FIFA World Cup 2010

[Talon87]

No cable? No worries! Watch World Cup 2010 LIVE:
http://espn.go.com/espn3/index/_/spo...view/upcoming/

May as well make a thread for it instead of posting in Loki's Pokemon tournament thread (lol).

Holy cow, I don't think I've ever seen such a shut-out with my own two eyes as a 4-0 at the professional level! I called the game 3-0 at the half (not hard to do given an opening half of 2-0) but am amazed it is 4-0 and not 3-0 (as called), 3-1, or 4-1. That Germany scored four goals and Australia managed zero ... man. Sucks to be an Aussie and a football fan today! As for the Germans ... wow, they may go a lot farther than people were saying they would. I tapped them to win the whole cup purely out of ignorance (since I haven't followed football/soccer in years) but now it's looking like my tap might have some fangs! I'm still not sure they'll be able to best Spain or Portugal, but I'm confident having seen today's game that they will easily make it into the final eight. There's just no way they will not unless they happen to face in the first round of elimination-proper one of the favorites for winning the whole cup.

4-0 ... wow. For those of you who never watch soccer and are NFL-educated, this would be like the Jets playing the Tigers with a final score of 72-0. 4-0 is a major blowout in soccer. Embarassing. So much so this post'll probably ruffle the feathers of Aussie readers: but that's not my fault. :P

[Dark Magic]

I didnt know there was a team called the Tigers in the NFL... Oh you mean the Bengals or the Lions. Detroit Tigers play baseball

[Stlbk]

As an educated NFL watcher I must ask...

Who the hell are the Tigers?

Talons, Lion and Bears, oh my!


Go USA!!!

[Treepandaone]

4-0 isn't that big when you consider it was against Australia, Germany is a good team who are pipped to get somewhere near the final and the referee sent off the only play who could score on a tackle that didn't deserve a red card.

[Talon87]

There is too an NFL team called the Tigers. You need only log on to my XBox 360 account to see my team. :P

Steel: But you don't own an XBox 360.

......... ;_;

I don't care much for American football.

[Lady Kuno]

It's called soccer.

[Emp]

Didn't germany come second in the last Euro?

Originally Posted by Holy Emperor

It's called soccer.

The majority of the world disagrees, just call it what you like >>;

[Stlbk]

Well the term soccer is pretty much US/Aussie/Canada based from what I've read.
Term was developed by UK Football players in the late 1800's trying to set their name apart from Rugby Football.

So blame UK...that's what I do =D

[Doppleganger]

I was shocked ties were acceptable in soccer. I (and a number of other folks) made bets on the outcome of the World Cup and almost no one predicted ties. That's because the majority of the gamblers were American, certainly at the pro level I wouldn't have expected it.

[Talon87]

Ties aren't normal. You're seeing them now because we're not yet to the round of elimination-proper. The scoring during this first round is such that you get +3 for a win, +1 for a tie, and 0 for a loss. The idea being:

Team A vs. Team B, result before overtime is 1-1 (a tie).
Team A vs. Team C, result is 2-1 (Team A's win)

Normally, there'd be overtime between Teams A and B to determine the winner. But since this would in effect place Team B (supposing they lost) on the same footing as Team C, and seeing as Team B isn't as bad as Team C, FIFA decided to do away with tie-breakers in the first round.

However, once we get to the true elimination rounds (starting late June), it'll be winner-takes-all football with overtime, sudden death, and the works.

[Treepandaone]

Ties are normal in the group stages, depending on what teams there are.

[Talon87]

That's what I just said. >_> "Ties don't normally happen except for the round we're in right now." Way to mimic.

Sorry for being bitchy. -_-; I just don't like it when I say something and then people come along and say the exact same thing as me. A cup-half-full guy would say, "They're corroborating my claim!" but I always see it as "They think my way's too unintelligible" or "They think I'm stupid" or other insults.

[Doppleganger]

So Talon, does this mean "round 3" games won't have ties?

[Talon87]

They will not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Wo...nal_tournament

Explains it very well. Start from "Each group plays a" (third paragraph) to cut to the chase, or read the whole thing for a full overview of how it works. The third paragraph's opening sentence refers specifically to Round One which we're now in, not to the elimination round which follows at the end of this month. The transition between these two rounds occurs in this paragraph.

[Muyotwo]

I just saved you hours of your life.

[Loki]

ROFL. I am amazed how accurate that Lego Soccer video actually is.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Muyotwo

I just saved you hours of your life.

Not really. The vuvuzelas still made it seem like an eternity.

[Talon87]

I had no idea that that was what they were called until I had to look it up just now to understand what on Earth Doppel was talking about. This is a vuvuzela for those who also do not know the term.

I don't know what Wikipedia is talking about. They act like it's a distinctly South African thing, but my first exposure to the vuvuzela was in 2007 when my roommate rented FIFA ____ 2008 for the XBox and we played it together. When I heard it just last weekend, my thoughts were nostalgic ones. My dad found it really annoying -- "like a swarm of bees," he said, a complaint many have voiced, it turns out -- but I only found it mildly so. Why? Because (a) soccer matches have always been noisy like that for as long as I can remember and (b) because we were watching it from the comfort of our home on television.

Now that I've read the Wikipedia article, I must confess I'm pretty horrified that FIFA is defending the vuvuzela's usage on the superficial basis of "cultural identity." Fuck your cultural identity if you're blaring a 140-dB sound into someone's ears. That is an intentional act of stripping someone of their hearing, as heinous a crime as cutting out someone's tongue on the street or poking a stranger's eyes out with a pike.

[Treepandaone]

Agreed, mainly because I think that football should be the crowd singing together to support the team. How on earth a team is supposed to recognise which fans are supporting them when they're all blasting out 140db at the same time is beyond me.

How are us English fans supposed to sing the three lions song and chanting our team name when we can't even hear the team band. For a team like us, anyway, we're very passionate about letting the team know that we're behind them and it seems we're at a disadvantage.

Other than that, I'm happy to let them have them at the world cup, but I don't want them coming to the premiership.

[S_M]

Spain lost to Switzerland 1-0 :O

[Talon87]

Wow!

[Jerichi]

>vuvuzela

Those things need to burn in hell.

People have started bringing them to (American) football games and completely screw with us during halftime performances. They are awful and need to be banned.

[Treepandaone]

Bah, Forlan. It's a shame really, because I wanted South Africa to get out of the group stages and not be the only host nation to go out at group stages.

[Handymankg2]

3-0. I feel bad for South Africa.

[Talon87]

An early South African exit --> less South African enthusiasm --> less South Africans in attendance --> less vuvuzelas?

I wish it worked this way, but unfortunately for every picture I've seen of a black child or adult blowing into a vuvuzela I've seen another of some American or European yuppie with paint all over his face blowing into one, too.