Ezra Fischer, Author at Dear Sports Fan

How to Watch the World Cup Quarter-Finals on Saturday, July 5

Arjen Robben will be watching you, will you be watching him?

The United States played wonderful soccer and, for a few weeks, our nation obsessed over the World Cup. The U.S. team is gone but the World Cup goes on. Yesterday, the two giants of the World Cup, Germany and Brazil, won their quarter-final games to move on. Germany beat France in what seemed like the first truly dull soccer game of the World Cup, and Brazil beat Colombia in a sibling-like fight replete with grappling, kicking, and complaining. It may have been a Pyrrhic victory for host country Brazil though, because they lost their captain, Thiago Silva, for one game due to a suspension, and their star player, Neymar, who is out for the rest of the World Cup with fractured vertebra. Today’s quarter-final games can’t match yesterday’s in terms of regional rivalry or traditional dominance but they may make up for it with compelling, quality play. Let’s look at them together.

To celebrate the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer?, Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball? and Reflections on the 2014 World Cup for the United States. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13.

Argentina vs. Belgium, Saturday, July 5, Noon on ABC and ESPN2

It’s always an interesting dilemma: after the team you are rooting for gets knocked out of a tournament, do you root for or against the team that knocked them out? It’s a choice that many American fans are facing in this game after Belgium knocked the U.S. team out of the World Cup on Tuesday. You root for them because by winning, Belgium validates the American loss. “See,” we can say, “the Belgians ARE really good.” Then again, we just spent 120 minutes rooting passionately against the Belgians with all their annoying skill and hair. It’s hard to switch over so quickly to rooting for them. I think I’ll be rooting for Argentina and their diminutive star, Lionel Messi. Messi faces the unenviable task of trying to surpass the legend of retired messianic Argentinian soccer figure, Diego Maradona, in addition to beating the flesh and blood opponents on the field. An article on fifa.com notes that Maradona had some of his most memorable moments against the Belgians. I hope that Messi creates some of his own against them today.

The Netherlands vs. Costa Rica, Saturday, July 5, 4 p.m. on ESPN

In yesterday’s post about the quarter finals, we used a quote from Deadspin.com about how there are almost never Cinderella stories in the World Cup. Well, if Costa Rica beats The Netherlands today, that might not be true. Costa Rica is ranked 28th in the world by soccer’s international body, Fifa. They are wedged right between Scotland and Romania, neither of which qualified for the World Cup. The Costa Rican team has very few players who could even have made most of the other teams in the tournament, including the Dutch team, but that hasn’t stopped them yet. Then again, they lucked out a little by being matched up against the unimaginative Greek team in the last round. Costa Rican striker, Joel Campbell, is capable of moments of brilliance, but he’ll have to play out of his mind for the Costa Rican team to have a chance.

The Netherlands is ranked 15th and came in second place four years ago. The Dutch are a perennial soccer power whose beautiful play is only matched by their unerring ability to lose when it matters the most. They have made more World Cup finals (3) than any other country that has not won a World Cup championship. This year’s Dutch team features two veteran, crafty offensive players, Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben. They are a funny pair: both 30 years old, van Persie is a classic pretty-boy striker; fast, good in the air, and even better with his hair. Robben plays more of a deceptive game. Watch out for him — he’s the bald one who wears number 11 and is equally proficient at faking the ref out as he is at faking out opposing defenders. I happen to really enjoy his play, but he’s definitely an acquired taste.

How to Watch the World Cup Quarter-Finals on Friday, July 4

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Will Neymar lead Brazil to World Cup victory or will Colombia dance all over them?

The United States played wonderful soccer and, for a few weeks, our nation obsessed over the World Cup. The U.S. team is gone but the World Cup goes on. This Friday and Saturday are the four quarter-final matchups between the final eight teams in the tournament. There are very few surprises, which, as Greg Howard of Deadspin points out, is not that much of a surprise:

Soccer is strange, in that it isn’t very strange at all. One would think that such a low-scoring game would lend itself to randomness, to the odd fairytale ending, to relatively shitty teams fluking their way into the history books. This doesn’t happen.

The final eight teams may be mostly predictable world powers but that doesn’t mean the results when they play each other are predictable. From here on out, (with the potential exception of one game on Saturday which we’ll cover in the next post,) no result will be surprising. If you’re interested in seeing it out to the end, here’s a little information about the two quarterfinal match ups on Friday to feed our fledgling soccer addicted brains:

France vs. Germany, Friday, July 4, Noon on ESPN2

First things first here — this game gets bumped to ESPN’s second channel not for Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest, which is what I feared, but for the men’s semifinal of Wimbledon, which still seems wrong-headed but is definitely more acceptable. France vs. Germany is the first of two regional match-ups on Friday and, although tho countries have a long and horrible real history of conflict, they aren’t the biggest soccer enemies. France and Germany have only played against each other three times in World Cup history and not since 1986. France beat Germany 2-0 in 1986, lost in a shootout in 1982, and won 6-3 in 1958. In this year’s World Cup, Germany came in as the more heralded team but France has played more convincingly and excitingly. It’s possible that the result of this game will come down to the most coincidental and mundane of factors: France does not have the flu, Germany does.

Brazil vs. Colombia, Friday, July 4, 4 p.m. on ESPN

This is the best matchup of the quarter-finals by far. It’s got everything: the host country, two bordering soccer-crazed countries, and two young super-stars. As the host country, Brazil is under an enormous amount of pressure to win the tournament but I haven’t been impressed with their play so far. They seem too reliant on their one star player, Neymar, but a more positive way of looking on that would be that he is such a star that all the other stars on the Brazilian team seem pedestrian in comparison. Neymar is an interesting figure. He is young, 22, and this is his first World Cup. He is a slight figure and is often rolling around on the ground in simulated or real misery from one injury or another. He’s also quite brilliant. I first saw him in person playing in a “friendly” match against the United States team right after the 2010 World Cup. The 18 year-old Neymar had been controversially left off the Brazilian World Cup team that year and was clearly out for revenge against the people who left him off and the United States team bore the brunt of his fury. Brazil won that night 2-0 but it might as well have been 20 nothing. Neymar was everywhere at once and completely uncontrollable. Not only is Neymar on a mission to win the World Cup for the home country but also to wear as many hair styles as possible while doing it.

On the Colombian side of the ball, the star player is the similarly young and brilliant James Rodriguez. Rodriguez is leading the World Cup in goals scored and has “picked this summer to go full blown supernova on the soccer world” according to Billy Haisley of Deadspin.com in a fine profile of Rodriguez. Alas, I have less to say about the Colombian team because I haven’t been able to see one of their games yet but according to my Mom (who is a soccer expert in her own right,) Colombia has “Great teamwork and a star, Rodriguez. It’s a real pleasure to watch them.” If for no reason other than that they seem to be the most joyous team in the cup, celebrating goals with group dances, I hope the Colombian party continues.

Reflections on the 2014 World Cup for the United States

A few minutes after the United States lost 2-1 to Belgium and was eliminated from the 2014 World Cup, I posted “My hands and lungs hurt. That was a great effort by the US team. Also, its fans” on Facebook and Twitter. Now, after a nice consolation dinner and a night’s sleep, I feel like I should revise that statement: “My hands still hurt but now it’s more my throat than my lungs.” And expand upon it too. Here are some of my thoughts:

Brazil Soccer WCup Belgium US — There’s more to celebrate than mourn thanks to this United States team

Sports are better for die-hard fans when casual fans get involved. This may seem like an obvious statement coming from a die-hard sports fan who writes a blog about sports for casual fans but it’s true nonetheless. It’s way more fun to follow the World Cup and root for the U.S. team now that so many casual fans are interested and invested in the games. Soccer has been the sport with the least casual fans for a long time, partially because it is so low scoring, possibly because the best leagues in the world are in Europe, so following them involves watching early on weekend mornings and saying things like “Tottenham Hotspur” and “Crystal Palace.” Yes, nodding at other people wearing U.S. jerseys on their way to work (the die-hard fans) brought a smile to my face, but even better was talking to the many casual fans who were really enjoying the World Cup and soccer for the first time. I hope that this experience was a two-way street; that the casual fans out there who got into the World Cup found that they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.

It is way more fun to root for the home team. Due to the vagaries of life, I only live near one of the teams that I root for, so rooting for the home-team is a relatively rare occurrence for me. It’s great! I’ve got to do more of it. My plan for years has been to become a fan of the football and baseball teams in the next city I live in, since I don’t have favorite teams in those sports, but maybe I should think more radically about changing allegiances. It’s much more fun to root for the team that everyone around you is rooting for and that the media you consume is universally supporting.

All of this is magnified when the home team is one that you can be proud of. The U.S. team may have ended the World Cup with what looks like a mediocre showing, one win, one tie, and two losses, but the way they played was inspiring. Sure, there are a few moments from the Belgium game that will stick in my memory and haunt me when I least expect it. Chris Wondolowski’s poorly hit shot in the closing minutes of regular time that could have, should have won the game is tough to swallow. The fact that we executed such a cool tic-tac-toe free kick in last ten minutes of the game which left Clint Dempsey alone with the ball in front of the Belgian net but he could not beat the keeper also lodges in my throat a little. But the positives overwhelm those sore spots. Tim Howard. Tim Howard! Tim Howard was a rock in goal, making what I believe was a record number of saves to keep the U.S. in the game. Without Tim Howard being heroic, we’re not even talking about the close calls we missed at the end of the game because we would have been down 4-0. Michael Bradley, much maligned as he was by the media during this World Cup for sub par play, was tireless during the game against Belgium. He missed some easy passes, sure, but in the last overtime, when everyone else was looking a little ragged, Bradley (who runs more than anyone during a game,) was the one trailing back to the defense, picking the ball up, and racing forward with it, over and over and over again. The two youngest players on the team, DeAndre Yedlin and Julian Green, both impressed and should give us great hope for the future.

The United States team was great and now they are gone. We can still enjoy the World Cup. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants and hyphens, and it’s okay to root for another team. My neighborhood pulls strongly (and loudly!) for Colombia. My household is part Dutch, so also pull for the orange jerseys of The Netherlands. I have friends at work who root for Argentina, France, Germany, and more. I see posts from old classmates and soccer teammates of mine who root for Costa Rica and Brazil. I’m sure I even know a few people who favor the Belgian team. It’s all good, even, I suppose after a few mean glares, for the Belgian supporters. The World Cup is an international celebration as well as a tournament. It’s a chance for nations to represent themselves to the international community as well as try to win. This U.S. team and our support of it was a fine representation of who I think we want to be as a country, so let’s lick our wounds, hold our heads high, and enjoy the rest of the World Cup.

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To celebrate the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer? and Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball? The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13.

How to Watch the World Cup: USA vs. Belgium

To celebrate the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer? and Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball? The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13.

altiore hamstring — Jozy Altidore hopes to get back into the World Cup after pulling his hamstring in the first game

The United States made it through the “group of death” into the single-elimination knockout round where we play Belgium at 4 p.m. on July 1. The game will be televised live on ESPN. It will be an incredibly anticipated game and although it may not get the high television ratings of the weekend game against Portugal, millions of people will be watching brazenly in bars or outside viewing areas or surreptitiously at their desks at work. If you’re thinking of being one of those people, here’s some information about the game which will help you sound knowledgeable and, I hope, enjoy the game!

Cohesion vs. Talent

Belgium is definitely the favorite to win this game. Although even soccer fans do not think of Belgium as being a world-class soccer country, by focusing on player development and then exporting players to the top European leagues, the Belgians have created a team full of world-class players. Sam Knight of Grantland.com wrote a wonderful profile of the Belgian team before the World Cup where he describes the develop and export approach and delves into the social impact that the rise of the Belgian team is having on the Belgian people. The Belgian team won its group comfortably, conceding only one goal against, but still failed to convince viewers of its dominant play. CBSSports.com described the Belgian performance as creating “the overarching impression was of a team that hasn’t yet found the team cohesion to match its individual quality.”

The United States, on the other hand, has played and acted like a very cohesive team. They’ve overcome an injury to their most irreplaceable (if not important) player. They took an enormous gut-punch when Portugal scored in stoppage time to tie their second game at two goals apiece and tear a definite spot in the second round away from them. Unperturbed, the United States played very well in their third game against a superior German team. The players on the U.S. team don’t all play at top-tier teams like the Belgians do but they do seem to play well as a team. Credit for this is hard to accurately distribute but it certainly seems like Coach Jurgen Klinsmann deserves a lot of it.

Goaltenders

This game features two of the best goalies in the world, Tim Howard of the United States, and Thibaut Courtois for the Belgians. Both goalkeepers star in the English Premiere League — Howard for Everton and Courtois for Chelsea. Playing goalie in soccer is a somewhat crazy thing to do because your chances of being humiliated is so high and it attracts, shall we say, colorful personalities. Howard is definitely that. He’s a classic product of New Brunswick, NJ, (where I went to college, hooray for Rutgers,) being half African-American and half Hungarian, the two dominant groups in the city. He was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a child and has been a very admirable and open spokesperson for people with the syndrome. Interestingly, there’s some thought, like from this soccerblog.com article from 2010, that Tourette’s helps Howard “sense things in the body movements of others that the rest of us screen out, some signal or vibration, some sensory cue. It’s almost like they can see what’s going to happen before it happens.” If true, that would be quite an advantage for a goalkeeper! Tourette’s is best known for causing verbal outbursts, sometimes vulgar, from people who have the syndrome. Howard screams at his defenders, but don’t kid yourself, that’s just part of the job and he does it well. While the 35 year-old Howard is at the end of his career, the 22 year-old Courtois is just beginning. He inspired a parody of the American Football Tebowing meme with people “Thibauting” by taking pictures of themselves pretending to make amazing saves. Courtois highlights are amazing.

Injuries

After three hard group-stage games, it’s no surprise that injuries are going to be a theme of the games in the knockout stage. Both teams have important players who are either going to miss the game or play at less than full strength.

Belgium

The most important injury on the Belgian side is to its most important player, Vincent Kompany. Kompany anchors the Belgian defense and is something of a spiritual leader for the young team. In a glowing New York Times profile, a fellow defender describes Kompany as, “He’s like the father of the team, taking care of everything and everyone.” He strained his groin in a group match and may not be able to play. The Belgians also have players with a pulled hamstring, a strained abductor, and a cracked fibula. Safe to say, they are not at full strength.

The United States

While we are likely to hear a lot about the twin broken noses of Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones (coincidentally the two best players for the US team so far,) the only truly significant injury for team U.S. is Jozy Altidore. Altidore, as you may remember, went down in the first half of the first game of the World Cup clutching his hamstring. He’s a big, strong, offensive player who excels at controlling a long pass and holding the ball while his teammates sprint up the field to join the attack. The U.S. doesn’t really have a player who can replace what Altidore does on the field, so for the last two games the team has played without anyone in that position. Altidore is a big question mark for the game against Belgium. Can he play? If he does play, how well and how long can he play for? Will he be used as a second-half sub if the team is down? If he plays, will the other players adjust well to having him back or have they gotten too used to playing without him?

The Result?

Who can say? It’s going to be a nail-biter. Go USA!

What is Stoppage Time in Soccer?

To celebrate the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer? and Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball? The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13.

Dear Sports Fan,

I’ve been loving the World Cup this year! One thing I don’t understand though — what is stoppage time in soccer? If the game is 90 minutes, why isn’t it over when the clock hits 90? How does it work?

Thanks,
Andrew,

Colombia v Cote D'Ivoire: Group C - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil — “Your delaying tactics will not work here,” says the ref. “I keep the only official time!”

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Dear Andrew,

Stoppage time is the time between when the clock shows that time is up in a half, period, or game, and when it is really over. It’s definitely a strange wrinkle that exists only in soccer and it’s typical of the type of absolute power that soccer gives the referee. It also encourages bad behavior among the players and hints at some of soccer’s darkest moments. Here’s how it works.

At the start of a game, the clock starts counting up from zero. The first half is forty-five minutes long; same with the second. In the knockout stage of the World Cup, a game that is tied at the end of regulation time will play two fifteen minute halves to try to decide the game. If it is still tied after that, the game will be decided by a penalty kick shootout. During all of this, the clock that you see on your television is unofficial. I mean, I guess it’s official, but it’s basically meaningless. The only time that matters is the one on the watch of the referee on the field and the “fourth official” who stands on the sidelines. The refs are allowed and supposed to stop their watches whenever various things happen. According to FIFA, the international body that runs soccer, these things are:

substitutions
assessment of injury to players
removal of injured players from the field of play for treatment
wasting time
any other cause

FIFA’s rules go on to say that “the allowance for time lost is at the discretion of the referee.” The clock on the television may count up to 46 minutes or 48 minutes or 49:36 before the ref blows his whistle to end the first half. When the second half begins, the clock has been reset to 45 minutes? Why? In soccer, the ref’s watch is what matters, and a half is 45 minutes no matter how long it actually takes. If your watch or the television clock told you the first half took longer, you were mistaken. It took 45 minutes. Yep — the amount of time that a soccer game is played for is totally up to the ref who is explicitly allowed to add time to the game for literally anything.

You might be thinking that this is a lot of power for the ref to have. It is! Soccer generally gives more power to the ref than other sports. In NHL hockey there are two refs on the rink, in NBA Basketball there are three, and in NFL football and MLB baseball there are a gaggles of officials big enough for a healthy poker game if not a square dance. In soccer, the ref is alone on the field with the players. He or she makes every important call, and because soccer is such a low scoring game and fouls can result in penalty kicks that almost always result in goals, foul calls are often extremely important. The fact that the ref also is the only one with the power to end the game fits into the pattern of the nearly all-powerful ref. When combined with gobs of money, the power of the ref can easily become problematic. If you’re interested, read this recent Telegraph article about how an investment company planned to fix the result of international soccer games by hiring corrupt refs.

hublot stoppage time — Roughly two minutes added to this half

A downside of the stoppage time rules is that it encourages players to waste time if their team is winning. You see them do this by choosing to stroll off the field by a scenic route to the sidelines when being replaced by a substitute, by taking their time to put the ball back into play on a throw-in or a goal kick, and by rolling around on the ground in agony for what seems like hours after being touched lightly on the ankle by a passing butterfly. It seems counter-intuitive that this would work. If anything, the fact that the ref can stop the official clock whenever he or she wants should prevent delaying tactics from being effective, but the truth is that refs only ever really add between one and five extra minutes to a half. I’ve seen six but I can’t remember ever seeing seven minutes added, no matter how silly the players were being. So, delaying the game when your team is up can be an effective strategy if you do it flagrantly enough. The Wall Street Journal just released a statistical analysis of the games in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup and found that:

“The amount of histrionics your players display during a match correlates strongly to what the scoreboard says. Players on teams that were losing their games accounted for 40 “injuries” and nearly 12.5 minutes of writhing time. But players on teams that were winning—the ones who have the most incentive to run out the clock—accounted for 103 “injuries” and almost four times as much writhing.”

Stoppage time has been around for a long time, although like the actual duration of a soccer game, no one is exactly sure how long. The Chicago Tribune claims that timekeeping in soccer has been done this way since at least 1913. The custom of publicly estimating how many minutes of stoppage time will be added (this is what’s going on when the fourth official on the sideline holds up a sign with a number on it at the end of the half or game) has only been around since 1996. I’m not sure that the customs are connected but soccer stadiums invariably take the time off their scoreboards ten or fifteen minutes before the end of the period as a form of crowd control. Given the long and horrible history of soccer stadium disasters, this is a common sense maneuver. Although the uncertainty about when the game is going to end adds a certain type of drama, it also takes the edge off the craziness that a last second attempt on goal could create.

I hope this post has helped take the edge off the craziness of stoppage time,
Ezra Fischer

How to Watch the World Cup: USA vs Germany

To celebrate and prepare for the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer? and Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball? The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13.

Jermaine Jones is and has been awesome in the World Cup

With dread. At least that’s how I’m going to watch the third and potentially final game of the World Cup for the United States team. Here’s a quick recap of the tournament so far.

The United States got a little unlucky and ended up stuck with three strong teams, Germany, Portugal, and Ghana in the so-called “Group of Death.” BAD
The United States beat Ghana 2-1 even though Ghana outplayed them. GOOD
Germany clobbered Portugal and then tied Ghana, leaving the United States with the opportunity to clinch a place in the next round of the tournament if they could beat Portugal. GOOD
The United States was clearly the better team in their game against Portugal and had a 2-1 lead after ninety four minutes of play. GOOD
There was one more minute in the game. UH OH
Portugal scored. AGHHGH!!!!
Wait, hold up, the United States still has a great chance to move on to the next round. All they need to do is win or tie their game against Germany or lose but have the Ghana vs. Portugal work out in some very reasonable ways. NOT SO BAD

So, after two weeks of exciting play in what has been by far the most entertaining World Cup in my memory, this is where we are. And… it’s just all going to go horribly wrong from here on out, I can feel it in my bones. One of the reasons I write this blog is to try to explain to non-sports-infected people what it’s like to be a fan. Sean McIndoe of Grantland did a great piece last year called “The 20 Types of Depressed Sports Fans” and I always tend to be number 9, The Pessimist:

Long before it becomes clear that the game is going south, this fan will annoy everyone by coming up with increasingly negative scenarios that he insists are about to unfold. Eventually, his lamentations become a source of constant background noise, like a dripping faucet.

I’m also a devotee of the “reverse jinx” philosophy which suggests that you can use your natural “dripping faucet lamentations” to literally affect the course of an upcoming game if you state them loudly and often before the game. Without further ado, here are my lamentations in advance of the United States game vs. Germany:

Many are suggesting that there will be some unspoken collusion between Germany and the United States to tie the game because if they tie, they are both guaranteed a spot in the next round with Germany in first place and the United States in second. This isn’t going to happen. There is a pretty big difference between first and second in the group because the second place team will probably play Belgium while the winner of the group will play Algeria, Russia, or Korea, all of which are likely to be much easier to beat than the surprisingly mighty Belgians. Germany is going to try to win.
If Germany tries to win, they are likely to win. They’re ranked second in the world by FIFA and they have played excellently so far. They’ve also had an extra day of rest compared to the United States and they didn’t just play in the rain-forest of Manaus, where the U.S. vs Portugal game was. All four teams who have played in Manaus went on to lose their next game. It’s that brutal of a place to play.
This “Manaus Effect,” said by soccerblog.dallasnews.com to be “as deadly as skinny dipping in the Amazon,” has negative consequences beyond our game with Germany. If we lose to Germany, our best bet for advancing to the next round anyway is for Portugal to beat or tie Ghana. Unfortunately, Portugal will also be suffering from having played just four days before in an 84 degree, 70 percent humidity sauna.
Now we get to the really superstitious part of this. Here are the results of the U.S. national team in World Cups since 1990 when they qualified for the first time since 1950 and when I first started following them:
- 1990 — lost all three games.
- 1994 — Lost 1-0 to Brazil in the knock-out round. Not bad.
- 1998 — lost all three games, including one 2-0 to Germany. Ouch.
- 2002 — made it all the way to the quarterfinals!!! Lost 1-0 to Germany.
- 2006 — won their first game, tied their second, (sound familiar?) lost their third game 2-1 to Ghana. Eliminated.
- 2010 — made it to the knock-out round. Eliminated by Ghana, 2-1.
You have to admit, if there’s a scenario that should make U.S. soccer fans bones’ jangle, it’s playing against Germany and facing elimination, if we lose to Germany, by a victory by Ghana.

Because this is a massive reverse jinx powered by true sports-pessimism, I’m not going to point out how wonderful it has been to see American fans turn out with real passion in droves to support the United States team. I’m not going to point out that Nate Silver thinks the U.S. team has a 75.9% chance of advancing. I’m definitely, definitely not going to point out that if the U.S. manages to beat Germany and then beat Algeria, Russia, or South Korea, it would play the winner of France vs. Nigeria in the Quarterfinals on July 4th.

How to Watch the World Cup: USA vs Portugal

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US Fans — Some of the sixteen million people who watched the U.S. beat Ghana at the World Cup

After a thrilling victory against Ghana that was watched by over 16 million people in the United States, the US team plays their second game of the 2014 World Cup on Sunday, June 22, at 6:00 pm on ESPN against Portugal. If you were one of those 16 million people or have talked to one of them since the game, you might be interested in tuning in for this game. Here are some things to know and prepare for.

Who Are the United States Players to Watch Out For?

Last week, before the first U.S. game of the World Cup, I wrote about Michael Bradley and claimed he was the best player on the team. Well, he wasn’t against Ghana. In fact, he was kind of bad. Soccer people have been talking about this since then. How Bradley “responds” to this will be one of the big stories of the game. Natural variation in how a player plays from one game to the next is almost always turned into plot by avid sports fans. This is one of those times — either Bradley will “use the criticism as fuel and come back with a great game” or will “continue his run of bad play, prompting questions about what could be wrong with him.” On the other hand, during the past few years statistical analysis has pervaded sports media, so you may also hear the phrase “regression to the mean.” This just means that a good player is more likely to play like a good player after a bad game than he is to continue to play like a bad player.

The other player to watch out for is unknown as of yet. The best American striker (primary attacking player,) Jozy Altitore left the game against Ghana with what looked like a badly injured hamstring. No one is sure what coach Jurgen Klinsmann will do to replace him, not even the always-informed Jason La Canfora of CBS sports. La Canfora asked two former American National Team strikers what they would do and one said he would replace Altidore with Chris Wondolowski (his fans call him “Wondo”) and the other said he would replace him with an extra midfielder and ask Clint Dempsey to play as the only striker. I would rather see the U.S. continue using two strikers, no matter who the replacement is, than try that but unfortunately, I have no say in the matter! Neither do you, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

What’s the Deal with Portugal?

Portugal lost their first game to Germany 4-0. They looked terrible. They’re also going to be playing without two of their best defenders, Fabio Coentrao who is out with an injury, and Pepe who got a red card for head-butting (he didn’t get his money’s worth, it was really more like nuzzling,) a German. The best player on Portugal’s team, who is also generally considered one of the best two players in the world, is suffering from a knee injury. His name is Cristiano Ronaldo and he is really, really fun to hate. Try it tomorrow! To help you develop some healthy sports hate for him, here is a video compilation of him diving (for comparison’s sake, the other consensus best player in the world is the Argentinian Lionel Messi who inspires YouTube videos that claim he “never dives.”) What’s even more annoying to me is the pose he strikes before taking free kicks. The way he stands there, with his legs wide and his chest puffed out and his always perfectly coiffed hair… just makes me wriggle in annoyance.

What Does This Game Mean in the Standings?

As we explained at greater length in our article, How Does the World Cup Work, the initial stage of the World cup consists of eight groups of four teams each who play each other to determine which two teams move on to the next stage. The group that the U.S. team is in consists of Ghana, Portugal, and Germany, and we play them in that order. Teams get three points for a win and one point for a tie. So far, Germany has a win and a tie (four points,) the United States has a win (three points,) Ghana has a loss and a tie (one point,) and Portugal has only a loss (zero points.) After the U.S. vs Portugal game, there will only be two games left in the group stage: Germany vs. the United States and Portugal vs. Ghana. If the United States wins, they will guarantee themselves a place in the next round because only Germany could exceed six points in the remaining games. If the United States tie, they are still in quite good shape. The worst they could do in that scenario is four points, which is the most that Portugal or Ghana could end up with. Having beaten Ghana and with Portugal having lost miserably to Germany in the first game (the number of times a team gets scored on matters for tie-breaking,) the United States would be likely to make it through. Losing to Portugal is a serious problem though, because then if Portugal beats Ghana, the United States would need to beat Germany to get in — an unlikely outcome.

Was that confusing? It is a little complicated but basically the United States will definitely advance with a win, will probably advance with a tie, and really, really should try not to lose against Portugal because then they might actually have to beat the Germans on Thursday.

So, What’s Going to Happen?

Two missing defenders and an injured (and annoying!) Ronaldo notwithstanding, Portugal is a much more acclaimed team than the United States, and is favored over the United States. When Germany went up 1-0 against Ghana, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of dread about our game against Portugal. The U.S. team has a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and so far, everything was going right for the United States. Germany had destroyed Portugal, Portugal was not going to be playing at full strength, and the United States had (honestly) lucked into a win against Ghana. If the Germans had beaten Ghana, they might not have anything to play for in their final game against the U.S. and would be liable to rest their best players and not try too hard to beat us. Everything was going the United States’ way, so of course, I felt everything would soon go horribly wrong. Then Ghana scored two goals and looked like they might beat the Germans. This was bad for the U.S. but I couldn’t help feel good about it. For one thing, Ghana looking so good against Germany validated the United States needing some luck to beat Ghana in the first place. Mostly though, I think I just felt better (and feel better even after Germany and Ghana tied the game,) that the United States won’t be able to luck their way into advancing. The team will have to earn it, and tomorrow, oddly enough, I think they just might do it. Go, go, USA!

How to Watch the World Cup: USA vs Ghana

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The United States Men’s National soccer team plays their first game of the 2014 World Cup on Monday June 16 at 6:00 pm ET against Ghana. It will be televised live from Estadio das Dunas in Natal, Brazil on ESPN. If you are not a normal soccer junkie, this is one of the handful of games over the next four years that you might really enjoy watching. Here’s some suggestions to wring out the most enjoyment possible from it.

Know the Stakes:

This is the first game of the World Cup for the United States but the stakes are already extremely high. As we covered in our How Does the World Cup Work? post, the opening two weeks of the tournament are the group stage. This is a round-robin tournament in groups of four teams with only the top two advancing to the knockout round, a single elimination bracket of sixteen teams. The United States got very unlucky and was placed in what is widely being called the “Group of Death” because it collectively has the toughest teams. The United States will play Ghana and then Portugal and then Germany. It’s a rule of thumb that to have a chance of advancing, a team should aim for at least four points (three for a win, one for a tie, zero for a loss.) Of the three teams, Ghana is thought to be the weakest. FIFA (soccer’s unthinkably corrupt governing body) ranks Ghana 37th, Portugal 4th, and Germany 2nd. The United States is 13th. I know it’s only the first game of the tournament for the US team but if they are going to advance, they almost definitely need to win the game against Ghana.

Know the Characters:

Soccer is a beautiful game to watch but even its strongest proponents will admit that for people who are not used to watching it, it can drag at times. One approach is to appreciate soccer through the sheer sex appeal of its players. A complementary approach is to get into the plot of the game. Here are some of the characters:

Clint Dempsey

The captain of the US team, Clint Dempsey is also the heart and soul of the team. He’s a fiery dude whose brash, untraditional style has an air of the avant-garde to it if the avant-garde was as likely to punch you in the face as produce artwork. He also has an appealing Olympic-personal-interest type back-story that confirms American stereotypes about soccer so its bound to get a lot of airplay. Dempsey grew up in a trailer in Nacogdoches, Texas, playing soccer with primarily kids (and adults) of hispanic decent. He cut his teeth playing in adult offshoot of the Mexican professional league when he was a fourteen year-old. According to this great Sports Illustrated article, he would infuriate the adults with his skill and attitude and then had to handle them trying to injure him. He played at Furman University and then the New England Revolution in the US professional league, the MLS, before heading to the English Premiere league where he played for Fulham and later Tottenham. Dempsey became widely known as the best American non-goalie to ever play in the EPL before coming back to the US to play for Seattle last year. He’s 31 now which is a little past prime for a soccer player but he’s still clever and ferocious and capable of creating some magical moments for the US team.

Michael Bradley

If Dempsey is the heart and soul of the team, Michael Bradley is the engine. He plays tirelessly at the center of the field for the US team. He starts the attack by distributing the ball up the field and he’s essential to defense, pressuring the best playmaker on the other team and tackling with precision and strength. If Dempsey’s background and style confirm the stereotype of the fiery latin influence, Bradley confirms the stereotype of the overly intense passion that white America is said to approach soccer with. I can’t find the article now (please send me a link if you know it) but I recently read an article about Bradley getting into a physical fight with his father following a national team game a few years ago. Oh, and his father was the coach of the national team when it happened. That’s right, Michael’s father, Bob Bradley was the US coach from 2006 to 2011, so Michael is used to being in the spotlight. Now he’s his own man and widely thought to be the best player on the team.

Jurgen Klinsmann

When Bob Bradley was fired in 2011, the United States soccer leaders turned to Jurgen Klinsmann to take over. Klinsmann is a former star of the German National team. He was a great goal scorer who helped lead the Germans to a World Cup victory in 1990. He later coached the German team in the 2006 World Cup and was criticized during the lead-up to the tournament because he “commuted to Germany from the United States.” That’s right, the German born Klinsmann has lived in California for years and loves it there. Klinsmann is known for his offensive soccer tactics and he’s clearly not worried about coming off as offensive in other ways too. He made news in the months preceding this World Cup by leaving Landon Donovan, the last team captain and the most well known American player of the last decade, off the team and by blithely telling the media that the United States “cannot win this World Cup because we are not at that level yet.”

Landon Donovan

That’s right, the player who Klinsmann left chose not to bring to Brazil is there anyway, at least his presence will be. Donovan, who is still playing in the MLS, was quickly snapped up by ESPN as a World Cup analyst. If the United States team does well, the story will be Klinsmann’s brilliant choice to move on from Donovan. If the team doesn’t do well, Donovan will be even more front and center because the story will certainly be about how his absence hurt the team.

The Weather

I’ll let my Dad’s favorite media organization, The Weather Channel, handle this one:

Torrential rains have plagued the site of the opener, Natal—a coastal city of nearly 1 million people in northeastern Brazil—for three days, inundating streets, blocking off roads and triggering a landslide that destroyed at least two homes and forced the evacuations of at least 50 others.

The rain is expected to continue through the game on Monday.

The Game

Okay, after all that, there’s a game to watch. Find yourself a good bar and some Soccer fans to cheer with. If you want to pick up more information about “How to Watch the World Cup Like a True Soccer Nerd” then this wonderful Grantland article is for you. Enjoy!

Why do World Cup Soccer Players Blame the Ball?

To celebrate and prepare for the World Cup in Brazil, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a set of posts explaining elements of soccer. We hope you enjoy posts like Why do People Like Soccer? How Does the World Cup Work? Why Do Soccer Players Dive so Much? What is a Penalty Kick in Soccer? and What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer? The 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on June 12 and ends on July 13. Today we have the special treat of a guest post about World Cup soccer balls by an early adopter of Dear Sports Fan, Al Murray. Enjoy!

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Adidas Footballs — Each one of these balls was inevitably complained about during its World Cup. What will the complaint be this time in Brazil?

International football players, like most any athlete, praise their own skill when things go right and blame the tools when they go wrong. The last few World Cups have continued this tradition with the introduction of some high-tech balls. Each demonstrated the Law of Unintended Consequences in their own unique way.

In 2006, it was that the Teimgeist, German for “Team Spirit”, ball had too much lift and soared over the goal. It was designed to be smooth to reduce drag, but that meant the ball didn’t react well to the wind and it lifted more than anyone wanted. Interestingly it didn’t curve especially well, but its low drag kept it in the realm of higher velocity for long portions of its flight.

In 2010, it was that the Jo’bulanmi, “To Celebrate” in isiZulu, ball “knuckled” at normal kicking speeds thus making goal tending more difficult. It was designed with special panels to induce better roundness and reduce the sailing of the 2006 ball. While it curved fairly well at both high and lower kicking speeds, the seams caught the air at 45-60 MPH (normal free kick speeds) and caused it to not spin but rather “knuckle” at high speeds. For reference, a traditional soccer ball knuckles at~30 MPH, much slower than anyone kicks.

NASA used the 2010 World Cup as a opportunity to engage students in aerodynamics and posted several studies on soccer balls in flight including a nifty simulator: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/soccer.html

And for you more mathematically inclined: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/flteqs.html

There is a really good explanation, with minimal math, at http://www.soccerballworld.com/Physics.htm#world-11-6-8-3

Basically it boils down to this:

When you kick a ball, it is given velocity and spin.
At a given spin rate, low velocities/high drag result in high curve rates while high velocities/low drag result in longer flight.
At a given velocity, higher spin rates impart more curving.
A good kicker will use both velocity and spin to control the ball.

How a kick works:

A kick is taken with initial high spin and a velocity (speed & direction) of 45-60, in some cases >70 mph.
With high velocity the airflow is turbulent, the velocity effect is stronger than the spin, and the ball has low drag and flies high.
Eventually the velocity drops, as drag effects increase, the air flow becomes more laminar and the spin induces a Magnum force which causes the ball to curve in the direction of the spin usually as it reaches and then comes down from the apex of flight.
As the ball’s velocity decrease, assuming the rotation speed stays the same, the ball curves more confounding goal keepers (and the occasional outfielder) the world over.

A Good free kicker can shoot the ball outside the defender wall and have it bend back on the goal, sometimes as much as 3 meters! You can see this in long fly balls in baseball and in both free and corner kicks in soccer. Brazilian left fullback and part-time wizard, Roberto Carlos, demonstrates in this video: http://youtu.be/3ECoR__tJNQ?t=1m20s

For 2014, the ball will be the Brazoca, “Brazilian or The Brazilian Way of Life” in Portuguese. I understand they’ve redesigned the ball, getting rid of the flat panels, adding dimples for reduced drag like a golf ball and faster travel with “propeller” patches to add more spin and greater curve at lower speeds. Will this mean more curves? More diving action? More Lift? Or perhaps, given the Law of Unintended Consequences, something completely different?

Guest Author – Al Murray

What are Red and Yellow Cards in Soccer?

Dear Sports Fan,

What are red and yellow cards in soccer? How do they work?

Thanks,
Paul

Donovan Yellow — Soccer players, like Landon Donovan here, often react with disbelief when given a card.

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Dear Paul,

Cards are soccer’s answer to fouling out in basketball. They are representative of a two stage process that allows a referee to punish misbehaving players with one of the most punitive measures in sports. If a player receives one red card or two yellow cards within the same game, that player is thrown out of the game (“sent off the pitch” or just “sent off” in soccer terms) and his team must play the remainder of the game with one fewer player than they started with. This can mean that a team plays 10 on 11 for 30, 60, or 75 minutes. That’s a long time to play down a man and soccer is already the sport that allows for the fewest substitutions (only two) during a game. It can make for some very tired players.

In World Cup competition, the penalties for receiving cards have implications beyond the game a player receives them in. Any ejection from a game due to a red card or two yellows carries with it an automatic one game suspension that must be served the next time the team plays. Suspensions based on red cards can be lengthened by soccer’s governing body, FIFA. Two yellow cards in different games can also result in a one game suspension if they come between the first game of the tournament and the quarterfinal game. After that, the yellow card counts reset so that any player “carrying” a single yellow card from earlier in the tournament doesn’t have to worry about picking up another in the semifinals and thereby missing the final match. The fact that red and yellow cards carry such enormous penalties probably accentuates soccer’s already dive-happy culture by rewarding players who can trick a referee into giving their opponent a card.

There aren’t really specific fouls that necessitate a red or yellow card, it is up to the referee’s discretion, but there are two key themes which the website football-bible.com does a nice job explaining: violence and “unfairly denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.” Violence can come in a few different forms. A player could get a card for being a little too violent intentionally or unintentionally within the course of play, like tripping a player from behind or sliding into an opponent with the studs on his boot facing dangerously up. Likewise, a player could be given a card for being violent in a non-soccer kind of way. Perhaps the most infamous example of this is Zinedine Zidane head-butting an Italian player in the 2006 World Cup Finals. As for “unfairly” denying the opponent an “obvious goal-scoring opportunity,” this could come in the form of tripping a player when he has a clear path to the goal or reaching out and deflecting the ball with your hand as it’s flying towards the goal.

Soccer is not the only sport that uses penalty cards. Wikipedia has a fascinating entry that lists a bunch of sports from volleyball to field hockey to race walking to rugby that uses yellow and red cards as markers of penalties. It also describes the use of other penalty cards like the green card (a lesser warning than a yellow card,) the blue and white cards used in bandy to denote a five or ten minute penalty (editors note: what the hell is bandy,) and the black card used in fencing and badminton for only the worst infringements that require immediate expulsion from play.

In moments of idle reflection, I like to imagine red and yellow cards worming their way out of sports and into everyday life. I dream of being able to halt a disruptive colleague in a meeting by holding up a yellow card. I think it would be great to be able to red card someone who merges badly and have him or her sent off the highway. If you could, how would you use penalty cards in real life?

I hope this has shed some light on the subject of red and yellow cards in soccer for you. Thanks for reading,
Ezra Fischer