be on the ground.
i must say, boca really put a charge in gyan. he shoulder-tackled the shit out of him and gyan still stood on his feet, got a favorable bounce, and put the ball away. That was a mixture of a lucky bounce, a great effort, and a suicidally high line to eff the usa team up the butt
I honestly believe he looked up after he put the shoulder into Gyan because he knew he had been beaten and his challenge had not been enough. I think he knew there was going to be a score before the goal went in.
Actually iirc Jozy did this earlier in the game where he seemingly carried a defender on his back for about 30 yards. The difference is that Gyan scored and that's the part Jozy should focus on when watching....
Watching it it real time, he looks up for less than a second - he thought the ball popped up in the air.
As I saw it the Ghana defender was much closer to Altidore than any US player was to Gyan...when the Ghana defender slide in, Jozy stepped on his foot...Altidore went off balance and still got a side volley-ish shot off...sometimes it's just unlucky...it's happened to everyone who has played before...
I respect the suggestion that Boca looked up because he thought the ball might have bounced up etc. . . But what logically would make him think that? 1. They both were running forward at full stride - nobody is going to pull off a sombrero at that speed - and they are both running forward to the ball so doesn't add up at the ball would pop up? 2. If Boca shoulder charged him - the ball would fly to the left or forward - not up. 3. If the forward tried to Ronaldinho Bocanegra and flick the ball over him - his body language would have queued that move because he'd have to slow down and lean back to lift the ball infront of him and kick it to himself over Boca where he'd recieve it on his other side. That wasn't the case. So I'm still left puzzled - and thinking he hit the Ghanaian forward so hard that he blacked out for a second. Maybe I'm looking to hard for an answer as to how Boca could let that happen - and this is my way of making sense of it (e.g. he knocked himself senseless. . .)
It looked really odd the first time, and I'm still not sure. I wasn't focused so much on his head and eyes, but just the way he pulled up instead of hopelessly chasing like I would have expected (i.e., that he's a warrior and would chase but that he's not fast enough so wouldn't catch him). In the last viewing, I actually thought it was something down low - that as Gyan was pulling away, Bocanegra took a heel in the shin or knee. That seemed to me to be where there might have been contact between them at the very end.
You don't lose conciousness on your feet for a second without falling down. If there is not enough blood going to the brain, there certainly won't be enough going to the lower extemities. I have to say, it is a curious look by Boca. I interpret it that he was praying Gyau missed the shot.
I think he was trying to foul and may have been like "hfs! how did this dude stay up?!" or even "i figured this dude would dive"...this is a great example of when diving would have cost a team a goal. i bet 8 times out of 10 the player goes down with contact like that and doesnt even try to stay on their feet.
When I saw it I thought he was pulling up with a hamstring. Players often look up like that when they are running and feel their legs go. That theory seemed to correspond with him pulling up instead of continuing to challenge. But really, I have no idea, because I didn't see him receive any treatment or anything.
I'd have to see it again, but my first impression was that Bocanegra stuck his head in as part of his physical challenge and got his head bounced back to him, and he was momentarily disoriented - not knocked out, obviously - and thrown off enough that he became a non-factor (on that play from that moment forward).
This thread is funny...people are bored I guess. Not sure why he thought the ball popped in the air, but he did. He looked up for probably 1/3 of a second and by then was out of the play.