How In The Holland?

By Robert Ferringo

There are tough beats and then there is what happened in the Netherlands-Slovakia match this morning.

Full disclosure: I released a play and had a wager on the ‘under’ at 2.5 (-140). Now, normally I’m irritated at any loss in any sport at any time. But right now I’m surprisingly zen about that beat. Mainly it’s because I have my top play today on Brazil and I don’t want the negative vibes sticking with me going into that game. (You know, because I have an impact on the game, obviously.) Oh, and if my capping career hadn’t been marked by this exact type of nonsense I might be a little more pissed.

So here’s the scenario:

It’s a 1-0 game that went exactly like I thought. I had a feeling that the Netherlands wouldn’t dominate the match or be able to put the Slovakians away nearly as easily as they should have. And they didn’t. They scored a garbage early goal to go up 1-0 in the 18th minute. But from there it was a lot of pitter-patter and not a lot of action. Sure, there were chances either way, but the best shots actually came from Slovakia and they had at least one gimme goal blown by a poor effort.

But, again, things were still looking good even when Holland got a second goal in the
84th minute. I assumed about three minutes of extra time so we only had nine minutes to close out before we cashed.

Then the Gambling Gods - whose sister I must have banged or something - struck. Slovakia somehow managed to coax a penalty kick out of the official WITH 10 SECONDS LEFT IN THE MATCH. The time when the whistle was blow was 92:51. With the three minutes of extra time there were, give or take, about 10-15 seconds left to play.

Naturally, the dude buries the penalty shot. And even though the referee blew an odd whistle directly after the ball hit the back of the net (that whistle was never explained) the goal stood, the game went ‘over’ and I lost another bet in the most curious, most BS, most excruciatingly ridiculous fashion possible. (Again, if stuff like this hadn’t happened to me at least 100 times before I might be angry. But I’m zen. Good vibes.)

This is essentially the equivalent of someone making three straight half-court shots in the last 20 seconds of a college basketball game to blow your spread. Or having an NFL total of 53.5 blown despite a 24-14 score, with under 2:15 to play, because of a 70-yard touchdown pass, a turnover, a 52-yard, penalty-aided field goal after a Hail Mary to send it to OT, and then a blocked punt returned for a touchdown on the first possession of overtime. (And yes, that happened to me on a Total of the Month two years ago in the NFL.) Or having a college GOTY beat because your -1.5 home favorite blew a 28-7 lead just before the half and then blew a 42-28 lead with less than 10 minutes to go, only to lose in OT (2007 season) to a team that would go 1-9 in its following 10 games. OR, how about an MLB GOTY where you are leading 10-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, only to lose 11-10 when the (expletive) Orioles scored 10 runs in two innings to rob you of another victory last summer. OR, when those same Orioles, with the same awful, awful, awful, awful, awful starter (Rich Hill) are down 8-3 to Roy Halladay in the bottom of the eighth, only to tie the game, send it to extra innings, go down 10-8, and then come back to score four runs in the bottom of the 10th to beat your GOTM (also last year, a couple months before the 11-10 debacle).

Not that I’m bitter or anything.

And the next time that it goes the other way like that will be the first time. Trust me.

Good grief.