Wow! What a fantastic day of football viewing. Argentina really shone today. And what happened to France? The way that Mexico played though, they deserved to win. That was a really fun game to watch.
But now let's talk about the game that was historic in part due to a pivotal red card. Greece vs. Nigeria. Apparently this was the first time in their history at the World Cup that Greece ever scored a goal. Fantastic for them but not so fantastic for Nigeria who got penalized for an infraction and got a red card. That sent the Nigerian team down to ten men and seemingly into a downward spiral towards defeat. What happened was a Nigerian player got upset after the play had finished and struck out at a Greek player. The Nigerian played also kicked the Greek player high up on the leg and this was the reason for the red card. The player left the playing field and after that Nigeria could not get anything working. It was awful. The red card was deserved but it was strange to see how quickly the rest of the team fell apart after this event.
The CBC announcer had many things to say about this event and so all the English words for today's blog all relate to the Nigerian red card incident.
1) The kick of the Greek player was "pure folly". - "Folly" is a gentle word for "stupidity" or "silliness" (silly). It is not commonly used in North America. We would use "dumb" or "stupid" more often. "Stupid" is a less polite term. You could say: "It is pure folly to go outside in the rain without shoes." or "It is dumb to drive after having taken cold medication."
2) "What on Earth possessed him to do that?" - "What on Earth" is used to express exasperation or surprise. If you came out to where you had parked your car and found an elephant in your parking space, you could say "What on Earth?" or simply "What?"
The use of the word "possessed" here suggests that there is no good excuse for what the player did so maybe an evil spirit or some other malevolent force "possessed" or "took control" of this person. This is a common expression. You could say: "What possessed her to color her hair orange?" or " What possessed them to sell their house in this market?" Essentially, you are stating that what the person did makes no logical sense to you.
3) "That was a ludicrous studs-up challenge." - "Ludicrous" is equal to "ridiculous" or even "stupid" or "crazy". You could say: "It's ludicrous to sell your car to your dog." or "BP's 'fill it with garbage' response to their enormous hole in their sunken oil tanker was ludicrous."
Here "challenge" is a word used to describe one player's attempt to get the ball away from a player of the opposite side. This "challenge" received a red card because it was "studs-up" or the cleats on the bottom of the boot (studs) were visible to the other player. In this instance they weren't just visible but they inflicted damage.
4) "Madness, pure madness." - Here "madness" is "craziness". In Britain to be "mad" means to be "crazy" but in the United States "mad" means "angry". So be careful who you are talking to or be sure to check if the meaning is not clear from the context of the sentence. For example: "He is mad." can mean either "crazy" or "angry" depending on the rest of the discussion and who is speaking. In Canada, you can use the word either way ("crazy" or "angry") so be sure to clarify meaning before you get into trouble.
Let's hope there aren't any "mad" or "ludicrous" plays made on Matchday #8.
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