From a board I just posted to:
Jun. 23rd, 2002 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoWhich would be Atrios' journal:
*^*^*
I only saw the extra time segments of the ESP-KOR game, myself, but I was appalled at Spain's play in general.
Yes, I'm an American, but I went to a high school where soccer/futbol was the fall sport, not US football. And it seemed to me the Spanish players were violating one of the Prime Unwritten Rules: The ref is always right, and nothing you do will make them change a call after the fact.
So there were the Spanish, yelling in the faces of the ref at every call. I was surprised he didn't start handing out red cards -- certainly that would've happened in any game I ever played in, long before extra time.
Then there was what seemed to be the basic strategy of the Spanish: Hey, we think our goal keeper is hot stuff. So we'll just run out the clock with no attempt to make a golden goal, and let the keeper pick up the slack during the shootout. Dumb, dumb, and furthermore, dumb.
Compare this to the Koreans, who every time they got their foot on the ball were going for blood. They wanted to win, damnit. The Spanish appeared to be playing as if the game itself was a formality, pending their coronation.
Again, I will concede I did not see regulation time. But in the part of the game I saw, the officiating was well within standards, and the Spanish were soundly out-played. The result was wholly deserved, on both sides.
*^*^*
I only saw the extra time segments of the ESP-KOR game, myself, but I was appalled at Spain's play in general.
Yes, I'm an American, but I went to a high school where soccer/futbol was the fall sport, not US football. And it seemed to me the Spanish players were violating one of the Prime Unwritten Rules: The ref is always right, and nothing you do will make them change a call after the fact.
So there were the Spanish, yelling in the faces of the ref at every call. I was surprised he didn't start handing out red cards -- certainly that would've happened in any game I ever played in, long before extra time.
Then there was what seemed to be the basic strategy of the Spanish: Hey, we think our goal keeper is hot stuff. So we'll just run out the clock with no attempt to make a golden goal, and let the keeper pick up the slack during the shootout. Dumb, dumb, and furthermore, dumb.
Compare this to the Koreans, who every time they got their foot on the ball were going for blood. They wanted to win, damnit. The Spanish appeared to be playing as if the game itself was a formality, pending their coronation.
Again, I will concede I did not see regulation time. But in the part of the game I saw, the officiating was well within standards, and the Spanish were soundly out-played. The result was wholly deserved, on both sides.
