World Cup 2018

Harvey wrote

. It kills a lot of the excitement.

Watch this video of kids in Uraguay and tell me it's not exciting:
https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2018/6/15/17469652/uruguay-game-winner-jose-gimenez-world-cup

That kid video is so great. More exciting to me than the header itself. I love the way they ALL immediately head for the play ground to run around vs watching the replay a bunch of times.

When I said it kills the excitement I was talking about the lack of clock. Or my inability to anticipate the end. I didn't mean to say there were no moments of excitement in soccer.

In the World Cup the referees and timekeepers announce how much stoppage time there will be as the 90 minute mark passes. There is a digital board that is held up (same one that has the substitutions) that will say 4:00 for 4 minutes of extra time.

Can you see it on TV?  Do fans start to cheer near the end? I don't remember it.

They will show the board with the time and the tv announcers will generally mention it. But it doesn’t count down or anything. Since time counts up instead of down, they don’t change the clock. Official time is kept by the ref.

Harvey wrote

Can you see it on TV?  Do fans start to cheer near the end? I don't remember it.

That probably is the key point, if someone doesn't understand the strategy of soccer then watching isn't going to be as much fun.  I was watching a game yesterday while eating lunch and had to leave when there was 20 min left and a 1-0 lead.  The goal had been scored a few minutes before.  I could sense the difference in urgency and tactics by the players on the team that was behind in trying to score.

I enjoy watching soccer and basketball a lot more than football because I played on school teams and had some coaching.  Nothing like elite level, but enough to know more than the casual fan.  My husband and his brothers played high school football in the midwest.  Much more into pro football.  Don't watch soccer at all.

witch hobble wrote

Yeah. But Kansas City too. Heartland.

We have the whole American exceptionalism idea that contrasts with the fact that we are not all that great at soccer.  Probably still decades away from *maybe* competing at a real high level. So it’s easier just to scoff or ignore......focus on sports that we play and the rest of the world ignores (like futbol Americano and Nascar).

You need to choose a team and become a fan. Go to the bar. Get swept up in the moment.  

At least dudes who watch golf on tv aren’t exactly in a position to claim how “boring” soccer is. 🍺

Interesting, St. Louis or Indiana won the NCAA Men's Soccer championship quite a bit between 1959 and 1990.

North Carolina has been high on soccer for decades.  There was a man who founded a rec soccer league in Chapel Hill in the 1970s.  There was a girls' team at Chapel Hill Senior High School by 1972.  The UNC-Chapel Hill women's soccer teams has won a lot of ACC and NCAA championships.  Quite a few of the players on the early teams were locals, both men and women.

Soccer is probably more of a regional sport in the U.S. than baseball or football.  Perhaps similar to ice hockey, although that has spread out of the frozen north in recent decades.

Mexico came out gunning today, caught the germans off guard, got a first half goal, then held on.  Great game.

Mexico should be a team that both peetex and MC are both rooting for. Matt out of sympathy for how our gov’t has been treating them, peetex cynically hoping that a good run in the cup stirs their nationalist passions and keeps them happy at home.

witch hobble wrote

. Matt out of sympathy for how our gov’t has been treating them

I don't care what nationality the immigrants are. I think the government should treat all immigrants better (and a lot of immigrants coming across the border are from Hondurus, Nicaragua, etc.).

And really, I'm a U.S. homer. If the U.S. can't be good, I hope every other country in our qualifying pool is terrible so the U.S. makes it next time.

I'm rooting for England, I guess, until they get to the finals, then I might root for the other team because I think British people are funny when they get angry at things.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

witch hobble wrote

. Matt out of sympathy for how our gov’t has been treating them

I don't care what nationality the immigrants are. I think the government should treat all immigrants better (and a lot of immigrants coming across the border are from Hondurus, Nicaragua, etc.).

And really, I'm a U.S. homer. If the U.S. can't be good, I hope every other country in our qualifying pool is terrible so the U.S. makes it next time.

I'm rooting for England, I guess, until they get to the finals, then I might root for the other team because I think British people are funny when they get angry at things.

Yes, I also meant with all of our wall building and trade dealing too.

Just like skiing with stronger skiers, we need all the North and Central American teams to be strong to up the level of play across the board. Sure, we might miss a World Cup, but it will help in the long run to qualify by playing high quality teams so that when we run into (Germany, France, Brazil, or anyone at this point) we’re not in over our head. We need Mexico!

Angry blokes. Haha.

witch hobble wrote

Mexico came out gunning today, caught the germans off guard, got a first half goal, then held on.  Great game.

Mexico should be a team that both peetex and MC are both rooting for. Matt out of sympathy for how our gov’t has been treating them, peetex cynically hoping that a good run in the cup stirs their nationalist passions and keeps them happy at home.

As soon as the Mexican guy got hit in the face with the ball, I lost respect for soccer.

England, which just married off their Prince Harry, has two star players named Harry. One of them scored both goals, including the winner during stoppage time. They barely survive.

New version of da foos in honor of the World Cup:

Haha

Dude.

Messi, Ronaldo gone! Germany? Didn’t even make it out of group play.

Getting weird. France looked really strong today. The kid Mbappe (isn’t that a song by that boy band?) was absolutely on fire. So fast.  And the goal by Pavard was incredible. Great game. Messi’s brilliance is so casual. He rarely seems to force it, but today it needed to be forced. Aside from a beautiful cross for the assist their final goal, it just doesn’t seem like he played with any urgency.

France and Belgium, not surprisingly, have a lot of children of immigrants. Many of the French players have North African names. They might be who my money is on. Or maybe since it’s soccer in Russia, the whole thing has been fixed for a month.

Watched the second half of Denmark/Croatia. Pretty exciting- nothing like a shootout

The 2nd half of that Belgium v Japan game was incredible. Dramatic. Best game yet.

Everyone had Belgium dead and buried at 65 minutes.