Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Roller Coaster Ride of the Semifinals

After the US v Brazil quarterfinal game of the 2011 women's World Cup, I thought I would never again see a game of that intensity. Even the US v Japan final of that tournament, though it came very close, didn't strike quite as strong of a chord. As of Monday night's Olympic semifinals, I am happy to announce that I just might have been wrong about never again seeing a game as intense.

Japan and France kicked off a day of incredible soccer. I haven't had time to rewatch the game, so I can only get into so much detail, but it was an amazing performance on both sides. I've been a fan of the Japanese goalkeeper Kaihori for a while now and am less familiar with Fukumoto, so at first I was a little disappointed to see Fukumoto in the net. But after her phenomenal efforts in the Japan V France Olympic semifinal, I am officially a fan. Hope Solo is widely recognized as the greatest keeper in the world, but in my opinion, Fukumoto could definitely give her a run for her money in that respect. She pulled out save after save after absolutely gorgeous save, letting only one goal slip through after the relentless French attack. I don't remember the exact stats, but I remember France having an incredible number of shots at one point. I tend to give keepers a lot of credit, but I do think that Japan's defense as a whole was incredible. In terms of organization, Japan might just have the best team I've ever seen. Their passing was a bit off in the first maybe fifteen minutes, but they generally pass as though guided by lasers. Absolutely surgical precision. Their entire style of play is very appealing to me. As far as I can tell, they play the cleanest game of any team. France had, I believe, about five yellow cards from previous games coming in to the semfinal. Japan, I believe, had none. France fouled the Japanese players left and right. The Japanese players never seem to take a dive, rarely foul, and usually recover from being fouled more quickly than their opponents. One of the major issues I had with the (breathtaking) US v Canada game which followed is how long the players of both teams would stay down on the ground after being hit, not necessarily clutching injuries, but protesting that no call had been made on the foul instead of accepting the ref's decision, getting back on their feet, and getting on with the game. The Japanese players usually bounce right back up and get back to business, which I respect immensely.

In the wake of the US v Canada semifinal, I think a lot of the tension and brilliance of the Japan v France game was forgotten. It was an incredible battle that came a hair's width from going into overtime and kept me on the edge of my seat. I set the DVR to record US v Canada, went to work, and tried not to think about it, though I felt guilty for asking my girlfriend not to watch the game while I was at work. When we were finally able to watch that game, I stopped feeling guilty, because it would have been far worse to make her watch it alone. The drama of US v Canada was so intense that it virtually wiped out the memories of Japan v France, leaving us both breathless and astonished at the end.

US v Canada has already been the subject of many an article and blog, largely for its controversial aspects. The biggest controversy has been about the officiating, and about the Canadian reaction to it. In a nutshell, numerous questionable calls were made by the ref (and many things that should have been called were not), and after losing the game several Canadian players were quoted as saying negative things about the officiating and essentially blaming the ref for their losing the game. This is apparently a huge offense, to the point that there has been some question of the bronze medal match between France and Canada potentially being postponed to investigate the issue. Yes, the ref did not always make the best calls. But they were not 100% in the favor of the US team, and had we lost the game we most likely would have had similar complaints. For instance, there was a moment when I personally would swear by the position of the arms that Tancredi (Canada) was hooking her arm around Rampone's (US) to impair her defending (and eventually throwing her to the ground with the hooked arm), but a foul was called on Rampone. There were also numerous shirt pulls that weren't called, and Rapinoe (US) in particular seemed to get fouled an exceptional number of times without any call made. If I had to guess, I would say Canada are primarily looking at the circumstances of one particular goal. Apparently, Wambach had started counting aloud the number of seconds the Canadian keeper, McLeod, was holding the ball before putting it back into play, which ultimately resulted in a rare call being made. Keepers aren't supposed to hold the ball for more than six seconds, but this kind of time-wasting is almost never called. This unusual call gave us an indirect free kick, which ended up striking a Canadian player in her somewhat extended arm, which was called as a handball, despite feasibly being an act of self defense. This handball call gave us the opportunity which led to an equalizing goal. Without this opportunity, the US would very likely have lost to Canada. Was the game and the potential for a gold medal stolen from Canada?

As far as the gold medal goes, I say no. Was the officiating perfect? Definitely not. Officiating in soccer is an imperfect art, which is one of the things that makes soccer interesting but also one of the things that makes it frustrating. Although we as the audience get to see replays and multiple angles, the ref has to make every call based on what they see in that split second of action, and they cannot possibly be right 100% of the time. Was it sportsmanlike of Wambach to count aloud? Not especially, but it isn't very sportsmanlike to waste time, particularly when your team is up one goal against a team you have a long history of losing to. Honestly, I saw some poor behavior on both sides. Sadly, a lot of the time it's just kind of part of the game and it really isn't shocking. But overall, I would say that US is the stronger team and therefore more "deserving" of moving on to the gold medal match. As the commentators noted, Canada haven't beat the US in 11 years, well over 20 consecutive games. One of the more frustrating things about soccer is that in situations like this, one game decides the fate of the teams.

All controversy aside, this game was absolutely stunning. Yes, it was rough, it wasn't always clean play, and wrong calls were made. But it was intense and beautiful, the way soccer should be. Both teams are incredibly skilled, and both desperately wanted to win. A play by play account can't really capture the emotional roller coaster ride that was this game. Canada up by one, then that brilliant corner from Rapinoe... Three times, Canada pulled ahead (all from Sinclair), and three times the US was able to answer back. A tie sustained through overtime, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, Morgan managing to pull out a fourth goal for the US in the last seconds of stoppage time, preventing the game from going to penalty kicks and securing an Olympic medal for the US. This game was heart-stopping. Words cannot truly describe it. And tomorrow we get to witness a much-anticipated "rematch" between the US and Japan. It will be interesting to see if, as happened at the World Cup last summer, the US are able to step up their level of play to match the precise, clean play of the Japanese team. And it will be even more interesting to see if this time, that will be enough.