Wow. A day after I post about the World Cup, the vagaries of Tao are revealed to the fullest. The English clearly outplayed the US on Saturday but Robert Green the English goalkeeper let through an improbable score that allowed the US to escape with a tie, sparking much consternation across Albion. For me it brought to mind these lines from Zhuangzi:
Joy and anger, sorrow and delight, hope and regret, doubt and ardor, diffidence and abandon, candor and reserve: it’s all music rising out of emptiness, mushrooms appearing out of mist. Day and night come and go, but who knows where it all begins? It is! It just is! If you understand this day in and day out, you inhabit the very source of it all.
Green seemed to instinctively embrace these sentiments in his own comments after the game:
"It's about being steady and taking the rough with the smooth but that's life as a goalkeeper..."
Might be a bit hard to do with millions of people calling for his scalp back home....
Oh well... Way is vast...
I wouldn't say that England clearly outplayed the US - Altidore had some great opportunities, and England were lackluster in attack. A few inches' difference in a few specific moments and the US might easily have won the game. I think a draw was a fair result.
Posted by: Ronit | June 14, 2010 at 03:26 PM
England controlled the ball for longer than the US; their midfield passing was, to my mind, clearly superior. You are right about Altidore's run - it was brilliant. But England had more shots, more corners, more crosses...
Posted by: Sam | June 14, 2010 at 05:03 PM