Soccer’s Image
Posted by kkirkland | Filed under Uncategorized
I’m not sure how many people are actually still following our blog as its been a while since our last post. We have been buried in development work but hope to begin posting more consistently again.
I’m usually somewhat of a passive fan but I am burning on what I witnessed yesterday in the Mexico vs. Panama match.
I love soccer, I always have. I listen to a lot of sports talk radio. It drives me crazy when radio show hosts bash on my sport. They love to make fun of everything soccer like it is the freshman nerd on the first day of school.
They’ll talk about the lack of action in a soccer match, the lack of goals (points) scored, and the general disinterest amongst the American sports fans. I can handle all of these criticisms, and I have a pretty good rebuttal for each of them.
They will usually go on to question the overall toughness of soccer players. I love to hear that knowing how physically demanding the sport can be. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem as though soccer’s professional athletes care to prove their toughness.
I am always hoping the injury faking and overall whininess of what seems to be a majority of professional soccer players will stop. I hate that our sport is represented by some who feel that complaining to the officials and faking injurues will give them a competitive advantage.
I don’t know where or when these tactics originated but it seems to me that in soccer its getting worse.
I was so excited to see both Mexico and panama score goals early in their Gold Cup match. Soon after the goals were scored the match took a turn for the worst The officials quickly lost control of the game and the quality of the game came to a screeching halt. There were a couple low points including an incident when the Mexico coach stuck his leg out to stop a ball and accidentally taping a Panamanian player. The player proceeded to take offense and push the coach. Both sides began a shoving match which of course lead to nothing but a lot of complaining. A second indecent began with a minor slide tackle that lead to an “injury” the Panamanian player rolled on the ground as if he were in the worst pain of his life. He made a miraculous recovery after realizing he wasn’t going to convince the official to card the Mexican player. Then to my utter disgust the Panamanian trainers brought out a stretcher to cart the “injured” player off the field. I cringed as the words of the radio show hosts came to mind. I couldn’t help but think “I really hope Colin Cowherd isn’t witnessing this embarrassment.”
The Panamanian player was taken off in the stretcher in what seemed like an attempt to run the last remaining minutes off the clock.
I hope for the reputation of the game that the complaining and injury faking in soccer will end. I’d love to know if anyone out there agrees with me.
Thank you all for letting me get all that off my chest. I feel much better now. 
Tags: embarassing soccer, futbol, gold cup, soccer, Soccer Teams
