For me, there is, or should be, a different standard for shots headed for goal, and balls just bouncing around the penalty area. This would still be an unlucky penalty, but the winger doinking the ball off a defender’s elbow because they’ve run out of ideas wouldn’t be...

And has apparently been deleting the many replies pointing out this inconvenient truth to the author

That tackle was a beautiful slide tackle, she won the ball, and kept her foot pretty much on the ground. She can’t take off her boot so the studs have to go somewhere!  

Half the Spanish team comes from Atletico Madrid, are you surprised? I thought they played hard and right up to the line without crossing it, which is exactly what they’re supposed to do.

I think the Europeans are going to blow us out of the water in the very near future.

I think there are 2 distinct calls and should be 2 distinct protocols:

It didn’t correct the horseshit yellow cards in the 3rd and 97th minutes (or the spit). 

For my $0.02, I’m rooting for France and thinks it’s a good call:

I am sorry this is so miserable for you.

The Caribbean is the defining bit of geography here, not “South America”.

“Looks like somebody cut your brake cables!”

If a weird bearded guy once tried to proselytize you in a bar, it was me. (Or one of my disciples — i’ve been trying to convince people of this for years.) Obviously, it makes the sport more fair by linking the severity of the foul to the outcome (CL FINAL), but it has other benefits:

I think it’s more messed up than that. Every club (I know) claims to be prioritizing skill and training and hyping their coaching credentials.

It’s not just the cost, it’s the time and the driving. Waive the fees, but you still need someone who can get you to practice 45 minutes away 3x a week.  An MLS academy might take the 3 or 4 best ‘poor’ kids, but you’re effectively cutting a huge number of kids out of the system before they hit puberty. 

You can do both — play a lot of pickup AND get good technical instruction. You can probably succeed doing either (Ajax kids going into the academy when they’re 7 seems to work out just fine for them!)

My wife is Italian, and I’m always a little disappointed there aren’t more pickup games there. Definitely fewer than in my corner of London. YMMV.

Travel soccer is pathetic. How often do you drive an hour to play a team of kids who live in your neighborhood? 3 hours of hassle for 1 hour of game play. If they all met in the park and played for 4 hours, they’d be getting better training.

Exactly: Pickup baseball is why DRs dominate baseball.

Does everyone remember the would-be terrorist who put “Windsor Castle” in his GPS and ended up at a pub? We’re all getting stupider!

I’d be very surprised if Paris isn’t the most convenient airport for the majority of Africans. Intra african transportation is not easy and often crazy expensive.