Classic Pitcher's Duel

Saw almost 3 soccer games and 2 goals not on penalties.  Sounds about right

Soccer is a lot like hockey, but on grass.  Where there's no scoring.  Or checking.  

So, as you may know, soccer is a pretty big deal around the world.  Not so much in the US aside from the World Cup every four years, but basically everywhere else.  It's big.  So, when important international soccer tournaments come rolling around, it's not such a terrible idea to check them out.  

It's a slightly worse idea when the temperature is near 100 degrees, but that's beside the point entirely.  

I attended a CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal not long ago.  It featured four reasonably highly ranked international teams vying for tournament supremacy, and some kind of qualifying spot in the next World Cup or something.  I'm not sure how it works.  

We got to see a crowd of well over 70,000 people celebrating the sport of soccer (or football (futbol), as it's known everywhere but the US), cheering on their nation's team (Not the US, mind you...their heritage nation), lots of faked injuries, hydration breaks, a full 2 2/3 games of soccer...and 2 actual goals.  

In reality, the ball went into the goal 14 times in two games, but it's a little more complicated than that.  The first game went 1-1 at the end of the regulation 90 minutes.  Then begins the 2 15-minute periods of non-sudden-death overtime.  So they played 120 minutes, or 1 1/3 games of soccer.  Since nobody scored in the OT, they decided the game in a 9-round penalty kick shootout.  I don't count these as goals.  They're penalties.  Not goals.  

The second game went much the same, except for the fact that the score at the end of regulation was 0-0.  (Pronounced Nil-Nil.)  Only in the 123rd minute (stoppage time after the two 15-minute overtimes were played with no further scoring), was a penalty called on a questionable play.  The player converted the penalty kick to win the game 1-0.  So, they played at least another 1 1/3 games.  And only scored on a penalty.  Not a goal.  Penalty.  

So, all things totaled, 240-some minutes of soccer.  2 goals.  Yikes.