I can’t believe I am starting a post about football! But no-one else has and it is creeeping into other posts.
Australia is actually in the World Cup, it’s taken a long time but there we are. As it competes with rugby (in various flavours) and Australian Rules, soccer has not been a huge game in Australia but has slowly built up over the years. Now of course everyone is crazy about it!
So how are all the rest of the Textkitters viewing this?
Good idea starting a new thread so we don’t hijack the other!
I chose “every game,” although I am missing some here and there. I figure I can afford to sit and watch as it only comes around every four years.
I predict Australia 1: Croatia 0 tomorrow. You’ll get it on a quick counter.
Best,
WB
PS- In the US all the games are being shown, but interest is tepid and scattered as it always is for football…er…soccer.
All the play here is on between 11:00pm and 7:00am, so I’ve only watched the Socceroos’ matches (so tired).
I think it will be a 0-0 draw tomorrow. Guus was probably only bluffing when he said that they would not go defensive.
All Rugby is vanilla.
i’ve definitely been watching it, i was wondering why us aussies are so into it, i think it’s because we can finally compete in the great sport of europe. the south americans are the masters of the game but our soccer coverage here is europe europe europe.
perhaps like our classics interests; each continent has its ancient languages, its great cities but all i read about for some reason is europe, and the places europe was fascinated with (egypt, persia &c).
Crazy!! I didn’t think they played football in Australia…I thought the biggest sports over there were Rugby and soccer 
FWIW…I voted option #1…although a friend at church who was a missionary for 25 years in Brazil would be very dissappointed to hear me say that.
If by “football” you refer to gridiron, that’s what all the Rugby players play in the off-season
We do have a sort of a gridiron series here - usually expat Americans & Canadians. Australian Rules football is a sort of hybrid Gaelic football with a lot of running and jumping up to catch the ball. Adelaide is crazy about the game, but even that is taking a back-seat to soccer at the moment.
I think it’s stupid to watch every game. It’s such a waste of time, ninety minutes everyday.
I was on Kangaroo Island back in '97 when the Crows were playing in a preliminary final. All the towns were like ghost towns. There was literally no one visible, every shop was closed and there were no cars on the roads.
But a Chinese international student told me that Melboure is almost like that on Grand Final day.
Anyway, soccer… In Guus we trust. 
Here in Mexico (and, almost anywhere except the U.S. 
) people go crazy for football (soccer is not the name, btw). If Mexico wins a match, all day long I can hear outside my house cars honking and youngsters screaming at the top of their lungs. Me, I don’t watch it for two reasons: 1) like any competition, it makes me really nervous, and 2) last World Cup I got so upset with the crazyness of people going overboard, that I decided never to watch it again. So far, I’ve kept my promise. 
I do acknowledge, however, that it is the best and most logical sport in the world.
Bene, ¡vale ac valete!
“tepid and scattered” is perhaps the optimist’s view. I’m curious to see if the soccer matches can beat out the color bar test pattern in the ratings.
It’s a very poor replacement for hockey, but I have watched every match, except when I’ve had a school conflict. And I’ve jumped on the Ghana bandwagon and I’m riding it as far as it goes – I just want somebody new to win it all.
All I know is that it’s ticking me off right now…I mean…it’s BASEBALL season for Pete’s sake…put the Yankees on…I could care less who Italy beats! Yesterday both ESPN AND ESPN2 had soccer games on…what a travesty!
Kopio - you are just being grouchy because the USA didn’t get into the final 16 - and Australia did
However we may feel differently after the match against Italy - a bit like going into the boxing ring against a 150 kg gorilla!
Actually…I could really care less! As a matter of fact, I couldn’t name one player on the US team. I guess if my grandson played soccer, maybe I would be a little more interested…but every year he has a choice…soccer…or baseball…he always takes baseball. He played catcher this year…he wore number 8…the same number Yogi Berra wore with the Yankees…he makes his Papa proud!
Here’s the scoop:
The winner of the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal match will take the World Cup.
Hmmm…bold prediction, Peter! Personally, I think either could take the cup.
Some nice match-ups this weekend: Brazil v France, Portugal v England. I’m guessing we’ll see a great Portugal v Brazil semi. That would throw my neighborhood into a tizzy with so many Brazilians and Portuguese living here. Lots of fun!
WB
edited for brevity
Hey Charles,
I think the World Cup always gets some interest in bars. I saw a few games for the WC in '98 and there was quite a crowd for a couple of the games. I’m not sure if it is a reflection of the interest overall.
And aren’t darts kind of dangerous to have around drunk people when you think of it? Just an aside…
WB
Yankees? YANKEES?!?!?!? You disgust me, sir!
I have often mocked soccer in the past (22 men running around for 90 minutes for 0-0 tie), but this year I have taken interest. I arbitrarily decided to cheer for my ancestral homelands, Germany and Switzerland. Unfortunately the Swiss are down and out, but Deutschland is looking good. One I thing I know is that I do not want the USA to win the World Cup. Talk about grounds for global conflict…
Well it is all over now anyway. The result was the same as last time, when they had a long drawn out contest decided by a penalty shoot-out at Alesia.