I was considering this week the amount of press and attention the 2010 FIFA World Cup is getting. I started thinking along the lines of “man, they must really have a massive and organized media machine this time, because I don’t remember anything like this last year.”
Such is the depth of my international organized soccer knowledge. (You know, like maybe two Petri dishes deep?) They only play the World Cup every four years, the Wikipedia article helpfully informs me.
I caught a little bit of a game on ESPN this morning. Nathan and I stopped for about 10 minutes, and we’d each had enough.
Now I’m sure I’m just a big dumb tacky American who can’t appreciate all of the nuance and cultural importosity and what-not, but what I saw was powerfully boring. Nathan said “Dad, is this how it is watching me?” I said “No way. Your games are much more exciting.”
Oh, and did you know they blow those damned horns all the time? Wouldn’t you think they would blow them only when something happens? Ah, that’s it! They’d almost never get to blow them were that the case.
I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. If you need a coma nap, find a World Cup game.
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It is what it is, man. There are few goals, but if you break the game into the tackles, passes, and tactics that make the goal opportunities, it’s pretty entertaining.
Didn’t hurt that people kept buying me beer at Station No. 2 during the USA-Ghana match. We lost, but I got beer. Win.
Argentina is the team to beat. And they have a crazy, drug addict for a coach!
I don’t get it. But, I can’t satisfactorily explain the appeal of oval racing to a certain sort of person either.
What were you doing for the “free” beer, dude? That sounds vaguely alarming. 😉
Gah! Changes in the blog look. I can’t deal with any more disorientation this week.
Kidding, this one looks good. I need to upgrade, but have had very little sleep this week, plus a major deadline at work, in addition to dealing with my own little trip down a very personal rabbit hole…
Amazingly it did not involve me taking off my shirt or anything….maybe it involved me keeping my shirt on.
You know how I made the transition to liking soccer? Played FIFA video games. Picked a club, played a season, knew players names, and started to appreciate the tactics and little parts of the game. I imagine it’s very similar to how a European would pick up Madden Football and then become a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.
It was a good crowd yesterday. Probably 100-150 at Station #2 to have a collective good/bad time.
Thanks, ‘seester. I’ve about got it like I want it, I think.
I can see the EA Sports gateway theory working very well, BamaDan.
I’ve heard the argument that most Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the nuances – nay, the sheer poetry of soccer. Bullshit. What it boils down to, at least for me, is that we have so many choices for sports entertainment and participation. How many young German or French children are offered the opportunity to pick between football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, etc…?
Oh yeah, it’s also boring to watch.
Jeff tried to stop on the World Cup for a little while. I wasn’t even watching…I was reading a book or something…but the constant annoying background noise from those trumped up kazoos was driving me crazy. I told him he had to change the channel, mute it, or I was changing rooms.
I can understand to a point. A lot of it is perspective and approach.
I can remember my mother and I watching a baseball game together. She complained it was boring. I then pointed out, like, seventy KAJILLION things that were happening. Runner at first has a near-suicide lead. Pitcher’s shaking off the signals. Pitcher’s stepping off. Batter’s out of the box. Third base coach is furiously “saying” something. Pitcher wasn’t really trying to throw the runner at first out; just trying to cut his lead a bit. There’s a pitch-out threat here. Etc.
I’m willing to acknowledge that I’m giving pro soccer as much a chance as she was giving pro baseball.
Again, it is what it is. I’m not going to be one of those goofy wingnuts who says it is too sophisticated for Americans and I’m not going to listen to folks who call it Euro Kickball.
Most interesting is the bassackwards socio-economic lean for US soccer. I was talking with some fellow Celtic FC fans in Scotland and pointed out that in the States, the better soccer clubs come from the more affluent areas. Mountain Brook, Randolph, etc all have elite HS teams. In Scotland (and probably most of Europe and S. America), it’s just the opposite – a working man’s sport. Soccer (like tennis, golf, lacrosse) is the sport for the suburb kids – so it seems.
I think we’d do a lot better if we had Mt. Cody at Center-Back.
Saw this today: TWILIGHT is like soccer: they just run around for two hours, nobody scores, there’s plenty of bad acting, and its two billion fans insist “you just don’t understand.”