The noise and flops of World Cup

Ok, there’s been another watershed moment in my chronology of sports fandom.
It used to be wrestling. When I first started covering the sport, I didn’t know a cradle from a cross-face. But Ryan Smith and the Doherty boys have taught me a thing or two.
When I started covering volleyball, I would tell coach Melissa Freesmeier that I didn’t know a thing about the game and she would just have to lead the way. She always did.
Now, I find myself entrenched in the World Cup and Coach Kevin Wellman will read this at some point, and think to himself "maybe now this guy will get it".
I get it.
When Turkey, or Turkiye as I guess it’s now known, scored in the final minute to beat the USA, I was livid. I was fine with a draw since the Americans couldn’t seem to get in sync in the second half offensively. I kept yelling at the television for the ref to end the game.  Apparently there was some added time for game stoppages in the second half, but the fans couldn’t see the clock and it was all done via communications with the head referee. He didn’t blow the whistle until Turkey’s stud split the defense in the corner with a dribble through the legs of a USA defender, and fired a shot into the box, which usually introduces a little chaos.
A weak kick on the inbound shot was blocked, but bounced to the right of USA keeper Matt Turner and was sent back across the net and fired into the goal for the game winner.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
The game didn’t mean anything really. Everything was already set. The Americans had won group D and were just waiting to see who their opponent would be, and Turkiye was headed back to the land of Turks.
The Americans had the ball on their side of the pitch almost 60% of the time in the second half, and even more in the final 12 minutes, but always seemed to trip over themselves on the way to the goal.
The conversations I’ve had around the World Cup, which begins knockout round play Sunday with 32 teams, have been up and down.
Some say they are watching regularly and some say they just can’t get behind it because of the lack of scoring. People who can watch hockey are probably the ones who can get into soccer, and those who can’t do hockey typically can’t do soccer.
The thing that keeps me in the soccer is I’m a huge USA fan. In any world or regional sporting event, I root for the Americans and am passionate about them winning. The Ryder Cup is a must watch for me. Even in tennis, where the Americans are in a huuuuuge rut, I still root for Americans – Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff, Ben Shelton, and others. But aside from Gauff’s U.S. Open and French Open titles, U.S. tennis is in a rebuild I still root for them when I get a chance to sit down to a match. And if American’s aren’t playing, I’m probably not watching.
So when Team USA is playing soccer, I’m watching, and the thing that keeps me from getting bored first and foremost is the crescendo of the crowd as the USA pushes toward the goal. Christian Pulisic always gets the crowd excited when he works his way up the side of the offense You can hear and feel the energy rise. There’s something very powerful about thousands of people getting excited about the same thing at the same time. I even get goosebumps when I’m at a concert and everyone’s singing the same words at the same time. Soccer gets that way and you can just have it on in the background while you’re working, or reading, or cooking because it all comes down to the moment you hear the crowd, and announcers alike, go wild. You can look up, rewind for 15 seconds and catch the whole thing. It’s not like baseball where you want to see every pitch, or every snap in football. Some say if you catch the last five minutes of a basketball game, you see just about everything you need. I don’t buy that. I like to see what Caitlin Clark’s going to do at any given moment. It was that way with Michael Jordan, too. And, as an early aside, after all that happened last week to Clark, maybe it's time to just retire. Basketball's physical and there is a lot of whining about fouls in that league, but it's out of hand. That league goes back to coach flights and $10 tickets if Caitlin isn't playing. Maybe it's time to send a message. I don’t watch the WNBA, at all, unless Caitlin’s in the game. When she went out with a back injury the other night, I just turned it off. I had no further interest.
But with soccer, I don’t know these people very well. That will come with time and, hopefully, progression through the knockout round and into the quarters.
And I'll readily admit to this - I’m awfully intrigued by the flopping that takes place. I started to take notice of this watching the Hounds play at Baxter’s. I guess it’s part of the game, but it just cracks me up. With technological advances that let you almost break these plays down frame-by-frame, we can see the players “selling it” before they even hit the ground. Then they look like they’ve been shot with a Howitzer and  three minutes later, in most cases, they're up and running all over the place. I’m not saying soccer isn’t a physical, and sometimes violent, game. It for sure is and it's as physically demanding as any sport there is. But trying to work a free kick or even a yellow card is comical at times, certainly entertaining. And for a sports junkie like me, quite compelling.
So, USA…USA…USA.
Something else compelling this week was an interview with YMCA Test Kitchen Director Kaleb Wischmeier. The Test Kitchen is going on its 11^th year and has, in the past, received state and even national recognition for its programming around education and meal preparation. Now the program is trying to regain its footing financially and has come up with some really neat ideas, including a block party and a lunch café that will be open to the public almost daily July 13-24 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Test Kitchen downtown. Kaleb’s a good man, who’s trying to do good things. Sounds like a nice place to spend a few bucks to me – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.