The World Cup Thread

So FIFA doesn't get raped by taxes, and they force the place that's hosting the World Cup to sell beer. Was the video supposed to make me like FIFA less or more?

The World Cup is awesome and soccer is an awesome sport, and this is from someone that was born and lived in the south his entire life. It's better than American football, except the SEC.

 

I think I might buy the FIFA World Cup game, is it any good? I find those games to be super entertaining playing as random national teams I've barely ever heard of and trying to win.

 

Well, one game in and people are whining about corruption in the officiating. Umm, no. Was it a soft, and kind of shitty, call for the penalty? Absolutely. Croatia was also more done in by the fact that their GK was pathetic, both of the open play goals were soft (the last one was a toe poke that most college keepers stop) and he should have saved the PK after guessing right and getting both hands on the ball.

Either way, if Brazil plays like that, they won't be making noise past their group. Julio Cesar looked shaky as hell in net.

 

Yep. It's truly awful. It totally undermines the game and it's terrible sportsmanship. It's one player lying to get another player carded. I don't know any soccer fans who defend it, because anyone who likes soccer is sick of having to hear about it endlessly from everyone who doesn't. It's like the default criticism of the game as a sport for pussies from anyone who isn't into soccer.

It's a shame that Americans are so stuck on it, because the American team is often one of the most entertaining in the World Cup. They may not be major contenders, but they come at their games with an exciting offensive focus and they never dive. They've grown up in a country constantly criticising the frequency of teams drawing and the theatrics, and it translates to their game. You just wish they'd get a bit more home support.

Brazil v Croatia
It was good to see a few goals in the opening game. Brazil's defense was clearly pretty weak, they're going to have to work on it going forward or more disciplined teams could tear through them. Croatia played an entertaining match and are looking like a good bet to get the second spot.

 

Just out of curiosity soccer fans, why is it that you all get so pissed off when people criticize the sport you like? I mean, I love Golf and Baseball. But I can totally see how someone wouldn't enjoy those sports because they can be slow and boring.

I personally believe the best way to combat flopping is to allow people to get knocked down on occasion. Oh, you gave someone a red card... that's awesome because now it can be a more one sided tie.

 

I'm trying to get myself into soccer, at least a bit. Last World Cup held some excitement so this year a buddy and I flipped a coin for the rights to pick the first team with alternating picks after. We're then betting against each other. We'll do the same for each round. We figure this will get us into it or let us know we have no business watching. I'm hoping I'll enjoy it just for something else to watch/talk about.


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Eh, it's more of an irritated "god not this shit again" thought. Yes, we get it. There are plenty of draws, and the players flop and it's never going to be as big as it's proponents seem to think it will in the U.S. It seems that in social media people post about soccer and get a bunch of useless negative responses. You mentioned golf for example. I think it's also boring, but many of my friends enjoy it. When they post on Facebook about how they hit the links or they're watching the U.S. Open I don't chine in with "oh man, you must have insomnia!" because who gives a shit? I just pass on by. But post anything about soccer and out come the same old tired jokes.

That first game was odd. Croatia seemed to think they were better skill wise than they actually were, what with a couple of attempts to dribble out of pressure in the first half that almost blew up in their face. Outside of the penalty kick I thought the first goal was more of the goalie's fault than the third, as silly as it is it seemed that he was in the middle of one of those nervous small goalie hops as the kick was released and that gave him just enough of a delay to not being able to get to it. Oscar's shot on the third goal just seemed to straight up surprise him, although to his credit it was a harder shot than it seemed.

The penalty was, well it was egregious, and the Croatia coach has every right to be upset (as he clearly was in the post game press conference). Even worse though (I thought) was the foul on Olic when he went up for the header in the box. I get that goalies are to be afforded some protection, but Olic was clearly playing the ball. Once that was taken away it seemed to completely deflate them.

 

That certainly didn't take long.

 

Protesters in Brazil.

 

Not being American I might not accurately reflect the kind of soccer fans you're interacting with. But a lot of the annoyed reactions from rational soccer fans come from what FreeCorps said. It's rare that you meet people who are just ambivalent to soccer. Most people who don't enjoy a sport like golf just say "It's not really for me." But people who don't like soccer often seem to go out of their way to insult it as being for pussies or claim that it's an inherently inferior sport due to draws etc. That kind of argument gets tired after the first five minutes.

As for the more die-hard soccer fans that get really angry, I think they are often reacting to perceived slights on their manliness. Soccer is so often criticised as a sport for pussies or as less manly than the various forms of football whether it be NFL, Rugby or AFL (an Australian code). I think a lot of big soccer fans take that as an attack on their own personal manliness for liking the sport. Just silly ego stuff really, it's not like soccer has any less contact than basketball, golf, baseball etc but fans of those sports don't tend to take it so personally (but people also don't tend to label those sports as for pussies).

I also think a lot of soccer fans (at least those resident outside the USA) see American attitudes to soccer as reflective of American naivety/ignorance of the greater world. Americans often go out of their way to insult soccer, but then proclaim the greatness of sports only Americans play. Don't get me wrong, I think NFL, basketball and baseball are awesome sports, but they're really only big in America. Basketball is played the world over, but come on, we're all watching the NBA. They've also been commercialised to an extent that's quite alienating to anyone not from the States. You have to appreciate the awesomeness of a tournament like the World Cup that draws from such a huge pool of players across a wide variety of countries.

 

America really got fucked in their group draw. Germany and Portugal? That's downright brutal, and the supposedly weakest team in the group, Ghana, beat us at both '06 and '10 world cups. I was at the send off game against Nigeria, and while the Americans did win, I have to admit they looked sloppy. The American side seems to have this tradition where they can look totally uncoordinated and pull goals out of their ass. See our draw against England last WC or when we upset Spain.

For the teams that really have a shot to win I'd like to see Germany pull it off since they seem to make the semis or finals at every major tournament only to be edged out right at the end.

 

Because most of the criticism comes from pure ignorance. It's like saying you hate a food you've never actually eaten.

 

The only thing I really don't understand about soccer is the timekeeping. Play stops, but the clock doesn't, so they just add in a variable amount of time after regulation. That just seems awkward to me; why not just stop the clock when play stops?

 

This annoys me too. Every other sport has managed to work out stop clock, but soccer still has this arbitrary 'time on' period. The sport seems to take forever to make any decisions, whether its this, goal line technology or the fact that FIFA is a corruption ridden cesspool led by a complete muppet.

I'm fairly ambivalent to the sport overall. I'll happily watch two decent teams play each other (like the Brazil-Netherlands play off game last time around) but I don't actively follow it. I'll watch a bit of the world cup but most of the games are on around breakfast time because of the timezones.

 

I'm interested to know, from the people who dislike soccer/association football (its correct name), how many of you have sat down with a supporter during a match and had (or tried to have) a conversation about the match while the match is being played, like trying to understand tactics or questions about the players? Or have many of you just tried to casually watch by yourself and then gotten bored and flipped the channel? I'm not talking here specifically about the World Cup, but soccer in general.

I technically have 2 home teams: South Africa and England (I hold dual citizenship). I won't support South Africa due to continuous political interference from the Government in the selection of the National Team and due to the general attitude of the players, who seem to be blissfully unaware that they need to function as a team and not as 11 individuals every match. It was also disgraceful how they left Matthew Booth on the bench for the entirety of the last World Cup, despite being the country's best centre-back (and a strong favourite of S.A. supporters), mostly because he was White (he's married to a Black woman, by the way). I always support England for the major tournaments, anyway.

That penalty was an utter joke. Fred flopped over like a full sack of shit. The ref couldn't have been more pro-Brazil than if he was wearing their fucking kit.

JWags: I thought Pletikosa actually played quite well, for the most part. He was unlucky with the penalty and saved quite a few shots, especially from Oscar in the 2nd half. Oscar's finish for the 3rd Brazil goal showed good technique.

Association Football Rule Number 7: Duration Of A Match covers this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football#Duration_and_tie-breaking_methods

This one has links to all 17 Rules. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_the_Game_(association_football)

The second bolded part is exactly why the rules won't change soon.

 

The World Cup is an event, a corrupt evil event. It shouldn't be played in countries that don't have the infrastructure and can't afford to foot the bill. All the billions Brazil is spending to host this event would've been better spent on the countries infrastructure and social problems, that should be obvious. The fact that FIFA unabashedly rapes this event speaks to their arrogance and how little they give a fuck.

Soccer can be fun to watch, a think a lot of Americans dislike for it is just cultural. If you grew up in a place where it was the game you'd most likely like it too. I think its hard for some people to understand why some teams play they way they do, if you went to Italy or Uruguay you'd most likely understand better why these teams behave the way they do, the teams tend to be a reflection of the country they're from.

 

I hate soccer. I've been to over 15 matches, most of them when I lived in Salt Lake. I think the team was Real Salt Lake. I went with diehard soccer fans, one of them a good friend of mine that has traveled all over the world just to go see soccer being played. At the same time my girlfriend played soccer 2-3 times a week, and would ask me to go to her games and professional games.
But the majority of the time I went because I had some custies that loved soccer and was there to entertain. I think I also have an unfair bias as well, because I think Real Salt Lake played their games at the UofU's football stadium.... Which meant no booze. You can't pregame enough for that shit. One of the times I was with customers I got kicked out for sneaking booze in.

I hated every fucking minute of it. I can't think of anything less exciting in sports than soccer. I hate it so much, I can't believe I actually opened this thread up.

 

This is exactly why Americans will never take soccer seriously, the diving is atrocious and the penalty box makes this tactic way too effective. At least in basketball a dive is only worth 2 points, in soccer its worth a goal sometimes. I get the nationalism of the World Cup, I get the excitement behind it considering its played every 4 years, but the event itself is riddled with corruption and hardly if ever benefits the country that hosts it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-gnobU3TIA