Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

• 1 Corinthians 9:24

It’s two weeks after a previous sports update.

This is “partial,” just like the last time.

It reminds me of the George Carlin news update, with Biff Burns with the… Sportlight spotlight with his spotlight on sports in the sportlight spotlight.

Biff Burns says, “And just in… a partial score… Notre Dame 3.”

No, at this point, almost half of the round of 16 games have been played.  USA battles Belgium later today, after the Portugal versus Spain game.

Part of the beauty and agony of the World Cup is that they determine where the teams go in the group of 32 before they ever play a game.  The eight third placed teams are ranked by points and a tie-breaker system, but all the rest are the winner goes to one slot while the second place team goes to another slot.  Thus, you have one of the shocks of the tournament by Norway beating Brazil, but both good teams playing in the second round.  And tomorrow you have Portugal and Spain.  But you had Morocco beating the Netherlands in the round of 32.  A couple of strong teams are going home in the second round.

I learned what they call the style of game that no one really enjoys watching unless it works.  They call it “parking the bus.”  Usually a team that does not have the talented players as one of the “big” teams, will park nine or ten players in front of the goal, as if they parked their bus there.  When this works, the attacking team makes a mistake and those parking the bus can strike.  Otherwise, they hope for a nil-nil (zero to zero) result so that it is a tie in the group stage or they eventually get to penalty kicks in the elimination rounds.  Paraguay beat Germany in the round of 32 using this method.

But what really got me upset, mainly because they did it the same way four years ago, is that England played a modified version of parking the bus.  For those that are as old as I am, you remember Muhammad Ali.  As he got older, he realized that he was like the Timex watch in the old TV commercials.  He could take a licking and go on ticking.  Ali invented what he called “rope-a-dope.”  Ali leaned against the ropes and basically refused to fight.  Then, when the other boxer was exhausted from throwing countless bunches that were blocked by Ali, then Ali decided to fight back.  Because the other boxer was exhausted, he went down with a knock out quickly.

For more than seventy minutes of the game, England let the tiny island nation of Cabo Verde stay ahead by one goal.  Then with regulation time drawing near, England decides to really try to score.  Cabo Verde was exhausted, and the game was tied.  Then in stoppage minutes (the clock keeps running so the real time is kept by the referee on the field), England scores the winning goal.  Again, Cabo Verde, with a population near a half million people, were thoroughly exhausted.

That is not confidence.  That is arrogance.  And I think it is poor sportsmanship.  Sure, sometimes, it takes awhile figuring out how to beat the bus that is parked in front of the goal, but you should at least pretend to try.  I am writing this while England and Mexico are playing.  Will it be another nail biter with England winning it just before the referee blows the final whistle?  That sounds exciting, but if you watch the first hour and a half, it is rather boring.

Update: England won. They have played every game in this tournament differently.

But I have been enjoying and grieving the upsets.  Scotland was outmatched, but my ancestry is mostly from there.  I lived in Germany three years in the military.  My wife was an immigrant from the Netherlands.  All three out in the round of 32.  I like Brazil’s style, but they lost in the round of 16.  My teams to root for are running thin.

But I am enjoying Norway, especially their rowing celebration.

While there has been a lot of pushing and shoving, the games have been well-played from a penalty standpoint.  We can behave, but outside sports, we rarely do.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.