The 2010 FIFA World Cup thread (will contain spoilers)

[MrBug708]

USA Portugal is on ESPN Classic. JOB just scored the first goal

[Honolulu_Blue]

While I have no clue how to get Youtube videos to embed properly and don't know if this was posted elsewhere, but this Nike World Cup commercial is one of the coolest commercials of all time:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6...layer_embedded

[MrBug708]

The things I would do to Shakira

[whomario]

am currently watching the opening-concert. Great event, great atmospehere n that stadium. Actually a lot more enjoyable than things like that usually are, especially considerin i didn´t care much for the acts involved. I´m so glad it will finally start tomorrow, can´t wait. Hope it will be a blast, would be sooo important off the field as well.

Will definitely be a different type of world cup but i don´t doubt it will be a great one. Everyone allways is sceptical when a world cup is placed in a country not a soccer-power, but in the end it all works great all the same.

Hope to see and here a lot of this and South Africa stays in the tournament long (though the odds are slim, but no one gave South Korea any chance either) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K4Vi6oPQL8

it´s soooo hard to decide on a winner, i really don´t see any teams above the rest by a wide margin. Maybe Spain, if i had to name one. But there´s propably 9 or 10 teams with a decent chance to reach the Final.

Originally Posted by MrBug708

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShSbu...layer_embedded

more proof that every highlight video needs to have Explosions In The Sky playing in the background, great vid

[GoldenEagle]

I have started up a blog again and wrote a piece on England needing a holding mid against the US. If you are interested, check it out here:


England Foolish Not to Deploy Holding Midfielder Against the US « SoccerAppeal.com

[whomario]

other teams i will support/wish well outside of Germany and South Africa :

South Korea : just love their style of play, the way they never give up and move on both sides of the ball. Also their fans are absolutely great, maybe not as outgoing or creative as others but tons of fun to be around and very suportive of their team.

Spain : Just very fun to watch them circulate the ball.

Ivory Coast : Tood bad they drew 2 great teams, a lot of great players and they play a great style of soccer.

[MikeVic]

My main team is Brazil since they're fun to watch and I liked them as a kid.

I normally cheer for my parents' countries (Poland and Croatia) but since neither are in, I kind of adopted Ivory Coast. Other than that, just looking for great soccer.

[Big Fo]

Outside of the US who I obviously want to see do well-

For:

Netherlands - I like their style, and from reading some soccer books (Brilliant Orange among others) and liking certain players they've had over the years I've found myself rooting for them in tournaments. They are also a fun country to play as in the Europa Universalis games and have an interesting history imo.

Italy - They've always my second team behind the US due to Italian ancestry and me loving players like Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini when I first started following the sport.

Honduras - I always root for the other non-Mexican CONCACAF teams. And I enjoyed the videos of Honduran fans running through the streets with Honduran and American flags after Jonathan Bornstein's header against Costa Rica ensured that Honduras finished third in the region and automatically qualified for the World Cup.

Against:

England - Gerrard, Terry, Joe Cole, Carragher. It's hard for me to root for a team with those guys in it. Plus they are in our group and them winning the thing would be referenced often throughout the next few EPL seasons which I can do without.

Brazil - They've won it enough times already imo. Plus Robinho is obnoxious. And people go on about how they play sexy football despite the fact they've been a very pragmatic team for a number of years now, using physicality, two non-creative holding midfielders, etc.

France/Germany - I've just never liked either of them. I should be over it by now but I'm still a little bitter about the nature of our defeat by Germany in 2002.

Mexico - Our biggest rivals, I enjoy watching them lose despite the fact we share a region. And Rafa Marquez is a dirty bastard.

[Coffee Warlord]

For: USA, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany

Against: Brazil, Italy, France, Mexico. Hell. Anyone not in the above.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Honduras - I always root for the other non-Mexican CONCACAF teams. And I enjoyed the videos of Honduran fans running through the streets with Honduran and American flags after Jonathan Bornstein's header against Costa Rica ensured that Honduras finished third in the region and automatically qualified for the World Cup.

I'm also pulling hard for Honduras.

1. Tailgaited with their fans for hours before a Gold Cup double-header last year and they were super-accommodating, a lot of fun, and freely expressed that they also loved the USA quite a bit. One dude even had a home-made 50/50 USA/Honduras jersey.

2. Wilson Palacios is one of my favorite players, playing for my English club team (Tottenham).

3. The dramatic fashion in which we helped them qualify, and their super-amazing reaction to it were just great stories.

[MrBug708]

Mexico on the brink

[cartman]

That was a pretty sweet goal by South Africa

[MikeVic]

Why was that Mexico goal offside? There was a South African player on the goalline...?

[MJ4H]

The offsides rule states that there must be two defenders ahead of the attacker when the ball is played forward, not just one. One of them is almost always the keeper, so people are used to just looking for one actual defender. In this case, the keeper was down at the corner market, so there needed to be two defenders ahead, and there was just the one guy standing on the line.

[Butter]

This could be a pretty amazing start.

[Fidatelo]

My team is England (ancestry). Backup for when they inevitably collapse in some kind of spectacular fashion is Netherlands (not sure why). I'd like to see the US do well so long as it doesn't harm England.

I'm not really against any team, at least yet. In the past it seems like a couple teams inevitably annoy me in the group stages, so I'm sure by the semi's I'll have someone to root against, but I don't know who yet.

[bhlloy]

#1 - having commentators that actually know the offside rule is a plus. Thank god the studio guys at halftime realized their mistake. I was going to kill the next person who didn't know the rule live on air.

#2 - that goal was absolutely ridiculous. To hit a ball that is bouncing away from you like that, unreal. Not getting enough love IMO.

#3 - Mexican keeper is terrible. Don't they have some hotshot on the bench? Think they might want to put him in for the next game.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

The offsides rule states that there must be two defenders ahead of the attacker when the ball is played forward, not just one. One of them is almost always the keeper, so people are used to just looking for one actual defender. In this case, the keeper was down at the corner market, so there needed to be two defenders ahead, and there was just the one guy standing on the line.

Dead on and I'm amazed that the commentators didn't understand this. It's a rule that doesn't come up that much but it was dead on correctly called. Kudos to the officials.

[Galaxy]

Amazing goal for South Africa.

[MikeVic]

The commentator here said the offside was the right call but didn't say why, so I was lost.

Yeah the Mexican goalie is bad.

[Galaxy]

Almost 2-0! I thought he got knocked off.

[Fidatelo]

Those horns are killing me, I'm trying to work while I watch and the noise in the background is brutal.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

The commentator here said the offside was the right call but didn't say why, so I was lost.

Yeah the Mexican goalie is bad.

The first team keeper has had some bad issues with holding onto the ball and he was benched for this game

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Those horns are killing me, I'm trying to work while I watch and the noise in the background is brutal.

I'm hoping we get used to it. I was really hoping they would ban them for all matches except for South Africa's.

[Logan]

Anyone using ESPN3? I lost sound like 5 mins into the 2nd half and it hasn't come back. I'm scared to reload in case it doesn't connect as well

And yes, that ball placement on the goal was ridiculous.

[Galaxy]

1-1.

[MrBug708]

Crap

[kingfc22]

Anybody streaming from a site other than espn3 as I haven't been able to get on the entire game?

[cartman]

OMFG!!! That was SOOOO close to being an awesome goal for SA

[Masked]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Anybody streaming from a site other than espn3 as I haven't been able to get on the entire game?

No video, but I'm listening on espnradio.com

[cartman]

And that's the game. 1-1 draw.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by cartman

OMFG!!! That was SOOOO close to being an awesome goal for SA

the South African GKs kick-offs have been amazing all game,that is actually a great weapon Decent first game, too bad SA couldn´t pull in the win ... But overall mexico was at least equal, although the 2nd half wasn´t good by them at all.

[bhlloy]

Mexico won't be going far, any team with world class players is going to shred that defence and goalie.

[ISiddiqui]

Which is strange, because they started to look a bit dangerous coming into the World Cup.

[kingfc22]

Mexico's GK looked very weak.

They aren't going very far with him.

[Arles]

They've pretty much always been fairly pedestrian when not playing at home. You take away the pack stadium, smog and elevation and Mexico is a mid-range world team at best.

[MJ4H]

Video highlights of game 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrjLZ_UYUl4

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

i had guardado (assist) and marquez (goal) on my cup fantasy team.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

I imagine Mexico will be starting Ochoa from here on out.

Obviously though the goal was not Perez's fault. What a strike.

[wade moore]

On the root for front:

1. USA
2. Republic of Ireland (sigh) - due to ancestry.
3. Nigeria - My best friend was born there and we would watch them in world cup years. Root for them because of him and because they seem to always play a fun, fast, attacking style (this is from a non-soccer guy).

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

I imagine Mexico will be starting Ochoa from here on out.

Obviously though the goal was not Perez's fault. What a strike.

Yes and no - the strike was unstoppable but my first instinct as a goalie was that he should have come out for the through ball. Where he was positioned is pretty much where you don't want to be - come out and challenge the shot.

[whomario]

hmm, then again he cleared quite a few through-balls and is known for just that. Just watched it again and can´t say there´s much of a chance at going off the line here with the way the ball is played. Tshabala hits that anything less than perfect and Perez gets it the way he´s positioned.

Was definitely less than stellar when it came to crosses, but his play on through balls imo was spot on mostly.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Those horns are killing me, I'm trying to work while I watch and the noise in the background is brutal.

Is that what is making that sound like a hive of bees? Really annoying.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is that what is making that sound like a hive of bees? Really annoying.

I'm wondering if it could hurt the number of casual viewers of the less popular games. Gotta say, I may be on the fence...

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is that what is making that sound like a hive of bees? Really annoying.

http://www.freep.com/article/2010061...-the-vuvuzelas

It's the vuvuzelas.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

#1 - having commentators that actually know the offside rule is a plus. Thank god the studio guys at halftime realized their mistake. I was going to kill the next person who didn't know the rule live on air.

I was losing my f'ing mind that not only did they get it wrong - they went ON and ON for 15 minutes about it being a bad or controversial call. Producers - step in and whisper something in their ear dammnit!

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

I was losing my f'ing mind that not only did they get it wrong - they went ON and ON for 15 minutes about it being a bad or controversial call. Producers - step in and whisper something in their ear dammnit!

Really is no excuse for having someone that ignorant about the rules calling the game.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is that what is making that sound like a hive of bees? Really annoying.

I had a good laugh when I unlocked the first extra in WC 2010 on the Wii: the ability to turn the horns off.

[cthomer5000]

lets go Uruguay

Thierry Henry starts on the bench for France. No worries, he'll be starting for my New York Red Bulls shortly.

[Galaxy]

I think the mute button is going to be quite useful during this WC.