World Cup Fans?

thurin

thurin

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Anyone else here a World Cup fan?

I never really cared about it much until 1998 when I was working in London while the Group Draw was going on and everything shut down while they waited to see which group England would be in. And then the endless analysis started about the draw. Seeing people that passionate about something made me want to participate.

Then in 2002 I happened to be in Germany during the World Cup. They made it to the finals that year in South Korea/Japan. Crazy. Wish I had been there in 2006 when Germany was hosting.

Ever since then, it's something I look forward to similar to the Olympics.

There are parts of it that just plain piss me off like Divers (I'm looking at you Italy) and other dramatics, but on the whole, it's pretty fun.

USA USA USA
 
Absolutely! I've been a soccer fan most of my life. I grew up playing for my school (though I eventually switched to football), FIFA on the game consoles, and consistently watched European soccer. I was in Germany (for work) back during Euro 2004, and there's nothing like watching international competition in Europe.

It's incredible with modern technology how I can watch the games live on my cell phone now :thumbup:

As I spent more the 2/3 of my life in the states, I'm rooting for US of course, but can't deny I also cheer for the South Korean team. Of course they're historically both underdogs, which goes well with my Philly teams..... (but I don't boo Santa).

And the early goal by Dempsey was AWESOME~
dempsey_ghana.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg
 
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We don't have TV or cable here in Bolivia, but we went out to a restaurant that did and enjoyed watching our US victory!!! They are absolute futbol (soccer) Nuts here!! Everybody that has a TV had it turned on pretty much permanently!
 
thurin, that is exactly when I started watching and am addicted now. Some great games so far. Loved seeing Germany destroy Portugal yesterday. And the good ole US of A pulling that one out, epic...
 
I played lots of soccer growing up but my fascination with the World Cup was kindled by a poster my brother had from the 1974 Cup that showed pics of every team and lots of interesting Cup trivia/history. I used to pore over it (pre-ESPN days) for details and we would pretend we were the different teams when playing in the yard. Years later and I still follow the Cup and international soccer but not fanatically. I loved seeing Spain get spanked by the Dutch. Defeating Ghana was a start but some real work still awaits our squad.

The history of the Jules Rimet trophy is fascinating if you're ever looking for a story on a rainy day or passing time waiting for a game to start.
 
It's been great. Plus Univision is live streaming in HD the first 54 games for free on their website and deportes app, so it is easy to watch.
 
I watch soccer just to see the players give oscar winning performances to try to get the other team a penalty card.



[video=youtube_share;Ioyt2zzm530]http://youtu.be/Ioyt2zzm530[/video]
 
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I do love watching the sport though. My wife is Turkish and soccer is life to them. It's very entertaining watching futbol with my father in-law, that guy be going cray cray for futbol.
 
Ok everyone, so other than USA who's everyone rooting for? For me, I pretty much root for the underdog and a good match.

Joe Duder said:
I do love watching the sport though. My wife is Turkish and soccer is life to them. It's very entertaining watching futbol with my father in-law, that guy be going cray cray for futbol.
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Joe, believe it or not, I have a Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü sticker on my Expedition. My sister spent some time in Turkey and brought back a jersey for my son and the sticker for me.
 
I'll seconded that. After the US, I am most interested in a good match. That Brazil v. Mexico draw was one of the best matches that I have ever seen, and I actively dislike both of those teams. Other than that I've been a Liverpool supporter for a good portion of my adult life, so I tend to root for England as well. And I have been finding myself drawn towards 'Pool players and their respected counties (I'm looking at you, Uruguay).
 
thurin said:
Ok everyone, so other than USA who's everyone rooting for? For me, I pretty much root for the underdog and a good match.

USA!

My wife is Colombian, so we are pulling heavy for "los cafeteros"! First time in the tourny for quite some time and still playing relatively well even with an injured Falcao.

Third in line is any underdog (come on Costa Rica!) and Argentina as I would like to see Messi get a cup to silence some of the critics. He and his team need to step it up from their first game performance though.
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I go for three teams:
1. 'Merica
2. Mexico
3. Italy

I'm half Mexican and Italian so i gotta go with my heritage. but US first. well until TX secedes and we get a WC team...

[video=youtube;JtJNCwQG1lw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtJNCwQG1lw[/video]
 
Singling out Italy for diving is nonsense. A team changes not only players, but coaches and styles. If you watch enough you will see, unfortunately, diving is part of soccer culture. Watch it, you'll see the Brazilians, the Ghanians, the Mexicans, and yes even those tough Americans and the English bulldogs too. Some players are worse than others, sometimes a team (i.e. a group of players, which is not permanent) is particularly bad but to single out the Italians is one of those old stereotypes that does not really say anything about what is happening from game to game. If you watched their first game against England, maybe one or two over-dramatizations, and in any case the good referees have figured this out long ago, so that Italy was awarded 8 free kicks in that game whereas England was awarded 12... Italy has not won 4 world cups - the second most of any nation - and been in 7 finals because they dive.

Anyway, you probably meant it partially in jest, and I'm the first to admit when a dive is a dive, but to single out Italy just seems to miss the point, which is that the refs need to be on top of this and not make bad calls like awarding Brazil a penalty kick in the opening match against Croatia when the game was tied.
 
I'm with Thurin, I normally pull for the underdog . . . unless it's one of the drama teams! South America is horrible for the drama!
 
wdmn said:
Singling out Italy for diving is nonsense. A team changes not only players, but coaches and styles. If you watch enough you will see, unfortunately, diving is part of soccer culture. Watch it, you'll see the Brazilians, the Ghanians, the Mexicans, and yes even those tough Americans and the English bulldogs too. Some players are worse than others, sometimes a team (i.e. a group of players, which is not permanent) is particularly bad but to single out the Italians is one of those old stereotypes that does not really say anything about what is happening from game to game. If you watched their first game against England, maybe one or two over-dramatizations, and in any case the good referees have figured this out long ago, so that Italy was awarded 8 free kicks in that game whereas England was awarded 12... Italy has not won 4 world cups - the second most of any nation - and been in 7 finals because they dive.

Anyway, you probably meant it partially in jest, and I'm the first to admit when a dive is a dive, but to single out Italy just seems to miss the point, which is that the refs need to be on top of this and not make bad calls like awarding Brazil a penalty kick in the opening match against Croatia when the game was tied.
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Welcome to the Fiddleback Forge Forum wdmn. Hopefully you'll have a chance to checkout the great knives Andy and team make if you haven't already.

Singling out my parenthetical comment misses the point of this thread. We have all sorts of these lighthearted threads that keep us busy while we wait for the next batch of Fiddleback goodness to come out. See such examples as "Happy hour. What are you Fiddlebacks listening to?", "Fiddleback on Tap Saturdays", "Fiddleback Apocolypse Trio", "Fiddlebacks and Food", etc. There's a good group of folk here that like hanging out and bantering about any topic under the sun.

My comment was made in jest, but used to point out a part of the game that rubs me and obviously others the wrong way. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm sorry it offended you.
 
Pulling a bit for Ecuador. Would love to see a small, poor country win something big.
 
I'm currently sporting the usual four-yearly English expression of stiff upper lip with a hint of dejection, we crashed out today as Italy failed to beat the mighty Costa Rica. Next time.....
 
nope
i just found out they only do this every 4 years

wow...is this like the Olympics or something ;)
 
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