World Cup Discussion Thread

[Kylearan]

Hi,

it's the third day of the Soccer World Cup, and there's still no discussion thread about it? Guess there's really no reason to make such a thread sticky then... :P

I have the luck (:blink:) to be ill since Friday, which has the definitive advantage that I did have the time to watch all matches so far. Disadvantage: No beer while watching! :angry:

Anyway, my first impressions:

• Germany vs. Costa Rica: Six goals in an opening match of a world cup! And we won! What more can one expect? :P Definately an entertaining game, although it leaves me worried how we should win against the stronger nations later. This philosophy of always shooting more goals than the opponent might work against Costa Rica, but against, say, England...? I hope we'll be able to improve on our defenses a lot during these first easy matches. Although of course I wouldn't object against winning 7-5 vs. Brazil in the finals... :ph34r:
  
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• Argentina vs. Ivory Coast: Best match so far. Highly entertaining, high-speed soccer on a very high level. I think a 2:2 or 3:3 would have been fairer, as both teams played on a similar level. I wouldn't have believed the Ivory Coast so strong! Definately looking forward to the rest of the matches in this "killer group" with the Dutch and Serbia & Montenegro.
  
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• Netherlands vs. Serbia and Montenegro: Arjen Robben was fun to watch. Congrats to the Dutch for winning this; I think these 3 points have been a must, given the two teams they have to play next.:ph34r:I know, I'm German and so I'm expected to mock the Dutch and hope that they will not reach the next round, but actually I really like their team this time. My dream final of course is Germany vs. Brazil, but if either of these two teams drop out before, I hope the Dutch make it into the finals.
  
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• England vs. Paraguay: Sheesh, after listening to England before the tournament, I had expected a much better match than this. Looks like England's ego is bigger than their real playing skills, or was it just the nervousness of the first game? We'll see, but they have definately to improve. Solid defense, but apart maybe from Beckham, nothing spectacular or innovative in their offense.
  
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• Trinidad & Tobago vs. Sweden: Yay T&T! Well done! I have a weakness for underdogs, and the Swedes got hyped a lot before the tournament, so I found the result of that game quite funny. :)And I've heard T&T have a lot of motivation for the match against England... :whistling:Go Trinidad and Tobago!<>
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  I will skip the next two matches, Mexico vs. Iran and Portugal vs. Angola. I think the events around these two matches will be more interesting than the games themselves. There's a demonstration against the visit of Iran's vice president, lots of police has been summoned. And considering what happened during the last match between Portugal vs. Angola, I hope nobody gets hurt this time. Funny (or not...) how politics play into sport events so often. :( At least the atmosphere here in the country is simply great! The summer has arrived in time, thousands of fans are watching the matches on big screens outdoor, having a good time, and beer consumption looks to be spectacular so far as well. Definately time for me to get better; I've missed two BBQs with friends watching the matches already...
  
  -Kylearan

[Griselda]

The real question is, will anybody at work believe that you actually get sick right when the World Cup started? :P

A friend of ours had the cable guy ask him why he seems to sign up for a free trial of cable exactly every four years in June.

I'm not a big soccer fan, but my husband is trying to convert me. I did see the Trinidad & Tobago match, and that was a great one! Go T&T! :wub:

[Kylearan]

Hi,

The real question is, will anybody at work believe that you actually get sick right when the World Cup started?

I have this annoying habit to get sick mainly on weekends. I think I'll be fit again tomorrow on Monday - go figure. :wacko:

A friend of ours had the cable guy ask him why he seems to sign up for a free trial of cable exactly every four years in June.

:DA similar story: We have a law here in Germany that if you order something online, you have two weeks time to return it to get a refund, without having to state why - even if the thing you bought works perfectly fine. Now shortly before the last World Cup started, there had been a dramatic increase in sales of video projectors, followed by a similarly dramatic amount of projectors getting sent back for a refund 14 days later. :DLooks like a lot of people used this 14 days trial period to watch the World Cup on slightly bigger screens. :w00t:

Last I heard, the big online shops had planned to stop selling video projectors until the World Cup is over. Don't know if they really did this, though...

-Kylearan

[Wyrm]

A similar story: We have a law here in Germany that if you order something online, you have two weeks time to return it to get a refund, without having to state why - even if the thing you bought works perfectly fine. Now shortly before the last World Cup started, there had been a dramatic increase in sales of video projectors, followed by a similarly dramatic amount of projectors getting sent back for a refund 14 days later. :DLooks like a lot of people used this 14 days trial period to watch the World Cup on slightly bigger screens.

Sounds like what a lot of people over here do during the Superbowl.

My sis lives in Germany now so we're definitely getting more exposure to it than most Americans (I've seen about 2 World Cup commercials on ESPN while I was watching the French Open tennis tournament), but it's not even close to the amount of coverage you get in other countries (i.e. Germany). You know an event is big when it gets its own Nutella.

Oh yeah, I'll be rooting for Germany as well, but if/when they play the US, I'll have to root for my country (honestly though, I didn't even realise the US had a team entered, let alone that it was ranked 5).

[eppie]

Hi,

it's the third day of the Soccer World Cup, and there's still no discussion thread about it? Guess there's really no reason to make such a thread sticky then... :P

Finally some positive sound about the dutch.....thanks for that.:D

No I'm really having a problem here. Serbia-Holland I missed because I was in an airplane. And here in Italy all the matches are televised by Sky which is a payTV channel (the one who decided that has to be put in prison forever). Some of the matches like Angola-Portugal (woohoo) are also on the rai (which is the public TV station). Also matches of Italy will be televised on the Rai (another time woohoo). Anyway...I will have to make new friends that have sky I guess...

[kandrathe]

...
Anyway...I will have to make new friends that have sky I guess...

Don't they have big screen TV's with Sky in the pub?

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Don't they have big screen TV's with Sky in the pub?

Wearing orange in an Italian pub might be hazardous to his health... :lol:

-Kylearan

[eppie]

Don't they have big screen TV's with Sky in the pub?

Well...Italy and pubs....

Anyway, you gave me an idea....I will try to find an Irish Pub in the area....they must show it (unless there is some 3rd division hurling or gaelic football on of course).
Then I will step on my trusty bike and see if I can dodge the cars and arrive safely.

And I was not planning to wear any orange things.....

[the Langolier]

I got into the World Cup last time and had a fun time staying up for the games, but I didn't really catch it until a few games before the finals (I remember seeing Germany win the game before they beat the USA to go to the finals). The time before that I was 15 and didn't see any of it.

I am quite excited about watching as many games as I can this year (which will be difficult since they all start about the same time as work), but I don't have a lot of world cup experience. What is the general format the tournament follows? I notice there are 8 groups whose teams I have determined will play each other near to July. I suppose that one finalist per group will advance to a single elimination playoff?

[Nystul]

You play a small round robin with your group of 4, and the top 2 advance to the single elimination bracket. After that it gets simple. But since there are so few games in the round robin, determining which teams advance can get into a pretty complicated tiebreaking system (head-to-head results, goal differential, goals scored).

From the U.S. perspective, team USA had a very bad day today, not only in losing (and playing like a bunch of lost golems wandering around hell), but in getting shut out by a large margin. And having Italy win probably did not help matters. U.S. almost is in a must-win situation when they face Italy now, although mathematically they could lose and still somehow advance.

[Thecla]

USA had a very bad day today, not only in losing (and playing like a bunch of lost golems wandering around hell), but in getting shut out by a large margin. U.S. almost is in a must-win situation when they face Italy.

The US was absolutely hopeless, and Italy looked very solid against a defensively disorganized but potentially dangerous Ghana. I think the only question now is whether or not the US will lose all three games in their group.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that virtually everyone in Scotland is rooting for Trinidad & Tobago over England.;)

[Occhidiangela]

The US was absolutely hopeless, and Italy looked very solid against a defensively disorganized but potentially dangerous Ghana. I think the only question now is whether or not the US will lose all three games in their group.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that virtually everyone in Scotland is rooting for Trinidad & Tobago over England.;)

My soccer friends advised me that the Czech Republic is one of the real powers going in this year's cup. I didn't get to see the game, but am not surprised that the US lost to a top five team. What surprised me was how badly.

The Italians must be licking their pasta platters about now. :w00t: World Cup, early exit, is bad for the advertisers since the US market (such as it is) will decrease considerably. True soccer afficianados will still watch select matches to watch the cream of the crop perform. Mexico gets to round two, or I am an armadillo. :rolleyes:

The Cup is, for me, now like the NBA playoffs: I watched a bit of the San Antonio/Dallas matches, and saw the second finals game Sunday night. Go Dirk! The rest of the NBA season and playoffs are of no ineterest to me.

Occhi

[Assur]

Hi

Anybody else see the Argentine vs. Serbia-Montenegro game? 6:0:w00t:

Much more impressive than anything the Brazilians have shown! IMHO this could be the year where the Argentinians win the worldcup!

[Occhidiangela]

Hi

Anybody else see the Argentine vs. Serbia-Montenegro game? 6:0:w00t:

Much more impressive than anything the Brazilians have shown! IMHO this could be the year where the Argentinians win the worldcup!

Perhaps S-M were a bit off their game. I don't think underestimating Brazil is wise.

Occhi

[Ashock]

Bah, why all the comments? You know Germany will win. Most strong hosts win.


I have spoken!



-A

[Occhidiangela]

Bah, why all the comments? You know Germany will win. Most strong hosts win.
I have spoken!
-A

You barbarian! :lol:

Occhi

[Ashock]

You barbarian! :lol:

Occhi

I shall disregard this insult!


Here's a link to some really nice goals from the past: http://break.com/index/awesomeshots3.html


You can disregard some of the other pics and vids from the site. They might be considered objectionable :shuriken:



-A

[Chaerophon]

I watched the Spain - Ukraine game the other day and was entertained by the Spanish style, so, for no reason other than that I enjoyed watching them play once, I have adopted them as my team.

They were fun to watch.

When we win, you'll hear from me.;)

[Ashock]

I watched the Spain - Ukraine game the other day and was entertained by the Spanish style, so, for no reason other than that I enjoyed watching them play once, I have adopted them as my team.

They were fun to watch.

When we win, you'll hear from me.;)

Well, then..... bye :lol:


-A

[Chaerophon]

Well, then..... bye :lol:
-A

Laugh if you will - la seleccion will not be denied. Our time has finally come. We will rise by the golden boot of David Villas.















:w00t: