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The WORLD CUP 2010
Topic Started: Dec 4 2009, 02:58 PM (643 Views)
[=T=] HawK
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I'm gonna have a little conversation with myself about the World Cup, because living in the States (the only country in the world that doesn't get excited about the World Cup) I am a sporting outcast for liking Football and don't expect anyone else to give a monkey's. Talking real football here, the original, the one where you play with your feet hence "foot"ball. ;)

Anyway, if anyone is interested I'll probably post here with updates and maybe pass on some tidbits of information.

Getting into the World Cup
204 countries around the world try to qualify to get into the World Cup in the qualifying rounds. They compete in their own regions (America, Asia, Europe etc.). These qualifying rounds are a competition in themselves, but are spread out over several months so as not to impact club level competitions too much. Sometimes this is a point that confuses American sports fans because so much in the U.S. is on a club level and not a national team level, but think of it as an All Star team in American Football where you have a National coach who takes the best players from each Pro-football team and then competes against the rest of the world with that team of players who best represent your country.

After the Qualifying rounds you are left with 32 countries. These countries are put into 8 separate groups with a seeded country (rated a top 8 country in the world) put into each group first. This avoids top countries being in the same groups. These groups all play each other and then the winners progress to the next stage f the competition which is a knockout quarter-final, followed by a the semis and then the behemoth of all sporting events; the World Cup Final.

The groups were named today;

Group A:
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B:
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

Group C:
England
USA

Algeria
Slovenia

Group D:
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E:
Holland
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F:
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G:
Brazil
North Korea
Ivory Coast
Portugal

Group H:
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

Note England and USA being drawn together. This will be a tough one. USA always play with heart in this sport and often don't get the credit they deserve from their own media, but they also don;t get a lot of pressure to deliver from the nation as a whole. England on the other hand have a nation that piles the pressure on the team and demands so much from their team. This pressure often gets to the players who lock up due to the stress. The difference in pressure on these two teams can be a great balance and I look forward to seeing them play.

Favorites

Brazil are always brilliant. It's in their genes and they seem incapable of not playing amazing football. When they have a bad day they can still humiliate you.
Spain are a team that always froze when it mattered but now they are coming off a big tournament win (winning the Euro competition - also every 4 years. Offset between each World Cup) and are definitely going to be challenging.
Germany always seem to have a formula for doing well. They don't always have big names or create a lot of hype, then you blink and their in a final.

Controversy
France got into the World Cup after scoring a goal that followed a handball incident that the ref missed. Ireland miss out on the WC because of the decision.

Argentina have Diego Maradona, once one of the greatest players of all time as their national coach. He recently told reporters at a press conference that they all had dicks up their asses. Thiis followed a poor run of form by the Argintine team and a lot of criticism being pointed at Diego Maradona. Diego of course is no stranger to controversy after he knocked England out of a World Cup by scoring with his had. He then claimed it was the hand of God that scored not his.

When and Where?
South Africa, Summer 2010

More info; http://www.skysports.com/football/world-cup-2010/
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[=T=] Lancer
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I can't claim that I am an avid follower of the other football, or that I even watch many games at all. However, I do still enjoy all the pride involved in the sport due to its mass following. I wish that more Americans (myself included) would pay closer attention to it and that the World Cup would receive more from America than just a brief mention during the sports section of the evening news cast. I will of course be cheering on the USA team, but I will also be paying close (closer than the usual non existent) attention to Brazil. Last spring in need of some exercise, I ended up joining an Intramural Futsal team. To those who don't know, futsal is basically indoor soccer. Becuase of this, A buddy of mine who was from Brazil made me watch hours of soccer/football video clips to try and compensate for me years of inexperience.
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[=T=] HawK
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I used to play 11 a side football at school. But later on in my 20's I played a lot of 5-A-Side football (the English term for indoor football). Me and my friends could rent a military sports hall for free and we would play twice a week. That game is constant running especially if you have people unable to make it some weeks and you end up playing 3 on 3 for a couple of hours. I actually liked that even more. It made you focus completely and you had to be really fit to keep up. I absolutely loved those games and actually got an addiction type of withdrawal feeling when I hadn't played for over 4 days.

Back to regular football though. I think one of the problems for Americans is that with the regular season and club level football, they don't have any emotional connection to a team, especially if there isn't one in their city. The excitement just isnt there in the MLS either for whatever reason. David Beckham came over and many said it was the beginning of a new era etc. for the MLS but that alone isn't going to make the MLS anything like the English Premiership or any of the other big European leagues. So when the World Cup comes around Americans do have something to to connect with, their national team. The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics and it's a fair competition as well being 11 men vs 11 men, so it's a huge deal.

I think the important thing when watching a game for the first time, is not to expect too much. That may sound strange, but I'm sure some American football fans will watch 5 minutes of a "soccer" game and then say it's boring or something. This is the same for a soccer fan who tries to watch American Football. You have to give it a real chance. The reason it is such a captivating game is because it's so fluid and organic. Anything can happen at any time, whether it be a vicious tackle, an outrageous dive, a sensational goal or a spectacular save. But not all of this happens every minute of every game. Some games are boring and I fall asleep watching them, but others have me glued to the screen. When you are a fan of a team though and they need that win (or draw) to progress to the next round of a competition, the most boring game suddenly becomes the most intense 90 minutes of your life.
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[=T=] HawK
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If you're going to watch the World Cup, it's good to get to know you're team a little bit before they play their first real competitive game in the tournament. Currently all international teams are in a situation where they have named a provisional squad of 30 players but they can only take 23 to the World Cup. They play friendly matches so that the Coach can decide who makes the cut. Usually these games allow fringe players an opportunity to impress but the games are also about building confidence ahead of the WC (if the team wins).

USA just played the Czech Republic who are a team that can surprise anyone on their day. They have some players who play at the top level in the English Premier League. Unfortunately for the USA the y lost 4-2 after leading 1-0. I personally thought that they showed some good fluid movement and attacked well, but were a little naive in defense. England had a friendly against Mexico who looked very organised and were a constant threat but England won 3-1. I think there's a lot for both teams (England & USA) to learn from those games but for now the main concern obviously has to be for USA to up their game before meeting England on June 12th.

USA SCHEDULE INCLUDING FRIENDLIES
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[=T=] RagingRedneck
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Quote:
 
Back to regular football though. I think one of the problems for Americans is that with the regular season and club level football, they don't have any emotional connection to a team, especially if there isn't one in their city.


Regular football, do you mean NFL?? If so i would disagree with the emotional connection idea. I love football, ever since i watched the first game with my dad and played my game in Jr. High. It requires strategic thinking, self-control and the will power to do it. You really have to love the sport to be good at. For me, no longer playing, i still watch it religiously and very game i watch gets me extremely pumped...even more so on the first preseason game of the season. The 4-6 break you get, all you can think about is when August gets hear, in the mean time your watching ESPN news, following the draft of new players and watching the summer training camps. All this excitement just building up...then that first preseason game comes along and as soon as that ball is kicked your just like "YEAAHH!!!" Football season has just begun. In that aspect i would says we have strong attachments because we have waiting period and when the waiting period is over, CHAOS!!! of excitement and emotion comes fourth.


With soccer, i have watched a few games in the past back when i had cable to do so and some of the games where like hawk said, they can be very active and moving or rather boring etc. So some the games i did watch, dont remember what, but they where quite enjoyable and i started getting into it for awhile. The problem i have is not with the physical sport itself, but with the way its setup, like Hawk said its a world sport all year around and i just find it hard to follow and keep track of what exactly is going on. This is what puts me off from continuing to follow it. Overally complex, i dont say this to offend the sport, if also feel the same way with College football(American) because it has some many teams and some many brackets etc that i find it difficult to follow it as well but because i love the sport so much i still watch it because i feel the best games to watch are on the college level when they have nothing to loose but everything to gain, so there is more heart and motivation to play hard and to play well, which makes for great skill full games.
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[=T=] HawK
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I was meaning that there's no emotional connection to Football (Soccer) for most Americans because they don't grow up with it as an integral part of their culture. Most guys Dad's wouldn't have watched soccer and therefore their sons wouldn't have developed an interest as a result. Also it's not a sport that's discussed at work or in bars in the same way as American Football, baseball etc. So without an emotional connection to a soccer team (club level) and understanding the history it has, the rivalry it has with other teams, the great players it has had and has now and the drama of events that happen on and off the field in relation to any team, then they don't have that connection. Without that connection they're watching the sport with a crucial element missing, which would be the case with any sport. It's how I feel when I watch some sports that I haven't been brought up with. The difference with Soccer though is that it is the biggest sport in the world and the World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet and when you're country is in it I think that there should be an emotional connection when the USA team is playing even if there isn't much interest in Soccer at club level.

I understand that all of the different levels of soccer are a bit confusing to take in at first, but that's partly because it's a sport that is played on two levels and American Football isn't. Soccer is played at club level where a city has a team (or in some cases multiple teams if it's a big city that can sustain them). This is like the NFL where you have the Patriots or whatever. Then imagine that the whole world played American Football, you would pick the best players (basically an All Star team) to then compete against other countries in a World Bowl.

Club level competitions are actually fairly straight forward (in Europe - I don't know about the MLS). You have a League which consists of 20 teams. In a season each team plays each other twice, home and away. 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw. The team with most points at the end of 38 games is the champion of that country at club level. The top 4 teams get to compete in competition that brings together the top teams (teams who finished top of their respective leagues) in their continent the following year. This competition basically decides which club is the best in Europe for example. The European competition is called the Champions League and teams get millions as a result of making it into the competition.

So there's a reward beyond just saying your the Champs of your country. But at the other end of league there's a punishment. If you finish in the bottom 3 you get relegated and have to drop a division. There are 4 divisions in England and a team that has problems can plummet and that means a big hit on revenue because only the top league gets the big bucks from TV revenue etc. It also makes the league interesting at both ends because you can see some real fights at the top to see who's going for the top spots but also a fight at the bottom to see who's going to stay in the league and not get dropped down.

There are also knockout cup competitions but these competitions which are very old (The FA Cup in England started in 1871) are losing popularity now because the country's leagues and the continent level leagues create so much revenue and are held as the ultimate goals of most club teams.

Internationals (The All Star type games where countries compete against each other) are also interesting because you can have a player from one team that you might despise or see as a rival team, but when they're in the international squad all of that gets put to one side and you find yourself willing them to play well when all season you've been hoping they would screw up.

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[=T=] The Immortal Moo
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ewww sports
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[=T=] HawK
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Quote:
 
it's a sport that is played on two levels


Actually it's a sport played on three levels now that I think about it. Each country has it's own league. Then there's the Continental level above that where the best club teams in a continent go against each other. Then there's Internationals where a country's team competes on a continental level every 4 years or at the World Cup every 4 years. So there's country club level (like the NFL), then continental level which would be like the top NFL teams playing the top NFL type players in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina etc., and then there's the internationals where USA competes. So three levels.
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[ T ] DGB92
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thanks for posting this hawk! i really needed to get back up to speed on the sport.
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[=T=] HawK
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No Problem. Just a little over a week now until it starts and then the England vs. USA game....can't wait! Although I'm a little but nervous after England's last friendly warm up game against Japan. A game that England were probably expect to score at least 3 goals in and be in a good mood before the WC started...instead Japan scored first and then England only won because Japan then scored two more goals...in their own goal!!! USA on the other hand played Turkey last week and went a goal down as well, but then they came back and scored 2 goals in the second half. Turkey are a decent team and can be tough to beat so it's hard to say who's looking better ahead of the England USA game.
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[=T=] HawK
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Article on MSNBC:

Hate Soccer? Other reasons to watch the World Cup.
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[=T=] HawK
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I'm going to do a mini-profile on Diego Maradonna. One of the greatest players of all time but equal to his football brilliance is his eccentricity. He is now the controversial manager of Argentina which many see as the Achilles heel of an otherwise great team.

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First you have to appreciate his past....

In 1986, four years after the Falklands War, he scored one of the best goals of all time...against England unfortunately.


In the same game he scored the goal that knocked England out of the World Cup...with his hand. The referee missed it and the goal stood. Maradonna claimed it as "the hand of god".
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"Ever since 1986, it is common for Argentines abroad to hear Maradona's name as a token of recognition, even in remote places.[8] The Tartan Army sing a version of the Hokey Cokey in honour of the Hand of God goal against England.[58] In Argentina, Maradona is often talked about in terms reserved for legends

After that Maradonna played before various club teams before become a fat outspoken junkie. Now after losing weight and supposedly being clean he's just outspoken. His press conferences are essential reading.

- He recently told reporters to "suck it, and keep on sucking it".
- Said his players can have sex at the World Cup as long as the women do all the work.
- Has said he'll run through the streets of Buenos Aires naked if Argentina win the Workd cup.
- Recently ran over a cameraman's leg with his car and told him he was an "asshole" for being in his way.
- Demanded $126,000 for an SI reporter to be able to speak to him






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[=T=] HawK
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An interesting article, this time from an English perspective, on how soccer is viewed in the U.S.

http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,13283_6196734,00.html

Quote:
 
This quiet revolution has been under way for the past 20 years. It is now ready to burst on an unsuspecting world like a tsunami of soccer savvy, an overwhelming focus on "U-S-A!" and a rabid desire to see Uncle Sam become a dominant force.
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[=T=] HawK
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Wednesday is D-Day for the U.S. and England team. Both are playing their last game in the group and they both need to win to go through to the quarter finals. If they do both win then goal difference will decide who finishes top (and then faces a weaker opponent in the quarter finals).

The U.S. are coming off a second draw against Slovenia, which was a game that they could have won if it weren't for the referee. But in this game you have to take your destiny n your own hands and letting two goals in in the first half was where the fault should really fall. It was a good comeback though and they're now in contention to go through to the next stage.

England face Slovenia after one of the most uninspiring games in the history of World Cup football. Two draws in a row for a team that was expected to win every game has put unnecessary pressure on the team, but now they have to deal with it. If they don;t change from the previous two games they may as well pack up and go home before playing Slovenia.

In other groups, Germany were dark horses and battered the Aussies and then after a masterclass came unstuck against Serbia.

France (who were World Cup champions 8 years ago) have pretty much self destructed. The team refused to train, the director of their football federation quit and there's complete dislike by the team and fans of their coach. On top of that they have lost two games and drawn won which means they're out ofthe world cup which is a big shock for a big team. To put it in perspective they were int he final last year!

Italy are the current World Cup Champions and but shocked the tournament when they lost to New Zealand who are one of the lowest ranked teams in the world and who, accordng to some media, shouldn't even be at the World Cup!

Brazil, Argentina and Holland are all racking up the points without much trouble and Chile is a surprise leader of Group H with a great game on the horizon with Spain to decide who tops that group.

Here are the tables;

http://www.skysports.com/football/world-cup-2010/tables/0,27310,,00.html
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[=T=] HawK
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Well if you're American and want to understand why football is the most popular game in the world and you missed the USA vs. Algeria game then you'll probably never know. USA had to get a win to progress because England were playing at the same time and they were 1-0 up in their game against Slovenia. If the results held, then England would top the group, Slovenia would be second and USA and Algeria would go home. The USA fans had looks of desperation and hopelessness, but in stoppage time Landon Donovan scored and the place erupted! The final whistle went and you had scenes of jubilation for the USA team and fans and tears or sorrow for the Algerians. Honestly if you missed this game then I think it's a great shame. There's something so huge going on that to not watch a game like this and support your nation in the World's biggest sporting event is a crime punishable by a wedgy followed by deportation!

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The bonus for USA finishing top of their group is that they now in theory face a slightly weaker opponent in the next round (Germany or Ghana), while England will face the winners of group D (Germany or Ghana).

After the group stages, every game is a knockout. The winner goes through to the semi-finals, finals etc.

KNOCKOUT CHART
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