World Cup 2006 (Football)

[Drygioni]

The thought of hanging on every kick of a match, eating Pringles and singing teary anthems along with a pub audience is getting me tingly already.

Do you fine fellows from around the world (North America and maybe Australia a little bit) follow this greatest of competitions? All talk of speculation goes here, and it can be revived when the actual thing comes round.

Or you could just treat this as a football thread. That will keep it alive. (Or not.)

[AugustWest]

Do you fine fellows from around the world (North America and maybe Australia a little bit) follow this greatest of competitions?

No.

[FlipConstantine]

I try to follow it, but it's never on American TV.  Soccer/Football is one of the only sports that I enjoy watching, so it cheeses me off that we here have a tendency to completely ignore it.

[wombat]

The strange thing about the US is that there is apparently a rule that all suburban children must belong to a soccer league. From the size of the children I have observed in the local parks, I would guess that the rule kicks in as soon as they learn to walk.

But that's it.  It is a sport entirely for children here.

[AlohaDawg]

I have friends in adult leagues both here and in Chicago.

My friend in Chicago is 38 and played semi-professionally in the US - now he coaches and runs camps, as well as plays in highly physical and competetive leagues featuring lots of people from Europe and Mexico / South America. He's pretty tough.

It's a good sport in that you can get lots of participation for not-too-great expense, and the skills to just play and have fun are fairly easy - running and kicking. It also keeps kids at a higher activity level for longer time on average then baseball or even football. I'll be coaching 7 year olds in AYSO this fall. I think if you can get hundreds of kids out to exercise, that's a good thing.

All that said, I prefer baseball or football to watch and baseball to play. But the rest of the world loves their soccer. If you want to watch it on TV, invest in digital cable. There is ALWAYS soccer on somewhere. I can watch European soccer matches almost any day of the week with my cable carrier. Too bad I don't really have a team. I like the name Arsenal though.

[theinevitable]

my knowledge of Football is this:

one time in Belgium, when we were eating at this wierd little greek place, a drunken belgian came up and started trying to get us to be more into it.

he just kept repeating "(whatever the country was)!", with occaisional "bastards! bastard son of bitch!" when the refs made a call against that team.

[jough]

To that dude's credit, the refs really are bastard sons of bitch.

I don't watch football, but whenever anyone asks me what my favourite (american) football team is, my stock answer is "Manchester United."  This apparently incites people to confusion or violence.

[swinehund]

I do not follow it, but I have a friend here who came from northern England. He was once telling me how he was slightly knackered from thinkg too much his team's (Portsmouth) penultimate footie game. Apparently they were trying to avoid relegation. They managed the great escape and stayed up at the expense of Birmingham and West Brom.

I figure this is fair, because once I explained my thesis to him.

Though to be fair, I caught a bit of some games on while I was in Europe. It is pretty fast-paced and exciting, moreso than American Football, but I still think it's funny that even the yoga instructors are totally into it.

[wombat]

Ok, I slightly exagerrate the lack of adult participation in soccer, but really, am I the only one who finds it odd that your most prominent mental association with European soccer is rioting drunken hooligans while your primary image of soccer in the US is a nice wholesome form of exercise to burn off the extra energy of small children?

[Mite]

I never watched nor played football/soccer until 2002. It was summer, I was a senior in college, I was only taking one class, and consequently I was up all night. What, to my wondering eyes, was on tv but the coolest thing ever! I watched nearly every game, and all in the middle of the night! I got up at 5 am to watch special matches! I chatted with my Irish coworker about how awesome it was that they nearly tied the Italians and then lost it in the free kicks at the end. I explained the offsides rules to people who obviously didn't give a shit. I knittied a really wide and 10 foot long scarf while I did it. It was awesome. I've been waiting for this summer ever since.

Unfortunately, I'm tv-less at the moment. Luckily, the Brewhouse Cafe is just down the street from me, and they broadcast all the games! If you need me in June or July, you'll know where to look. I think I'll knit another scarf.

[CortJstr]

To that dude's credit, the refs really are bastard sons of bitch.

I don't watch football, but whenever anyone asks me what my favourite (american) football team is, my stock answer is "Manchester United."  This apparently incites people to confusion or violence.

What the hell is a "united" anyway? DC United has been around for some time and best I can figure a united is vaguely frightening looking eagle.

[wombat]

I always assumed that DC or Manchester United was the opposite of, like, Manchester Broken-up-into-little-pieces, which is what you get after the drunken hooligans have their riots.

[theinevitable]

maybe it's Manchester United, as opposed to maybe South Manchester, or North Manchester? I guess the mancunians got it together to be "united" is what they're saying there.

yeah I had to show off. It took me so long to figure out that "Mancunian" is like "Manchester-ite."

[Drygioni]

maybe it's Manchester United, as opposed to maybe South Manchester, or North Manchester? I guess the mancunians got it together to be "united" is what they're saying there.

yeah I had to show off. It took me so long to figure out that "Mancunian" is like "Manchester-ite."

It really means nothing. When you get two teams in an area, they can't be both called the same thing. So we have a Manchester City and Manchester United. Bristol Rovers and Bristol City. Liverpool and Everton. They might have stadiums within a mile or two of each other, but they go by different names so people living in the same area are incited to beat each other up.

It's like your equivalent of the Miami Dolphins and such. It just makes the name a slight more interesting, and also differentiates between teams in a same area, basically.

[Roger]

I never cared much about football/soccer, unlike the other 99% of the people who happen to live in my country. But it's hard to remain indifferent during World Cups, since everytime the Brazilian team plays it's basically a national holiday around here. Fine by me...