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WORLD CUP 2010

Om

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Oh hell yeah. :)

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FIFA WORLD CUP

GROUP C

JUNE 11, 2010

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMophHw6iX4[/media]
 
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My friend is a ticket broker and summer time is the slow season. Last year he followed U2 around Europe selling tickets. This year, he is headed to South Africa! Wish I could be there!

Go USA!
 
I love the World Cup - particularly now that America is a legit soccer threat. Growing up, we were the laughing stock of the world - people claimed the US would never be significant in the sport. We've proved the world wrong.

Can't wait.

I've never gotten people that hate soccer or claim it's unwatchable. I think great soccer is fun as hell to watch.
 
Can't wait to talk trash to all my UK colleagues. Go USA!

How the Brits think the US views soccer - from 1994 prior to the World Cup being held here.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ82aMQONvc[/media]
 
That's pretty good Sisyphus--I was over in Switz this winter with a bunch of guys from Oz--right when the recent John Terry saga was unfolding. In any case, a Swissy came up to us asking what our favorite side was and volunteered that his was Tott-enHam which was ridiculed for the remainder of the night. Soc-er, football ignorance isn't limited to the U.S. :)
 
Playboy reveals US World Cup Jerseys:

playboy-reveals-the-us-world-cup-jerseys-27156-1272565655-46.jpg


http://www.playboy.com/articles/nike-us-world-cup-soccer-jersey-photos/index.html
 
I love the World Cup - particularly now that America is a legit soccer threat.

Whoah whoah whoah...I don't think we're quite a "legit threat" yet. We may win a pool game or two, and maybe even advance out of our group, but it won't go much further than that. US Soccer is still a ways away.

I've never gotten people that hate soccer or claim it's unwatchable. I think great soccer is fun as hell to watch.

Its the pace...its really slow, and there isn't a lot of action. However watching hockey has given me a better appreciation for soccer, as they are very similar sports.
 
Whoah whoah whoah...I don't think we're quite a "legit threat" yet. We may win a pool game or two, and maybe even advance out of our group, but it won't go much further than that. US Soccer is still a ways away.



Its the pace...its really slow, and there isn't a lot of action. However watching hockey has given me a better appreciation for soccer, as they are very similar sports.


They are a threat Lanky. Are they a threat to win it all? Highly unlikely, but they have enough talent to make waves.

Here's the thing I don't understand about many American's outlook on soccer. You say there is not a lot of action, Lanky, but there are two 45 minute halves of non-stop action. The problem is not the lack of action, it is the lack of scoring. Why do you think baseball has taken such a huge hit in popularity? Americans want to see dunks or high powered offenses in football. Watching a 0-0 draw in soccer is not going to satisfy the instant gratification society we live in, but I for one can tell you after 18 years of competitive soccer even at the international level, there can be a tremendous amount of action in a 0-0 draw.
 
An so it begins.

Haven't been this amped for a World Cup in some time. Part of it is the anticipation of following a USA team that has at long last established itself as a legitimate player---not a title contender; that's another decade at least away---but as a side with reasonable expectations of advancing out of group play and perhaps beyond.

But there's more ... the venue--South Africa and all that signifies ... coverage with the web and ESPN being bigger, better and by order of magnitude more in-depth, allowing me to follow ALL the teams and stories as never before ... the passion of the world for this event just starting to seep into the consciousness of a US popular culture that for so long has at best ignored, at worst chosen to demean it simply because---well, I dont' know what the reason could be.

Doesn't matter now though. World Cup 2010 is upon us.

Woot!

The magic of the Opening Match

The curtain-raiser to a FIFA World Cup™ is always an extra-special occasion. And after four long years of waiting, the football family will be glued to the action this afternoon as South Africa take on Mexico in the Opening Match.

'The whole world is watching'

When the referee blows his whistle to usher in the tournament, all the accumulated tension will simply drain away, not just amid the 22 players on the pitch, but also among fans across the globe, who have had to go four long years without experiencing the magic of the FIFA World Cup. "It's fantastic because the whole world will be watching," Mexico's Carlos Vela told FIFA.com.

Quite apart from marking the beginning of a month of fun, excitement and superb football, the Opening Match has produced a number of shock results down the years.

African sides always good for a surprise

Fittingly, the biggest surprises in the history of the tournament opener have been served up by two African teams. Who can forget the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, when world champions Argentina set out to tame Cameroon? The Indomitable Lions were not considered a force to be reckoned with at the time, and anything less than a win for La Albiceleste and their legendary captain Diego Maradona was out of the question. Nevertheless, the contest was scoreless at half-time, and 22 minutes after the restart Francois Omam-Biyik headed the goal that secured Cameroon a 1-0 win in one of the biggest sensations in the history of the global game, even though the west Africans ended the match with just nine players.

Opening Match launched in 1966

The Opening Match as we know it today was not introduced until 1966, when hosts England and Uruguay played out a goalless draw. The Three Lions progressed all the way to the Final that year and capped a memorable run by lifting the Jules Rimet trophy. No team contesting the tournament curtain-raiser has been able to repeat this feat since, though Argentina and Brazil did make it through to the Final in 1990 and 1998 respectively.

Before 1966 it was common for several games to kick off at the same time at the start of the tournament. In Italy in 1934, all eight first-round matches kicked off simultaneously. The only other time a match took place separately before all the others was in France in 1938, when Switzerland and Germany drew 1-1 after extra time (Switzerland won the replay 4-2), though this did not have the status of a genuine Opening Match.

Long goal drought

None of the first four tournament curtain-raisers was a particularly joyous affair. Mexico and the Soviet Union produced another stalemate in 1970, and the idea to invite the reigning world champions to kick things off from 1974, rather than the host nation, failed to bring about an improvement. Brazil and Yugoslavia were unable to conjure up a goal in Frankfurt, and neither were Germany and Poland in Argentina four years later.

So it was left to Belgium's Erwin Vandenbergh to end the goal drought after no less than 422 minutes on 13 June 1982, when he found the target in an opening 1-0 win over reigning champions Argentina at the FIFA World Cup in Spain.

The 1986 curtain-raiser in Mexico again failed to produce a winner, but at least there was more than one goal. Alessandro Altobelli opened the scoring for Italy after 43 minutes, only for Nasko Sirakov to equalise for underdogs Bulgaria just before the end - a draw the Bulgarians celebrated like a victory. Since Italy 1990, however, the opening matches have gained real momentum. Cameroon's win and subsequent charge to the quarter-finals, where they succumbed 3-2 after extra time against England, enchanted the football world to such an extent that the fixture is now greeted by a feverish sense of anticipation.

Holders notch first win

In the USA in 1994, Germany managed to avoid an upset at Chicago's Soldier Field. With an hour of the game against Bolivia gone and the score still goalless, the German fans and players were beginning to feel a little nervous. But then the South American goalkeeper misjudged a long ball forward, allowing Thomas Hassler to knock the ball square for Jurgen Klinsmann, who steered his shot into the empty net from the edge of the penalty area to secure victory for his team. The three-time world champions thus became the first holders to win a FIFA World Cup Opening Match. It did not bring them much luck, however, as they eventually slipped to a 2-1 quarter-final defeat against Bulgaria.

Brazil fared significantly better in France in 1998. Their 2-1 win over Scotland may have been a shade fortunate, coming as it did after a John Collins penalty had cancelled out Cesar Sampaio's early opener, only for Tom Boyd to put through his own net with 17 minutes left. But Mario Zagallo guided his charges all the way back to the same venue, the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, where a lacklustre Brazilian side were overpowered 3-0 by hosts France in the Final.

A good omen

The tournament start four years later in Korea and Japan may be another good omen for current host nation South Africa. Senegal made it two opening wins out of two for African teams when they beat France 1-0, the goal coming from Papa Bouba Diop, who ironically enough was on the books of French outfit Lens at the time. Like Cameroon before them, Senegal surprised everyone by advancing to the quarter-final stage before going down to Turkey after extra time.

In Germany in 2006 the FIFA World Cup curtain-raiser completed its transformation into a fun-filled event bristling with entertainment. For the first time since 1970, the host nation was given the honour of kicking off the tournament, and the game provided the spark for four weeks of sunshine, good cheer and world-class football. Germany's current captain Philipp Lahm curled the ball into the top corner after just six minutes, only for Paulo Wanchope to restore parity for Costa Rica six minutes later. In a briskly contested match, further goals from subsequent adidas Gold Shoe winner Miroslav Klose (2), Wanchope again, and Torsten Frings ensured the 66,000 fans at the FIFA World Cup Stadium in Munich went home happy. The 4-2 success gave Germany a record number of opening match wins - but it was Italy who went on to lift the trophy for the fourth time in their history.

Let the fun begin

So what can we expect this afternoon ... ?
Click the title to read the rest ...
 
Is that a coochie shot? Blondie is going to be upset:)

And what is this "soccer" that everyone keeps talking about?

It's a "game", Sarge, played in that mysterious, sinister region known as "the Shadow Lands"-populated by peoples, at least that's what some call them, who dress oddly, mutter in unintelligible tongues, and form secret conspiracies to enslave the world. The "game" itself is a ruse designed for political jockeying for positional advantage in the effort to lure the Right-Thinking folk of our fair realm into the unholy ideals of "the Others."

Among the most dangerous of this group of nefarious confederation include the "teams'-actually psyops cadres-of France and Brazil.
 
How about that ... a simple throw-away blog entry based on a spur-of-the-moment post on BGO becomes a cover story on Bleacher Report. I'm going to have to watch what I say from now on. :paranoid:

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Update: South Africa 1, Mexico 0 (71st min.). Uh oh. :)
 
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Mexico rallies to score late and salvage a 1-1 tie---which could well end up being the difference in making it out of group play or not.

Still, a truly monumental moment for the host country.

There will be partying tonight.
 
I really am going to try to give a damn about the WC this year. And in return, Jaime is going to start watching NASCAR. :laugh:

I don't think there's a pair of sports that it's more popular to make fun of. And it both cases, I think it's because the fun-maker doesn't understand them.
 
But ended in a draw at 1-1. Still something of a win for SA I should think.

I know just enough about international soccer to know that it resembles the game I played in 5th and 6th grade about as much as root beer resembles real beer. I am hoping to learn enough about the game over the next few weeks to have fun actually watching what, up until now, has offered little more in the way of excitement than a golf tournament without Tiger Woods.

I'm a heathen, I know.
 
It's a "game", Sarge, played in that mysterious, sinister region known as "the Shadow Lands"-populated by peoples, at least that's what some call them, who dress oddly, mutter in unintelligible tongues, and form secret conspiracies to enslave the world. The "game" itself is a ruse designed for political jockeying for positional advantage in the effort to lure the Right-Thinking folk of our fair realm into the unholy ideals of "the Others."

Among the most dangerous of this group of nefarious confederation include the "teams'-actually psyops cadres-of France and Brazil.

I knew it! I knew it!

What the hell did you just say?:laugh:
 
So who are you rooting for, other than USA? Each World Cup I find myself rooting for the same teams I have always cheered on, Germany and England. This year I will pull for both, but have found myself a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. Go Portugal! Of course after the US, Germany and England. :)
 
Spain and Brazil look really tough although the U.S. could surprise-I think we have a good shot to beat England. Favorites? Mine are all sentimental and based on friends I've had from various countries who followed their teams religiously. Thus I root for Mexico, Honduras, Argentina, Uruguay, and France as well as the U.S. team.
 

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