Competition

Any time I can talk about a sport other then the big three (for most of you that’s football, basketball or baseball) I try to take advantage. Especially a match that was great as the one yesterday.


I’m talkin about the women’s World Cup title game between the United States and Japan. Let me admit that I am not expert that I claim to be when I talk USA women’s soccer. In fact, the women have a very solid history. Since the beginning of the tournament in 1991, the women have placed (1st 2nd or 3rd) in every one. Yesterday’s title appearance was the first since the “top off” championship in the 1999 Rose Bowl game when a US player took off her jersey after scoring the winning goal.

As much as I wanted a happy ending, it wasn’t meant to be as Japan overcame both late regulation and overtime deficits to take their first Cup title, winning on penalty kicks. The US finishes second for the second time in tourney history.

Now for todays rant. I feel that all overtime games should be sudden death. I’m not saying that because the US scored first in yesterday’s OT. The current World Cup format has two 15 minute periods and if tied after that, then penalty kicks. If Japan had scored first yesterday, they win for my money. ESPN soccer analyst Tommy Smyth said regarding overtimes that there is no other way to do it. Yes it is. First score wins. My question is, “Who is being penalized on these kicks?” Looks like the better team.

A couple of my boyz were a bit perturbed regarding the biased coverage that the US seemed to get regarding the game. My only point is that it was warranted. They were the tournament favorite. Japan had never beaten the US in 25 previous matches. The press always loves a winner. The US actually should have won the match but made bad plays down the stretch that gave Japan opportunities that they took advantage of.

It’s like a good friend of mine says:”That’s why they play the games.”