world cup 2010
(part five)
((rob green = colt mccoy))
(((thank you, robert green and colt mccoy)))


driving home from nasty's mancave, listening to the instant analysis of the soccer "match to end all matches" (until the us's match on friday, which is now hugely big), i was entirely content with the result. recaps and commentary be damned, the us played the far more talented and far more highly paid english to a well-deserved draw. yes, i said well-deserved. i'll get back to that. the us gained an unexpected and important first point in their pool by playing the world giants toe-to-toe for sixty minutes of the 90-plus minute match. the us started slow and sloppy and gave up an early goal (that one was on you, ricardo clark). for the last twenty minutes, the us hung on and cleared the ball like a twelve year-old "Y" team every time the ball found us feet in their penalty area. i kept yelling "clear it" at the television with absolutely no want or regard for "the beautiful game" or "poetry in motion". i was happy with the idea of taking a point away and i wanted the ball as far away from tim howard's goal as possible. for the middle two-thirds of the match, though, the us was the better team. not only did they create three legitimate chances (the botched header from jozy on the wonderful cross from landon, the dempsey goal, the jozy shot off the post), but they scored on one thanks to the goat of all england, one mr. robert green.

driving home, i thought of how many england fans would echo sentiments similar to those of texas fans or non-alabama fans after colt mccoy couldn't shake off the vicious hit of marcel dareus to return to the national championship game. in that game, surely things "would have been different" if mccoy had played the entire game.  in today's match, surely things "would have been different" if robert green would have positioned his hands slightly more parallel to the goal face or laid his body in front of the ball and smothered it or done anything else to prevent the ball from squirting away from him and into his goal. sure, things may have been different, but guess what. they weren't.

leading up to the bcs title game and every other game that any american football players play, players, quarterbacks included, practice and relentlessly workout and masochistically train their bodies and minds for every possible scenario that could happen during the run of a football game. sometimes, their training benefits their efforts. sometimes, the result betrays the hard work the body and the mind have put in. either way, "what happened, happened". in the lead-up to the bcs national championship game, colt mccoy, i am sure, practiced and prepared and worked out and ran as hard as he's ever done any of those things. and yet, he couldn't get up and move on from one tough hit. his team lost the game. regrets and excuses abounded aplenty.

leading up to the england/us match today and every other game that any world footballer plays, players, goalies included, practice and relentlessly workout and masochistically train their bodies and minds for every possible scenario that could happen during the run of a football match. sometimes, their training benefits their efforts. sometimes, the result betrays the hard work the body and the mind have put in. either way, "what happened, happened". in today's match, robert green had the play and clint dempsey completely in front of him. dempsey shot from 25 yards away, the knock a pond-hopper that was struck with pace but not enough that it should have proved difficult to defend, especially for a goalie that is allowed to use his hands. in that moment, though, robert green choked blinked. his attention deviated from the task at hand, if only for the most severely split of split-seconds. his hands' position betrayed his mind's idea on how best to stop the shot. the ball squirted away and into the goal. 1-1.

what happened, happened.

tim howard was tested more often than robert green and rose to the occasion all but once. the top three men of the match all were american (howard, onyewu, cherundolo). landon outplayed the more expensive lampard. dempsey outperformed the more highly thought of aaron lennon. jozy absolutely owned jamie carragher on his run and near miss.

soccer, when the result on the scoreboard is a draw, is the only sport that can be then judged by vested observers by the merit count of "who deserved to win". over the run of play and staring through very american tinted glasses, i felt like the americans every bit deserved the draw and may have even "deserved" to win. my subjective opinion will never change the actual result, and i don't care that it doesn't.

colt mccoy trained and was paid to bounce back up after the dareus hit. he didn't.

rob green trained and was paid to make that stop on the dempsey shot today. he didn't.

"what happened, happened."

now that is the exegesis of a platitude, dammit. (winking smiley)