What They Call Football

rockinclouds
Originally uploaded by dangunderman.

While I was overseas enjoying such sites as the one shown on the right, there were some very important British football matches taking place.

Celtic gave away the league cup to the Rangers in the final minute of a seemingly sure match. But then Celtic went on to win the Scottish Cup 1-0, defeating Dundee United. Celtic, by the way, is the Catholic team, while the Rangers are the Protestants. Not sure why they've been embraced in this way, but that's also why a Scottish football team like Celtic is embraced so wholeheartedly in my Irish neighborhood.

Arsenal defeated Manchester United for the FA Cup. ManU is British football's equivalent to the New York Yankees (even going so far as to forge an official retail partnership). Lots of money spent on superstars that sometimes don't live up to expectations. Arsenal won in a shoot-out. The only English football match I've ever seen live was at Arsenal's stadium in London, so I was happy to see them win.

The most dramatic match of them all was the Champions' League Final, in which Liverpool came back from 3-0 at halftime to tie AC Milan at the end of regulation, and ultimately win in a shoot-out. A comeback from three-nil at halftime is sort of like coming back with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, down by seven runs. Good stuff.

But shoot-outs. For those of you not familiar, the shoot-out is what occurs at the end of two overtime periods, should the match remain tied. Each team gets five shots at the goal and whoever scores the most wins.

I say play 'til you drop, boys. Eventually someone will score. As happy as I was with the Arsenal victory, ManU out-played them, then lost on shoot-outs. Lame. The Liverpool match was one of the greatest of all-time. To allow them to finish the match in sudden-death overtime would've only made it better.

Shoot-outs are tense and dramatic, sure, but they're a cop-out means of ending a great match. And I know better because I'm American, and we call it soccer.