Oy, I don’t know how I’ll work on my book and yet slip in the World Cup games, as there are three today! (Don’t expect anything substantive on this website.)
The start times given below are Chicago times, two hours earlier than Brazil time. But if you’re watching the games, you’ll already know this. If I could watch one, and I hope to, it would be Spain versus Netherlands.
If you want to watch legally and for free, Univision is televising the games, but only the first 56 games (two rounds, I think); you can watch them here. After that you’re on your own, though if you’ve paid for ESPN, they’re live-streaming all of the 64 games here.
Meanwhile, Google has yet another animated World Cup doodle; perhaps they’ll have a new one every day. Click on it to see the animation:
If you don’t mind the Dutch commentaries you can watch the games at the Sporza website.
http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/matchcenter/mc_voetbal
In Belgium we can watch them on the Sporza TV channel. It’s a public TV channel, so it’s for free.
But then again, I’d always advise to turn off the comments for Dutch television, and possibly Belgian too. By golly they can be pointless.
Belgian (Flemish) comments are much better then Dutch (from the Netherlands).
At least that’s my personal opinion.
Here in England things are building up nicely. The Sun, Britain’s notoriously trashy but best selling paper (part of the Rupert Murdock empire so I’m sure you’ll understand), has kindly delivered (it claims) 22 million free copies of a mildly jingoistic, slimmed-down version espousing all things English on the back of tomorrow night’s game. TV, radio and newspapers are awash with World Cup stories and reports and although expectations for the England team are very low, the government has stepped in to allow pubs to stay open late. When 11pm tomorrow rolls around a good proportion of the population of England will be significantly well refreshed. For me, tomorrow starts with the second New Zealand v England rugby test at 8.30am, a nice day out at Durham Regetta (reasonable weather forecast), then a 50th birthday party in the evening incorporating the match.
I might miss church on Sunday morning.
As for tonight, Spain v Netherlands is the one to watch, although these days the Dutch are a shadow of their former great teams.
Well, only in 2010 they ended up in the finals against, indeed, Spain. They made a mess of Euro 2012 but I’m not sure one can deduce a trend from that.
For the botanically minded, I suspect the tree depicted in the google-doodle, and featured in the opening ceremony is the monkey-puzzle tree of the Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest), Araucaria angustifolia, a Gondwananan relic (Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Argentina, Chike and Brazil also have Araucaria spp.)
Looking forward to a great World Cup!
I was wondering about that tree too. It appears to represent the Amazon and reprise some dancers dressed as trees in the opening.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/world-cup-2014-opening-ceremony-and-brazil-beating-croatia-celebrated-with-google-doodle-9533916.html
There’s a game on?
Yes, there is young man. You and your attitude are both invited.
🙂 Damn… (checking watch)… wish I could, but gotta get back to work. Bummer.
Work? You mean there are places where people actually work during a World Cup? Amazing!!
a-yup.
The “watchespn” site linked to by Jerry seems to be streaming the games without charge. This could be location-specific, but there are no logins or payments for the site (I watched yesterday, and have the empty stadium camera on now).
I watched the opening match last night and am currently watching the Mehico v Macaroon game (where it is bucketing down).
The one common thread is that the standard of officiating is dire, dreadful, sub-standard.
Croatia were robbed last night and Mehico would be two goals to the good, but for two bad offside decisions.
This is as a direct result of FIFA’s policy of taking officials from as many nations as possible, rather than selecting the best available.
Expect more poor refereeing.
I’ve seen three different doodles so far today. The one with the tree then another that I think represented the first game. The current one is for Spain vs. Netherlands.
I wonder what they’ll do for game three today, Chile vs. Australia?
They are numbering the doodles, World Cup #1, 2, 3, etc. http://www.google.com/doodles/
Most of the world can watch the World Cup for free but the U.S. is different. It’s like socialised health care. Here’s a guide:-http://qz.com/219831/how-to-watch-the-world-cup-in-the-us-without-paying-for-tv/
p.s. just saw the annoying, close-passing spaniards taken apart by the Dutch. Brilliant.
Goofing off to watch the World Cup? I think I’d rather go back to work.