Well, the US won yesterday (not that I much care, as I’m rooting for Spain), beating Ghana 2-1, with a lot of excitement in the final minutes. Surprisingly, Germany slaughtered Portugal, leaving them scoreless at 4-0. (I hope there’s a Germany/Netherlands game.) And Iran tied Nigeria nil-nil, the first draw (“tie,” as Americans say) of the tournament.
Once again I’m screwed today, as the game I’d most like to see, Brazil v Mexico, is during work hours, and I simply can’t revise my book and watch football at the same time. My only chance is Russia v Korea, a meh.
And remember Pulpo Paul, the psychic octopus from the last World Cup. Paul is the subject of today’s animated Google Doogle (click on the screenshot to see Paul in action). Note that he’s pondering the Belgium/Algeria game:
In other news, the Cat World Cup has come to a premature end:
h/t: Eric
I was wondering what the octupus was all about! 🙂
Sadly dead hence the halo! 🙁
Ah, I didn’t realise that. That’s a shame. 🙁
I’m still picking up signals from Paul, the dead psychic octopus.
Ah, thought he was dead. Poor guy got a lot of death threats in life too.
According to the BBC this morning, more Americans have travelled to Brazil for the tournament than from any other country. The Beeb also quoted a poll showing that amoung Americans aged 18 – 25 soccerball is now as popular as baseball.
That will be delightful news for FIFA – they have been attempting to break into the US ‘market’ for a generation…
On the other hand, its bad news for baseball.
Yeah, it is bad news for baseball. I’ve been wondering for a few years now, and conversations with younger sports fans seem to bear this out, if baseball isn’t just too pastoral a game to maintain it’s popularity modern society. But I’m content to hear that there is something gaining in popularity other than (NFL) football. Next time you want to watch an NFL game, don’t. Watch Lacrosse instead. It offers everything that football does, but with greater pacing and more action and without the odious knuckle-dragging culture that surrounds that other game. If you really want to get depressed about how far we have to go, just visit the locker-room of any high school football team in the southeastern third of our country on a fall friday night, you will not believe how bad it is.
Soccerball and hockey are the only sports I can stand to watch because they are fast paced. Baseball drives me crazy – get on with it you people!!
Ice hockey (which I assume is what you mean) would be a really good sport if only the puck wasn’t too damn small to see half the time….
When I read “The Beeb,” I thought of Justin Beiber…and now I hate myself.
I know. I thought Bieber too. Shame. Such. Shame.
Before the World Cup I though the most likely “shock” was for Portugal to lose to USA again, and after yesterday it doesn’t look too shocking.
(Or England lose to Costa Rica, of course).
Doctor:
You need to consider the time-shifting miracles of a DVR. Brazil-Mexico will wait for you.
Apologies if this has been asked before- What is the focus of your upcoming book?
Love your writing style and content.
Many thanks!
“Strategy and Tactics of the Spanish football team, FIFA World Cup 2014”. He meant to write about something else but got distracted as the deadline approached.
I thought it was going to be about an all felid soccer team and which species should play which positions. Obviously the cheetahs will be strikers, but the rest are questionable. Lions on defense? A tiger as keeper? Leopards in the midfield? Where do jaguars and cougars fit in? Obviously a domestic cat will be the coach. Snow leopards come off the bench in cold weather games. It will be a fascinating read.
I’ll be very interested to see the result of the Belgium match. I have a feeling that Belgium might be the dark horse in this tournament; they certainly looked impressive against us (ie Scotland) in the qualifiers, though I realise that’s wasn’t too difficult…
And there I was expecting some deep musings about the relationship between football and religion and whether it is legit to be a Gnu Atheist and still venerate Muellers scoring. I also noted that several Ghanian fans were adorned with priestly insignia, including a mitra…
I’m of course hoping for a final Germany-Netherlands. Unfortunately, statistics don’t bode very well for ‘us’, NL that is, if that happens. The jerries made it to the finals 7 times of which they won 3. The cloggies made it 3 times and lost all three- a somewhat sad record in itself.
Whatever happens, don’t let it come to penalties or we might’s well pack our stuff and go home.
Rooting for Spain as well, but they are in deep shit after the loss the other day.
Paul’s posthumous procrastinations proved particularly perfect….
Brazil and Mexico in a draw. That’s got to be a disappointment for the home team.
Brazil should have stopped kicking it straight at the goalie.
The link from the screen shot to google.com goes out of date quickly, but you can find a page for every past doodle — including many you likely won’t have seen because they were only shown in other countries — under http://www.google.com/doodles/
For those rooting for Espana. Sorry.