Stop Getting Red Cards
That's what I would tell my goalkeepers. These keepers make some awful mistake, the other team gets in a position to score, and then the goalkeepers decide that the best course of action is to foul the offensive player - thus causing the referee to produce a red card and offer the offensive team a penalty kick.
I watched the U.S. keeper do it in the Gold Cup, another keeper before him (possibly in the Gold Cup, fouling Damarcus Beasley when Beasely was at a position - well on his way to the endline - to have just about zero chance to score), and now the Paraguay keeper here in the Copa America. Why do it? Why throw the game away like that? Why not just force the offensive player to make the tough/impossible play and actually shoot the ball on goal and try to score it. If he scores, you're a goal down - that's it. If he doesn't score, you're still even. If you foul the offensive player, you go down a player and probably down a goal from the PK.
I would expect to have heard someone, anyone, condemn this insanely stupid tactic. These players are supposed to be international level (even most of the U-20s play professionally) - amateur hour is over. This condemnation hasn't happened. Why?
Now, Paraguay is down 3-0 at halftime, with one man down, also. Brilliant. By the time we're done, the score might be 6-0 or worse, injuries, fights, etc. Paraguay are near-hopeless to win this game - they were as soon as their keeper decided to end their chances.
...final score, 6-0.
...The Argentina v. Peru final was abysmal, too, except for some of the goals that Argentina scored. 4-0. Maybe it was the case that Peru were just completely outmatched, but I never agree with sitting back and taking a beating like the U.S. used to do for so many years. Instead of trying to hold onto a heroic 1-0 or 2-0 defeat by packing your own box with defenders, why not actually try to, you know, play the game? So, when that inevitable first goal from the favorites comes, as it invariably does, then the defense-minded underdogs decide they're finally going to give it a go in haphazard fashion, with much less time on the clock now, and so the favorites wind up easily slicing up the defense of the haphazardly-attacking and newly-disorganized underdogs. It's completely predictable. I've been in many games where my side were overmatched and we held on for dear life, but I can't remember us consciously just booting the ball downfield and waiting for the counter-attack. In the end we may have gotten beaten, but at least we'd held onto some pittance of self-respect - we actually played the game.
I watched the U.S. keeper do it in the Gold Cup, another keeper before him (possibly in the Gold Cup, fouling Damarcus Beasley when Beasely was at a position - well on his way to the endline - to have just about zero chance to score), and now the Paraguay keeper here in the Copa America. Why do it? Why throw the game away like that? Why not just force the offensive player to make the tough/impossible play and actually shoot the ball on goal and try to score it. If he scores, you're a goal down - that's it. If he doesn't score, you're still even. If you foul the offensive player, you go down a player and probably down a goal from the PK.
I would expect to have heard someone, anyone, condemn this insanely stupid tactic. These players are supposed to be international level (even most of the U-20s play professionally) - amateur hour is over. This condemnation hasn't happened. Why?
Now, Paraguay is down 3-0 at halftime, with one man down, also. Brilliant. By the time we're done, the score might be 6-0 or worse, injuries, fights, etc. Paraguay are near-hopeless to win this game - they were as soon as their keeper decided to end their chances.
...final score, 6-0.
...The Argentina v. Peru final was abysmal, too, except for some of the goals that Argentina scored. 4-0. Maybe it was the case that Peru were just completely outmatched, but I never agree with sitting back and taking a beating like the U.S. used to do for so many years. Instead of trying to hold onto a heroic 1-0 or 2-0 defeat by packing your own box with defenders, why not actually try to, you know, play the game? So, when that inevitable first goal from the favorites comes, as it invariably does, then the defense-minded underdogs decide they're finally going to give it a go in haphazard fashion, with much less time on the clock now, and so the favorites wind up easily slicing up the defense of the haphazardly-attacking and newly-disorganized underdogs. It's completely predictable. I've been in many games where my side were overmatched and we held on for dear life, but I can't remember us consciously just booting the ball downfield and waiting for the counter-attack. In the end we may have gotten beaten, but at least we'd held onto some pittance of self-respect - we actually played the game.
posted by Peter at 7/08/2007 01:45:00 PM
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