We can agree that ESPN is doing an impressive job of broadcasting the World Cup soccer matches from assorted cities in Brazil. What I would like to see is ESPN compiling a series of, say, 20 spectacular plays from each day’s games, and then play them back for all to see in a highlight video.
The action seems slow at times in soccer, but when there is a great play, it happens so suddenly it’s hard to trace. Then you get slo-mo, and see the play unfold. When the U.S. lost to Germany, the scoreless draw was broken by a German goal that met all the criteria for being spectacular. Fellow with the ball carried up the left side, and sent a hard crossing pass to a teammate, who was cutting right to left in front of the goal.
Running at full stride, there was no chance to adjust for the pass, so the receiver kept running. As the pass got to him, he took a stride with his right foot, and left his trailing left foot behind to deflect the pass off his left foot, through his own legs, and into the goal.
There are dozens of outstanding plays in every game, but you have to watch closely to catch them. When the U.S. advanced to the round of 16, goaltender Tim Howard was the only reason the U.S. took Belgium to a scoreless draw through regulation. When they go to extra time and overtime, it is a timed period and not sudden-death. Belgium scored two outstanding goals on Howard, who made 16 saves -- a World Cup record -- as Belgium outshot the U.S. 27-9 overall and 16-4 in shots that got through to be on goal. Howard’s 16 actual saves broke the 1978 record of 13, and will probably stand for a few decades itself.
The goal of the game, however, came from this Green kid, a 19-year-old from the U.S., who broke through the defense for a high lob pass coming from behind. Now, imagine running toward the goal, and a pass coming from behind you. Green reached his right leg back, and as the ball arrived, he somehow kicked forward, and amazingly got his foot on the ball and redirected it with a kick that went off the Belgian goalkeeper’s fingertips and went into the net. The U.S. lost 2-1, with all three goals coming in added time.
Let’s see those plays, aligned end to end, and show them as the top ten soccer plays of the day.

Soccer Everywhere

The annual Sister City Soccer tournament is going on this week at the Stebner Field complex in Hermantown. Every year, Duluth area teams play select teams from Sweden, with the tournament alternating between Sweden and Duluth.
The sportsmanship and cultural aspects of the exchange, where players live with local families during tournament play, is every bit as important as the result. More, maybe.
In fact, it’s hard to find out who’s winning when the games are held, with Sweden’s Under-15 and Under-16 boys and girls teams take on teams of the same age from Duluth. When players collide, they help each other up, and there seems to be none of the hostility normally associated with high-intensity competition.

Boomer Anti-Serb?

Boomer Esiason has advanced from NFL quarterback to television football analyst and now to radio sports editorialist. After Rafael Nadel beat Novak Djokovic in the French Open finals on clay, we were all impressed. We might have been a bit surprised when Wimbledon came along and Djokovic was seeded No. 1.
Ol’ Boomer came on before the tournament began and ripped the seeding system, claiming that Nadal was the best and deserved the No. 1 seed.
A little investigation proved that while Nadal has been unbeatable on clay, where he wins the French Open with almost monotonous regularity, he has had almost the opposite lack of success on grass, which covers the courts at Wimbledon. Once I realized that, it made sense for the elite minds at Wimbledon to do what they did.
Along comes Tuesday, and Rafael Nadal was upset in four sets by Nick Kyrgios. It was stunning, but Kyrgios, an Australian 19 year old, outplayed Nadal -- preventing us from seeing what might have been an epic match against Roger Federer, with that winner perhaps taking on Djokovic.

Wild Draft and Sign

The Minnesota Wild drafted for the future, adding a couple of USA Development team Americans, three Canadian junior prospects, and one each from Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. Then general manager Chuck Fletcher signed Thomas Vanek as a free agent sniper.
Vanek is a familiar form to UMD hockey fans. Born in Austria, he grew up to skate for the Gophers, before signing to turn pro. He played with Montreal this past season, and as a pure goal-scorer, I have less enthusiasm for the move than some of my Gopher-fan friends from the Twin Cities.
The Wild has a fantastic but delicate chemistry built by coach Mike Yeo, and it is a chemistry that requires everybody to skate hard and fit in to a defensive-responsibility-first philosophy before slipping away to be a sniper. I have never heard anyone accuse Vanek of being a dedicated backchecker or checker anywhere else. And while he is a true goal-scorer, the Montreal Canadiens demoted Vanek right in the heat of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for not engaging, not getting involved, not hustling and working.
My point is that the Wild finished an impressive playoff run with everybody working together, not seeming to care who got the goals, and third and fourth line players contributing as much as first and second liners. Presuming everybody gets healthy over the summer and reports for training camp at full speed, the new young players should make another giant step toward taking over the offensive structure of the team. I believe that without making a single move, the Wild would be a contender in the division, the conference, and the league.
The Twin Cities media, however, anticipated, expected, and virtually demanded a major free-agent signing to bolster the team’s scoring from this past season. Vanek seems to fill the bill perfectly, and we can hope he does.
We can also hope that a gifted scorer who has never been known as a checker/worker/hustler and come back to Minnesota and overcome all those shortcomings, instead of disrupting the delicate chemistry currently enjoyed by the Wild.

John Gilbert has been writing sports for
over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.