FIFA World Cup - Germany 2006 (1 Viewer)

[Yee-Ming]

Personally I thought the opening ceremony was seriously "blah", the one redeeming feature being past winners parading. Oddly, it seems Italy 1982 decided to give the event a pass, only 3 members showing up (I assume anyone who played in 1934 or 1938 has passed on...).

The opening game really blew away the usual stereotype of boring opening game (and potential upset for the favoured team). Well done Germany, especially considering they were without their only recognised world-class player.

England-Paraguay and Argentina-Ivory Coast tonight should be interesting.

BTW, Lew's explanation of how the groups were drawn is quite accurate, hence the problem: not all African and Asian teams are viewed as being equally weak -- get the Ivory Coast, you get a Group of Death, get Tunisia, you sail through; get either South Korea or Japan you face a potential upset, get Saudi Arabia you can look to pad your goal difference.

Oh, and one American-ism in commentary now comes to mind: "tie" (when teams are level) -- Brits use the term "draw", with a "tie" being the fixture itself (e.g. a World Cup tie referring to the game itself, or an FA Cup tie when English clubs play an FA Cup game rather than a league fixture).

 

[Melanie]

De-lurking. As a citizen of Germany I couldn't have asked for a better opener. High scoring. Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for the other matches. Killer goals by Lahm and Frings. Exciting action. Terrible and embarassing defence, especially Friedrich. If he is still around next time my heart might not be able to take it. Will be dismantled as soon as we play a top team.

My stakes are on England and Sweden today. I want to witness smashing matches.

Saw a brief report on the WC on NBC Nightly News. The reporter was trying to convey the philosophy of the game. "Anyone can play it, anywhere." along with footage of African children kicking an old ball on a dusty road. And it's so true, because almost every other sport needs more equipment like a bat or a racket. I know that soccer is quite popular with American kids. And it's good to see that some of you are following the WC on ESPN. But with football, baseball, icehockey, basketball ... I guess soccer just wasn't meant to be a popular pro league was it?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Some very small nitpicking, Yee-Ming:

The Brits (and much of the old empire, by extension) also use the word ‘tie’ to mean an equal score—at least in cricket, where ‘draw’ means that neither side won, while the word ‘tie’ is used to describe the very rare (but it has happened) event where the score is equal.

 

[Holadem]

So does anyone else actually prefer the Univision broadcast to the ABC/ESPN thing?

The picture is worse on my side with Univision (strange, it was better 4 years ago) and I don't understand jacksquat... but it is just so much more exciting this way :b.

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H

 

[Ricardo C]

I recommend Latin American broadcasts in general, language barriers notwithstanding The nuttiness of the announcers comes through even if you don't understand them

I restricted the recommendation to Latin american broadcasts because Spain broadcasts tend to be as dull as most European ones.

Regarding the latest match: Paraguay lost it, England didn't win it. Just as Germany wowed me yesterday, so have the English disappointed me today.

 

[Ricardo C]

I hope someone returns Avery John's tackle later in the game. That was pretty nasty.

 

[Lew Crippen]

While I was not as impressed with opening’s games play as those who have posted here, I’ll give Germany full marks for attacking the whole game. England did not impress, even though they won—still I guess that if you win on a day when you don’t play that well, it can be argued as a big positive

Beckham’s excellent free kick notwithstanding—for 90 minutes of play to result in the only score being an own goal is a real letdown after the first game yesterday.

No one seemed interested in scoring during the second half, at least until Paraguay supplied some pressure during the last few minutes.

I watch about half in English and half in Spanish.

I watched in some matches of the 1994 World Cup in Portuguese, including the final Brazil/Italy game, not because I understand the language, but because I was in Brazil for some of that time.

Nuttiness does not begin to describe the commentary.

 

[Brook K]

For me HD trumps announcers (even if ABC is by far the worst-looking HD station on my cable) and I don't have Univision in HD (if such a creature exists)

Watched some of the German game yesterday, have the T&T v Sweden game on now with what has to be the shock of the Cup so far. Hislop, the T&T keeper, has been incredible. Stonewalled the Swedes multiple times.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Trinidad & Tobago playing 10 men almost the whole second half manage a scoreless draw against Sweden with (as Brook notes) major-league help from their reserve goalkeeper, Hislop.

And I thought, a bad call by the ref to give a second yellow to Avery John for a hard challenge. He sort of rewarded Sweden for backing off on that challenge.

 

[Aaron Schmitt]

Go T&T! They played well with only 10 men in the second half. Sweden did have their chances though, but Hislop was on fire. I loved how the crowd turned for T&T during the match, rising to the occassion when they made a good play.

That second yellow on Avery John was a really weak call. He got to the ball first, and was hustling for the ball, not backing off to set up a flop for a call.

A

 

[AlexBC]

Lew,

I'm completely there with you: though I wasn't too fond of the first game, I'll give German a nod for the constant pressure over the whole game.


You were probably hearing Galvão Bueno's narration. Maaan, he's probably the best in the world. There's just not enough words to describe the passion this man has for the thing. And I say that not just because there's no language barrier for me, but because he's really that good (I can also speak english and spanish just fine, and I've watched plenty of games commented in both languages from a variety of countries and different commentators).

I loved the Sweden x Trinidad & Togago game, though there were no goals, you could feel there was really some heart there (mostly for the latter).

Now off to watch the Argentina match.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Argentina wins 2–1 over the Ivory Coast—and I thought looked the better of the two sides for most of the game. I also thought that the Ivory Coast seemed to give up in the last few minutes—they just looked dispirited and did not seem to have the energy necessary to get another goal. Strange because the few minutes before that, they were really pressing the South Americans.

 

[Simon Massey]

England were awful for the second half today and are badly missing Rooney in the final third of the pitch. The seemed controlled in defence and midfield but were left hoofing the ball up to Crouch and the crosses were poor. Its the results that count but they are going to have to play better. Still, they are often slow starters in competitions.

Trinadad and Tobago played really well, especially when they were down to 10 men. And what a great game between Argentina and Ivory Coast. The debutants were very unlucky not to come away with a point.

I have to say there have been some very strange decisions being made by some of the referees in all of the games I have seen.

 

[Shane Martin]

Yup, several no calls in the later half of the England game.

 

[Alex-C]

This is nitpicky, I know, but the England broadcast could have been better. The annoucers were just okay, then right after the goal, they lost the HD signal for about 20 minutes (dont know if it was the local affiliate or what, but it may have been necessary to tell the kiddies their That's So Raven would be on later, because, you know...no message would have been devastating) but the biggest complaint was you couldn't really hear the crowd.

I am sure it had to do with that venue because the other games were all much better, and frankly, if you can't hear an English crowd rooting their team on, in the World Cup, then what is the point ?

They just sounded like they were in a sealed booth and could have been in Bristol, CT for all I knew.

oh well.

England's lackluster performance notwithstanding, the games have exceeded my expectations so far. Great talent. Awesome plays. Despite an HD-DVR, I got up at 6 am to watch England live ! so much fun !

That Argentina-Ivory Coast game was thouroughly enjoyable and should have been 4-1. There was a clear goal early on,...well, debatable whether the whole ball crossed, but still looked like it crossed on my big HD screen.

Go Mexico tomorrow !

 

[Holadem]

I hate to agree with this but I do.

I have hope for Ivory Coast. Morale was took a big dip in the second half, but overall they played a fresh and energetic game, devoid of the inferiority complex which often plagues first timers.

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H

 

[Ray Chuang]

In my humble opinion, the game of the day was Trinidad & Tobago v. Sweden playing to a 0-0 tie. The reason was simple: Shaka Hislop literally played the game of his life to keep the ball out of the goal, which was more amazing considering that T&T played one man down.

(By the way, did you know Hislop attended Howard University here in the USA some years ago?)

 

[BrianB]

He went in with two feet & his studs. Automatic yellow card.

 

[Andy_Bu]

The games have been mixed so far in quality (at least for me).

The Germany game was quite fun, while I found the Ecuador game to be slow.

The England game was horrendous to watch as both teams sucked IMO.

But I loved the last two games yesterday. The T&T game was so fun to watch them hang on and the Argie game was just electric.


Andy

 

[Lew Crippen]

It will take a couple of more games, but I’m revising my opinions of England and Argentina (one up and one down).

I’d watched Trinidad & Tobago a couple of times and really did not give them any chance at all—I agree Andy—tremendous fun. I found myself getting swept up in both of those games, something that did not happen the first day.