Coaching priorities take a dive

The World Cup is over. The best team (Spain) won, despite Dutch attempts to kick them into submission in the final. This was the most violent final in World Cup history, with the Dutch alone committing 28 fouls and receiving 7 yellow cards (the previous record for cards in a final was 6 COMBINED by both teams). The Dutch were also eliminated from the previous World Cup, literally kicking and screaming, in one of the most infamous matches in the tournaments history. Their previous reputation for beautiful soccer is surely now in tatters.

In the opinion of some, the shame of the final was not Dutch anti-soccer or violence.

Take this blog entry by Jeff Tipping, technical director of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

In it, Tipping blasted the behavior of players who dove and brandished imaginary cards at the referee.

While Spanish players do have an annoying propensity to "play act," there was no mention by Tipping of the anti-soccer and pure thuggery on the part of the Dutch players.

This point of view is widely held in Britain (where Tipping is from) and in most countries that are heavily influenced by English soccer, like the US, Australia and Canada.

This hypocrisy is quite breathtaking.

Players cheat in so many other ways, ways that are more serious, ways that ruin the game in a far greater fashion.

Holding.

Shirt grabbing.

Hacking.

Elbowing.

General mugging.

This sort of cheating is not only tolerated, but often praised, with adjectives like "robust," "getting stuck in," "tough," "sophisticated" and, my personal favorite, "well-organized."

And yet when a mugged player takes a dive or to even out these assaults, it's an international incident.

Dutch thug-in-chief Mark Van Bommell nearly broke a Spanish player's ankle with a horror tackle. Dutch deputy thug-in-chief Nigel de Jong nearly broke the ribs of Xabi Alonso with a kung fu kick that would've made Bruce Lee proud. Yet, Tipping and those like him don't say a word about this MMA-style garbage that could potentially end someone's career. But a guy who rolls around a few times? Send him to the electric chair!

Apparently, it's far more acceptable to inflict injury than to complain about or fake it.

You wouldn't have players brandishing imaginary cards or taking dives if horror tackles like Van Bommell's and de Jong's were actually punished appropriately (with red cards in both cases) rather than the "tsk tsk tsk" treatment (yellow cards) that both got.

Sometimes a player just flops for no reason. But often, a player exaggerates a fall in order to get a call that he actually deserves but would never get if he didn't fall. Referees generally only call fouls when a player goes to ground. If the refs actually blew the whistle when fouled players tried to stay on their feet, they would have an incentive to do so. As it is, players who try to stay on their feet (and generally don't get the call) are punished for being honest and the defenders who fouled them are rewarded for breaking the rules.

Cheating is cheating is cheating. To make a distinction between intentional fouling or injurious cheating and play acting cheating is just intellectually dishonest.

But I suppose that fetish with the "robust" at the expense of the technical is why youth development in both the US and England are in such a sorry state of affairs.

Bits and pieces (the mostly World Cup edition)

TWEET OF THE WEEK
From @ebertchicago: [Glenn] Beck University drops reading requirement. I'm not sure which is more surprising... the phrase Beck University reading requirement or the phrase Beck University.

'KARMA SUCKS' OF THE WEEK
Uruguay reached the last four of the soccer World Cup thanks to Luiz Suarez. Their young spiker, I mean striker, punched away a goal-bound ball volleyball style, preventing what would have been the last second quarterfinal winner for Ghana. So I could only laugh apoplectically when, late their semifinal content against Holland, the Uruguayans were whining hysterically about an alleged... handball in penalty area.

THAT'S A RELIEF
Uruguay's elimination was welcome also because no one will miss the whining, diving and time wasting that they were almost as good at as volleyball. But their dismissal ensures that this World Cup will be won by a positive attacking team: either the Netherlands, Germany or Spain. This is a welcome development in a tournament that, early on, threatened to shatter the mark for the lowest scoring World Cup ever. Instead, the five goals scored in the Uruguay-Netherlands match was the most scored in regular time of a World Cup semifinal since 1962.

CHEATING BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STINK AS BAD
Even though I'm American (and thus unfortunately part of the English soccer sphere of dominance), there's a hypocrisy which I've never quite gotten: why diving alone is heinous crime worthy of tarring and feathering, but jersey grabbing, elbowing and rugby tackling is 'savvy' defending. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to distinguish between these different forms of cheating, the latter being far more prevelant and ruinous than the former.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
A few weeks, ago, I tweeted a link to his blog entry on human rights abuses in Angola . It was automatically re-tweeted (amplified) by a Twitter feed set up by the PR arm of the Angolan government. Thanks for your cooperation, stupid propagandists!

Let's hope they predict Slovenia and Algeria to thrash the US too!

One of the reasons I hate England's national soccer team is that the English soccer culture has an arrogance that does not befit its actual accomplishments. England has one only a single major trophy: the 1966 World Cup on home soil. They have never won their continental championship. They have never made it to the final of another major tournament besides 1966. Their best ever World Cup performance on foreign soil was a single semi-final appearance.

By contrast, the 'patghetic' United States has won 4 continental championships, has made the final of the Confederations Cup and their best ever World Cup performance on foreign soil was... a single semi-final appearance.

None of this should be construed to suggest that the US is a better soccer nation than England. We're not. Our 4 Gold Cups have come out of a relatively weak region with only one real peer. The Confederations Cup run required only two wins to reach the final (though England has never been in that tournament because you actually have to win something to participate).

England is a great example of a medium-sized nation whose fans have always held unreasonable expectations as a result of one great tournament. England are regular World Cup quarterfinalists, which is a pretty good achievement considering their player pool (lots of good players, a few very good players, maybe two truly world class player). But English fans are under the insane delusion that if they only had the right manager, they'd be sure to win the World Cup. England isn't, and in my lifetime has never been, good enough to EXPECT to win the World Cup. Their superiority complex is completely unjustified.

The above front page of the tabloid Sun rag is a great example of this. A group with the US, Slovenia and Algeria was probably the most favorable World Cup draw England could have gotten but easy? In the last year, Algeria beat African giants Ivory Coast as well as back-to-back-to-back African champions Egypt. Slovenia qualified ahead of respected soccer nations like the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. The US ended Spain's world record winning streak last year. The best group they could've expected? Sure. But easy? Only typical English soccer provincialism would've expected this to be simple. No wonder it's been 45 years since they've won anything.

After the US 1-1 draw with England, The Sun is the only entity who now looks more stupid than poor Robert Green. But I suppose unlike Green, The Sun isn't classy enough to be embarassed.

Bits and pieces

PR FOR DICTATORS
A New York Times' piece explores efforts by the world's worst dictator, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, to refashion his image.


OILY JUDGES
On January 20, 2009, most of America rejoiced at the end of the error that was the Bush/Cheney regime. However, the effects of the oil men's reign was always going to last far more than eight years. The BP/Gulf of Mexico oil cataclysm is the logical consequence of the Bush/Cheney/Tea Party ideology of letting industry regulate itself without the meddling of 'liberty snatching' government. An Associated Press analysis points out another consequence: the majority of federal judges in the Gulf coast have financial connections to the oil and gas industry. These are the judges that would hear lawsuits relating to the oil catastrophe.


PUNDITOCRCACY CONTINUES TO SUFFOCATE JOURNALISM
I've frequently commented on the manner in which the punditocracy suffocates the practice of journalism... specifically how polls, speculation and horse race crap is replacing the real news reporting. In defending this, corporate media types piously claim that it's not because the horse race crap is easy, lazy stuff but that they are just giving the people what they want. The Washington Post's excellent media critic Howard Kurtz gives lie to that claim. In a Tweet, he pointed out that 5 pct. of people were interested in last week's primaries but they got 18 pct. of the news coverage.


SHOULD HETEROSEXUALS BE ALLOWED TO ADOPT KIDS?
CNN reports on a quarter century long study published in the journal Pediatrics concluding that kids of lesbians have fewer behavioral problems than their powers. This will surely have no impact on the opinions of the far right, the Catholic Church and other groups who reject scientific analysis on principle. But it begs the question: should heterosexual adoption be banned? For the well-being of the children, of course.


WORLD CUP STARTS TODAY!
And the world's most important sport event in its most beloved sport starts today. From now until July 11, the soccer World Cup will be held in sites throughout South Africa. For one month out of every four years, soccer fans in America get to be as insufferable as fans of the boring pointyball are for the other 47 months. My predicted semifinalists are Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands and Nigeria (though watch out for dark horses Serbia, Uruguay and Cameroon), with Spain beating the Netherlands in the final. The US plays the hated England tomorrow at 2:30p ET, Slovenia next Friday and Algeria the following Wednesday. The full World Cup broadcast schedule can be found here. C'mon USA!