When the opposing team scores three goals in one second less than three minutes, you are not only going to lose the game, you may not ever be allowed to play soccer again. So it went for Brasil last night and they are one of the best teams in the world. Maybe you dismiss this as the bigger they are, the harder they fall but it's more than that. Neymar is Brasil's strongest striker and he was taken out by a foul in the previous game. We saw last night how much that loss hurt them.
I did laugh about Luiz, tho. He was throwing out a good show of fouls, not bad ones but he got his licks. I saw him go down a couple of times in the second half so apparently Germany got a little tired of him.
In part what destroyed Brasil was what they call the 'hurry-up offense' here in which American football players won't take a long time between plays like they usually do but will instead make the plays happen as quickly as possible to try to get the other team off-balance. Brasil got off-balance badly and Germany played hard through it ... bang, bang, bang ... three goals. I'm sympathetic but, wtf, it's a fast game.
What brought this game home to me was seeing Dad holding his little boy in the stands. I'm sure the little boy was crying and I think Dad was too. After the game even the Brasilian soccer players were crying. I really have never seen such devastation before in professional sports. Wide World of Sports once talked of 'the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat' and I've never seen such agony even from the guy in the opening clip who fell off the ski jump. (I found that out later that he wasn't badly hurt even though it looked like he was dead.)
I did think it was good play from Brasil but they couldn't keep the ball as their organization fell apart. Each one was playing individually well but they couldn't get their team stuff happening whereas Germany was so tight with all its guys that it was practically telepathic.
Some want to make the star Müller, the man who makes the goals, but for me the star was Neuer as Brasil was putting it all on him for the whole second half and only one got past. If they build a statue for anyone, he gets my vote. He was really angry with himself for allowing a goal even when it was in the last minutes of the game and the other team had absolutely no chance of winning. Beating someone like that is one very tough job. In other words, you can have all the star guitarists you like in your band but you still got nothin' if the drummer sucks.
Today the Netherlands will play Argentina to determine who is the other finalist and then that team will play Germany for the title.
Tip for online musicians: if Netherlands wins against Argentina, then learn when the game between Netherlands and Germany will take place. If you have a gig at that time in a Euro time zone, cancel it. Ain't no chance anyone is going to show. To be safe, cancel the gig even if it's in the hour before the game as no-one will be paying attention. Nothing can compete with the mob hysteria of a ball game and it's one of the coolest things about humans is that we even can get that way simply over bouncing a ball. It's not that I care that much about bouncing balls but humans can be so interesting to watch. (Don't even think about telling me you don't do this!)
I did laugh about Luiz, tho. He was throwing out a good show of fouls, not bad ones but he got his licks. I saw him go down a couple of times in the second half so apparently Germany got a little tired of him.
In part what destroyed Brasil was what they call the 'hurry-up offense' here in which American football players won't take a long time between plays like they usually do but will instead make the plays happen as quickly as possible to try to get the other team off-balance. Brasil got off-balance badly and Germany played hard through it ... bang, bang, bang ... three goals. I'm sympathetic but, wtf, it's a fast game.
What brought this game home to me was seeing Dad holding his little boy in the stands. I'm sure the little boy was crying and I think Dad was too. After the game even the Brasilian soccer players were crying. I really have never seen such devastation before in professional sports. Wide World of Sports once talked of 'the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat' and I've never seen such agony even from the guy in the opening clip who fell off the ski jump. (I found that out later that he wasn't badly hurt even though it looked like he was dead.)
I did think it was good play from Brasil but they couldn't keep the ball as their organization fell apart. Each one was playing individually well but they couldn't get their team stuff happening whereas Germany was so tight with all its guys that it was practically telepathic.
Some want to make the star Müller, the man who makes the goals, but for me the star was Neuer as Brasil was putting it all on him for the whole second half and only one got past. If they build a statue for anyone, he gets my vote. He was really angry with himself for allowing a goal even when it was in the last minutes of the game and the other team had absolutely no chance of winning. Beating someone like that is one very tough job. In other words, you can have all the star guitarists you like in your band but you still got nothin' if the drummer sucks.
Today the Netherlands will play Argentina to determine who is the other finalist and then that team will play Germany for the title.
Tip for online musicians: if Netherlands wins against Argentina, then learn when the game between Netherlands and Germany will take place. If you have a gig at that time in a Euro time zone, cancel it. Ain't no chance anyone is going to show. To be safe, cancel the gig even if it's in the hour before the game as no-one will be paying attention. Nothing can compete with the mob hysteria of a ball game and it's one of the coolest things about humans is that we even can get that way simply over bouncing a ball. It's not that I care that much about bouncing balls but humans can be so interesting to watch. (Don't even think about telling me you don't do this!)
No comments:
Post a Comment