So, the tournament is finally over, and I wondered if anyone else is a fan of “Association Football”. The term used to avoid confusion with “Gridiron Football”. Since the American style is played in both Canada and some European countries, those terms avoid having to clarify “American”.
I like both association football and gridiron football.
Nerdy trivia: “Assoc” as it was shortened to is how they got the term “soccer”
Gridiron came from the fact that they used to have both vertical and horizontal lines on the field, so it looked like a gridiron.
I’m not a huge fan, but watched the finals yesterday. Really fun game, and the better team definitely won.
Why England’s coach subbed in those two dudes at the very last minute (who both went on to miss their PKs) is a complete mystery.
Been watching a lot of this tournament and was pulling for England. They scored early, but then parked the bus thinking they could keep Italy out of the net for 88 minutes. Only a matter of time before they equalized.
Then with a few minutes left in extra time, 2 subs are inserted specifically to take penalties and failed. Rashford’s attempt was simply embarrassing. Spends about 10 seconds spinning and dancing then hits the post. At least Sancho and Saka put their attempts on frame and forced good saves from the keeper.
Gotta give England credit, that strategy almost worked. Italy’s goal was an incredibly lucky bounce off the inside of the post, after a great initial save from Pickford. That was literally the only spot that ball could have hit to come back to the waiting Italian striker. Other than that, England played a very solid defensive game.
Pickford did everything humanly possible to keep England in the shootout…they simply kept shooting themselves in the foot.
Indeed the Italy goal involved an improbable bounce, but when the game is played almost entirely on one side of the pitch, a lucky deflection, soft PK call, etc., that results in a goal will likely be for the attacking team.
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Soccer isn’t a sport…it’s a way to die. Too much hooliganism.