Compelling Soccer

So the soccer world is abuzz with Liverpool's controversial draw against Birmingham City. The reason it's being talked about? David Ngog drew a penalty after a "tackle" by Lee Carsley. It has been almost universally hailed as a dive and Ngog is being blasted by Carsley and the media as a result.

It was a dive, though not an egregious one. People are whining because it's Liverpool and because it was the biggest game on a Monday. But the reality was the tackle was bad. He slid, impeded his progress to the goal and never got the ball. If Ngog doesn't jump, he trips over him and it's a penalty. You can say he intended to go down but that's irrelevant (and also probably impossible to tell). The bottom line is if you go to the ground and don't get the ball, you're asking for trouble. If it happened at midfield, no one would complain. It certainly isn't the worst dive ever, nor does it prove Ngog is a cheat. It is unfortunate this happened, because the goal he scored earlier was quite the finish.

Anti Football; thy name is Houston.

Okay, that's a little harsh. Houston has some players who can create well; namely Stuart Holden. But after watching their game against Seattle last night, I came away disgusted on so many levels. The Dynamo played a downright dirty game and should have finished with nine men on the field. Instead a lenient official decided to give talk to the players rather than hand out fair punishment, which in essence, reward Houston for it's play. The result was a 0-0 draw with the return leg of their first round playoff match up taking place on November 8th.