Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I injured my foot during Friday night league. Ya know, all of the places that they put padding, ever notice that they never put any on top of the foot? It could be helpful.

Anyway, the foot didn't get any better until Monday. I had a great deal of trouble walking until then. One person told me that the thing to remember is RICE: Rest, Ice and Elevation. The C stands for something to but I can't remember what it is. Cohabitation? Cadmium? Cyrenaca? Conjunto?


So, Sunday I stayed home and watched soccer. Being as though soccer is what brought me to that condition, I don't know if this is an indication of broader mental illness. I flipped between the Atlante - Pumas game and the US - Iceland game. The Atlante game stopped interesting me after a while so I stuck with watching the US game.

Iceland has gotten a lot better, even over the past year. It used to be that a game against Iceland would be a 6 - 0 rout and would involve a lot of hard fouling on the part of the Iclelandic players. The Icelandic defense, led by 'keeper Thora Helgadóttir, bottled up the US for far longer than should have happened. For some reason, it seemed like they were holding back. Abby Wambach finally scored in the 34th minute, but unfortunately, the US were content to bunker for most of the rest of the game.

The commentators noted that all it would take in a one goal game is a slip up or a penalty to even it up. So, of course, this happened. Heather Mitts tripped Greta Samuelsdóttir in the box and earned a penalty kick for Iceland. This was the one of the few times when US 'keeper Hope Solo (love the name) was actually tested. Margret Lara Vidarsdottir was able to catch the back of the net and the score was tied.

The US finally decided to turn on the jets and Wambach was able to score the winning goal in stoppage time.


One of the thing that gets me about the fandom for the Women's team is that criticism seems impossible. In the past, I have posted criticism of the Women's team on Big Soccer and I get met with a flurry of brickbats. I don't know why this is. They are athletes just like the New York Yankees or Arizona Wildcats. As a fan, it is my duty to criticize, right?

Okay, so here I go. There were a lot of shots on goal, but not too many on target. It was hard for me to tell if the quality of Iceland's defense was forcing bad shooting, or if our women are just getting sloppy. Maybe the fact that they just beat Chinese Taipei by the gridiron score of 10 - 0 may have made them soft. This was an opponent that has never qualified for the World Cup, and we came dangerously close to losing.

I hope that the coach gives them a talking to about taking even games like this one seriously. I didn't get the sense that they were "up" for this game.

Couple of signs of hope though: this is the second time I have seen Hawaiian-born Natasha Kai play. Her shooting needs a bit of polishing, but she forced Helgadóttir off her line to make a save only minutes after going in. She may be my new fave now that Brandi Chastain is gone. I'd like to know the story with that tatooed right arm.

This is the first time I have seen Hope Solo play. The team has been dependent on Brianna Scurry for so long, I am glad to see that there is an able back-up. She was not tested very much, but the only thing that went in was a hard to stop penalty kick.


Random outrage that makes the game fun to watch: Edda Gardarsdóttir was subbed out (Iceland used all of its subs) and proceded to taunt the officials from the bench. She was ejected and spent the rest of the game moping in the stands.


Silliness that further proves that players never actually know the rules: Commentator and former nats midfielder Julie Foudy remarked that the penalty kick should not have been called because Samuelsdóttir was headed away from the goal. It doesn't matter if she was taking a Greyhound to Cleveland, what makes it a penalty kick is that it happened in the box. Check the rules on that one.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.