OT: World Cup Begins

[jstewismybastardson]

on the heels of my last post ... futures odds for Group A



Winner - FIFA World Cup 2010 Wednesday 16 June, 2010
Group A - To Qualify 11.30am

Mexico 1.01
Uruguay 1.01
France 8.00
South Africa 26.00

 

[evolver115]

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

First Ireland and now the U.S.? Come on refs, you just don't want any of my blood to have any kind of success.

Thanks a lot jerks

 

[evolver115]

So Pissed OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

 

[Destroydacre]

3 things that bother me about soccer

1) diving
2) the way obstruction gets (or doesnt get) called
3) this underlying notion - Match Fixing - Declan Hill - The Fix

Why has fifa publically named who will be refereeing the remaining games of the group stage? Is it to give the asian gambling syndicates more time to get in touch with referees?

I've seen too many matches with piss poor officiating to believe there's no truth in that. Pretty unfortunate.

 

[pixburgher66]

I've seen too many matches with piss poor officiating to believe there's no truth in that. Pretty unfortunate.

we complain about the NHL, and everyone knows the NBA sucks, but this officiating takes the cake. the man wouldn't even explain the penalty! apparently it wasn't offsides (they gave a free kick to SLV), and when asked he just told the players to move on. it's just horrifying because a win there wouldve all but salted away our chance to get to the round of 16.

 

[puckhead]

funny - that was originally a soccer pic

and these two were funny, while I was looking for the first

 

[pixburgher66]

a quote for those pictures:

"Soccer...dangerous for kids of today, and tomorrow."


i thought it was witty :P

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

OK, so here I am. An American. Canadians and Europeans keep telling me soccer is the world's best game, so I cave and watch my first soccer game in at least 4 years today. Probably because I'm rooting for the United States, I actually began to find myself getting worked up as we slowly began to come back from our 0-2 hole. USA ties it up! Incredible! WE TAKE THE LEAD!! And then...the referees completely fuck over my team.

Holy fuck, Batman. That was certainly not the way to get Americans hooked on soccer. I briefly felt like I got galarraga'ed again.

 

[pixburgher66]

that's a good point winged...this game could've been a HUGE step for soccer in the US (though i think just the tie was). i really hope that man never refs. i already disliked him from that phantom handball and his stash of questionable calls throughout the game. the BRITISH ANNOUNCER even said he sucked.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

that's a good point winged...this game could've been a HUGE step for soccer in the US (though i think just the tie was). i really hope that man never refs. i already disliked him from that phantom handball and his stash of questionable calls throughout the game. the BRITISH ANNOUNCER even said he sucked.

What I love about the British is that they are never so blunt as to say someone sucked. They'll say something that sounds civil on the face of it, but in reality it is just as big a put-down if not more.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

imo, the whole "if we had won the big game, hockey/soccer would have blown up in the USA but we got jobbed so Im back to hating soccer" is kinda lame

for the US masses I just dont think soccer (and hockey) mesh well with the culture and i people need to accept that ... square peg/round hole

honestly, if USA ends up doing anything significant in this world cup, it could have a bigger impact for Canadian soccer

 

[jstewismybastardson]

What I love about the British is that they are never so blunt as to say someone sucked. They'll say something that sounds civil on the face of it, but in reality it is just as big a put-down if not more.

theyre blunt ... they just use more colourful intelligent (snobby) language to do so

case in point ... i watched the replay of mexico and france last night and the english pxp guy described Blanco coming on "the veteran appears to be carrying a touch more weight than we have seen in the past ... truth be told, he is a bit of a tub"

 

[pixburgher66]

imo, the whole "if we had won the big game, hockey/soccer would have blown up in the USA but we got jobbed so Im back to hating soccer" is kinda lame

for the US masses I just dont think soccer (and hockey) mesh well with the culture and i people need to accept that ... square peg/round hole

honestly, if USA ends up doing anything significant in this world cup, it could have a bigger impact for Canadian soccer

i dunno, i think that if kids are watching (which with the timing of the WC especially is big...summer and all) they can be easily swayed. i know that for me it was always watching the pros play that made me wanna do it. i mean it's not as if all the sudden every kid's into it, but it certainly helps.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

Americans don't hate soccer. They find it strange, lame and boring. And now we also think their reffing is more screwed up than the NBA.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

i dunno, i think that if kids are watching (which with the timing of the WC especially is big...summer and all) they can be easily swayed. i know that for me it was always watching the pros play that made me wanna do it. i mean it's not as if all the sudden every kid's into it, but it certainly helps.

how many millions of kids already play soccer in north america ... I posted this once before on the swamp boards ... soccer in america is just a place to park your kids on saturday and sunday afternoons so they can run off all the sugar we've fed them

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Americans don't hate soccer. They find it strange, lame and boring. And now we also think their reffing is more screwed up than the NBA.

lol categorizing soccer as strange lame and boring sounds like hating to me

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

Not seeing the point of a sport and despising it are two different things, no?

 

[Destroydacre]

lol categorizing soccer as strange lame and boring sounds like hating to me

I think a lot of it stems from it 'not being American.' I know that feeling gets thrown around a lot, but I honestly think that it's true. When you think of baseball, football and basketball, you think American sports, which is pretty funny because none of those three were created in America. But the sports as they exist today were 'fine tuned' if you will in the US and developed more or less into the games that exist now. Soccer existed in some form long before the US was even a country. It was not created here and there was no substantial change to soccer that occurred in the United States so the American people on the whole really don't seem to care about it. It's not 'their' sport. And while it does appear to slowly be gaining some support, because it's not an American sport, people are more likely to pass it off as boring or uninteresting without even giving it a chance. JMO

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

Meh. I gave soccer a chance today. If the reffing in it is worse than even basketball, then I don't feel the need to learn or get captivated by soccer.