Day -323 WorldCup2018
The Americans strike Gold! Golden Americans! Our Gold!
Many years ago after watching football with my Dad we would play the game of "guess the next day's newspaper headline as we walked home from the stadium.. It would often be something like "Gallant Malta come close" or "Malta given good hiding". Today my guess should be whether the American football team will even get a big headline after winning the Gold Cup tonight. Despite it's increasing popularity football is still behind the major American sports. But with only baseball going on right now they may get a good mention.
It was, as Steven Caldwell said in his commentary, an intriguing match. But the intrigue was exciting. The Americans had the majority of the possession and the Jamaicans, who looked like eleven incredibly fit and powerful athletes, were organised in defence and incredibly quick on the counter attack. Altidore scored a beauty direct from a free kick right on the stroke of halftime and Jamaica equalised four minutes into the second half. After that the excitement grew. The Americans seemed even more determined to score and the Jamaicans looked like they were enjoying the quick breaks even more. Not quite Brazil 1982, but some of their quick switches from defence to all out attack was exhilarating to watch. In the end, two minutes from the end of the 90 minutes, one lapse in the Jamaican defence allowed Jordan Morris to score the winner from just inside the penalty area.
Jamaica could have dwelled on their bad luck when their goalkeeper, Andre Blake, best goalie of the tournament by far, was injured early on. It looked like he might have broken his hand while stopping a follow up attempt after a wonderful save first time round. But his replacement was more than adequate and was quite spectacular in denying Clint Dempsey his American goal scoring record.
Now it wouldn't be a football match in the US without their being a little quirky story. Or without me thinking it was quirky. And this wasn't the start time, which I saw advertised separately as 6pm and 6.30pm, but they started at 6.50pm. It did have to do with time. Three minutes of added time was signaled after the 90. During the first minute of extra time, the US made a tactical, time wasting substitution. The Jamaican players vehemently protested at how slowly the player was leaving the pitch. The referee gave the Jamaicans the international sign for "don't worry, I have stopped my watch." Not long after he showed Tim Howard a yellow card for time wasting. So that's an extra 30 seconds for the substitution (supposedly the rule when a team makes a change during added time) and more time for Tim Howard's discretion for which he was punished. If he was deliberately wasting time then that time would be added on, right? At exactly 90 minutes, the ball went out of play. As it was slowly retrieved the ref blew for full time. No time added at all. Maybe the ref figured that there was no way Jamaica could regain possession and score. So why bother playing just to watch the American players keep possession.
CONCACAF may not have a championship of the same high quality as UEFA. But the Gold Cup sure was fun to watch. Maybe next time there can be no European clubs on tour while it's going on so all the focus is on the Gold Cup. And that's going to happen, I think? Ha! No way.
The Americans strike Gold! Golden Americans! Our Gold!
Many years ago after watching football with my Dad we would play the game of "guess the next day's newspaper headline as we walked home from the stadium.. It would often be something like "Gallant Malta come close" or "Malta given good hiding". Today my guess should be whether the American football team will even get a big headline after winning the Gold Cup tonight. Despite it's increasing popularity football is still behind the major American sports. But with only baseball going on right now they may get a good mention.
It was, as Steven Caldwell said in his commentary, an intriguing match. But the intrigue was exciting. The Americans had the majority of the possession and the Jamaicans, who looked like eleven incredibly fit and powerful athletes, were organised in defence and incredibly quick on the counter attack. Altidore scored a beauty direct from a free kick right on the stroke of halftime and Jamaica equalised four minutes into the second half. After that the excitement grew. The Americans seemed even more determined to score and the Jamaicans looked like they were enjoying the quick breaks even more. Not quite Brazil 1982, but some of their quick switches from defence to all out attack was exhilarating to watch. In the end, two minutes from the end of the 90 minutes, one lapse in the Jamaican defence allowed Jordan Morris to score the winner from just inside the penalty area.
Jamaica could have dwelled on their bad luck when their goalkeeper, Andre Blake, best goalie of the tournament by far, was injured early on. It looked like he might have broken his hand while stopping a follow up attempt after a wonderful save first time round. But his replacement was more than adequate and was quite spectacular in denying Clint Dempsey his American goal scoring record.
Now it wouldn't be a football match in the US without their being a little quirky story. Or without me thinking it was quirky. And this wasn't the start time, which I saw advertised separately as 6pm and 6.30pm, but they started at 6.50pm. It did have to do with time. Three minutes of added time was signaled after the 90. During the first minute of extra time, the US made a tactical, time wasting substitution. The Jamaican players vehemently protested at how slowly the player was leaving the pitch. The referee gave the Jamaicans the international sign for "don't worry, I have stopped my watch." Not long after he showed Tim Howard a yellow card for time wasting. So that's an extra 30 seconds for the substitution (supposedly the rule when a team makes a change during added time) and more time for Tim Howard's discretion for which he was punished. If he was deliberately wasting time then that time would be added on, right? At exactly 90 minutes, the ball went out of play. As it was slowly retrieved the ref blew for full time. No time added at all. Maybe the ref figured that there was no way Jamaica could regain possession and score. So why bother playing just to watch the American players keep possession.
CONCACAF may not have a championship of the same high quality as UEFA. But the Gold Cup sure was fun to watch. Maybe next time there can be no European clubs on tour while it's going on so all the focus is on the Gold Cup. And that's going to happen, I think? Ha! No way.
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