tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311787837526355.post9131261824928713709..comments2023-10-16T05:12:31.101-04:00Comments on It's Boris Diaw Time!: Weekend Thoughts (July 18)Jon Landrumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06285647002396519452noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311787837526355.post-30104633078399182952011-07-21T14:35:09.819-04:002011-07-21T14:35:09.819-04:00Not only did our sports media not notice, but they...Not only did our sports media not notice, but they celebrated it!Jon Landrumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06285647002396519452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311787837526355.post-28124863625026997562011-07-21T13:04:52.037-04:002011-07-21T13:04:52.037-04:00Great points about soccer - how nationalism, not t...Great points about soccer - how nationalism, not true soccer interest, is what we see every few years. And PKs... oh my. I cannot believe how dumb they are.<br /><br />If soccer were more popular, people would probably acknowledge the new OT rule as the single most illogical rules change in the history of sports... yet somehow, every time a game has gone into OT ever since the 2010 World Cup, the announcers inexplicably worship the new rule. I am beside myself every time.<br /><br />If you don't know what I'm talking about, here it is: for a long time, we had a classic 'sudden death' OT, with what was known as the 'golden goal' - in other words, first team to score a goal wins the game. Seems fair enough, considering a single goal seems to be sufficient to win a full game more often than not, right? WELL, APPARENTLY THE FIFA COMMITTEE DIDN'T THINK SO! Their bright idea was, "Hey, why don't we give the game an even GREATER chance to end in PKs? Yeah, after 100 minutes of no scoring, if a team scores, why don't we give the other team another 20+ minutes to try to push it into PKs again so that one of them can lose unfairly? It'll be great!"<br /><br />Well, this is exactly what we saw in the Women's Final. Look, this has nothing to do with the coincidental fact that the USA would have won had the original 'golden goal' been in play. I don't care that much! I just watch men's (real) soccer!!! But I'm just saying, we could have ended the game when the USA scored in OT, and guess what? Had that happened, nobody could have argued about anything. They scored a goal, fair and square, before the other team, in regular soccer game play. Instead, now for the next 4 years we all have to hear about how lame it is that the World Cup Champion was decided by PKs. Well done, FIFA. This seriously is the dumbest rule change in the history of sports. And our sports media didn't even seem to notice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com