The Olympic 29: Women’s football/soccer

July 25, 2012

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m fairly excited for the 2012 Olympics, to say the least. It’s a pretty spectacular mix of sports we all know and love and more obscure disciplines that just don’t show up on television too often the rest of the time. Shortly before I returned home from London, I went to the Waterstone’s near Trafalgar Square and bought a book I’d already gotten for a professor from the Waterstone’s near Piccadilly Circus.

The Beautiful Games

This afternoon, I spent at least a half hour on a family room couch watching the first half of Spain and Portugal’s second round World Cup match while reading David Goldblatt’s history of the sport, The Ball is Round. It definitely wasn’t quite the same experience as watching a United States match; I didn’t pace right in front of the TV screen the way I did right before Landon Donovan’s penalty kick against Ghana or jump up in the air like I did after Donovan scored the game winning goal against Algeria.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game, much as I have throughout this year’s World Cup. And I think that a large part of that enjoyment is caused by the fact that I recognize so many elements of soccer from having watched ice hockey and that an appreciation of the one can help lead to better understanding of the other.