Football and Futbol

THE STEELERS

The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Buffalo Bills 27-15 last night, and now stand at 2-0 in the NFL Practice Games season.  We all know that that and $7.95 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbuck's, but, still, winning is better that losing, and the Steelers have shown us several things about which their fans can get excited.

Foremost has been the performance of second year quarterback Kenny Pickett.

Pickett has only played three offensive series in these two games. Each of those series has resulted touchdowns for the Steelers.  He has completed nine of eleven passes for two touchdowns, and the one he threw last night, a 25 yard bullet that threaded a needle to Pat Freiermuth on the goal line was a thing of beauty.

Muuuuuuuuth!!

These are only practice games, to be sure, but last night's win over Buffalo gave us a lot to dwell on.  Among them....

• Jaylon Warren's 63 yard run from scrimmage for a TD.  Talk about great execution!
• The Steelers first unit defense stuffing Josh Allen and the Bills first unit offense in the first quarter.
• Performances by WR's George Pickens and Calvin Austin.
• The play of rookie OLB Nate Herbig.  That kid looks like he's going to be one terrific player.

Joey Jr.'s first INT

• Rookie Joey Porter Jr making his first interception and then giving the football to his Dad in the stands.  It can be seen HERE, but what isn't seen in this video is the fact that Joey Sr had a Terrible Towel stuffed in his back pocket.  Somewhere, Myron Cope was smiling.

One more practice game next thursday night in Atlanta followed by a 17 day layoff until the 49'ers come to Acrisure Stadium to open the season.  Things change when you start playing games that count, but it is hard not to be excited by what we have seen so far from the '23 Steelers.

THE WOMEN'S WORLD CUP

The Women's World Cup ended today with a 1-0 victory by Spain over England.  I claim no expertise in futbol, but I believe that I am safe in saying that the better team on the pitch today was Spain.  They dominated the game, had a tenacious defense that swarmed all over the English players when they got near the Spanish goal, and are worthy Champs.  

The most exciting play of the game, however, came when English goalkeeper Mary Earps (later named the outstanding Keeper of the entire tournament) stopped a penalty kick for Spain midway through the second half.   Earps punctuated her save with a heartfelt scream that had those of us who read her lips blushing.  Had the kick been successful, it would have effectively sealed the win for Spain.  As it was, the game remained in doubt and Spain was forced to hold off England's furious efforts to score for the remainder of the came and through over thirteen minutes of stoppage time.

If ever a 1-0 ninety-plus minute soccer game can be described as "exciting", this game certainly was.  Perhaps I am coming to understand the Beautiful Game, after all.

Much of the excitement of the World Cup for American viewers, of course,  disappeared when the defending champs and tournament favorite USA was eliminated after their first game in the knockout round.  The team managed to score all of four goals in five games, three of them coming in one game against a clearly non-competitve Viet Nam.  A tremendously disappointing performance for the squad.  I admit that I pretty much lost interest in the rest of the tourney until the Final Four games matches were played.

Earlier in the week, USWNT Manager Vlatko Andonovski announced that he was resigning his position with the team.  Resigning, yeah right.

Lionel Messi

Since his debut last month, Lionel Messi has been running roughshod through Major League Soccer.  Prior to his arrival, Miami had the worst record in all of MLS.  Since then, they have not lost a game, and Messi has been scoring goals, seemingly, at will.

This performance is surely a testimony to Messi's greatness.  No one doubts that, but does it also tell us that the MLS is a distinctly inferior brand of futbol as it is played throughout the rest of the world?