Now That’s Soccer

I used to play soccer when I was a kid.  I wasn’t very good at it, and often used aggressiveness in place of skill while on the field.  I never scored any goals, but I had my share of fouls.  I stopped playing mostly because I just wasn’t improving and I got bored.  And I remember the shinpads being either sweaty or scratchy.  But I would have played longer if soccer was played the way that Striker David Pratt plays the game.  He set a world record for the fastest red card.  3 seconds into the game, he took out a player from the other team.

I laughed when I read this from Reuters here:

A player with English minor league club Chippenham Town has set a record for the fastest-red card when he was sent off for a wild tackle three seconds after kickoff.

Striker David Pratt, 21, was dismissed in a Southern Premier League game against Bashley on Saturday.

In 2000 an English amateur player, Lee Todd, was sent off after two seconds when he responded to the referee’s whistle to start the game by saying “f*ck me, that was loud!” and was dismissed for foul and abusive language.