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SciameriKen » July 8th, 2019, 7:49 am wrote:I think people are a bit hard on the women for that Thailand thing. First points matter - if they tied the other two teams in the bracket and those teams run it up higher on Thailand then the US team would go home. also perhaps celebrating each goal was a bit excessive - but in some cases then players were the bench warmers so to score for the first time on that stage has to be exciting
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Serpent » July 8th, 2019, 7:23 am wrote:(football)
FIFA Women's World Cup. Australia qualified but fell out in the second round. Canada lost to Sweden, who went on to finish second. https://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/standings/ USA won. They played a great game and deserved that second goal. The first was a penalty kick on a bad call.
I`m in no way a sports fan; the only other event I watch is show jumping. However, it was impossible to be a child in Europe without playing soccer, so I'm somewhat familiar and this is the international league - quality matches. My partner ghost-coaches at the screen and I yell at the VAR (video assisted referee) for bad rulings. The family that swears at tv together...
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Serpent » Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:22 pm wrote:SciameriKen » July 8th, 2019, 7:49 am wrote:I think people are a bit hard on the women for that Thailand thing. First points matter - if they tied the other two teams in the bracket and those teams run it up higher on Thailand then the US team would go home. also perhaps celebrating each goal was a bit excessive - but in some cases then players were the bench warmers so to score for the first time on that stage has to be exciting
We understand about the points - though I, personally, don't consider that a particularly good rule.
But it's not like the US had to worry about making every point count: they came in as one of the strongest teams, if the not the hands-down favourite. It's no secret the US has a huge and diverse population from which to recruit excellent players, and lots of money to develop their team, so they start with a big advantage over every country except maybe the well-off countries of Europe.
The gloating was excessive. How excited should one get over beating a much weaker opponent?
For those of us brought up on the tenets of good sportsmanship (grace in defeat, humility in victory, respect for the referee, courtesy toward rivals, generosity toward the weak) it was embarrassing to watch - like somebody brought their uncouth child to a formal dinner.
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TheVat » July 9th, 2019, 12:26 pm wrote:They like to say in baseball, when the other team complains that you stole a base with a big lead, "Okay - if you agree to stop trying to win, we will stop trying to score more."
Would there be so many heated conversations about this on the web, if the competitors were men? I didn't watch the match, but would anyone be calling it "gloating" in a men's competition? I'm not sports savvy enough to speculate.
I might almost find soccer interesting if the games were more high-scoring.
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Serpent » July 10th, 2019, 1:24 am wrote:Yeah - 'cept, these weren't blokes. They were young women in the fullest bloom of athletic prowess, in shorts and jerseys, and hardly any tattoos. Not so much of the falling-to-knees-crossing-themselves, either, as we get in men's international soccer. Premier League UK isn't boring; North American is.
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TheVat » July 10th, 2019, 4:26 am wrote:They like to say in baseball, when the other team complains that you stole a base with a big lead, "Okay - if you agree to stop trying to win, we will stop trying to score more."
Would there be so many heated conversations about this on the web, if the competitors were men? I didn't watch the match, but would anyone be calling it "gloating" in a men's competition? I'm not sports savvy enough to speculate.
Love the joke about 22 men trying to score for two hours. I might almost find soccer interesting if the games were more high-scoring. (disclaimer: I realize that, if I knew more about the tactics and techniques of the game, I might find all the ball-passing a lot more interesting...)
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Serpent » July 10th, 2019, 6:45 am wrote:[quote="[url=http://www.sciencechatforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=346758#p346758] Tennis may be pretty, but bores me rigid, while American football is aesthetically unpalatable.
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Lozza » July 9th, 2019, 5:25 pm wrote: I think whether or not we played much as kids and what our parents enjoyed, or not. A mixture of individual attributes and conditioning.
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Serpent » July 10th, 2019, 3:30 pm wrote:[quote="[url=http://www.sciencechatforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=346764#p346764
If you played it as a kid, you have visceral sympathy: your hands form the layup; your foot tenses for the long pass; crouch for the volley; you appreciate the moves as you see somebody else make them - so very much better than you ever could - but not quite as well as you want them to.
My father fell in love with hockey, even though he never played or watched it in the old country. He could never miss Hockey Night in Canada - which meant the entire family had to sit there every blessed Saturday evening, watching little grey men skate very fast in all directions and occasionally smite one another with sticks. Though I have, like the words to first verse of the anthem, learned the rudiments, for me, it's too fast and too rough a sport to enjoy.
I have a basic understanding and moderate appreciation of baseball because of literature - some of my favourite writers are baseballophiles and they wax so poetic, it must have some kind of intellectual magic.
But I do like anything I watch to be aesthetically pleasing...
heh - that should make figure-skating my favourite event, but I get bored after two or three contenders; every act is so much like the one before. Maybe I need both visual stimulation and suspense. Plus, it seems like every sports arena in the entire world has a shitty sound system. Never heard so many ugly anthems as during the FIFA tournament.
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Lozza » July 10th, 2019, 12:40 am wrote: Queensland has had the wood on us for the past 12 years due to a unique situation of having 4 brilliant players (that are all decision-makers within the team as well as having a high degree of skill and commitment) that have played together since high school...their intuition and understanding of each other was outstanding, so that each could not only anticipate the others moves, but be anticipated by the others. Something you very rarely see in a game like this.
But they have all retired.
A lot of poets and writers of literature understand the metaphor on life that sports can represent and use it well.
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Serpent » July 10th, 2019, 9:52 pm wrote:Lozza » July 10th, 2019, 12:40 am wrote: Queensland has had the wood on us for the past 12 years due to a unique situation of having 4 brilliant players (that are all decision-makers within the team as well as having a high degree of skill and commitment) that have played together since high school...their intuition and understanding of each other was outstanding, so that each could not only anticipate the others moves, but be anticipated by the others. Something you very rarely see in a game like this.
It's rare in any team sport.
It's the situation legends are made of. Near impossible, the way professional teams are owned now; players are bought and sold and traded, not only within a league, but internationally.
We watched the 2016 FIFA men's tournament (surprised?) and noticed some outstanding talent on the South American teams. Two, three years later, those same names are in the lineup of Houston Dynamo or Toronto FC and they're just okay. They're playing with strangers - and it doesn't matter, because next contract, they may be in England or Germany.
Now, Hungary's FIFA world ranking is #42, which I thought was pretty bad until I looked up Canada: the men's team is #78. The Canadian women's team is currently #5. In the whole frickin' world Well, anyway, 155 countries - with more coming on stage all the time.
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