World Cup
 

Any fans out there? Apparently the US is ranked 5th in the world by FIFA which is a mind-blowing - if not surreal - stat. Wonder how they work it out!

England will underperform (as always); Australia - let's see.

Best of luck all.

Amazing victory Soccerroos! Congrats.

Great result Aussies!!!

The Japan goal shouldn'thave been allowed anyway.

Muck

Just got back from a friend's house - big plasma tv plus a fancy home cinema with projector. Packed the place with delirious fans.

6 minutes before the end when we were still one down, I promised to go on sushi fast for a month, and call up my travel agent to cancel that trip to Egypt.

Now the yen for sushi is back, and Egypt reintroduced into my travel itinerary.

On the drive home (1.30 am), cars on the road were honking, one with a big Aussie flag flying out of the window, groups of people by road waving, all with wide grin on their faces.

It's still all very surreal.

Congratulations Australia.

It was a great win. Roll on Brazil and Croatia.

Yes it was a great result especially coming so late in the game! To be fair, the Ref has since apologised for his error but thank heavens we got other goals as well!!

That's the beauty of football, it can all change very quickly.

In Euro 2004 England managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, by conceding 2 goals in the last minute against France.

It would be interesting to see the rsults of having a heart monitor attached. I'm sure it would be pretty scary.

Well done the Aussies

Geordie

Yep - that was a cliff hanger until Oz scored and then everything changed. I think that's the difference between real football and all the other codes. A try can be cancelled out by penalties and field goals, but here it's a goal or a goal, and nothing else counts.

Still, part of the point of posting was to find out if the majority on this board (Americans) even knew it was happening and that their team is highly rated.

Seems not.

Been watching the football here in Canada, our satellite provider has two (free!!) dedicated channels, which surprised us. We were saying it's strange that it hasn't caught on here. Our kids were all playing soccer (starting at age 5) 25 years ago, same in the US but I guess it just can't compete with the massive interest in basketball and 'football' south of the border. Don't think the World Cup is on the radar. The large immigrant population here are always celebrating WC wins on the streets of Toronto - (and probably other big cities) Perhaps they are in the US too.

Yeah, it made us laugh...the US ranked 5. Getting ready for the Croatia-Brasil match up in a few minutes...Let's go HRVATSKA!!!!!!!

I'm not a sports fan, but I was induced to watch the game because our Italian hosts laid on dinner (for the record, fresh spinach lasagna, quails roasted with pancetta and mushrooms, contorni, cheesecake, and just in case anyone still felt peckish during the game polpettine ... you don't walk out of my mate's house, you stagger).

I did note that after Australia beat Uruguay to qualify for the World Cup the USA coach dismissed their chances, saying that Australia was just there "to make up the numbers".

Results so far:
Czech (pop. 10m) 3 - USA (298m) 0
Aust (20m) 3 - Japan (127m), 1

Nice.

>>Still, part of the point of posting was to find out if the majority on this board (Americans) even knew it was happening and that their team is highly rated.

Seems not.<<

There are those of us who know about the World Cup, but don't really care about soccer.

You could ask me about my son's Little League Season, though. :-)

Lee Ann

Lee Ann, one thing's for sure - America will always dominate the "World Series"! (I guess Cuba isn't allowed to enter a team?)

There's an idea - maybe Australia should rename the Aussie Rules comp "World Championship AFL" in the secure knowledge that the cup would never leave Australia?

Actually all this talk of soccer as "the world game", as though that's sufficient reason to get excited about it, is starting to irritate me. I mean, the Big Mac is the World Hamburger - is that a good reason to eat one? Soccer - the Big Mac of sport? Talk about cultural imperialism!

Plenty of Americans are watching, believe me. I can compare directly with my experience watching the 1998 World Cup matches in an empty bar near my work with this year, where the same place is packed.

It was a great victory for the Socceroos. Now we'll see against some tougher competition, though even the mighty Brazilians looked unimpressive against Croatia. On the other hand, they always start slow. On the other other hand, betting against the Aussies in any kind of sport is often unwise. I think you'll make it out of the group at any rate.

About my country's team, our shocking performance, appalling hubris, and laughable CONCACAF-based world rating, the less said the better. It's embarrassing.

Watched the Brazil-Croatia game - hmmmm!

Now - next up - Brazil! The stadium'll be a sea of yellow!

As an aside, the Wallabies walloped the Poms in rugby on Saturday, 34-3!

G'day Mucky!

Usually I couldn't give the proverbial tinker's fart who wins or loses a sporting contest. How will the world be different tommorrow, however many times an athletic millionaire kicks a ball between two posts?

The fact that so many Japanese were reduced to tears is ridiculous - what happened to the spirit of bushido? Where were the ritual self-disembowellings of yore?

Actually, I think that as a rule it's good for Australia to lose, especially when I hear some of my fellow-countrymen gloating about beating some impoverished Third World country. It would be nice if we spent a bit more time thinking about our pathetic performance in some international league tables that actually matter, like tertiary education and research and development. Fat chance. Sport, not religion, is the opiate of the masses.

I'll make an exception for this contest, though. Watching grown men and women cry over nothing much is fun.

G'Day Margo,
I hope your enjoying your world cup.

I am right behind Australia, in the absence of Wales :-(

Leave the booze alone and no violence if you lose the next game..ok?


;-)

Muck

Hey Neil - I sort of know what you mean - sport does get too much attention here (and elsewhere). There are far more important things, I agree.

But, it is also one of the things that is really cross cultural. Although I can't imagine it happening too much with baseball, or basketball, or tennis, or golf (and not at all with American football or Aussie rules) - with football it's so often a starting point. The taxi driver in Istanbul; the street food stall in Penang; an eatery in Durban. Where are you from? - Manchester, I say. Oh - Man Utd ... etc, etc. (this all happened before the days of D Beckham!).

And cricket!! well not a world game of course. But if you have ever been to India or Pakistan or Sri Lanka then you will know what I mean.

Great that fnarf can report increased interest in the USA - and Mucky, the Oz v England match, which normally would have filled the sports pages, was definitely second class news even before Australia had kicked a ball for real in Germany.

Now we will see what happens with Australia v Brazil. I would like to believe that there will be a real upset - a draw would be enough. And England v T&T - mmm ... England to win by one goal in the 88th minute? Or to run away 3-0?

All good fun!

This one's been going around, even on uk sports websites:

Its just before the Brazil & England match in the World Cup.

Ronaldinho walks into the dressing room to find all his team mates lookin
a bit down and glum."Whats up?" he asks."well,we're having trouble
getting motivated for the game" say's Adrinio."We know it's important
but its only England, they're garbage and we can't be bothered" groaned
Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho looks at them and say's, "ok ok, well I reckon
I can beat them myself............you lads go down to the pub "

So Ronaldonho goes out and plays England by himself and the rest of the
Brazillian team go off for a a few pints.
After a few jars they wonder
how the game is going, so they get the land lord to put the teletext on.
A big cheer goes up as the screen reads."Brazil 1 - England 0 (
Ronaldinho 10 Minutes).
He is beating England all by himself !!A few pints later and the game is forgotten until someone remembers, " It must be full time now, lets see how he got on
""RESULT : Brazil 1 (Ronaldinho
10 minute) - England 1 (Lampard 89 minute)"
They cant believe it, he has
single-handedly got a draw against England !!!
They rush back to the stadium to congratulate Ronaldinho. They find him in the dressing room,
still with his kit and boots on, sitting with his head in his hands.
He refuses to look at them;
" I've let you down, I've let you down"
"Dont be daft, you got a draw against England, all by yourself and they only
scored at the very very end !!

""No, No, I have let you down" whined
Ronaldinho........ I got sent off after 12 minutes"

I believe you're right, Neil! :-)

However, my son's Little League magazine had an article about something called the World Baseball Classic; it's a new tournament featuring all-star teams from around the world. I'd never heard of it before, so I assume it's a new competition.

Lee Ann