CONGRATS JAPAN!!!!

WOW!! I keep saying that, but I am very impressed at the fancy footwork and team play I am seeing. Of course I am a big fan of MLB and the NFL ... but the MLB World Series actually has little to do with the "world", so they should not really say "World Champions" and such .... but ......

World Cup football is truely a world sporting event. I always kind of thought of this type of football as a Europe thing (Brazil too), but this year countries spanning the whole world are in the round of 16. I am a new fan to this, so I have missed some history, but from what I am seeing this is truely a WORLD CUP... WOW!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-24 23:39 by Max'sKansasCity.

Very nice to read your comments Max'sKansasCity.

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Good to see you're comin' round!

Its been mostly dominated by Europe and South American teams since the first tournament in 1930, but there are more European teams simply because there are far more countries in Europe.

South America has actually produced seven champions (5 Brazil and 2 Argentina) against 9 from Europe (4 Italy, 3 Germany/W Germany, 1 each from England and France) - and this is the 5th tournament out of 17 which has been staged outside those two regions (Mexico 1970 & 1986, USA 1994, Japan & S Korea 2002), so its definitely become more of a global event in recent decades.

Its the biggest sporting event on the planet. Even though only 32 countries make the finals (it used to be just 16 and then 24), over 200 countries enter it and the TV audience is greater than the Olympics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-25 00:18 by Gazza.

A truly great performance by Japan and none too soon! The expectations in Japan before the cup were 3 and out and the cries for Okada's head (their coach) were many and loud. Now that they have unexpectedly made it to the knockout round,they may build a statue of him Osaka. And to echo Max's view, it's wonderful to see a sporting event that is truly a world event, unlike the Ptolemaic view that the United States has when it comes to "world series"...

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kleermaker
Both finalists from 2006 out in the first round. That's the most important and sensational conclusion so far. Has any football 'expert' predicted this? NO!

And which "expert" predicted a half-final with the participation of one of those : Uruguay/South Corea/USA/Ghana ?

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ChrisM
unlike the Ptolemaic view that the United States has when it comes to "world series"...

All do respect Chris. It is a Worlds Series because players from all over the world play in the major leagues. The world cup is a country specific event. Completely different.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

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sweetcharmedlife

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ChrisM
unlike the Ptolemaic view that the United States has when it comes to "world series"...

All do respect Chris. It is a Worlds Series because players from all over the world play in the major leagues. The world cup is a country specific event. Completely different.

Charmed - I tire of the "Why is it a World Series if it doesn't include teams from across the globe?" comments, but the MLB World Series name has nothing to do with where players originate. It was called the World Series back when only white men from America participated.

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WMiller

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sweetcharmedlife

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ChrisM
unlike the Ptolemaic view that the United States has when it comes to "world series"...

All do respect Chris. It is a Worlds Series because players from all over the world play in the major leagues. The world cup is a country specific event. Completely different.

Charmed - I tire of the "Why is it a World Series if it doesn't include teams from across the globe?" comments, but the MLB World Series name has nothing to do with where players originate. It was called the World Series back when only white men from America participated.

Yeah I know. I was just trying to make it relevant to the game today. People get too caught up in a name sometimes.

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sweetcharmedlife

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WMiller

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sweetcharmedlife

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ChrisM
unlike the Ptolemaic view that the United States has when it comes to "world series"...

All do respect Chris. It is a Worlds Series because players from all over the world play in the major leagues. The world cup is a country specific event. Completely different.

Charmed - I tire of the "Why is it a World Series if it doesn't include teams from across the globe?" comments, but the MLB World Series name has nothing to do with where players originate. It was called the World Series back when only white men from America participated.

Yeah I know. I was just trying to make it relevant to the game today. People get too caught up in a name sometimes.

I'm not so much caught up the name as having it at least be accurate in what the name describes. The World Baseball Classic is more representative of a baseball world series because multiple countries are represented. Not so in the case of MLB's "world series' Having a few players from different countries on a team is not the same thing...

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Max'sKansasCity
CONGRATS JAPAN!!!!

WOW!! I keep saying that, but I am very impressed at the fancy footwork and team play I am seeing. Of course I am a big fan of MLB and the NFL ... but the MLB World Series actually has little to do with the "world", so they should not really say "World Champions" and such .... but ......

World Cup football is truely a world sporting event. I always kind of thought of this type of football as a Europe thing (Brazil too), but this year countries spanning the whole world are in the round of 16. I am a new fan to this, so I have missed some history, but from what I am seeing this is truely a WORLD CUP... WOW!!!

Great post there, Max.
are you actually from Kansas City?

you're getting it right.
while I'm not a football nutter per se, I'm loving this tournament quite a lot.
lots of more americans seem to get into it and dig this. it sure helps to have a strong US team that you have.

and yeah, dang! I had to google what MLB means.
I thought it had something to do with Mother.....ooh, oh.

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Max'sKansasCity

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SwayStones
It's not the 1st time I notice that the letter "Z" is added to some words on these kind of pics ..... why ?

Sway, that is known as "LOLspeak", and is done a lot on this site... [icanhascheezburger.com] I am not sure why they do it, but it is like "baby talk", except it is "kitty cat talk", for instance "I no eated da cheeseburger", I think they imagine this is the way a cat would talk, if a cat could speak human. Somtimes I can not even understand what the captions are saying, but the pictures and videos they post on that site are sometimes pretty funny.

Now I get it !Thank you very much,Max'sKansasCity !
Very funny indeed .

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sweetcharmedlife
All do respect Chris. It is a Worlds Series because players from all over the world play in the major leagues. The world cup is a country specific event. Completely different.

That makes no sense to me at all. The English premier league isnt called the World Premier League, Seria A isnt the World Seria A etc etc

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Gazza
Good to see you're comin' round!

Its been mostly dominated by Europe and South American teams since the first tournament in 1930, but there are more European teams simply because there are far more countries in Europe.

South America has actually produced seven champions (5 Brazil and 2 Argentina) against 9 from Europe (4 Italy, 3 Germany/W Germany, 1 each from England and France) - and this is the 5th tournament out of 17 which has been staged outside those two regions (Mexico 1970 & 1986, USA 1994, Japan & S Korea 2002), so its definitely become more of a global event in recent decades.

Its the biggest sporting event on the planet. Even though only 32 countries make the finals (it used to be just 16 and then 24), over 200 countries enter it and the TV audience is greater than the Olympics.

Gazza you're missing a couple of wins by Uruguay.

Today two great Europe versus South America games.
Brazil - Portugal
Spain - Chili

What will come after that in next round?
Spain - Portugal
Brazil - Chili

or

Spain - Brazil
Portugal - Chili

????

Or will Cote d'Ivoire and Switzerland come up with a stunt?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-06-25 13:46 by marcovandereijk.

Switzerland will beat Honduras, Spain will beat Chili. Spain will win this group, with the second place probably going to Switzerland, if they can make enough goals.
Ivory Coast will go home like the rest of the very disappointing African teams. Well, okay, Ghana made it, but they can only score from penalty kicks and will be eliminated by the USA.

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marcovandereijk
Today two great Europe versus South America games.
Brazil - Portugal
Spain - Chili

What will come after that in next round?
Spain - Portugal
Brazil - Chili

or

Spain - Brazil
Portugal - Chili

????

Or will Cote d'Ivoire and Switzerland come up with a stunt?

The "easiest" task is for Switzerland...So I'm not quite sure about Spain-Brazil or Spain-Portugal.

Until now this is the worst cup I've seen since Italy 1990. Some enjoyable games, but the over all technical level is truly close to zero. Some good individual players, but no teams (with exceptions, of course).

C

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FreeBird
Switzerland will beat Honduras, Spain will beat Chili. Spain will win this group, with the second place probably going to Switzerland, if they can make enough goals.
Ivory Coast will go home like the rest of the very disappointing African teams. Well, okay, Ghana made it, but they can only score from penalty kicks and will be eliminated by the USA.

Freebird, inform the FIFA, so they can skip those matches and go straight ahead to the next rounds. Maybe you even know more!

Chile to draw, Switzerland to win

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leteyer

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Gazza
Good to see you're comin' round!

Its been mostly dominated by Europe and South American teams since the first tournament in 1930, but there are more European teams simply because there are far more countries in Europe.

South America has actually produced seven champions (5 Brazil and 2 Argentina) against 9 from Europe (4 Italy, 3 Germany/W Germany, 1 each from England and France) - and this is the 5th tournament out of 17 which has been staged outside those two regions (Mexico 1970 & 1986, USA 1994, Japan & S Korea 2002), so its definitely become more of a global event in recent decades.

Its the biggest sporting event on the planet. Even though only 32 countries make the finals (it used to be just 16 and then 24), over 200 countries enter it and the TV audience is greater than the Olympics.

Gazza you're missing a couple of wins by Uruguay.

Yep. First team to win it too (1930 & 1950). I figured the South America v Europe split was more even than I'd thought!

after France and Italy out, I'm afraid Spain might be the next one to get back home with flight number 505 !

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liddas
Until now this is the worst cup I've seen since Italy 1990. Some enjoyable games, but the over all technical level is truly close to zero. Some good individual players, but no teams (with exceptions, of course).

C

Have to say I agree. Italia '90 was the absolute nadir. The first week or so of this competition was on a par with it, although happily its picked up a bit.

Still a long way short of some truly great World Cups such as 1970,74,78,82 and USA '94.

Or maybe just a sign that I'm getting old and grumpy.

did you hear that many players complained about the quality of the ball ?
even Maradonna said this ball was crap.

Yeah, but Diego even at 50 could easily score from free kick in training with that dreadful ball!!!

That's total crap. First they said too many goals would be scored. Now, besides a few games, it's been 0-0's, 1-1 draws most of the time. So what is it? The ball is fine, it's how well the players perform.

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

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yorkey
That's total crap. First they said too many goals would be scored. Now, besides a few games, it's been 0-0's, 1-1 draws most of the time. So what is it? The ball is fine, it's how well the players perform.

Correct. A bad tradesman always blames his tools!

Not so. The ball is crap, EVERYBODY has said so whether winning or losing

They changed it to this new design/model for no reason and obviously didnt get many players involved in the design stage. Its got no dip comapared to the regular balls we use week in week out

Which would account for the ridiculous lack of goals being scored direct from free kicks. Less than 5 up until now I believe

Crazy

Or could it be in these days of big money contracts wit htheir regular teams,the palyers are finding it hard to get excited about playing for their national teams.

Fernando Torres deserve an Oscar... what a good actor he is. Such as Keita form Ivory Coast.

Go BRAZIL!!

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open-g
Great post there, Max.
are you actually from Kansas City?

you're getting it right.
while I'm not a football nutter per se, I'm loving this tournament quite a lot.
lots of more americans seem to get into it and dig this. it sure helps to have a strong US team that you have.

I am from KC, and thanks for the compliment, but I am just typing the truth. as I see it.
I am watching new things in this WC which are making it fun for me. I have tried in previous
WCs but ..... finally this time it is a blast. I suppose a better USA team helps, but
I have been watching the other teams play too, and it is great. It is not boring....

Time is of the essence... 90 minutes is a short time period, and
goals are valuable and precious. 11 men in motion at all times,
setting up plays ... running the plan,,,and eventually right place,
right players, right pass, right kick.....and GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!

IT IS GREAT!!!!