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Three Reasons why the way the World Cup ended is good for Soccer in the US

Posted July 11, 2006 13:20 | Category: World Cup | #

1. One of the biggest ethnic groups in this country is Italian-Americans (but who were they cheering for when the USA played Italy?)

2. The USA was the only team Italy played whom they could not beat - and Italy had a 1-man advantage for about half the game!

3. Soccer in this country has a reputation as a non-violent "sissy sport" - but hopefully Zidane's head-butt will put that idea to rest once and for all.

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Lunch Break

Posted June 20, 2006 15:15 | Category: World Cup | #

Today I spent my lunch hour (well, two hours) at the Oracle gym watching the World Cup. It was an exciting game between England and Sweden.

England haven't beaten Sweden since 1968 and with the result of this game being a 2-2 draw, that streak remains intact. With this result, England and Sweden both progress from Group B to the second round, the first time in World Cup history that the same 2 teams have progressed from the same group in two successive World Cups.

The game started off with a tragedy for England: star striker Michael Owen collapsed with what looks like a badly damaged knee. I seriously doubt he'll play again in the World Cup no matter how far England goes, and I'd be surprised if he even plays at all for several months. Knees just don't bend that way.

The Man of the Match for me was Joe Cole. He scored an amazing first goal, a rifle shot from long range, and had the assist with the second goal which was headed in by Steven Gerrard. The two Swedish goals were off set pieces - one from a corner kick that was nearly cleared off the line by Ashley Cole, and a throw in that bounced around in the box and before anyone knew which way was up, was in the back of the net. But there were plenty of near chances in this very fast-paced match.

The interesting thing for me was not so much what was going on on the screen but rather what was going on around me. Until now all the World Cup games that I've seen have been at home, either alone or with my wife Holly. But here I was at work with a few dozen other Oracle employees. About 70% of them were cheering for England while the rest supported Sweden. I was for England, being a fan of many of the players from the EPL as well as myself being 1/4 Norwegian.

I'd been to viewing parties before, but only for the San Jose Earthquakes away games. There, everyone who was watching the game was cheering for one side. But today we had a mix of people who would alternately chear and moan for opposite sides as the game progressed. Still, it was an amicable crowd - perhaps helped by the fact that the outcome would almost certainly be both teams advancing to the next round no matter who won. A draw seemed like a fair result.

In the other game that was happening at the same time (which ESPN showed the last couple of minutes of, since our game ended sooner), Trinidad and Tobago finished their World Cup without a goal. I was disappointed, since T&T had two Major League Soccer players and were part of the CONCACAF contingent, and everyone's favorite underdog to boot. But I guess that's why they were underdogs - they were destined to lose.

Thursday is the big game for the USA. They need to defeat Ghana and hope that Italy defeats the Czech Republic to move on - but then they will most likely face Brazil. It's doable, but will be a big challenge.

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Mixed Emotions

Posted June 14, 2006 16:42 | Category: World Cup | #

The 2006 FIFA World Cup is going on right now in Germany and every team has played a game so far. There have been a lot of emotional highs and lows. Here are few examples:

Mexico-Iran: I couldn't decide who to root for. Mexico is the USA's biggest soccer rival, so I didn't like the idea of cheering for them. Iran is no friend of the USA on the political side of things, so I wouldn't want them to win either. So going into the game I was hoping for a tie. But when Mexico won, I was surprised to find that I was happy about the result. Why? Well, for one thing, geography. As much as I enjoy it when the USA beats Mexico, I still want to see any team from CONCACAF (which stands for the Confederation of North & Central America and Caribbean Association Football, or something like that) do well. And besides, there's no way the USA can knock Mexico out in the quarterfinals or semifinals unless Mexico gets there!
Trinidad & Tobago-Sweden: I'm part Norwegian, plus I wanted to support the underdog from CONCACAF, so it was clear who to root for here. And though they didn't score any goals, this was one of the most exhilarating matches I've ever seen, and certainly the best scoreless one. Those plucky Trinidadians and Tobagoans put together an amazing display, despite playing half the game a man down, with last-minute-substitute goalkeeper Hislop putting on a shot-stopping clinic like I've never seen. But can they keep it up?
USA-Czech Rep.: The USA was absolutely humiliated by the Czechs in their opening match, 3-0. Mistakes were made and there's plenty of blame to go around on the USA side, but let's not forget the Czechs are quite good. There's a reason they have a #2 world ranking, after all. They put on quite a show and as a fan of the game I enjoyed watching it. But it was heartbreaking to see my country fail so badly.
TV Coverage: It's great to see ABC/ESPN taking the sport seriously. They're using traditional terms like "nil" for zero and "match" instead of "game" but they're also tying things together with American sports analogies for the benefit of soccer newbies. And I love seeing over two hours of analysis and news about the World Cup every day! That was a surprise. The big disappointment? I don't have an HDTV so I can't watch the much-vaunted HD channels in their full glory.
DVR: I have a Comcast DVR (Digital Video Recorder, kind of like a TiVO but not as good) and am recording all the games, making it possible to watch the games even if I won't be home (or awake) when they are played live. At least, I recorded all the games so far. Pretty soon I'm going to run out of disk space though...

Cross your fingers that the USA gets it together in time for their game against Italy on Saturday!

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Last updated: 09/19/2007 William R. Ward, bill@wards.net