Defence

Was anybody else curious to see the Brazil vs Korean game simply due to the fact that the Koreans were...how do I put this tactfully? ... they'd been let out. (Not really tactful, sorry). I confess to know very little about the Koreans up North. What I do know starts making China look like roaring liberals. But last night, there they were, the lowest ranked team to ever participate in the World Cup (I believe) and they were fighting Brazil - number 1. 

First thing that caught me off guard - a Korean player crying during their national anthem. Goodness - what was going through his head? Pride? Just glad to be there? Am I the only one this nosey?

Politics aside, I've always had a soft spot for the underdog. Watching a thrashing is only so much fun...unless you are the actual team doing it, and even then, it can get a bit boring. And sitting in the back of my mind was that the English scored against the US in less than 5min, and there Brazil went, dribbling a ball between some poor guys legs and I thought, "Oh shit."

Defence. The men in red pulled themselves together and fought back. It was brilliant. They refused to roll over and kept fighting till the final whistle. They may have lost, but boy oh boy, did I enjoy watching their guts and determination. And one man will be able to tell his children and grandchildren, "I scored against Brazil." 

They also brought back high school memories. My dinky little Freshman basketball team - we had six players, and typically one of us was injured and we were notorious for fouling out, meaning by the end of the game there would be only four left, or less. The first thing our opponent would do was try to run us down, sticking fresh players in and...we kept up. We had a wonderful secret:  we'd been run into the ground so many times in practice we were all in fantastic shape.

We did have one very troubling secret, however: we could hardly make a shot. Every morning before school we'd be there for extra shooting practise, but be it that we were still growing, or what, we seemed unable to get that ball to swish through that net. There is only one solution when faced with such a short coming, defence. You have to make the other team as bad as you. So that's what we did, our too short, too few, and some just flat out too little,  team became a very scrappy bunch and defended that basket so hard that we would actually have a chance at the win. And win, we mostly did. Of all the teams I've played with, in various sports, it is this scrappy Freshman basketball team that remains my favourite.

The crowd loves the goals, the baskets, the points - I know. But Iast night I celebrated a team who knew the value of a good old fashion defence. What a game. 

But I'd still love to know more of what was going through those players' heads.

Comments

[Po]

According to my Chinese friend who knows a Noth Korean studying here, if the N. Koreans don't win the world cup they will be killed. Now, of course we assume this to be a joke, hope this to be a joke!!!!! But my friend wasn't even sure.

I'm pretty sure it's a joke!?

[Tiah]

Editing comment b/c I'm not being clear:

Yes, I've heard similiar cracks and having 4 players "vanish" before game time has only added to the gossip. Then there was '94 when Columbia scored a goal for the US. Poor man lost his life for that. But I just don't believe it. I know the man is nuts but still... In the meantime, the players were brilliant. I am sure their country is proud. Went to the mall for my groceries today and everybody (customers, employees - everybody) was talking about it - people are so impressed!

[Shannon]

I've wondered that too! I hoped their scrappiness wasn't just because they were literally playing for their lives. :(

But I was quite impressed with them as well. This has been a tournament of upsets. In some cases it's because a gutsy little underdog holds off a larger power, but in some cases it seems like people are playing for the draw. Playing not to win but to not lose. Am I alone in this assessment? It just seems like very safe play, with the exception of Germany perhaps.

[Shannon]

And Tiah! I see you are an American but you have capitulated to British spelling (favourite, defence). Have you no respect for Daniel Webster?!

[Tiah]

Shannon :-)

The truth is I can't spell. People often claim this, but I really do have a learning glitch. Spelling has nothing to do with reading ability - which is rather odd, but fascinating, too (and deeply frustrating, since I can read like a champ). Freshman year we all had a weekly spelling quiz of 12 words. It took me four hours a week of solid studying to survive it. Thankfully, everything else was easy - where on earth would I have found the time, otherwise?

You have no idea the horror I experienced when I first came to RSA to study at UCT and discovered that English is not all spelled the same. Then I spent 8 years in England, living and working and ... ye gads, my poor brain.

The basic internet spell check is stuck on US for reasons I don't understand, but the blog and Word are set on UK because most of my work is published in RSA.

On top of all that, I've got a RSA lurker who pops on this blog from time to time and emails me when I've managed to goof despite the spell check. Then I rush back here and edit :-)

I do, however, still say fall instead of autumn, and struggle to remember to say the "h" in herb.

[Shannon]

I feel oddly comforted. When people from the Commonwealth tell me Americans aren't spelling properly, I take smug pride in telling them we intentionally developed American English--thank you, Noah Webster (not Daniel, sorry!)--because we know how to shake off the colonial shackles for good and all and not linger at the English teat. Fuck you, your language, your sports and your tea. Which sort of sums up the American attitude to a lot of things, really.

I'd love to pick your brain about UCT and life in SA. I'm moving there for a year in mid-August on a fellowship for independent research but it's also a chance to suss out the university and see if it's worth doing a PhD there. If you wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts sometime, I'd greatly appreciate it. (Am curious how it compares to US schools, since my former profs have indicated an international degree isn't as highly regarded in the US--but I don't want to let that be the determining factor.)

[Tiah]

Skimming your blog...when I have more time must have better read. Sounds like you bounce.

It has been 10years since I was at UCT, and I was there as an undergrad exchange student. At the time, my US employed, but South African, proff who took us over as the test case used certain information to show that UCT ranked up there with Princeton. If they are still of such rank, I don't know.

I came from a very small collage (although here, I say Uni, because collage means something else) and UCT was different because it was so much bigger.

My first lot of grades were not what I expected and I got the standard, "Americans give out easy As..." I stood my ground and said, "No, they get easy Bs, the As are still hard." Turned out in each case there was a cultural mis-understanding.
People know to tell you the big stuff, it is the itty-bitty little things that trip you up.

After that was settled, I stuffed down my shyness, and pounded on the proffs' doors. My grades went right back to my US norm. I found that the proffs do not suffer idiots. But if you are keen, and truly do have interesting things to say, then they will gladly make time for you.

I did do an usual thing, an undergrad thesis at UCT, and it was a wonderful experience.

In fact, all in all, I loved my two semesters at UCT.

[Shannon]

Those are great things to know, thanks for the insider perspective. I'm not sure I buy the equivalent-to-Princeton argument, sounds a bit defensive. Ranking-wise it's barely in the top 200 in the world, but quantifying the calibre of an education is probably a fool's task. I am more swayed by an American student I met there a year ago who said her masters-level classes at UCT were easier than her undergrad classes at UCLA, a classmate who confirmed that, and a prof I had in the US who had taught at UCT in the early 90s who said not to expect the students, resources and rigor to be of the same calibre I was used to, but that if I sought it out and was self-motivated, I could find good mentoring and intellectual engagement.

Maybe that's just American ego, but that seems to be the consensus. I think I will take a course or two while I am there and get a feel for it. I think the exposure to a different university system will be valuable.