Soccer, Sports and Politics - Part Deux

So apparently there was a little kerfuffle in Amsterdam yesterday. Wonder what our Dutch Monitors know about it

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Here’s a very cool thing my brother found while going through a bunch of my dad’s stuff, a letter dated Nov 8, 1946 from the president of the University of Minnesota to my grandfather (who died long before we were born) regarding an article he’d written about a football game. Too bad we don’t have the article, it sounds fun to read.

Both my brother and my uncle also ended up working in sports and journalism, funny how things like that can get passed down.

 

Your grandfather’s correspondent has a building named after him at the U of M

 

Based upon their posting history, there's good chance one of them was in on it.

 

Trip to Hennepin County library and peruse the microfiche archives!

 

Scrolling through microfiche would be like a flashback to doing term papers in high school.

 

Guzan got the last laugh (isn't he old enough for AARP?) but this Spiderman sequence was funny.

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I'm beginning to think that Luis Suarez is a dick.

 

Gnaw.

 

This win by Atlanta goes a long way to restore my faith in the inner goodness and righteousness of soccer

the ball doesn’t lie

 

🚨💥 ¡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗥 𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗦𝗔𝗢𝗧 𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗱 - 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗮!

▪️ El fuera de juego semiautomático 𝗛𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗗𝗢 a defensa y atacante.

❌ ¡El VAR ha representado la bota de Nayef como si fuese la de Lewandowski! pic.twitter.com/4HpGKqnp89

— Archivo VAR (@ArchivoVAR) November 10, 2024

 

At least the Chiefs. Something.

 

Revolutionized the game

 

I haven't watched hoops since Jordan retired so I'm basically talking out of my hole. But isn't that objectively good for the game?

One of the biggest problems for basketball was that it was so goddamned boring to watch [point guard] pass to [immense person with thyroid issues] for the dunk. No strategy, no defense, the only suspense is which immense person with thyroid issues could get more passes. It also means that, in theory at least, that anybody could practice and master the shot and could grow up to be a pro, not just immense people with thyroid issues.

 

I agree that the basketbrawl era from the 90s became too much of a contact sport and that too much of the offense was run around the big guys, but now is the total opposite, with everyone launching 3s from mid-court, faking contact and doing fancy five-step "euro steps" (aka as traveling). Oh, and the video review of every flagrant foul (*), three-point shot, last-second shot, out-of-bounds call, etc, makes you feel like the VAR guys are very measured. And don't get me started on the 17 time-outs available to each team during the last minute of a game.

(*) which is petting when compared with what the Detroit Bad Boys used to get away with.

 

I stopped watching regularly after catching an old game from the 60s on ESPN Classic. Bunch of tall skinny guys, but the ball movement, and the movement off the ball was fantastic. In contrast to what you're describing. If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed that the NBA had a new rule that only allowed one player without the ball to move on offense.

But the steady supply of threes has problems too. It's like hard court tennis after racket technology created the supersized sweet spot. Lots of guys slugging it out from the baseline waiting for an unforced error. Not as interesting as when players used lobs and dropshots and occasionally rushed the net and hit a volley. The latter is virtually impossible with the modern racket. Or too dangerous.

 

It is far more boring to old heads. The big guy battles were awesome and you still had high flyers like MJ, Dominique and Drexler doing their thing.

 

"As a bonus, the England defender did rattle his knackerbag off the post...!"

 

I would say a sport is objectively boring if it lacks the excitement/tension caused from knowing that a good/bad play can have a big impact on the result of a match. Basketball is the one sport that lacks this because no matter how good or bad a play is, you gain/lose at most 3 points and/or a foul earned/committed. And this is statistically speaking largely irrelevant in a contest that features ~200 points and 30 or so fouls.

Imagine if in soccer 6 yellow cards led to a .... substitution .

 

One of the greatest moves in NBA history: Dr. J's baseline scoop. Great play: the defender cuts off the dunk AND doesn't foul him (that's like a one in a hundred achievement in those days) AND Kareem comes over to help out! And yet Dr. J scores. Spectacular



And the Sixers lost the game and the series.

 

Kareem elevated like George Costanza on that play.

https://tenor.com/view/george-costanza-jumping-gif-23887626