The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

That sound. Ouch.

Has there ever been discussion about having games settled by corner kicks instead of PKs?

 

The way PKs have gone in this World Cup, I'm kind of OK with PKs. They have been pretty exciting. Some really good saves. And chokes.

 

COVID and concussions ended my son’s college soccer career and he “retired” at 19 and transferred to a Power 5 school to finish his degree.

I’m rather emotional watching the kicks.

He was average in most components of goalkeeping at that level but he’s 6’4”, was agile and was a PK stopping specialist. The two of us worked on it for years. He would read my hips and go diving after the ball, for years, in the cold of winter during the off-season.

His club team won a state title because he stopped 2 of 4 PKs after a 0-0 epic. He stopped 7 of 10 penalties his junior year of the HS season. Read the hips and go chase.

Every time his team drew a penalty, I was excited because I knew he had trained for it for years.

As I watched the Croatia team celebrate, it was identical to that cold Sunday afternoon three years ago for me, with a crowd of, oh, 45 people and not the World Cup. The running out after the last kick. The dog pile. The same excitement.

Happy for Croatia. Happy for my memories.

 

Ugh. Just a whole bunch of stuff from the last 20 minutes of real time I don't like there.

I'm kind of over this Croatia side, which was second-best the whole day and sprung a trap. "Deserving" is a meaningless term and not worth debating, but I found that outcome unsatisfying.

 

Don’t griddy downing a punt when leading by 6. Don’t pigeon dance leading by a single score either.

 

Croatia has now gone to back-to-back World Cup semifinals without winning a knockout game in 90 minutes.

 

Not to state the obvious, but you have to convert more than one of your 15 half chances nd there is zero excuse for being caught in transition up 1 with 5 minutes to go.

 

I had the opposite feeling when my son took them in high school. I couldn't watch. Had to go to the top of the grandstand and turn away. But he never missed.

 

That was Croatia's only shot on goal? Holy goodness.

 

That thing still going on?

 

I was the opposite. The other 80/90 minutes of the game, when it wasn’t in kicks, I was a nervous dumpster fire. I would often sit next to the parents of the other team’s goalkeeper. Because only “we” get the experience.

 

wow

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