Good Wednesday morning, TSFers. I’m not really sure what to do with myself today — there are neither Euro nor Copa America matches. The Euros are off until Friday, and the Copas return with one match tomorrow. I think I have some Olympic Trials on the DVR to get me through this mostly sports-less day on the calendar. It’s dire, folks. Send help.
Yesterday, the Netherlands finally arrived at the Euros, dominating Romania en route to a 3-0 thrashing. Liverpool attacker Cody Gakpo played particularly well. Later in the day, Turkiye downed Austria 2-1, with all three goals in the match coming off corners. Turkiye scorer Merih Demiral has been accused of making hand signals in support of a far-right political group during one of his goal celebrations, so that’s not great.
In Copa America action, Costa Rica downed Paraguay 2-1, but Los Ticos 4 points weren’t enough to get them out of a group with Colombia (7 points) and Brazil (5 points). The two South American powerhouses played an extremely entertaining 1-1 draw. Vini Junior picked up an extremely soft second yellow card of the tournament, which means he will miss the Quarterfinals. That paves the way for Gabriel Martinelli to potentially start in his place, or at least move up a spot in the rotation and come on as a substitute. Honestly, I could do without Arsenal players getting on the pitch where they might get injured.
The two yellow card rule is incredibly dumb. I understand that it is an attempt to make the game friendlier and safer, but it has missed the mark. There is a reason that two yellows in a match is a sending off and a suspension — that’s the appropriate level of discipline. Under the current regime of accumulated cards, players have to go four, sometimes five matches without picking up a second yellow to avoid a suspension. Nobody wants to see players miss matches, particularly when, say, they got a yellow in the first match and then the fourth of a tournament.
Some kind of rolling system, where cards fall off your record after a match or two without a card would be much better. I’d be fine if yellows in consecutive matches incurred a suspension and wouldn’t have a problem with 3 in 5 matches being a suspension, as well.