Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Let the (World Cup) Games Begin!

Good luck to all the teams playing in the FIFA Soccer World Cup that starts this morning!

For those in the US that haven't heard, all the games will be shown on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

malu

P.S.: GO BRAZIL!!!

Well done Bafana for drawing the opening match!

Does telling the games scores constitute as spoilers?

In case it is, the results are encrypted (use binary translator ):

Group A, day 1:

South Africa vs. Mexico : 00110001 00100000 01111000 00100000 00110001

Uruguay vs. France : 00110000 00100000 01111000 00100000 00110000

malu

There was an article in today's New York Times about the upcoming match between England and the United States. In this article, one guy, Roger Bennet, made this prediction:

Roger, trust me. As long as you Americans call this game soccer, instead of football like most of the rest of the world call it, your country will never be the true home of this particular sport. For comparison, take a look at this page from a British daily, the Guardian. Note how they call this game "football":

It\'s football, not soccer

Ann

Anyone watching the U.S. vs. England game?

I have to be honest: the US was VERY lucky in scoring that goal.

malu

what the heck happened with our goalie (England), that 'catch' was awful, well the uproar in the pub at the point was amusing at least!

So the score really was 1-1 after all!!!!

Okay, US, but it is football and not soccer after all!

Ann

Whee! The Games have begun! I love soccer!!!

An interesting fact: the US transmissions of the games are having a delay of at least 5 seconds!

(I can watch the games online on international channels and compare the game clocks)

I wonder why.

malu

Transmission takes time, decoding the signal takes time.

Last world cup one could hear who was watching analog and who was watching digital in the neighbourhood. The analog people knew every goal about 2 to 3 minutes before the digital people.

I grew up playing soccer (I think I was 5 or 6 years old when my parents signed my up for my first clinic) and I still love the sport to this day, though I no longer play (too slow, haha). I'm so excited about the World Cup, simply because it gives the sport some more exposure. A lot of the kids in my first grade class are talking about it, so that's neat to hear!

Anyway, here's hoping for a great run from the US team... but good luck to everyone!!

Tracey

Disappoining first game for The Socceroos. Okay to be honest I didn't have high hopes of a win, but uncertainly was not expecting the 4-0 thrashing we were handed by Germany. Let's do better next game boys!! As for England the goal the US scored was practically an own goal by the keeper I have no idea how that even went in.

Messi was unlucky to have his fantastic attempts at goal saved by The Nigerian goalkeeper, but the single goal of that match was a cracker of a goal. May have been from a set piece but a beautifully executed one.

I do have to say though so far the matches have been substandard when compared to Germany 2006. Tonight's schedule of matches looks promising especially The Netherlands vs Denmark and also Italy vs Paraguay!! I may just cheer for Paraguay though definitely still annoyed at how we lost the last time.

Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia also call it soccer.
Australia have been trying to change it to football - but with 3 other football codes already using the terminology (and having used it for a long, long time), they are in for a difficult slog to get it known as anything other than soccer.

Footballs are oval.
Soccer balls are round.

You can't be good at every sport. Personally, I'd rather New Zealand focus on their footy (rugby union) than soccer. Why they (NZ) are even at a world cup for soccer is beyond me when I am sure there are a whole heap of euro teams who can play 10 times better who missed out.

Whatever we call it, I hope everyone enjoys watching their favorite teams play.

Why rugby is even called football is beyond me last time I checked the scoring (apart from conversions and penalty kicks) in both League and Union involves carrying the ball across the line. At least with AFL to score involves kicking the ball between the goal posts.

I'm not too sure how the qualification stages actually work, but I do know that New Zealand like Australia before they left the Oceania Confederation for the Asian Confederation play a playoff in order to qualify because Oceania unlike the other confederations have no direct qualification into the finals. This caused heaps of criticism in Australia prior to the World Cup in Korea/Japan eight years ago where Australia once again fell short of qualifying because they were forced to play a playoff against Uruguay (we got our revenge 4 years later though) because prior to the playoff Australia was playing against teams which were far below whatever Australia's world ranking was at the time. In fact Australia to this day still holds the world record for most goals scored in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match (32-0 against American Samoa for those who are interested). This lack of competition is what many believe to be the reason for Australia's long absence from the finals.
Either way though New Zealand making the finals is a great achievement and I hope it does raise the sports profile in a rugby dominated country. Making the finals four years ago certainly raised the sport's profile here especially when the ratings came out saying that more people watched Australia lose to Germany than they watched the State of Origin rugby league match. Here's to FIFA selecting Australia to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup!

The games are getting very exciting in this second round of games. Many teams are anticipating their qualifications to the round of 16 by winning two games. Others are keeping themselves alive in this round by not losing, and making the last set of games decisive.

Let's go USA and Brazil!!!



malu

I predict that Americans with *never* call soccer "football". So that makes us different than parts of the world, so what?
American football is very entrenched in this country and we are spreading it to England and Europe.
On the other hand, the kids here are growing up playing soccer here in school and in leagues, so it is growing in popularity. It's a sport more kids can enjoy. But even then, it will probably never pass baseball as a kids league sport.
All the US needs is a referee that doesn't imagine things in the World Cup. Even Slovenia thought we had a goal.

Artemis

Agreed, Artemis... how crazy was that call?! I was yelling at the TV! I supposed I was hoping to be heard halfway across the world, lol. I heard that ref isn't going to be allowed to ref another World Cup match.

Overall, enjoying the games so far, though!

May the best win! I'm not much of a football/soccer/whatever you call it fan but I usually watch the games in which my country plays.

Of course I'd like to see Portugal reach the last game but I'm not setting my hopes too high since we're usually eliminated somewhere along the way to the greek or to the french... Maybe our luck will turn this year


FORÇA PORTUGAL!!

Brazil is already qualified, as is the Netherlands, for the next round.

Go Brazil!



malu

P.S.: Olive, Brazil is going to crush Portugal in the next game.

Related to your signature, "Ó mar salgado, quanto do teu sal são lágrimas de Portugal?" (translation: "Oh salty sea, how much of your salt are tears from Portugal?")

That's actually what I'm afraid of :p But as the saying goes hope is always the last to die

BTW:

Yeah, we'll cry a lot if Portugal doesn't get qualified for the next round... If there is one thing that puts life on hold in this country it's football. We're playing against the northern koreans right now and there isn't a soul on the streets. The only thing you hear now and then are those annoying vuvuzelas that seem to be lurking everywhere lately.

I think Fernando Pessoa is rolling in his grave. I don't think sports were exactly what he had in mind when he wrote "Mensagem" but it serves a lot of different purposes.