Technology is truly helping soccer

Posted Jul 8, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 12:53 AM

Monsignor Lawrence Higgins, one-time tough guy soccer player and All-Ireland pick, said rather simply, “The better team won. On this day in South Africa, the better team on the pitch was Spain and Spain beat Germany 1-0.”

“I would not have picked Spain, I would have picked Germany and did pick Germany, but as it is often with me in sports, I picked the wrong team. Spain in this World Cup semifinal match was better by about the margin of victory, over the powerful German team.”

Higgins continued, “In the quarterfinal game, Germany beat Uruguay in what I thought was the best performance in the Cup, but as it turned out, the win over Germany by Spain was even better, if for no other reason than it was in the semifinals of the World Cup. So now, I don’t see how you could not pick Spain to win over the Netherlands.”

The Cup final Sunday against the surprising Dutch team has to have the Spaniards in the favorite’s role; they certainly will be in the Tampa area, so rich in Spanish, or Latin, heritage.

However, that Spanish upset of Germany had to rank as a major surprise, though the difficulties involved in its outcome surely were predictable. But the tightness of play, the 1-0 final, against Germany, was not.

“They played it just right, didn’t they?” Asked Father Higgins. “They used their defense early, perfectly allowing their team to get the one header into the net for the 1-0 lead and most of us watching on television and surely those in the arena must have felt the game was over. World Cup style is to score early and shut the game down. Spain probably will try the same tactics on Sunday and if they work, they will win again.”

That win over Germany was predictable, but the manner of its execution was not to old soccer fans, including so many in the Tampa area, who learned their soccer from the old Rowdies, now revived and under the overall leadership of Perry Van Der Beck, Farrukh Quarashi, Tom Dempsey and others in management and coaching who seem to be doing well in this revival. They are the Tampa Bay Rowdies again - they sing the same song, they have the same cheers and they play in a new converted Steinbrenner Field here fashioned for soccer.

These Rowdies of today should be able to reattract their old fans and convert them into any new ways they want, not forgetting the old ways of “The Rowdies, Oh the Rowdies,” singing their old songs and filling the stadium as they once did in the times of George Strawbridge, Eddie Firmani, Rodney Marsh, and the rest of those who so charmed this place of ours. We surely bought into their ways and adopted their style of soccer that is fun, and making the Rowdies one of the best sports names in the world.

It is perfect timing for this revival of the Rowdie traditions when soccer has reemerged all over the world as a result of the World Cup and the drama being played out in South Africa and to a worldwide audience because of the vast television coverage and the new techniques created by television. The TV shots, the action, the replays, and the camera work around the goal have been dramatic and will continue to be.

It has been so good that Seth Blatter, FIFA commissioner, has said that after the tournament a priority should be to make better and more extensive use of television replays for accuracy, as has hockey, baseball, football and basketball. Nothing gets by the camera’s eye. Blatter has been alert to realize its value and that here is that he will use it more extensively than in the past.

If little more, this World Cup has caused far improved use of electronics so that sports can accept only results that are assured by the camera’s eye.