World Cup 2006

[xita]

Without a big my country is better than yours, let's see if we can have this thread. I love this event, and I am cheering for Brazil. Fun team to watch, plus eh, they are the favorite.

Tough loss for the US already.

[mudrat]

I've never been a huge fan of the soccer, but for some reason this year it's hooked me in.

And yes, Brazil are the favourites and will probably win the whole thing... and the Aussies are playing them on Sunday. Much as I would like to see the Aussies win, I really don't think they will. Hell, I think half the country's in shock that we beat Japan.

Still, even if we don't win another game in the tournament... this is the first time we've made the World Cup Finals in over 30 years, and not only did we score our first ever World Cup Finals goal, we actually won a match, so that's a huge achievement for us as is. Anything else that goes our way from here on is just a bonus.

I'm curious what colour strip the Aussies and Brazilians will be wearing on Sunday, though, since both of them usually wear yellow shirts.

[urnofosiris]

I used to be much more involved in soccer when my father was still alive, nowadays I do not really care for it much, except of course during big events such as these when it is a perfect excuse to go to my brother´s house, swear at his TV and drink all his beer.

[Artemis]

I'm not really a soccer fan, but the TV in my study (the only room small enough to warm up quickly with my heater, plus the PC's in here) is about 20 years old, and jammed on SBS, which is basically a documentary, ethnic interest, and foreign-language station in equal parts. Given that soccer, while fairly popular, isn't really considered mainstream, none of the commercial stations ever made a play for it, and SBS has always televised the World Cup, and other relevant games.

I'm learning to enjoy watching it - I don't watch the whole match without taking my eyes of the screen (90 minutes is a long time), but I keep the TV on, and I like glancing over now and then. I can see the strategy and subtlety involved in it, at least well enough to appreciate watching the game played. And so long as the subject doesn't bore me, I do enjoy watching big events given comprehensive coverage - it's a nice change from most coverage of news and events on TV, where something like the outbreak of global thermonuclear war would be lucky to get five minutes before an ad break and an update on what B-list celebrity is visiting Sydney to spruik their ho-hum movie this week. I'm a detail freak, I like amassing information, so 12 hours a day on a single event is easy to enjoy. Not that I see all 12, seeing as the 'day' starts at 10:30pm here. Plus, the commentators and studio talking heads actually know what they're talking about and can articulate it intelligently. This in contrast to pretty much any sport covered on commercial TV, where the commentators spend most of their time inventing new ways to sound stupid, keeping cliches alive and healthy, and telling everyone how much they enjoy Insert-Name-Of-Station's-New-Big-American-Drama in a pathetic attempt to cram more pointless advertising onto the screen.

(Seriously, during last year's Australian Open, they pushed so many ads for Desperate Housewives in, and had the poor commentators go through their "Hey, that new Desperate Housewives show is going to be pretty good, isn't it?" spiel so many times, that to this day I've avoided the show out of pure spite.)

Obviously the Australia v Japan game was the big one, and I admit I was more interested than usual, even though I've got no particular reason to care more or less. I guess you can't be exposed to all the build-up and the hopes of fans since the team qualified without some of it rubbing off. So yeah, those last three goals were pretty sweet.

The Australia v Brazil game coming up? Yeah, we can handle them- oh who am I kidding, we're screwed. But I'll be happy to see Australia put up a good show. Tying or winning would be pretty miraculous, so if that happens, everyone will no doubt go nuts here.

[WillowsGirlXX]

We are not really following this but because Leilani is half british we are sort of behind England.

Rachel

[urnofosiris]

Ouch, the Ukraine suffered a 4-0 defeat. I was rooting for them as my grandmother´s family comes from the Ukraine and ever since Ruslana won the Eurovision song contest I have a big soft spot for that country. It should not be the end of them as they have to be capable of beating the other two teams, but losing with those numbers must be a blow to the confidence and ego.

[notl33t]

I'm sort of following the World Cup by checking the scores everyday. Although I'm from the US, I really want to see Australia get out of their group. *bounce bounce bounce*

And of course, I'm cheering for Brazil. It's too bad that Ronaldo didn't really get to play.

And . . . I want to see more sparks fly between the French and the Swiss. Heh heh.

-Noe

[Spighy]

Being Italian, you really can't help being exposed to the World Cup... but then again, when there's not some international tournament there's our own championship, so we are pretty much used to live and breathe soccer (or football, or as we say it, calcio). As a matter of fact, here you either love it or tolerate it, it's our national sport, after all.
Our team isn't the strongest we ever had, to be honest, still I hope the guys will do good and have a decent placement, I surely will be watching and supporting them, but I'm objective enough to realize we have some shortcomings, too. In the first - and only, so far - match they conceded their opponents too many occasions, and had they been playing against a stronger team I'm sure the end result wouldn't have been of 2-0. There's still room for improvement, tho, so... GO ITALY!

[Auburn]

England Vs Trinidad and Tobago.

Lets see how this turns out. Go England!

ETA: Yippee, England won.

[mudrat]

I've only been able to watch bits and pieces of the games this week (due to the time difference - the coverage here starts at 10.30pm and runs through the night), but a few things have caught my attention:

- Spain seemed to perform very well the other day... I'll be interested to see how they go in their next match(es).

- pity Ukraine took such a pounding - I agree, DrG, a loss like that can shake a team's confidence. My brother will be disappointed if they don't make it through - he, too, saw Ruslana win Eurovision a few years back, and has since developed a soft spot (read: rampant obsession) for both Ukranian sporting teams and Ukranian pop princesses.

- Ecuador were very entertaining to watch - another team to keep an eye on, methinks. I'm very keen to see them play Germany next week.

- I didn't get to see the match, but a lot of the commentary I've heard/read indicated that Brazil didn't seem quite as impressive as everyone expected them to be against Croatia... but then, I've also read that Croatia can be a tough team. The Aussies have probably been lulled into a false sense of security now, which means Brazil will probably wipe the floor with us on Sunday.

Very much enjoying the footbally goodness!!

ETA: And Argentina appear to be giving Serbia & Montenegro a right flogging at the moment - just short of half-time, and it's 3-0.

ETA (again): Ooh, that were a floggin', all right... 6-0 at fulltime. Harsh.

[WillowsGirlXX]

England Vs Trinidad and Tobago.

Lets see how this turns out. Go England!

ETA: Yippee, England won.

Yeah Leilani was pretty happy about that as well, hope we can catch the next game live.

Rachel

[Auburn]

England V Sweeden soon.

My friends and I are having a "lads" night in watching the footie... yeah, we feel butch.

[WillowsGirlXX]

Yes we are going to follow that game as Leilani being part english is supporting her team. We even have an England flag in the house to cheer them on.

Rachel

[littlecrazy80]

It´s crazy here in Germany at the moment. Everywhere you go you can see people who are absolutely crazy about soccer. I don´t watch the World Cup but it would be nice if Germany wins.

*lil´c*

[justin]

Goal!

It was a bit worrying when Michael Owen went off after 2 minutes, but no need to worry

[FemaleOfTheSpecies]

Justin! I'm shocked at you watching football!!!

*switches off tv and whistles innocently*

[justin]

You're shocked? Not half as shocked as me

They've got lots of flags up at work. It's having an affect on me.

[Auburn]

Just can't help but get into the football spirit can you?

I hope Owen's knee will be alright.

ETA: We drew 1-1

[urnofosiris]

he, too, saw Ruslana win Eurovision a few years back, and has since developed a soft spot (read: rampant obsession) for both Ukranian sporting teams and Ukranian pop princesses.

Hee, I am glad to hear I am not the only one. It looks like the Ukraine can dish it as well as take it, heh. They should make it to the last 16. Tomorrow the Dutch play against Argentina. It should be an interesting match, but I am getting really tired of sports commentators ad the media speculating and calculating about what the best result would be, i.e we should not try to win so we won´t end first in the group. They are already thinking ahead to the quarter finals about which team we should best encounter. It is such arrogant presumption. Next round the tournament starts all over again and everyone can lose against everyone. If they do not try their best to win tomorrow they don´t deserve to make it past the next round and they won´t.

[Spighy]

Italy just won the last match, and we passed as first in our group!!

I loved the match, of course (2-0) but our goalie deserves a gold statue! Go Gigi Buffon!!

[Auburn]

England play soon. Go England....

I'm sceptical about this one folks.

ETA: we won 1-0

[Leilani]

England play soon. Go England....

I'm sceptical about this one folks.

ETA: we won 1-0

I know i was so glad to see we'd won, great on to Portugal I think next. Hope we play better.

[hivemind]

Hey, many non-Brazilians cheering for my country, that's so cool. Being Brazilian myself, I grew up playing soccer. I don't actually enjoy watching the matches on tv (since I always found so much more fun to play myself), but I'm following Brazil's matches.

People seem to think we of the green and yellow are going to win the Cup. I dunno, this year we have so many stars on the team, I think we're getting a little overconfident. People are painting the streets, wearing our colors and already counting on the championship. I hope it's all worth it, I'd love our team to bring another trophy home.

Brazil is playing well, though, the last match against Japan had me jumping up and down. I just love our goalie Dida, he's as good as Tafarel was. Here's to hoping we keep it up. And good luck to other teams, of course.

[Alcy]

Yay for England! The colonies still support the mother country (it's better than supporting Australia at any rate!)

They didn't look too hot against Ecuador this morning but here's hoping that form picks up for the next match.

The timing of the games here in NZ is really annoying, with games at 7-9am, I've been late to work for weeks!!

[Artemis]

(it's better than supporting Australia at any rate!)

Hey!

I'm confident that Australia, in its match against Italy later tonight, will be present in the same city as the Italian team, and based on past results, I'd say we're likely to show up at the stadium too.

[Spighy]

Never say never, Chris! Here everyone is saying what a good shape the australian team is in... it's also true that we got just one goal, and it was scored by one of our players, so... time will tell four and a half hours, now

Good luck to everyone!

[Artemis]

Well, that was a bit of a bitch - can't say the Australian player fouled the Italian so much as he was lying on the ground and the Italian tripped over him. I imagine there's going to be a lot of bitching over that by sports commentators for the next few days. Me, I'm not so fussed - it would've been nice to go further, but we put up a good show, had better-ranked teams looking nervous with good cause, and whether or not the penalty was deserved, Italy wasn't an inferior team over the course of the game.

Plus, now I don't have to decide whether to watch soccer or Wimbledon

Edit: assuming, of course, it doesn't just rain the whole time. Rooves, Wimbledon - large tennis centres have these things called rooves nowadays.

[Spighy]

We were lucky, I can't deny it Chris is right, the Australian player was on the ground, but he did lift his arm to trip our player The thing they're mostly talking about right now is the red card to Materazzi; personally, I think that was a bit unfair, because yes, he fouled, but the foul itself wasn't one to grant the red card. Yellow, definitely, but not red.
Of course, everything is debatable and noone can't argue Australia played really well, particularly at the start I saw our team actually lost, they didn't have a lot of space, and our players are a lot smaller Outsanding work from both goalies, they really saved the result on both parts.

[sadie]

I can't believe Dutchieland and Australia are out :( My two favourites for the finals!

Let's hope France and Ghana will do well! But it's gonna be hard...

[WillowsGirlXX]

Happy thoughts for Englands game tomorrow good luck guys.