A few things before I try to make my point. On Tuesday, Bayern Munich complained (in spite of pulling off a very late 2 goal winning rally) that Real Madrid was trying to embarass them in the first half with their fancy plays, etc. Last fall, in Champion's League play, Real's Zidane turned a couple of homeside Sparta Prague players inside out with a nifty '360' and the crowd gave him a cheer out of respect. When Pete Rose had his NL tying 44-game hit streak snapped, he complained that Atlanta pitcher Gene Garber should not have been trying to get him out!! Fillipe Alou wouldn't have his guys walk Mark McGwire on the last weekend when he and Sosa were each at 66 home runs. Managers FINALLY pitched to Barry Bonds at the end of last season, just as Connie Mack told his pitchers to pitch to Ted Williams on the last day of the 1941 season, when Williams was juuuust shy of hitting .400. In football, the "prevent defense" is just as ill-conceived as 'sitting' on a lead in hockey.
Oh yea, my point/rant.
What do people think about WHINERS who complain that a team should effectively stop playing once the game is 'supposedly' out of reach?
Even if a soccer game was 10-0 at half-time, I'd crucify any player on my team that didn't come-to-play the second half. Injuries and bad habits result from so-called 'playing' while trying to do nothing. If a team objects, hey, they're free to forfeit, rather than resorting to cheap-shotting players OR they can forget the score and just do their best, even if doesn't cut it.
I'd rather have a team that lost 15-0 (well, not really, it's just illustrative) but gave 100% and didn't gripe, rather than lose 5-2, with the two goals coming as a result of indifference by the other team. (On the weekend Arsenal led 2-0 before the game was 4 minutes old. Then they kept trying to be cute and it almost cost them a couple of times - goal differential being critical at this point in the EPL season.)
C'mon let's fill the ole Onion Bag, who's with me?
