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GELFAND’S WORLD - This was supposed to be the year that England made it into the World Cup finals and that it would face off against France in a replay of the Hundred Years War. It was also the year when American cities would have to deal with soccer hooligans and middle-of-the-night drinking bingers. And of course Los Angeles would be stuck with traffic gridlock. It was a month of surprises.
Let’s start with gridlock. Sofi stadium (or whoever decided these things) solved that problem by letting it be known in advance that the price of parking would be approximately the same as your annual income tax bill. OK, so I exaggerate a bit, but a c-note for parking motivated lots of ticket holders to take some kind of public transit. Problem solved.
Then there was soccer hooliganism. Times have changed. As the linked article shows, it’s not necessarily that hooligans no longer exist, but that the British government has cracked down. Nearly two-thousand known troublemakers have been forbidden from traveling to the World Cup games. The other disincentive is that authorities all over the world have made clear that there are severe penalties for misbehavior. At least this time around it has worked.
What of the games themselves? As recently as a couple of days ago, it was easy to imagine that France was unstoppable, what with a solid defense and two of the world’s best scorers. And they certainly showed that in their group games. But they faced Spain in the semifinal, and that is where the announcers suddenly started talking about defense.
Here’s the background: Spain was a bit discounted by the critics after its first game against Cape Verde, which was a 0 – 0 tie. The problem for those same critics is that Spain did not give up a goal in its next 4 games either (Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Austria, Portugal). Not until its quarterfinal against a pretty good Belgium team did Spain give up its one goal.
And that comes to the big game, where Spain played France in the semifinal. Those two great French scorers were held to zero, zip, nada, nil. Final score: Spain 2, France 0.
So the announcers get to dust off their ancient cliché about the “immovable object” as they talk about Spain.
And then there was the other semifinal. This was the year when England were hoping for a chance to reclaim the title in the game that they basically invented. This is the country that ruled the waves, defeated the French at Agincourt, was on the winning side in both world wars, and won back the Falklands. At one time it ruled over an empire where the sun never set. And in 1966 it won the World Cup.
But since 1966, in World Cup soccer, it has been “no cigar.” That last phrase is usually told as “close but no cigar” but in England’s case, it hasn’t even been all that close. But this year, what with players like Kane and Bellingham, they were ranked and they were viewed as having a chance. And their semifinal opponents, Argentina, played OK but not outstandingly in the group stage (two wins, one loss) but failed to impress in their two close wins in the next rounds. They won by 3 – 2 against both Cape Verde and Egypt, while defeating Switzerland 3 – 1.
In other words, Argentina has been giving up a lot of goals lately. England gave up a total of 6 goals in 6 games, but those included Norway, Mexico, and Croatia.
So this was the big chance, as England faced defending World Cup champion Argentina in its own semifinal game. And without putting too much into the description, this was a game for the ages. Well, it was at least a final 15 minutes for the ages. And it all began with England taking a 1 – 0 lead well into the second half. And as the game ran down to the last 5 minutes of regulation time, things looked dim for Argentina.
And then, at 85 minutes into the 90 regulation minutes, Argentina scored. And the worldwide audience were suddenly thinking about restocking the chicken wings for another 30 minutes of overtime. But remember that in soccer, the referee adds time to the end of the game to make up for time that elapsed taking care of injured players. They refer to this as stoppage time, and there were a few minutes added to the clock.
And then, in a moment that stunned viewers, Argentina scored again, two minutes into the stoppage time, for a total of two goals in six minutes – and this after 85 minutes of nothing. Now, with time running out, and Argentina ahead 2 – 1, the English could not come back.
Argentina 2, England 1
So Sunday will bring us the final, with Spain facing Argentina. You are going to hear that cliché about Spain being the immovable object (ie: a good defense) and questions whether Argentina can become the irresistible force (ie: an offense that contains Lionel Messi and could score twice in two minutes in its previous outing).
In reality, it is going to be a soccer game, not a computer program, but between two very good teams. If Spain is that good on defense, it is probably going to win, but the fun part for a billion viewers is that it’s not over till it’s over, and Messi-and-company could pull this one off.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
