World Cup 2010- South Africa


Stavros

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I thought my national pride was dead but I have to admit, it'll be fun to see England vs USA on Saturday. Granted I've never seen an England team able to string three passes together but somehow we tend not be bet terrible all around, and its a point of pride that you bloody yanks don't beat us at our own game as so many others have before.

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It's going to be a fun birthday evening watching the overpriviledged, underperforming English football team nevertheless stick it to the Yanks!

At the site where I'm on work placement, I drew Honduras in the World Cup sweepstake. Just as well I won't be around when the money gets collected!

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Woo hoo, the once in every 4 years when I become an expert on football/soccer :smilewinkgrin:

Seriously though, I love the world cup, it is one of the best world sporting events, I wonder if it's because it still hasn't been tainted by drug allegations?

At any rate, I know they struggled to qualify, but I like Portugal. I can't see us Aussies getting past the group stage, not unless another team really strings some bad games together. That said if we get a draw against Germany in out first game, I'll be crowing how awesome we are, haha.

Wonder if I can set-up a tipping comp for it... Hmmmm

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Devastated.... A red card that was barely a yellow, taking out our most important player for the next match. A sloppy,loose and slow defense, which is normally our strong point. Wow, just, 2.5 years of planning down the drain in about 50 minutes. We now need to win both our remaining games to even stand a chance. Stupid hand ball penalty in the other group game. We wanted a draw from that one!

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I've sort of been following this, and I have a question: What's with all of the overacting? Earlier today a Greek player was hardly touched, yet he acted like he had been shot. And I saw a little of that in the France / Mexico match, too. I mean, I understand they're trying to draw a penalty, but it looks bad when it's clear no or little contact was made.

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I've sort of been following this, and I have a question: What's with all of the overacting? Earlier today a Greek player was hardly touched, yet he acted like he had been shot. And I saw a little of that in the France / Mexico match, too. I mean, I understand they're trying to draw a penalty, but it looks bad when it's clear no or little contact was made.

It's clear to us, but it may not be clear to the officials, and that's what they're counting on.

Its the culture. I saw that match and both the sending off and penalty were justified, but the overacting was atrocious. The idea is attempting to sell the officials on the seriousness of the attack, its been commonplace for years and quite frankly whilst I wish all players adopted the good old British way of being tougher than old boots and never going down unless you're hit by a truck, the problem is that it doesn't win games. Winning is all that matters and fans generally don't care if a player sacrifices his own grandmother to Baal in the middle of the match as long as they win. English players don't do it nearly as much and we've suffered in international tournaments because of it.

In addition other more continental tactics include rigorous personal insults to fluster key players or provoke assaults are fairly prevalent in some countries, like Italy or Portugal. Its what got Rooney sent off last time, its what caused Zidane, France's greatest player, to loose his mind and headbutt a man in a world cup final that was the last match of his illustrious career.

Many nations like England, the US and others don't resort to this sort of crap (not much at least), but it is a part of the game and isn't going any time soon. If you get up too soon from a challenge, you're letting the side down. If you leap a tackle its like costing your team a penalty. The pressure is immense and as a result people do anything.

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It's clear to us, but it may not be clear to the officials, and that's what they're counting on.

True. Hadn't thought about that.

I saw that match and both the sending off and penalty were justified, but the overacting was atrocious.

Agreed. The offending player was out of line, but the reaction was awful!

Though I enjoy watching matches, I don't know much about the sport and culture behind it, so this was very helpful. Thanks!

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It really is a paradox of the game isn't it. Penalties are such an integral part of getting a win, but the fakery does limit the chances of new people getting interested in the sport. Especially here in Australia where AFL and both Rugby codes are the main codes, because people view the players as soft. In the same way they view NFL players as 'soft' because they wear protective uniforms, totally forgetting the tactics and everything else with the game.

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It really is a paradox of the game isn't it. Penalties are such an integral part of getting a win, but the fakery does limit the chances of new people getting interested in the sport. Especially here in Australia where AFL and both Rugby codes are the main codes, because people view the players as soft. In the same way they view NFL players as 'soft' because they wear protective uniforms, totally forgetting the tactics and everything else with the game.

I'd agree that it was a problem if it was any other sport, but football is already the most popular on the planet. These cultures and attitudes towards play arose as a result of the massive global interest, and no existing audience has been driven off yet. Its true that footballers have a rep for being soft compared to other athletes (although I think that's often undeserved), but its still the most popular sport in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America thanks to its simplicity. I think that FIFA would be stepping in if they felt a significant new audience (and their money) was being driven away by these antics.

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Very good point about the popularity of it in just about every corner of the globe. I would say it's missing 35% of the world by not being big in China or India, but I doubt the faking for frees is the reason for that.

Good call on the simplicity of the game being one of the big pluses.

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Very good point about the popularity of it in just about every corner of the globe. I would say it's missing 35% of the world by not being big in China or India, but I doubt the faking for frees is the reason for that.

Good call on the simplicity of the game being one of the big pluses.

Thanks. I mean, its not like I think you're wrong about this behaviour being a negative on the game, but chiefly football contends against cultural norms or existing sports when its getting into new markets. These extreme tactics are a far more a symbol of its popularity than a bar to its future success.

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Yay for atrocious refereeing!! Wow.

And another reason I cannot get into soccer--the 90th minute hits, and the referees just end the game whenever they feel like it? Who wants to see constant draws? I like to see definitive winners, myself.

The ref ends the game once the extra time from stoppages is done and the ball isn't being played into a potential goalscoring position. However this only happens at the group stages of the tournament. Once the teams have moved on to the knockout stage matches go the usual 90 minutes, then if its a draw 30 minutes of extra time under the golden goal rule (match ends with the next goal) and then if its still level it goes to a penalty shootout.

I like football has draws, it makes the league stuff more tactical and enables both teams to come away from a game with something for their efforts.

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I hate conspiracy theories, but there is no way that FIFA likes having Australia in the world cup. Christ it seems every 50/50 decision goes against us to the extreme. How in the same game a ref can give Kewell a red card for accidental hand ball and NOT give a red card for that sliding tackle from behind is beyond me. I'm just gutted from Kewells red card. It was a triple threat for us.

1. Down a player

2. Penalty shot at goal

3. Missing arguably one of our best 3 players in the next game.

Realistically I would love to see the card system totally changed for the world cup. I'd love a panel to convene after every match to review red cards. I know you can't replay a match, but for a dubious decision by an umpire, don't penalise the team or player by making them miss a game.

Ok rant over. At least now I know how you England fans feel all the time, this world cup thing is draining!

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That red card on Kaka was bullshit!

Complete and utter. No way ANY of the officials saw that as it happened, FIFA better rescind the one-match ban that comes with a Red.

Brazil are pretty much still my favourites to win the whole thing though. They'll be getting a sixth star on their shirts by the end of all this.

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My understanding is that Portugal was favored to beat North Korea, but were they expected to blow them out like that?

Also, fuck the so-called sportscaster here in Chicago who said, "Chile beat North Japan, uh... something to zero." And she was serious. It wasn't a poor attempt at humor. Then she went on to complain that no one understands the sport, and whined that "there are too many teams to keep track of." It's you're fucking job to keep track of it!

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I might have to catch a replay of the Chile / Switzerland match, 'cause I only saw the first 15 and final 20, but it seemed like a good one. Some of the attempts near the end were very exciting, too!

Also, I didn't know refs could give yellow cards to players for acting hurt. That said, I don't think Jorge Valdívia deserved it -- not when you consider some of the shit pulled in other matches.

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My understanding is that Portugal was favored to beat North Korea, but were they expected to blow them out like that?

Also, fuck the so-called sportscaster here in Chicago who said, "Chile beat North Japan, uh... something to zero." And she was serious. It wasn't a poor attempt at humor. Then she went on to complain that no one understands the sport, and whined that "their are too many teams to keep track of." It's you're fucking job to keep track of it!

Since the North Koreans are something of a mystery, people tended to base their opinions on their positive performance against Brazil where they show discipline, high fitness levels and persistence. This total rout sorta strips away all the positives that their last match built up, they just collapsed, their defence was completely inept. I mean, people talk about African sides having poor defence, but this was just terrible. Mind you, there was nothing wrong with Portugal's goals there, they had a lot of great setups and finishes in there.

No-one understands the sport? Its the simplest mainstream sport there is outside of athletics, where its just move faster/jump higher. Also I'd expect a reporter of any calibre to be able to name basic nations. I mean, its Japan, its not Slovenia/Slovakia.

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No-one understands the sport? Its the simplest mainstream sport there is outside of athletics, where its just move faster/jump higher. Also I'd expect a reporter of any calibre to be able to name basic nations. I mean, its Japan, its not Slovenia/Slovakia.

Agreed on both points. Going into this I knew a little about football, but not much. By simply watching a few matches over the last week, I feel I have a pretty good handle on it now. The only thing that still confuses me is when offsides is called, but that's only because I don't know the positions yet.

And the "North Japan" thing made me pause while eating my breakfast. I stopped mid-bite, looked up, and thought, "Did she just...?"

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