Tag Archives: soccer

Sheesh. It’s hard to roll out of bed and go straight to the TV for a game. I better get used to it.

I had time to make a cup of tea and I sat down right when the game started at 7am. My eyes were only half open during the first half.

At the break I made more tea and got something to eat so for the second half I felt more human.

Here’s a liveblog of the game. Scroll down to 24:19. There’s a hilarious photo of Mexico’s coach Javier Aguirre. He reminds me of a cartoon monster or something. I can’t quite place it. He also has a lot of tension in his neck.

I don’t have a lot of comments. Two good games. Lots of cute boys.

I hate the buzzing horn of doom:

The sound is from the vuvuzela, South Africa’s answer to the Thunderstick. By itself, it’s just a small plastic trumpet that probably cost less than a dollar to make and creates no known musical notes. But when thousands of people toot them simultaneously, you get a loud, incessant hum that makes the entire stadium sound like it’s being attacked by angry bees.

At least I’m not there in person.

Is it just me or did both sets of commentators seem obviously biased in favor of one team over the other? Aren’t they supposed to be neutral?

In the first game they made it sound like the Mexicans were assholes for trying to win. Yeah yeah, history, South Africa. I get it but it’s not like Mexico traveled all that way just so they could play a part in South Africa’s feel good story.

In the second game they kept talking about how whenever France tried to score, some Uruguay player would be in the way. I’m no expert but isn’t that the game? Damn those buzzkill Uruguayans not standing back so France could win. Near the end of the game the commentators conceded that if Uruguay managed to score, they would have earned it.

I wonder who will be calling the USA v England game tomorrow. I hope it’s not my mortal enemy Dave O’Brien Oh look, here’s the list. The Internet is the closest thing to magic we have. No Dave O’Brien. Dammit. It would have been so fun to complain about him.

Oops, more soccer coverage.

This is the highlight reel from the US v. Australia warm-up game.

Totally worth your time.

Edson Buddle A US player. This is the type of story I LOVE during Wold Cup.

Here’s a clip of Spain v. Poland in a warm-up game.

A lot of people ask me what team I’m rooting for. I love the sport. I want to see any great game.

My top two teams are Germany and USA.

After that, I love a lot of European teams: Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and my sweetheart team: Spain.

I love South America, especially Brazil and Argentina.

I love Central America, especially Mexico. African teams are always exciting.

I try to watch every team at least once.

I’m in love with the whole thing.

I thought the game started at Noon but at 11:00a I had my brunch fixins spread out on the counter and laundry half sorted for the wash and the dishwasher open and half emptied and I thought I’d turn on the TV real quick to just see and turns out we were already 5 minutes into it. I didn’t even have my Italia soccer jersey on.

I abandoned everything I was doing because soccer must be watched. You can’t finish emptying the dishwasher and come back later because you might miss something.

About 15 minutes into it I decided that I could not listen to that imbecile Dave O’Brien for one more minute and I wanted to try Univision. But I didn’t know what number it was and I scrolled through the channels and saw something in the 700s that said World Cup so I clicked on that and it was the high definition channel. We don’t have HD but it was widescreen and it would have been nice to know that existed about 63 games ago.

It still had yammering Dave but apparently when you put your TV on HD the remote control takes on a life of its own and me, being on the slow side, had to click every button and remove the batteries to try to troubleshoot the problem with zero results. So now we’re 20 minutes into the game and I’m overwhelmed with anxiety because my remote won’t work and I can’t manually change channels back to the original broadcast because it will take too long and I might miss something critical in the game.

Finally at the half I got out of remote hell and switched to Univision for the second half. Univision is awesome. Even though my Spanish vocabulary is limited to words you find on a Taco Bell menu, I felt like I understood exactly what they were saying. Plus they were so excited about it. And the commercials were way better, too.

The highlight of the second half was when Zidane went down with an injury around the 80th minute and Cannavaro stepped in front of the camera and adjusted his shorts (rear view) which involved hiking way them up for an excellent leg/butt view. I almost passed out. They should make a calendar of that.

I don’t know what to say about that whole Zidane red card business. Sorry way to end a career. I don’t care what the other guy said. Also I meant to mention earlier that I don’t like those blue Italy uniforms. That dark blue swatch around the arms looks like a big pit stain. At least they won. Yay, Italia.

I’m going to do this now, before I’ve seen Germany play, because I have a boatload of chores to do tonight and this might be my only moment.

First, I have to go back to game 32, Spain v. Tunisia which I taped yesterday. I ended up getting home after 8pm but I started it up, figuring I could bail if the results were obvious. Tunisia scored in the 8th minute. And then Spain couldn’t get one in.

I watched and watched. My eyelids drooped. I desperately wanted to go to bed. Finally, at the 68th minute I decided to check the score because I did not want to sit for another 20 minutes if this was how it ended. Spain scored for the first time in the 71st minute. If only I’d waited! If only I’d had more faith in my sweethearteam!

But then, I was tired and now I knew and could fast forward, watch the goals, snap off the TV and be done with it.

Since I planned to take a long lunch today and watch Sweden v. England (the only work I’ve missed for World Cup) I “watched” the Germany v. Poland game via MatchCast. I knew I’d hear the results during the later game. MatchCast available on the yahoo WC site which if you are sitting at a computer all day, is an excellent way to monitor a match. On a separate window I had Deadspin’s Liveblog which I realize barely qualifies as not missing work.

Deadspin LiveBlogging tidbits:
32:49 Not much to say about Ecuador. So I will say that the main currency in Ecuador is the US Dollar. I never knew that.

13:52 Germany applying the pressure still. Ecuador has taken out some of their starters including top scorer Tenorio. Having a tough time stringing passes. It shows.

For the Sweden v. England game we headed back to Greek Cuisina. I saw the Czech Republic guy from last time and wanted to make a dig about his team’s performance on Saturday but he must have sensed this because he wouldn’t make eye contact. We thumped up the stairs where there was: no one. Not even a server. We made ourselves comfortable by turning on the TV and moving our chairs so that we were directly in front of the screen. Eventually someone showed up and fixed us up with food

I’m completely out of time here so my wrap up will be quick: Sweden kept it exciting. England acted like they barely cared. Was anyone defending England on the last goal?

If you’ve ever wondered what language everyone is using on the playing field: here’s your answer. A quote here:
Any language at all, as long as they can get their point across. ... "Any kind of fellatio comment is inevitably understood," says Alexi Lalas, who was on the U.S. World Cup roster in 1994 and 1998.

This soccerblog is officially on hiatus until further notice. Enjoy the games.

I’m almost taking a day off from soccer today as the games are of relatively low interest and I have oodles of other things I need to do. I did tape the Spain-Tunisia game for tonight if I have time.

I’m at work now and will drag my soccer-spread bottom to yoga and then I’m going to Kathy’s to borrow a dress and then I’ll go home and watch part of the game or maybe just the highlights show.

I can’t do it all.

If you have some time you should check out the referee index. I love it that so many of the refs have totally regular jobs like Kevin Stott (USA) is a teacher and Markus Merk (Germany) is a dentist.

I also discovered that Deadspin, which is a sportsblog which explains why I never paid much attention to it before, has all kinds of World Cup coverage including Live Blogging the games.

Yes, I was tempted to go back and read all the games I’ve seen. But I didn’t, mainly because I have a lot of work I need to do. I’d provide some more specific links but I don’t want to know the score of the Spain game.

Via Deadspin I also found The Third Leaf which has on-the-scene soccer fan coverage and photos – wish I was there. My favorite part is when they get to the park at 1pm and get their first beer and sausage.

Tomorrow starts the final games of group play which means the four teams in each group play simultaneously. I plan to see the Sweden v. England game for a long lunch which means I will have to find out the Germany v. Ecuador results before I get to see the game. boo-hoo.

Then sadly, our soccer coverage will be on hiatus while the soccer fan ventures to another time zone for a friend wedding and then a family social visit. I may have access to some of the games but I will probably not be online.

It looks like most of the teams that I would want to see in the Round of 16 are going to play Saturday or Sunday which is not going to be doable. (Technically it may be doable but we’re paying all this money to go on this trip and there will be all kinds of people who I haven’t seen in eons so I must set aside my soccer fever and participate in life.) I should be able to see all the Monday and Tuesday games. (I’m sure my hosts will be thrilled). I’ll be home for the rest of the tournament.

Decided to sleep in for the first half of the first game and almost slept through the whole game but then I thought Spain (cutest team in the tournament this year) was playing and dragged myself out of bed.

It was Japan v. Croatia. The score was zero zero when I started and zero zero when I turned the TV off at the end of the game.

Australia played Brazil for the second game of the day. When the game started I thought the guy calling the game said that Australia was coming in with 14 yellow cards and I thought: how is that even possible? It was 4 yellow cards.

A good game. Australia played like champs and Brazil was a little less dazzling then I might have hoped. Can we get Dida, the Brazilian goalkeeper, a cuter pair of shorts? Those look like my jammies.

After already watching so many games this weekend I wasn’t super enthusiastic for the France v. South Korea game. I’ve been wanting to see France and missed the game with Switzerland. I decided to watch the first half and saw France get its groove back (goal by Henry in the 34th minute) (pronounced “on-ree” not “hen-ree”) and turned off the TV so I could get something accomplished which turned out to be a half hour nap.

This World Cup is destroying my productivity.

I just saw that the game ended in a tie so I fired up the DVR so I can watch the second half. My stats for the World Cup so far are that I’ve seen all or part of 26 of 29 games.

Today the announcer mentioned that Chelsea is coming to the US in August to play against an MLS All Star team. Where???

They also said that Beckham and Ronaldo might come play in the US in a couple of years. Isn’t that sort of like Styx and REO Speedwagon playing at the Country Fair?

I gave myself a break and slept in and caught up with the Portugal v. Iran game in the second half. Iran is a great team and managed to keep Portugal scoreless until the 63rd minute. (Not a bad call to sleep in, either.) I still think Portugal is a bit of a whiny team. Ebrahim Mirzapour, Iran’s goalkeeper did a great job.

The Czech Republic v. Ghana game took about 10 years off my life. I said I was looking forward to seeing Cz play some other team. Where were they? Was this even the same team who kicked USA butt? Does anyone else think Pavel Nedved looks like Dave Murray from Iron Maiden?

Ghana played a kick ass game. Completely exciting, at the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see how the last 2 games playout.

I’ve got a routine worked out now. Between the first and second games I do my yoga practice. The sun salutations and standing poses. And then when the 2nd game starts, I can work on seated postures while I watch. There aren’t a lot of things you can do during a soccer game because you have to keep your eyes on the screen.

I’d also like to comment that the TV cameras seem to have no problem locating the young girls bouncing up and down and cheering for their team. Also, am I dreaming or is Taco Hell doing an ad campaign to help overfed America figure out what to have for its fourth meal?

Okay, now we’re at the USA v. Italy game. To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the USA. Turns out the game was a clusterfork and a half. The officiating was off the rails. *I* was ready to give up when Eddie Pope was sent off. Luckily the USA wasn’t so wimpy. Great effort on the USA’s part. Keeping Italy to a tie. Sets up super dramatic final games for this group. I can’t wait.

All this yelling and carrying on. Not only did I get my yoga but also a good cardio this morning. We’re lucky World Cup is only every 4 years. I’m worried Bob is going to find me slumped over the remote with blood running out of my ears one of these days.

(BTW I did watch the Mexico v. Angola game last night and it was fantastic! Quite a nail biter.)

At lunch yesterday we went to Greek Cuisina to watch the first half of the Sweden v. Paraguay game. First we checked out the TV in the bar but it was playing baseball. One of the hostesses saw us and said to go upstairs, that everyone was watching the game up there.

Wow, I’m thinking. Finally a chance to watch the game in a group. So we get up there and there were only two men sitting there and I said, “This is it for the game?” Turns out they weren’t there for the game either. They had a table set up for a group business lunch.

We sat at a TV in the corner and the server came over and turned up the sound and got us all set up and asked us if we’d been watching all the games. We went into the usual soccer chit chat and he told us: I’m from the Czech Republic. And he said it without even the tiniest hint of smugness. We, of course, complemented his team and talked more soccer and about then we had a kickoff so we placed our order and settled in for the first half.

Good lunch but no score. When I got home last night I started with England v. Trinidad and Tobago. I think TnT is my one of favorite teams ever. They kicked ass. Sure, they lost but it’s their first world cup and they’ve given two top teams a real workover. If I could have one wish it would be that they score in the next game. Even if they lose I would love to see them score.

After the England game I finished the Sweden game. I already knew the results. What a heartbreaker for Paraguay. This is a team that played its guts out for two games but just couldn’t make it happen.

This morning I was up at 6am for the Argentina v. Serbia game. Argentina is a fantastic team and they handed Serbia its ass on a platter. And then some. It was hard to watch. I got out my bills and wrote checks after the half and finally had to turn it off after the 4th goal.

I came back for Netherlands v. Ivory Coast. What an exciting game. Great playing on both sides.

I taped the Mexico v. Angola game in case I wanted to watch it later but I have been feeling a wee bit saturated. Not too saturated to watch 2 games in a row, but too saturated to watch 3 games in a row. Also I’ve been feeling like my pants are getting snug and I’m tired of chips and peanuts. And I’m spending too much time in front of the TV.

So what better thing to do after my postgames nap, than to hop in the car and zoom over to the theater so I could see The Lake House a romantic mystery fantasy with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. It was me and 30 other women my age or older in the theater and it was fantastic. It’s a sort-of super condensed and simplified The Time Travelers Wife with not as much weeping. If you’re the right demographic, I highly recommend it.

This afternoon I’ve been gardening and enjoying fresh air. Maybe I’ll watch a bit of the Mexico game this evening.

Tomorrow’s another big day.

I didn’t see anything but highlights on the Saudi Arabia v. Tunisia game so no snappy commentary there.

Last night I rushed home for the Germany v. Poland game. It’s funny how I’m so paranoid about hearing the score before I watch the game and NO ONE is talking about soccer around here. Only me and the person in the office next to me who has been warned that if he finds out the scores, he’s not even allowed to look at me. Every time I even mention the World Cup people get a vague look in their eyes and talk about Stanley Cup or else say that they heard something about the USA not doing well. Watch the game people!

The Germany game was super fun with a thrilling surprise ending. What a nailbiter. Too bad the point isn’t to hit the goalposts or crossbar. Germany would be galactic champions of that game.

But a 91st minute goal. What a heartbreaker for Poland. My adorable Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc who made a bunch of amazing saves looked like someone stole his birthday.

After the game Bob showed me a new Red Hot Chili Peppers video, I think the song is called Dani. The video is fantastic. They imitate all these different classic video performances and when they cut to Nirvana Unplugged, Bob and I yelled louder than we did for Germany’s goal.

This morning I watched the first half of the Costa Rica v. Ecuador game. Ecuador is a fun team. It will be interesting to see how Germany v. Ecuador goes since they’re both going through.