I'm
hardly a huge international soccer fan though, I only even know of a couple of
popular fútbol clubs such as the Manchester United (of England) or FC Barcelaona
(of Spain). Hell, outside of a few championship runs during the inaugural
seasons of Washington's soccer club, the DC United, I've never passionately
watched Major League Soccer (MLS) in this country either.
But
this year, I actually have a true interest in the sport, so I've been paying
attention during any of the coverage I run across lately. It's definitely an
exciting sport, even by American standards (we love to see tons of scoring in
our own US pastimes like football & basketball). I'm now able to
appreciate the level of defense & coverage in those 0-0 or 1-0 games, my
favorite element of soccer are the shootouts sometimes required to break a
tie.
The
shootouts feature 1-on-1 match-ups between the goal keeper & an opposing
team's player. By the way, I'm super fascinated by the goal keeper for both
teams, so I guess it makes perfect sense that I'm most excited to see the rare
shootout in soccer. I'm that way with hockey too - I always gravitate towards
the goalie!
Oh
& how cool is it that goal keepers get to wear uniform colors that completely differ from the rest of their squad??? Plus, they're the only ones
allowed to use their hands to contact the soccer ball during play - if I'd
played as a youth, I'd definitely have been 1 of the kids lined-up to tryout at
goal keeper. Tomorrow afternoon the US, having advanced to the 2nd stage of the
tournament last week, will face Belgium... I'll be watching - Go USA!