Argentina

Germany-Argentina. Two great teams, playing a great competition. And what does it come down to in the end, the farce of penalty kicks! And one of the best players in the stadium, Lionel Messif, has never taken the field. I hate this game.

In a great sport, the ending is marked by the greatest achievement—Maxi Rodriguez's left foot in overtime against Mexico the other night, a dream goal. Letting a great competition drain off into the stultifying gutchurning spectacle of Penalty Kicks is as demoralizing as, say, letting a baseball game be decided by a home run derby contest with coaches from each side throwing batting practice. Or letting a football game be decided by a field goal competition. Or a basketball game come down to a competition from the free throw line.

Please change this game. Give us endless substitutions, so the world can see Messif, and Ballack is not crawling up and down the field, and the score is 3-2 or 2-1, not 1-1.

Soccer fans, tell me why I'm wrong.

A reader, John, has nailed me on a recent soccer post, where I echoed Kissinger's statement that U.S. soccer needs "minorities."

Not sure if you're agreeing fully with Kissinger here -- I hope not, because his comment is effectively racist. K's saying "minorities," i.e., the dark people, are better at sports, regardless of if a hardscrabble life makes you hungry for the game. And this, if I can be mean, is what Kissinger likely believes those minorities can be proud of in life.

The irony is that soccer's great teams belie this view. Aside from Brazil, who are the powerhouse teams today and historically? Germany, for sure -- not many minorities there. Argentina, which has largely been a team of European ancestry. And Italy, a homogenous white team if there ever was one. The Netherlands and England are also perennially near the top -- and very, well, white.

Maybe the problem in the U.S. is entitlement, I don't know -- but the racist "minority" argument has the virtue of being an easy explanation, and the vice of being factually wrong, and bigoted.

Wow. Smart readers.

My response: O.K. Yes; I was agreeing with Kissinger. Obviously, I'm wrong, in some large measure. Culture is a significant factor in soccer performance. Saying "minorities" is pretty offensive. And I call myself an internationalist...

But to rally to my side for a second: There is a widespread equation in mainstream American culture of athleticism and blackness. C.f., Jayson "White Chocolate" Williams on the Heat, the movie, White Men Can't Jump, and Larry Summers's fatal, and scientistic, musings about innate abilities of a year ago ("the data will, I am confident, reveal that... white men are very substantially underrepresented in the National Basketball Association."). Isn't it true that, right now in America, basketball and football are dominated by black athletes, in part because they are faster and jump higher? And that if we want to perform in soccer, we have to get some of those guys on the team? What say you, John?

Nina Watkins, one half of the fledgling accessories company Miel, keeps a stash of inventory under t  read more »

So far, 2002 is turning out to be a bust. We haven't found bin Laden yet.  read more »

"It's Charles Rennie Mackintosh meets the Clash!" said my companion, looking around the bar at Vanda  read more »