Chuckarelei wrote:
The US women soccer just lost to the Sweden in shoot-out during the quarter final. US women are out of the medal contention.

Soccer is a great game, it's ashamed that out come of a big game decided by luck. Shoot-out is luck. Get rid of that damn off-side rule!

I like the offside rule. What they should do is consult the feed for every offside call. Lloyd wasn't offsides ... But definitely fouled. Sweden was absolutely not offside.

And everyone would rather lose to a real goal than kicks. Kicks are amateur hour, and only good for TV. The rule should be sudden death after ET, with no subs except for injury - but that would eat up too much broadcast time.

The ref was terrible ... She also missed a couple fouls and a handball. Sweden should have had a fair win - not PK bullshit.

Chuckarelei wrote:
Another 'luck' to decide the winner of the women's soccer. Brazil out shot Australian in sudden death shoot out.

Granted, Brazil out played the Aussie the whole game. But to see players play so hard just to have 'luck' to determine the out come of the game. What ashamed!

I don't really follow soccer so I'm genuinely curious.  What makes a goal in a shoot out any more lucky than a regular goal or at the very least a penalty kick? At the end of the day it's player vs. goalie, no?

Peter Claver wrote:

I don't really follow soccer so I'm genuinely curious.  What makes a goal in a shoot out any more lucky than a regular goal or at the very least a penalty kick? At the end of the day it's player vs. goalie, no?

Exactly. It's not luck, it's the skill of the attacker and the skill or a lesser amount of it by the goalie.
And BS stalling to "change gloves" doesn't make up for errors in goal tending!

Peter Claver wrote:
I don't really follow soccer so I'm genuinely curious.  What makes a goal in a shoot out any more lucky than a regular goal or at the very least a penalty kick? At the end of the day it's player vs. goalie, no?

The direction of where the goalie attempts to block is pure guessing. Just ask any soccer goalie.

Flex Photography wrote:
Exactly. It's not luck, it's the skill of the attacker and the skill or a lesser amount of it by the goalie.
And BS stalling to "change gloves" doesn't make up for errors in goal tending!

I disagree.

At that distance, nobody should ever miss the goal.  Shoot-outs often end 5-4, sometimes after two or three rounds of both teams getting all five; the 'luck' is whether or not the keeper guesses the right direction to dive, and whether or not the shooter is tired enough to make a misstep running up to the ball.

It's a lot like winning tic-tac-toe:  you can only 'win' if someone else makes an error.  You basically keep playing until one team screws up more than the other.

The "loser" if there is one is Press; she only played some 20 minutes, and has no excuse for being so far off on her shot.

That said ... Sweden should have won before kicks.  I love Solo because she wins games, but I wish she'd shut the hell up - we got outplayed.

I guess this is how Portugal fans feel about Renaldo.

Peter Claver wrote:

I don't really follow soccer so I'm genuinely curious.  What makes a goal in a shoot out any more lucky than a regular goal or at the very least a penalty kick? At the end of the day it's player vs. goalie, no?

i don't have the stats at hand, but the soccer free kick has to be at least 85% in favor of the shooter. granted, the shooter can't move (or skate) like they do in hockey, but the size differential of the goals is enormous. basically, the goalie has to guess which way the person is going to kick the ball in soccer.

even if they guess right, the size of the goal still makes it almost impossible to stop. again--without the real stats--i'd guess more free kicks that don't get in the net are due to kicks that go awry, not actual saves.

the nhl has the wherewithal to not end playoff games with shootouts. regular season games end in shootouts, but not when they actually count. but soccer games games take too long to begin with, and if it took another hour of overtime to determine a winner, nobody would watch.

if i played soccer, i'd just kick the ball right down the middle in such situations. the goalie isn't going to just sit there.

Chuckarelei wrote:

The direction of where the goalie attempts to block is pure guessing. Just ask any soccer goalie.

I was a soccer goalie for two years at Pepperdine which was a first division team.  As a goalie you try to study which way players on the other team shoot their penalty shots. Basically all you can do is commit and yeas it's a guess. 

Now and then the coach would make a substitution for me and put in any other player just to psych out the other team thinking we had a expert at blocking penalty shots.  Believe it or not that actually worked a few times even in big games.

Go figure.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
So, who are the sex idols of these Olympic games?

For men -- it's probably the bare chested flag bearer from Fiji.
For women -- I don't know (not paying all that much attention).

But it seems to me that at each of the last handful of games, there are always some sex idol athletes.  Who would you nominate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEaQ_euYrQQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQm080JW6Q

Chuckarelei wrote:
It happens again! Women's soccer; Brazil lost to Sweden in PK shoot-out. What ashamed when Brazil outplayed the Swed the whole game only to lose by 'luck'.

The soccer world/FIFA better do something with this before the game loses its integrity.

TERRIBLE.

I gotta figure if Sweden has won twice on shootouts then it's gotta be more than luck on their side...

EDIT: and if Brazil had *actually* outplayed Sweden then the score wouldn't have been 0,0... no?

GK photo wrote:
the nhl has the wherewithal to not end playoff games with shootouts. regular season games end in shootouts, but not when they actually count. but soccer games games take too long to begin with, and if it took another hour of overtime to determine a winner, nobody would watch.

I've been to a few soccer games.. and I played when I was a kid.  Great fun to play.. but I'd rather watch the grass on the pitch grow than watch the game itself.  Though I will admit that the crowd is amazingly energizing.  Obviously millions of people love the sport (maybe even billions).

But yes.. if the can't score in the 90 plus minutes they've already got.. I don't know what they could possibly do to resolve a tie rather than a shootout.  In non-playoffs play they could just let the tie stand.. but when you *need* a winner.. what else could they possibly do than a shootout?

Peter Claver wrote:
I gotta figure if Sweden has won twice on shootouts then it's gotta be more than luck on their side...

EDIT: and if Brazil had *actually* outplayed Sweden then the score wouldn't have been 0,0... no?

+1

Yes! Please, stop making excuses for losing, both USA and BRA.
SWE wins because SWE wins. Winning defensively is still winning FFS!

Lose is lose is lose.

Do you want to know what a true outplaying looks like?
Skim over this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d39sD1li2_E
Brutalizing BRA at home like that should definitively be the reference.

Peter Claver wrote:
I gotta figure if Sweden has won twice on shootouts then it's gotta be more than luck on their side...

EDIT: and if Brazil had *actually* outplayed Sweden then the score wouldn't have been 0,0... no?

Quite the opposite, winning twice on shoot-out, luck is on your side.

Did you look at the time possession and SOG of both teams.

The rules make it so hard to score in regulation, but pure luck in shoot-out.

Get rid of the friggin off-side rules, and defense camping out in the box.

normad-moth wrote:
Do you want to know what a true outplaying looks like?
Skim over this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d39sD1li2_E
Brutalizing BRA at home like that should definitively be the reference.

I don't need to look at a you-tube video. I watched the game.

The Sweds brutalizing Brazil? You see the TOP and SOG? Oh wait, you were watching the you-tube video instead.  :p

Chuckarelei wrote:
The soccer world/FIFA better do something with this before the game loses its integrity.

Wait, what, FIFA and integrity in the same sentence?
I am going to with you have no clue about this game ;P

Chuckarelei wrote:
I don't need to look at a you-tube video. I watched the game.

The Sweds brutalizing Brazil?

No, no, no, I'm saying that people in this thread said that BRA outplayed SWE.
And I'm pointing out what true outplaying looks like: BRA-GER 2014
BRA didn't quite outplay SWE thaaat much.
And, something to keep in mind, part of playing to win IS scoring.
A quite fundamental part, in fact.

ETA: I like when the team that wins has a showy, nice, fun style and scores lots of goals.
But you can win by closing down your defense, and those wins are still wins.
And they also require skill, dedication and intense effort.
Nothing is easy in high level competitions ...

normad-moth wrote:
Wait, what, FIFA and integrity in the same sentence?
I am going to with you have no clue about this game ;P

FIFA's scandal is the administration of the sport as business. The integrity of the game is the management of game play.

Yes, I watch and play the game as well as follow the news. But I have them all sorted out what is what, not fogging them altogether.

Peter Claver wrote:
I've been to a few soccer games.. and I played when I was a kid.  Great fun to play.. but I'd rather watch the grass on the pitch grow than watch the game itself.  Though I will admit that the crowd is amazingly energizing.  Obviously millions of people love the sport (maybe even billions).

i hear ya. i'd rather watch professional tiddlywinks than a soccer match. and of course the crowds are more entertaining than the action on the field. what else could one do to make such a boring game entertaining (as a spectator), besides getting well-oiled and create a ruckus.

if i were the commish, i'd make the shootout something like this. each team gets five shots, but they are from the 50 yard line (or whatever the midfield stripe is. if after the first round they are still tied, move the ball back 10 yards and do it again. it's not fair to the goalies to try to stop those shots from point blank range, on a pure guess.

or each team could select one player. from there, they go out and do a face off at midfield, with no goalie. after that, first goal wins the game.

Chuckarelei wrote:
So I notice in track & field and gymnastics, most of the press/media (still photographers) are on the side lines. However there are a handful of them actually shooting on the field. I bet Gettys is one of them shooting on the field. I'm curious how much Getty pays for that right? I recall years ago there were talks about Getty wanted to be the only (or one of the few) credentialed stills in US sports events so that all the other media outlets will have to buy the images from them.

Getty equipment at Rio.

normad-moth wrote:

No, no, no, I'm saying that people in this thread said that BRA outplayed SWE.
And I'm pointing out what true outplaying looks like: BRA-GER 2014
BRA didn't quite outplay SWE thaaat much.
And, something to keep in mind, part of playing to win IS scoring.
A quite fundamental part, in fact.

ETA: I like when the team that wins has a showy, nice, fun style and scores lots of goals.
But you can win by closing down your defense, and those wins are still wins.
And they also require skill, dedication and intense effort.
Nothing is easy in high level competitions ...

Brazil had something like 75% possession and 30 shots on goal - that's 1 every 4 minutes. Brazil also racked up far more fouls.

I'd say Brazil dumped the game. Half of their shots on goal went right to the keeper, as did half of their PKs. Watching the game, I honestly felt like the Brazilian players - who are generally much better - were playing as if their awesomeness meant they were guaranteed a win, and getting past the keeper was just a technicality.

Now if Sweden held the ball for 75% and forced PKs, that would be a very different matter.

I think those that say this type of play makes the game boring are correct, and I think winning in a shootout is a crap way to win.

But it is still winning. And if the other team is going to keep lobbing the ball right at the keeper, it's smart too.

Sweden played to Brazil's weakness just as they played to ours.

I'm curious to see how they'll do with Germany - especially now that their techniques aren't a surprise.

Jerry Nemeth wrote:
Getty equipment at Rio.

No wonder the athletes and action are out of focus, but the fans in the background are in focus.

FFantastique wrote:
What is the population of China?
What is the population of USA?
Did I hear on the radio that the population of USA is 1/20th of China?
Is that factually correct or not?

Somewhat separately, to the nearest billion what is the population of the USA? [Please read carefully and answer correctly]

Awhile ago I read that one in 5 persons in the world is Chinese (not necessary all in China). For for the last decade or two, China has imposed one child per family policy. Plus the US has  a huge influx of immigrants in the last 20 years. So I don't know the exact figures. But I'm pretty sure it's not 1:20.

FFantastique wrote:
What is the population of China?
What is the population of USA?
Did I hear on the radio that the population of USA is 1/20th of China?
Is that factually correct or not?

Somewhat separately, to the nearest billion what is the population of the USA? [Please read carefully and answer correctly]

China: 1.357 billion
USA: 319 million
Ratio: 1:4.25 

So not even close to 1/20th.  If it was 1/20th then china would either have a population of 6.3 billion or the USA would have a population of 67 million.


As to the last question... rounding to the nearest billion the population of the USA is 0.

Chuckarelei wrote:
Sweden's luck just ran out. Germany won 2-1!

Germany also made history; the only country in the world with both men and women teams, have won the World Cup as well as the Olympics gold medal.

I'm very glad for that ... If Sweden won against another dominant team that played smartly, it would have meant an awful lot about our coaching choices.

They deserved a medal though, and i'm glad they got one. They were lucky in their matchups, but they didn't let that luck slip by.

Germany plays Brazil for the men's gold tomorrow - that's going to be the match of the Olympics. Brazil is going to want revenge for their World Cup loss, and Germany isn't fielding a single player from their A team, while Brazil has Neymar and a few others.

If there's going to be a riot, it will happen tomorrow night.

Regardless of how the game goes, there are going to be a few starters on the German men's A team that lose their spots. The German team is getting old, and some of these kids are really good.