Football Tourist: The Second Half by Stuart Fuller

Author:Stuart Fuller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ockley Books
Published: 2016-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

USA 2, TURKEY 1

Sunday 1st June 2014 – RedBull Arena

In the grand scheme of events this was just a win in a friendly game against a team significantly lower in the FIFA rankings. I’m sure Turkey fans or observers would point out it was the end of a long European season, it was a hot day and they had flown thousands of miles across the world to play three games, of which this was the last. In other words, could Turkey actually be arsed? But that would be hard on the US, who tried to take the game to the visitors but were often frustrated by their delaying and unsporting tactics.

The US team had pace, played good football to feet and used the modest strengths of certain players. None more so than Jozy Altidore up front, who has had a relatively disappointing spell at Sunderland with just one goal in 30 performances, yet put him in a US shirt and he is a world beater. “Like a good Emile Heskey?” suggested Andy Mack. I’d probably not go that far but the Turkish defence had no idea how to handle him. He had a goal disallowed for a non-existent foul on the keeper and created havoc when running at the defenders.

But it wasn’t the physical approach that led to the opening goal. A smart one-two between Fabian Johnson and Michael Bradley in the 26th minute saw the ball bounce kindly to Johnson and he volleyed home. Cue some wild celebrations, fist pumping and “Turkey, you suck my balls” shouts from the fans around us.

At the far end Everton’s Tim Howard was rarely troubled and had to deal with the continuing threat of Turkey players throwing themselves to the floor in the area rather than shots on target. Before he collapsed with boredom he was replaced at half-time by Villa’s Brad Guzan. At the other end, the Turkish keeper Onur Kivrak seemed to be flapping at everything and was at fault for the second in the 52nd minute when he failed to intercept a ball across the six-yard box and the ball hit Clint Dempsey rather than the other way round and rolled into the empty net.

We made the call to go and get a final beer. Perhaps we delayed our venture downstairs by a minute too long because “beer marshals” had been deployed to stop anyone new joining the queue. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the need to have such people. I could rant on here about how it is harder to buy a beer than a handgun in some places but that’s for another time.

Turkey did get themselves a consolation goal in the 90th minute, although to me the decision to award a clear penalty for handball on the line by Jeff Cameron summed up the ridiculous performance by the referee. Since when has deliberate handball on the goal line not been a sending-off offence? Since when did the excuse “well, it is only a friendly”

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