Why I Love This Game

Every once in a while we are all privileged enough to witness an event that completely validates our passion for something. For me this happened on Wednesday afternoon during the much anticipated “Battle of Britain” match between Celtic FC and Manchester United.

At school I share a house with seven other men, that afternoon three of us were crowded around our television in the living room watching the spectacle play out. One of us, my roommate Taylor, is a die hard Celtic supporter. I am a great supporter of the game, but had no real attachment to this particular match other than hoping to see the Red Devils lose. Our third was a housemate named Phil who came in to do homework, but was soon as enthralled in the action on the pitch as my roommate and I were.

After a first half produced a few fleeting chances but nothing of merit it seemed that we had spent a good chunk of our afternoon as we usually did, wasting time. Things picked up when ESPN played a highlight video of the competition through match day four. Saves, skills, and goals were all on display and pulled us into the second half. And what a half of play it was. Right from the kick off you could feel that something was different, possibly because of the addition Jiri Jarosik to the Celtic front line.

Whatever the cause of the spark all three of us were amplified many times the volume at which we viewed the first half. Every call was vocally disputed. Every errant shot was greeted with a sigh, either of relieve or disappointment. Wayne Rooney’s volley off of a United corner kick had all of our heart’s racing. I had just looked up after hearing my friend’s pained yelps and saw the ball hit the back of the net. For a moment everything halted, and then I realized that it had been off target.

When Jarosik went down in the 80^th minute Taylor and myself hollered for a card, from the angle shown by ESPN the Manchester player had slid in from behind and walloped the Czech in the leg. After the replay we both sat down and shut up because there had been no contact whatsoever. Lining up to take the kick were Kenny Miller, who had just come off the bench, and Shunsuke Nakamura. Taylor asked who I would have take it and I told him Nakamura with his left foot into the net. Of course he couldn’t agree so he picked Miller with a right foot for the goal. Somewhere in the back of my head I must have remembered the free kick from a similar spot that Nakamura had bagged in the game at Old Trafford on match day one, but I didn’t fully recall until I searched for a replay later.

Well sure enough my prediction came true and Celtic was now up by a goal in the dying minutes against a very strong Manchester United team. They took off two defenders and brought on defensive mids which made us all very nervous. For the final ten minutes United threw everything they had forward trying to get the equalizer that would have them through into the knockout stages. Louis Saha had a chance on which everyone but the linesman felt that he was offsides. Saha himself didn’t believe it so he halted for just long enough so that Boruc (the Celtic goalie) could run out and make the save.

In the 88^th minute John O’Shea (I think) toe picked himself into a foul and a chance for United to pull level off of the set piece. Rooney took it and looked to fire it off of the wall, but then the referees whistle blew and the house went deathly quiet. We were all scared to breathe for fear that someone would be sent off, or worse that the Red Devils would be given a penalty.

And we were right to be afraid, yellow card for handling the ball in the box (which I still dispute, but Taylor feels was unfortunately justified) and a penalty for Manchester. And I thought things were quiet in the house before Saha lined up to take the spot kick. Three of us, one of whom didn’t care a lick about the game when he walked in, on the edge of our seats waiting, hoping, praying for Boruc to find a miracle. And he did. And the three of us made more noise than I had ever heard in our house before. Louder than any party ever held there in any of the three years that it has been open to students. We went nuts for a moment and then were near heart attack every time a ball played by United crossed the face of goal.

The final whistle brought relief, but also a realization for me. This is why I love this game. This is why the game is so universal. Three of us with varying investments on the outcome of the match were all taken on an emotional roller coaster that bests even the most touching of Hollywood epics. No film can recreate the drama of real life sporting events. And not all sports either; I only think that soccer and hockey, by virtue of the scoring system and free flowing play, can capture that last gasp atmosphere where every shot is a potential heartbreaker. But hockey doesn’t have the passion that Celtic Park had that day. Not even in the Stanley Cup finals can that feeling be replicated, and I only saw it via television thousands of miles away.

Finally thank you to ESPN for keeping the feed on the crowd until after they were done singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. I love this game!

Binary Opposition

Things in this world exist in binary opposition. For every yin there is a yang, north has south, and up has down. Apparently in this country football and the other football exist in much the same way except for the fact that both desire the destruction of their opposite. Some people blame this on an American desire to be completely cut off from anything else that the world enjoys, or, even simpler, to the fact that the game wasn’t invented inside of our borders. A lot of Americans will even argue with me that the “other football” shouldn’t be called football despite being played near exclusively with the feet and predating American football by roughly 40 odd years. This is not an argument I wish to merit here.

This is something that I remember seeing growing up. It escalated into high school and seemed to peak a bit, but has not gone away in college. This isn’t true for all schools, but my small, Midwestern college does seem to subscribe to this destructive ideology. The football team (American football that is) always has snide remarks when the soccer team loses and it brings a similar reaction when the American football team loses on Saturdays.

Even so called level headed adults become irrational sometimes and point to diving, low scores, and hooliganism as reasons why the game is evil. I even witnessed a few people cheering against the United States in the World Cup simply because of the sport it entailed. Boy were they mad when coverage continued after the US was eliminated.

Why is it that these two sports can’t exist in the same culture? Germany certainly doesn’t seem to have a problem with it after soaking up nearly every franchise in the ill drawing NFL Europe. Is it because, as my roommate and soccer player pointed out, they share the same field. This isn’t a claim that can be easily dismissed, in fact it has a lot of merit. Wars have been fought for decades over a similar sized piece of ground…just ask Israel.

But I don’t think that we can completely contribute the disdain of these two great sports to simply a turf war (no pun intended). Instead I feel that these sentiments are fueled by jealousy. American football and its fans are jealous of the support that soccer gets around the globe. American football is the undisputed number one sport in America, just as soccer is the biggest sport in the rest of the world. No matter how well the Super Bowl draws the NFL knows that they can always be trumped in an argument with the ratings of the World Cup final.

This issue is not going to go away any time soon, in fact I can only see it getting worse as soccer gains more popularity in the United States. It is the fastest growing youth sport in the country and I am of the ilk that feels that this will turn into a large fan base for an expanding league format, or formats if you don’t think that the USL and MLS will EVER combine. As this happens I think there will be a reaction from Major League Baseball (who run at the same time as the MLS) and from the NFL as they panic about possibly losing fans. I don’t think that soccer will overtake any of the five major sports (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and NASCAR) in my lifetime, but if things are done right we can force this jealousy out into the open and show the beautiful game for what it is not what fans of the other sports want us to think it is.

This One's for All the Marbles

With so many sporting events going on this weekend it is entirely possible that the Major League Soccer Championship game may get lost in the shuffle. The MLS Cup is on the line Sunday in Dallas and can be seen on ABC. For those that don’t know the MLS cup is one of three major pieces of silverware in American soccer, but ranks last in my mind.

The second most important award is the MLS Supporter’s Shield, which is given to the MLS regular season points leader. The Supporters Shield, won this season by DC United, also gives the winner a place in the North American Champions Cup.

The holy grail of American soccer is undoubtedly the Lamar Hunt Open Cup, the trophy given out to the winner of a single elimination tournament featuring teams from all levels of US soccer. This breeds the David versus Goliath type match ups that sports fans swoon over during March Madness. The winner of this tournament has truly beaten the best of the best in American soccer.

The MLS Cup is the finale of the past month of playoff matches including last weekend’s classics. Taylor Twellman’s game winner in the fourth minute against DC United, when starting lineups were still being shown on screen, will go down as one of the best playoff goals in the league’s history. Paul Daglish’s two goal performance was enough to push the relocated Houston Dynamo past MLS’ most despised team, the Colorado Rapids.

I know that most people don’t know as much about these teams as I do, so a little background is in order.

The New England Revolution is one of seven franchises that have seen all eleven MLS seasons. Despite that they have never hoisted the MLS Cup. They weren’t even a favorite to make it this far, but after defeating DC United in the Eastern Conference Final they have their third chance at silverware in the last five years…and their nemesis Los Angeles Galaxy didn’t even make the playoffs. This may be The Revs last chance at the title in the foreseeable future with three key players (Taylor Twellman, Clint Dempsey, and Shalrie Joseph) all likely to head overseas next year.

The Houston Dynamo are a different kind of monster. Until this year they were the San Jose Earthquakes, a team which captured two MLS Cups. Bringing that core group of players to a city which has leapt behind them the orange and white are prepared to launch an all out assault on New England this Sunday. Their star player Dwayne DeRosario has won the goal of the year award the past two years and is in the running for the award again this season. More importantly than that he led them through the summer doldrums when his striking partner Brian Ching was away at the World Cup. Ching’s return has brought the Dynamo a pair of game winning bicycle kicks including one that put them past Chivas USA in the first round of the playoffs.

Sunday’s game won’t showcase the teams with the best records in the MLS, but it will bring two teams that have come into the playoffs scorching. An offensive explosion could be seen with Twellman and Pat Noonan up front for the Revolution and Ching and DeRosario leading the attack for the Dynamo.

If there is one soccer game that you watch between now and the next World Cup, please make it this one. As a fanatic supporter of the beautiful game I am biased, but give it a chance and the game will win you over too.