I would dearly love to see Germany vs. Portugal, but I’m afraid I have to work. Maybe I can sneak in half or so. . .
And here’s today’s animated football-themed Google Doodle (click on screenshot to see it in action). Maybe it’s too early, but I don’t quite understand it.
Finally, if you haven’t entered the “Guess-the-World-Cup-winner” contest, with the prize being an autographed copy of WEIT including a drawing of Cats Playing Soccer (doesn’t that beat Dogs Playing Poker?), go here and guess the winner of the last match, and the score. Be sure to follow the rules. Deadline for entry is at 5 pm today, Chicago time.
I’ll try to sneak off work early for Germany-Portugal. I’ll keep quiet about it though, and certainly won’t share this information with thousands of people all over the world.
I missed Brazil-Italy 1982 and have never forgiven myself. I’ve been paranoid about missing World Cup games ever since.
It pleases me greatly that you are posting a lot on the world cup. Keep it up.
I sympathize with Americans as the kick-off times are not work-friendly for you guys. I live in Central Africa so the first game starts at 6pm. Absolutely perfect!
Central Africa – You must have lots of great wildlife…? You should send Jerry some pictures if you can!
It is a Mexican wave…
…& i think the little reader is as not everyone is interested! ?
I think Iran v Nigeria may be more entertaining!
Do the letters represent the teams, perhaps the ones still standing?
b&
Doesn’t appear so. For one, there’s no ‘Y’ on the list of teams:
http://www.fifa.com/
The various letters are doing the waves, as is done in sporting stadia around the world. And the little guy reading isn’t quite paying attention.
@Dominic- I live in the city-not much wildlife here, but I’ll see what I can do,
Just fans doing the Wave, with the nerd out of sync, like me. I multi-task whilst watching the soccer. 😉 And of course there’s ‘Google’ right in the thick of things.
I would like to see a synopsis of player ‘flops’. That is, where they get bumped (but not tripped), and they fling themselves on the ground and roll around in dramatic agony.
Game over – at the half. Germany leads 3-0 and Portugal is a man down. Pepe is a moron. He hits Muller in the face and then goes over head butts him. A guy so lacking in discipline does not belong on the pitch. He has a history of such idiocy. No matter how talented he is, you cannot take the risk of having him on the pitch.
Yes, Pepe deserved that red.
The Germans are good! I should have bet on them to be in the Final.
“He hits Muller in the face and then goes over head butts him.”
It was the head butt that did it. The initial foul was not clear, they were both jockeying for position. But taunting and making contact like that was seriously undisciplined.
Does anyone know where the word “soccer” came from and why we don’t call it “football” here in the US (and I guess Australia (and Canada?))?
It’s a variation of “Association Football”, the formal name for the football code know most of the world over as simply Football. This coinage apparently occurred in the UK around the time the game was codified in the 19th century, but was seldom used until the 20th century. It has been mainly adopted in countries whose dominant football codes are those other than association football, such as the US, Canada, and Australia.
After WWII, use of the word soccer became more common in the UK and was almost interchangable with the word “football” up until the 80s’. But since then, it appears to have been in decline in usage in everywhere but the US.
This paper offers an interesting historical perspective.
http://ns.umich.edu/Releases/2014/June14/Its-football-not-soccer.pdf
Thanks.
Thanks for the pointer, nice article but IMHO doesn’t make enough (except at the very end) of the class element.
I’ve always interpreted “soccer” as a juvenile, condescending term used by the sort of middle class people who only like Rugby Union, and its this connotation that always makes it a bit irksome when USers follow that usage.
Message to USers: the word “soccer” is used by just the sort of english people that you fought to secede from!
Maybe “soccer” is to many of us what “dog” is to Jerry.
*spoiler*
WOW that was a nice game, Portugal is in trouble, losing 4:0 is hard.
Poor Ronaldo…
Goal by Dempsey!
OOH ESSS AHHHH!
From off the corner throw, a W.O.W.Z.A. tie – breaking, match – winning header second – goal by Daaawhlingk Brooks !
Blue