Football

After finishing Fever Pitch earlier this week, I found myself glued to the Real Madrid-Real Sociedad earlier this morning while waiting for NBA Playoff games to start. It was an exciting match, and I hadn't found football this compelling before. Real Madrid, of course, is the most successful footbal club in the world, starring superstars such as David Beckham, Zidane, and Ronaldo, while Real Sociedad was just another team in La Liga.

Sociedad was in control for most of the match, but they just couldn't pull everything together for a score. Talent won out in the end, as Ronaldo broke away for a score at the 83-minute mark and that was that.

Speaking of football, Phoenix's Paul Shirley is back with a playoff blog, and in his latest entry he talked about Steve Nash's football background, a part of the reason why the Suns, with Nash on the helm, are so darn fun to watch:

We developed the theory that Steve’s game is like it is because of his soccer background. To watch a Suns game is to watch a free-flowing exercise in extemporaneous basketball. There is a rough guide to be followed, but generally the decisions are left to the participants. The same could be said about the game of soccer. When observed from above, a soccer match seems amorphous and ever-changing. The game flows in S-curves and smooth shapes, as opposed to bad basketball, which is all Z’s and sharp turns. I think Steve brings this soccer mentality to the court. He never stops moving during the game and seems to flow up and down the floor throughout.

Now that I'm done with Fever Pitch, I'm hoping that I'd be able to keep up with my reading. Next up for me is The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, a book I bought a few months ago from an online friend. I bought it because I'm a Sting fanboy, and the book was the inspiration for the song "Tea in the Sahara" (which John Mayer covered quite nicely). I hope that by writing about it here, I'd put enough pressure on myself to finish the book.

- posted by jaemark @ 5/01/2005 05:32:00 PM