The World Cup Approacheth

Saw the whole thing, and while the ball spent probably 75 minutes out of the 90 in the Swiss half under Spanish control, their final ball was always lacking. David Silva in particular was horrible, and the service from the wings was non existent.

Credit to the Swiss, though - they packed the midfield, put 11 men behind the ball at all times, and the Spanish couldn't break 'em down. They were a LOT more physical than I remember them being as well, poor oul' Iniesta was literally kicked off the pitch!

I'm still backing them for the title, though. I'm thinking this game will serve as a good kick up the arse they obviously needed, giving them a wake up call.

Fair enough. It was a very fun game to watch.

In case people haven't heard (how could you not since ESPN mentions is every 2 seconds), you can watch live streaming games on espn3.com if your ISP is partnered with them. You don't have to be at home on your ISP to watch either, I can login with ym Cox account and watch anywhere (like at work).

I work from home... so I just watch it in glorious HD!

If only it was in a different time zone, where I could enjoy a beverage or two during the matches. It feels... odd having a pint at 7:00am!

i work at a work and i stream it from one of the sites from myp2p.eu

qwest isnt one of the isp's that go with espn3.com, so if you have qwest i suggest using myp2p. or if you understand spanish univision streams all the games for free.

ubermick said:

I work from home... so I just watch it in glorious HD!

If only it was in a different time zone, where I could enjoy a beverage or two during the matches. It feels... odd having a pint at 7:00am!

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I also work from home, unfortunately i just can't make the time to watch much live s*ccer.

I'm trying to get all my work done by Thursday night so i can have a brew day Friday followed by the England match and a few beers!

I bet I infect my beer and England lose. I will deserve it.

That may be the best idea I have ever heard... skip work to brew and watch the matches. Brilliant.

I probably can't swing it, but just maybe...

Side note: I feel really bad for South Africa. What a bummer for the host nation to be out in the first round (probably).

Yup, everyones a bit down today.
It was a bit harsh to red card our goalie. He should have got a yellow card and Uraguay a penalty. The poor replacement goalie had to face a penalty.
But, its not over yet. We play France next. We may just (juuuust) win.

I hope you win. But I am not holding out hope for a +4 margin of victory or whatever you need.

I'll hoist a pint and send some good vibes south and east.

Its a long shot I know. Its been fun though. To be honest I was suprised we drew with Mexico. Thanks for the wishes.

Bru said:

It was a bit harsh to red card our goalie. He should have got a yellow card and Uraguay a penalty. The poor replacement goalie had to face a penalty.

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When you've denied goal scoring opportunity with a foul, the referee's hands are tied. It sucks, though. I really liked S. Africa's starting keeper.

I (and a lot of other people from around the world) have been rooting for S. Africa this cup. There's still hope, though. France hasn't looked too impressive. Go get 'em!!!

Oh... and that Argentina game was a treat. They're looking good so far.

Feel bad for Nigeria - one second of madness cost them the game, when Keita kicked out at Torosidis. That said, that Greek fella should be ashamed of himself. Slight little kick to the shin, he stands there for a second or two staring at him, before flinging himself backwards like he got hit by a bus, to get the guy sent off. Soon as the red card's handed out, he magically recovers, popping to his feet to start arguing with anyone who'll listen: [ame]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdproh_red-card-matchhighlight-com_sport#from=embed?start=2[/ame]

I agree, that send off was pretty thin. Bonehead move for sure, but pretty thin for how huge an effect it had. What was that, the 20th minute? Changed the whole game for sure, I thought Nigeria was a lock at the beginning.

I am watching Argentina now (kind of, I have it int he background at work). Looks like a killing. 2-0 before half with almost no threat at all from the Koreans.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

I agree, that send off was pretty thin. Bonehead move for sure, but pretty thin for how huge an effect it had. What was that, the 20th minute? Changed the whole game for sure, I thought Nigeria was a lock at the beginning.

I am watching Argentina now (kind of, I have it int he background at work). Looks like a killing. 2-0 before half with almost no threat at all from the Koreans.

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Yup, Argentina's starting to show their class after their (kinda nervy) win over Nigeria. Hopefully they'll give Greece the kicking they deserve - can't stand their negative "defend deep, and hope to nick a goal with a set piece" mentality. That's how they won the European Championship in 2004, they bored their opposition to death.

I'm surprised at the tournament so far. Other than Germany and Argentina, none of the big guns are really firing. (Some, like Spain, are crapping the bed). Usually the opening round of matches is a cagey affair, but this is taking it to the extreme.

Roll on the second round, when the lesser teams are weeded out, and the big boys have to play to win.

I thought soccer was supposed to be an honorable sport, but I've seen some cheap shots and diving. Once guy got a little tripped up, but as he realized it, he tucked his other foot under himself and fell to the ground. He was already in position to catch himself.

Diving is just poor play IMO.

Homercidal said:

I thought soccer was supposed to be an honorable sport, but I've seen some cheap shots and diving.

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Part of the game that's managed to burrow deep and survive any attempts to stamp it out, unfortunately. At risk of sounding racist/stereotyping, it's a hugely "Latin" issue, that's spread to every country now. (Historically, the worst culprits for this have been the South and Central Americans, and the inventors of the dive, Italy)

It's become more prevalent in the past 10 years or so, with the mass player movement that's happened. Up until, I'd say the early 90s, you NEVER used to see that sort of thing in the English leagues, or the German leagues, but now that every team has players from every nation on them, it's widespread.

I hate diving. I really, really do. I recognize that a little bit of gamesmanship is part of the sport, and you have to do what you have to do to help your team win. But it just infuriates me any time I see a player who's in a position to actually score, decide that it's easier to go down and try and win a penalty, or worse, get someone sent off. I really wish FIFA would start looking at footage after the games, and retroactively hand out suspensions for habitual offenders. This world cup, it's even more obvious with them using the high speed cameras. You'll see HD super slo mo footage of a tackle going in, not touching the guy (or maybe slightly grazing them) followed by random cheating bastard rolling around on the ground, clutching a body part that was nowhere near involved.

Disgusting.

Cristiano Ronaldo's the worst at it. With Drogba and the entire Italian national team close behind. That forward for Uruguay in the match against South Africa yesterday was flopping around like a big girl's blouse as well.

Said it before, I'll say it again. As long as the diving prevails, soccer will be discounted in the US.

Right like that doesn't happen in Football, Basketball and Hockey here.


Half the hits in the NFL have some guy looking at the ref asking for a flag...Brady being culprit #1.

And in NCAA play I've seen people get tapped but decide to "fly through the air" at the hit instead of using the tap's momentum.

JayInJersey said:

Right like that doesn't happen in Football, Basketball and Hockey here.

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Yup, Mario Lemieux - the man who singlehandedly tried to turn hockey into a non contact sport with his constant whining about fighting, hitting, and "clutching and grabbing" ruining the sport and not letting him play.

Go France........

Bru said:

Yup, everyones a bit down today.
It was a bit harsh to red card our goalie. He should have got a yellow card and Uraguay a penalty. The poor replacement goalie had to face a penalty.
But, its not over yet. We play France next. We may just (juuuust) win.

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Yeah, I didn't think it looked that bad. The commentators here explained that the situation required a red card because of the penalty occurred in the box during a goal scoring opportunity.

Joker said:

Go France........

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Boooooooooooooooooo France!

Soccer will not be popular in the US any time soon because the attention span of the American population will never stand for it. If everything doesn't happen in the time it takes to eat a Big Mac with lots of scoring it won't be popular. Dumb and unfortunate but true.

Diving is not allowed in hockey. They do get away with it sometimes, but they also call it once in a while. They need to call it a bit more often I think. But mostly the guys self police it. At least they try and make it look good most of the time. it might be a bit easier to sell on ice though.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Soccer will not be popular in the US any time soon because the attention span of the American population will never stand for it. If everything doesn't happen in the time it takes to eat a Big Mac with lots of scoring it won't be popular. Dumb and unfortunate but true.

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It'll also never be taken seriously by the rest of the world until the US calls the game by it's proper name... and that just won't happen.

Most of the Americans I talk to are shocked/bored because there are no commercial breaks during the game.

Gremlyn1 said:

It'll also never be taken seriously by the rest of the world until the US calls the game by it's proper name... and that just won't happen.

Most of the Americans I talk to are shocked/bored because there are no commercial breaks during the game.

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I love that there aren't any breaks.

Yeah we screwed naming a game that uses hands .... football. LOL

and and and play doesn't stop. And they just run around. And they don't score...

What about shut out baseball games? Or how most football games only have 3-4 scores? Maybe soccer should just call each goal 6 points... that would make it way better because then there would be more scoring...

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

and and and play doesn't stop. And they just run around. And they don't score...

What about shut out baseball games? Or how most football games only have 3-4 scores? Maybe soccer should just call each goal 6 points... that would make it way better because then there would be more scoring...

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and make it topless women.:rockin:

The vuvuzelas are a bit quiter in this game or they are finally filtering them out.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Soccer will not be popular in the US any time soon because the attention span of the American population will never stand for it. If everything doesn't happen in the time it takes to eat a Big Mac with lots of scoring it won't be popular. Dumb and unfortunate but true.

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That's certainly a contributing factor. The major American sports - Padball, Baseball, and Basketball - all have frequent timeouts, stoppages in play, and in the case of hockey ACTUAL "TV timeouts" to make it more appealing to TV networks. The major channels don't want to air something that's going to eat two hours of air time, when they can't sell as much advertising as they can otherwise. You've got the attention span factor that you highlight too - again, you see the American sports jammed with cheerleaders, fireworks, cannons going off when someone scores, constant music, etc. to keep folks interested.

A friend of mine hates football (we all know what I mean by football, when I use that term), saying that it's absolutely boring, and that basketball was REAL excitement. I went to see a basketball game with him, and was amazed. They played music throughout the game, nobody really seemed that interested in it (the person next to me spent half the game reading the paper!), there were constant stoppages for no apparent reason, and it was probably the most boring two and a half hours of my life. Same with the American Football games I've been to in person - all the fun was at the tailgating beforehand, the games themselves when stripped of the constant analysis, commercial breaks, and whatnot you experience on TV, were just mind numbingly boring. It speaks volumes about a sport when a game that's supposed to take 60 minutes, actually takes closer to 180 because of the constant stoppages.

Homercidal said:

Diving is not allowed in hockey. They do get away with it sometimes, but they also call it once in a while. They need to call it a bit more often I think. But mostly the guys self police it. At least they try and make it look good most of the time. it might be a bit easier to sell on ice though.

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Diving's not allowed in football either. Players do get carded for "simulation", but it doesn't happen NEARLY enough.

It's not so much the dive itself, but the asinine flailing antics that go with it.

As an American and a Soccer (yes Soccer) fan I think the one thing that could help the game...GETTING RID OF THOSE DAMN NOISE MAKERS!!!

When did this start? I don't remember it when I say the Ladies play in Philadelphia a few years back (jeez has it been that long?)
I'm starting to have issues with a game that makes me think a bee is near me...

Actually now that I think about it...back when I was a kid and played soccer bee stings happened all the time due to the orange wedges handed out at half time

ubermick said:

At risk of sounding racist/stereotyping, it's a hugely "Latin" issue, that's spread to every country now. (Historically, the worst culprits for this have been the South and Central Americans, and the inventors of the dive, Italy)

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Thanks for saying that. I was unsure how to handle it diplomatically.

Diving certainly is a problem, and needs to be dealt with much more severely. I think they should introduce a new kind of free kick for that offense. One which involves the diver staying on the ground and the boots of the opposition.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

One which involves the diver staying on the ground and the boots of the opposition.

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That'll give them something to flail about!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

I think they should introduce a new kind of free kick for that offense. One which involves the diver staying on the ground and the boots of the opposition.

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How about this:

If you get caught diving, you get a yellow card (as you do now) and also, the person on whom you tried to draw the foul gets a "freebie". The next time he fouls the guilty player is a no-call as long as the foul isn't a red card offense.

Ouroboros said:

How about this:

If you get caught diving, you get a yellow card (as you do now) and also, the person on whom you tried to draw the foul gets a "freebie". The next time he fouls the guilty player is a no-call as long as the foul isn't a red card offense.

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If it was a bookable offense, he would get red carded for the second yellow anyway.

I haven't watched a whole lot this year so far. But the flailing and flopping isn't isn't nearly as bad as what I remember from 86, 90, and 94.

Back in 86, it was like you could count on at least 5 major flops a game for at least 2 minutes of stoppage each. It was like the flop was being used as a time out.

With that said, it's not like I haven't seen other sports (NBA) where players overly dramatize fouls and flop to the ground.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

What about shut out baseball games? Or how most football games only have 3-4 scores? Maybe soccer should just call each goal 6 points... that would make it way better because then there would be more scoring...

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The "there's no scoring in soccer" talk is crap.
Case in point, the results from today:

ARG-KOR 4:1
GRE-NGA 2:1
FRA-MEX 0:2 (HUGE win by the way. That pretty much guarantees their advance to the 2nd round)

I make the above quoted argument to my dumb friends all the time. At least in soccer there is constant play and you're not constantly bombarded by advertisements and commentators who have endless amounts of time (due to huge gaps of action) to talk about topics that have nothing to do with the game; I have come to really loathe the latter. Plus I've always found the English, Scottish and Irish commentators to be very professional and incredibly charming and are just great to listen to.

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

The "there's no scoring in soccer" talk is crap.

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Usually, I've found that the same people who say that a 2-1 match has no scoring, and that it bored them to death, have absolutely NO problem with a 14-7 NFL game...

ubermick said:

Usually, I've found that the same people who say that a 2-1 match has no scoring, and that it bored them to death, have absolutely NO problem with a 14-7 NFL game...

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But that game only takes 12 minutes to play, that's a LOT of points! You just gotta learn to enjoy the endless ads and ass scratching, I guess.

Edit: I just researched it, apparently it's 12 minutes if you are lucky.