FIFA WORLD CUP SOCCER Anyone???

Hi All

Given my origins I was wondering how many of you have any interest or are watching anything to do with World Cup of Soccer taking place in South Africa.?

How much coverage is being given to it in the USA?

Anyone have a favorite team ???

I know Baseball , Football and Basket Ball and Nascar over shadow most sports in the USA including Hockey so where does Soccer fit given the USA has hosted the event.

Pretty mixed emotions for me watching the opening ceremony on CBC here.

Wake me when it's over.

Is this a NASCAR sanctioned event?

Ok, not much interest in the "real" football around here. Lots of kids and high school teams have been started. Probably in another 5 to 10 years it might make a go. Couple colleges have good teams also, from what I hear. Youngest daughter played on one of the kids teams for 2 years. She had fun, but said she wanted to retire.

Steve Southwood said:

Is this a NASCAR sanctioned event?

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I thought it was NHRA

Rob, my two employees are Latinos, so the need to watch this tournament is pretty much in their DNA . I watched a few games with them during the last tournament. I played soccer when I was younger but don't have a lot of interest in it. The only sport I watch and have interest in is baseball.

I now wish I had kept up with baseball when I was younger and stopped playing football. I probably wouldn't be so achy all the time now.

It is everywhere here in Japan, on every advert etc, we even have soccer ball shaped bottles of coke

I know a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of it, so good for them.

I hope the fans behave and there are not deaths.

An observation from a buddy from the UK, "I don't know of any other sport played in the civilized world where the ref needs to carry a gun......"

Just saying.......

i've heard that it's one of the signs of the end times, when people in the united states start taking the world cup seriously....

Run down to one end then run to the other end.. run Run RUN : Score 1 to zero..... Run some more -- kick kick kick then run! did I say run and kick.

Nope not a big fan.

I love soccer. I'll watch every game I can. Saturday is USA vs England. Chances are we will lose but it should be a close game.
Americans are mostly turned off by soccer because there aren't a lot of goals scored.

Hockey is great, football is great, nascar is ok, golf and baseball puts me to sleep instantly.

Stuart Ablett said:

we even have soccer ball shaped bottles of coke

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Hey, us too! I saw those in the grocery store last couple weeks and rolled my eyes...

Personally, I have no interest at all. However, since I work at a University, it is unavoidable. I would bet that most Universities in Canada (US also?) have large international student populations. As such, if you walk into the campus pub every TV is on the game (including the one that is 99% of the time on the weather channel) and the place is full.

Bob Gibson said:

golf and baseball puts me to sleep instantly.

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You ain't seen nothing til you've seen televised poker.
And I thought Billiards was the world's most boring TV "sport".
Boy was I wrong.


(At the University where I work our daily 3pm coffee break is in the pub/restaurant downstairs and the TV is always turned on to some sort of sport. Poker is the worst.)

Rob, given the international population here in LA, the World Cup is at the forefront of a lot of peoples' attention. I'm the consummate fan. I love it when the shortstop is taking a free throw from the end zone and the goalie sneaks up with a scrum and checks him into the backstop before the linebackers can grab the puck. And Darrell Waltrip was probably the best power center to ever wear the ankle pads.

Seriously, back in 1994 when some of the World Cup games were played in Los Angeles, I tried to enjoy watching soccer. I really did. I recognize and admire the ball-handling skills involved, but it just didn't keep my interest. But then again, I'm not a big baseball, football or basketball fan, either. I like the games, but usually don't go out of my way to watch them. They all seem like about 5 minutes of good action interspersed with a couple hours of negotiations and commercials. Pro basketball, especially, seems to pack the majority of its excitement into the last two minutes of the game. I have a theory about it: If they gave each team 100 points at the start of the game, and used a 2 minute game clock, they could play the whole season in about a week.

Hey Art, televised billiards (9-ball or 8-ball) is way more fun to watch than a fishing show...at least to me. I'm with you on televised poker, but that's probably because I don't play the game.

Never played soccer, never watched it. I find it interesting, but I've never been a huge sports fan.

About all I know about it is that you need to kick the ball into the other teams net and if another player touches you, you're supposed to fall on the ground kicking and screaming as if you were dying until the ref throws a flag or tells you to get up.

I might watch the USA vs GB match tomorrow, just for kicks.

Just below getting a root canal.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Rob, given the international population here in LA, the World Cup is at the forefront of a lot of peoples' attention. I'm the consummate fan. I love it when the shortstop is taking a free throw from the end zone and the goalie sneaks up with a scrum and checks him into the backstop before the linebackers can grab the puck. And Darrell Waltrip was probably the best power center to ever wear the ankle pads.

Seriously, back in 1994 when some of the World Cup games were played in Los Angeles, I tried to enjoy watching soccer. I really did. I recognize and admire the ball-handling skills involved, but it just didn't keep my interest. But then again, I'm not a big baseball, football or basketball fan, either. I like the games, but usually don't go out of my way to watch them. They all seem like about 5 minutes of good action interspersed with a couple hours of negotiations and commercials. Pro basketball, especially, seems to pack the majority of its excitement into the last two minutes of the game. I have a theory about it: If they gave each team 100 points at the start of the game, and used a 2 minute game clock, they could play the whole season in about a week.

Hey Art, televised billiards (9-ball or 8-ball) is way more fun to watch than a fishing show...at least to me. I'm with you on televised poker, but that's probably because I don't play the game.

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Classic comment! Poker, golf and bowling on tv are only slightly more interesting than watching paint dry. Those are just not for me. If you enjoy them, well that explains why they can get sponsorship.

We are very popular in football. The pubs are full and watch the game. A lot of beer consumed. The Hungarians favorite sport: soccer, water polo, swimming, fencing, modern pentathlon. These usually can win the Olympics.
(10 million inhabitants than New York)
I think the trouble with you to discuss football. Can not be interrupted by advertising.
Jozsef

Well now i know why i feel so at home on this forum. I never liked the game at all. In fact thats how i feel about most sports until i discovered hockey (not me playing but watching). So Vaughn I agree with everything you said. Can you imagine what its like with two sports nuts boys that have gotta try every sport in town. If i had a penny for all the sports equipment we have been through... oh boy my shop would be even more full of new tools.

My fear is that a huge sum of money has been spent to showcase SA to the world, but the reality is its a place very far away from the developed world and that has been the reality all my life.

I feel for the poor in the country, who have dreamt and been led to believe that the change of government in 94 would bring meaningful change to their lives. Unfortunately the first priority of the new gov was to purchase new arms. Dont ask me why the country with a formidable defense force from the previous era needed to purchase a squadron of Gripen fighters from Sweden and then a fleet of frigates from Germany and on and on when a huge percentage of the population is without access to clean drinking water or education without 60+ in the classroom.

Then time moves on and for a nation of 40 odd million the priority attached to the hosting of this Fifa event has cost them 5 billion dollars. Now that aint big money in the USA but when you multiply that number by 8 and consider that it is more like 40 Billion Rand, the purchasing power of that kind of money in the country could have done a great deal more to provide for schooling and clean water and some form of access to primary health care like rural clinics. In a month these fancy architectural wonders will be empty and the poor will look and wonder what the heck is going on here. What the heck was the years of struggle under the previous gov all about when their lot is actually worse today than it was in the 80's.

But as the phrase that came out of the movie Blood Diamons says....TIA meaning This is Africa and so everyone accepts it and moves on.

Dont get me wrong i am proud as an ex SA person to see what has been done with the stadiums but this kind of prioritizing will not see poverty being alleviated and as a result crime will continue to run rampant while people grapple with survival. And if you consider that Sa is one of the worlds largest producers of Gold, Diamonds and Platinum as well as Uranium, High Grade Coal and many many other precious or semi precious metals you simply cant help but wonder why there has to be such poverty and crime.

Art Mulder said:

You ain't seen nothing til you've seen televised poker.
And I thought Billiards was the world's most boring TV "sport".
Boy was I wrong.


(At the University where I work our daily 3pm coffee break is in the pub/restaurant downstairs and the TV is always turned on to some sort of sport. Poker is the worst.)

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I don't mind the televised poker... thing that bothers me is all the terms the announcers come up with... I only played penny ante in the navy and for about 2 years when I worked the midnight shift at the airlines... we never used any of the terms they announcers use...I think they make them up as they go along.... and it's funny they way they use the hushed voices when they are calling the game... like they're right there and all the players can hear what they say, just like when they're calling the golf games..(which liken to a nice walk in the sunshine, continually interrupted by a little white ball). I also get a kick out of some of the prima donna players... my take on them is "If they were Christmas turkeys, they would not be fit to eat."

To me, soccer a/k/a futbol, is very very boring. But, I put baseball in the same category. Once, while on assignment photographing a major league baseball game in Chicago, I fell asleep. Some big hero hit a record breaking home run and I slept through it. I turned in another picture of him swinging the bat. After all, one swing looks just like another swing.
Then there is cricket, the all-time most boring outdoor sport there is. When in England, I would go to the cricket matches. They were held on beautiful grounds with carefully manicured grass. There were always a number of people picnicking right in the outfield of the playing area. I would walk by and, invariably, get invited to join someone. We would eat sausages and drink beer. Sometimes the outfield player would come over and join us. Now, that is a real mans action sport.

Frank Fusco said:

To me, soccer a/k/a futbol, is very very boring. But, I put baseball in the same category. Once, while on assignment photographing a major league baseball game in Chicago, I fell asleep. Some big hero hit a record breaking home run and I slept through it. I turned in another picture of him swinging the bat. After all, one swing looks just like another swing.
Then there is cricket, the all-time most boring outdoor sport there is. When in England, I would go to the cricket matches. They were held on beautiful grounds with carefully manicured grass. There were always a number of people picnicking right in the outfield of the playing area. I would walk by and, invariably, get invited to join someone. We would eat sausages and drink beer. Sometimes the outfield player would come over and join us. Now, that is a real mans action sport.

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Cricket is a sport?? I thought it was a medieval form of punishment
Seriously, it has to be the most confusing and boring sport in the world.