As a thing I'm not very sports minded. All that sweaty exertion, don'tcha know. So inane ~ fully grown human beings chasing little balls about. I mean, really? We don't have something better to do with our time?
The one exception, & only if I remember, & only if nothing better is on offer, is the socceroos playing for a world cup place ~ which they did last night. Even then, more often than not, I don't watch because watching the soceroos is an exercise in avoidable angst.
Most of ours played soccer. It is the sport for the under 12 crowd. The ones of ours who played played @ an elite level ~ so, you know, I know a little bit about soccer ~ the one sport my dear MOTH won't watch because he reckons it has to be the most frustrating game ever! There are days I have to agree with him. And watching the socceroos is frustration upon frustration.
Australia has always been good @ sport. As a nation we have excelled in Cricket, Union & League ~ American sports are not really sport ~ or universal ~ & we mostly leave those to the Americans because no~one else plays them. We're a competitive bunch so we mostly play those sports where we can sit on our own dunghill & crow long & loud. Seriously. When State of Thuggery comes round the only thing our news reports on is~ the State of Thuggery. Kim Jong Un could press a dozen buttons & I swear our media wouldn't even notice.
Anyway, kids transition out of soccer when they enter high school & opt for Aerial ping~pong [Aussie Rules], Rugby League or Rugby Union. Consequentially our international soccer team has lacked depth for years & we have never dominated in soccer the way we have in other sports. Over the last couple of decades that has been slowly changing. Immigrants play soccer. They play well. So our team is mostly unpronounceable names from all around the world until slowly we have edged into the bottom ranks of the *Beautiful Game*.
But we're competitive. We like to win. And soccer is not for the faint~hearted. It is low scoring. It is difficult to score. It is unpredictable. And it is completely unforgiving of mistakes. The socceroos, love them to death & all that, have a tendency to dominate without scoring, to be fitter & have more stamina than their opponents yet lose their formation & open up huge cracks in their defense. *sigh* Which they did last night~ with aplomb.
OT geed me up. Australia V Syria to advance to the next level. Do or Die. Played in Sydney. Home ground advantage. And you know, given the inanity of Australian t.v @ 6pm on a Tuesday night watching the soccer looked like a really good option. For about 7 minutes it was. Australia was looking good. Dominating the middle. Fast down the wings. Keeping good formation. Great passing ~ not always their strong point. One mistake & the away goal advantage ~ gone!
At which point I rolled my eyes. This is how it so often goes for the socceroos. They like coming from behind or something. Don't ask me to explain the World Cup scoring system. I don't think anyone really understands it except FIFA & I wouldn't put money on that either, so even the equalizer wasn't enough & despite dominating, despite numerous shots on the Syrian goal, it stayed @ one all for the full 90 minutes.
Now a pro soccer player runs 3 or more kilometers a game so the lactic acid build~up can get pretty bad & Syria wasn't in good shape to play an extra 30 minutes even before they got red~carded & lost a player. I get it. Soccer is a hugely exhausting game requiring the sort of stamina & mental strength required of marathon runners. It requires similar sorts of stamina from its fans. It was exhausting to watch shot after shot on goal deflected & the one rule I cannot abide [& will not watch] is a penalty shoot out ~ which is where we were headed. Thank you, Timmy Cahill, for saving us from a penalty shoot~out!
I watched to the death ~ but my.oh.my! By the end I had enough Adrenalin pumping through my system to power a small village! *sigh* And sadly I will probably do this again. And again. And again ~ until some European powerhouse or South American genius puts an end to the agony. Why do I do this to myself?
You know, when the kids were little we always watched the World Cup & it was great. Australia was never there so we chose a team to barrack for & when they got wiped out we chose another team, and another team, right up until the Grand Final. Reckon that's the way to do it but with Australia still in it...Aussie. Aussie. Aussie. Oi. Oi. Oi.
LOL! Watching sports was never my thing...even when I was younger, I would rather be in a game or doing something else.
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