World Cup

Yup, very complete match, and they controlled the ball and pace of play for most all of the 90-minutes. Hopefully they can keep that momentum and get another win in the next match versus the Aussies and get some favorable match ups to get an easier path to Round of 16. Don't know if they can make quarterfinals but it would be a successful year if they at least got that far.

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Statement game -- wanted to prove they didn't need a host exemption.
 
Boeing Field's FBOs are really price gouging for parking during the World Cup. Sky Service is charging $1500 for a tiedown during this time. Outrageous! That basically restricts tiedowns to wealthy individuals, or corporations that can write off the cost. This despite the fact that the airport is maintained with tax dollars paid by everyone. So, we all pay, but the benefits only accrue to the wealthy. That just doesn't seem right. I'll watch the games I'm interested in on the Telly.
 
The fire marshal has been targeting pubs and sports bars for capacity violations. There is one day a year when I will not set foot in a British themed pub - St. Patrick's day. Oh and the other day is the World Cup, but that lasts a month.

I hate crowds.
 
There have been some good games so far. Today has the potential to be excellent.

Will we see Lindisfarne ... or Stamford Bridge? My money is on Haaland. Giant goofball berserker.

And any time Messi is on the field, it's a privilege to watch.
 
Ref in Argentina - Switzerland just did more to promote soccer than anyone else in this world cup. Awesome call. Finally some serious consequences for flopping.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Ref in Argentina - Switzerland just did more to promote soccer than anyone else in this world cup. Awesome call. Finally some serious consequences for flopping.
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It's a one off event. Won't change a thing.
 
RyanShort1 said:
Evil??? LOL. Tell us how modern day England is more virtuous than Argentina?
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Oh, good grief. Spare me the pious literalism. It was an obvious overly-dramatic statement for amusing effect, from a crestfallen Englishman who has witnessed defeat yet again at the hands of a nation with whom we've had a long and fraught history. Difficult to relate to, I know, given the championship winning prowess of your local Dallas teams in recent years.
 
I managed to catch england vs argentina today. That was a very entertaining 3 minutes spread across 2.5 hours :) We were quietly rooting for England (tea in hand even) in a pub filled with several argentina boosters, and their energy was infectious at the end.
 
AvNavCom said:
Oh, good grief. Spare me the pious literalism. It was an obvious overly-dramatic statement for amusing effect, from a crestfallen Englishman who has witnessed defeat yet again at the hands of a nation with whom we've had a long and fraught history. Difficult to relate to, I know, given the championship winning prowess of your local Dallas teams in recent years.
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I'm not "from" Dallas... so that doesn't sting that much, LOL. I root for the Spurs, not the Mavs. :cool:

And with all the FIFA talk I've seen in Dallas, a lot of people take the "evil" of Argentina way too seriously. I met with some pilots from another South American nation yesterday and the vitriol was real, LOL, so I wasn't sure that comment was obviously overly-dramatic. ;)
 
RyanShort1 said:
I'm not "from" Dallas... so that doesn't sting that much, LOL. I root for the Spurs, not the Mavs. :cool:

And with all the FIFA talk I've seen in Dallas, a lot of people take the "evil" of Argentina way too seriously. I met with some pilots from another South American nation yesterday and the vitriol was real, LOL, so I wasn't sure that comment was obviously overly-dramatic. ;)
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Heh, fair enough. And apologies, as I was overly grumpy yesterday. Two of my formative childhood experiences in England were Maradona doing a volleyball-like spike of the ball into the goal during a World Cup, and the Falkland Islands War, both of which cemented Argentina as the "enemy" fairly firmly in my mind. Such prejudices are long-lived. I was surprised to see that Atlanta was still standing this morning, given that I expected a full-blown battle between the fans following the game irrespective of how it turned out.

And yes, darn you for being immune to my well-crafted barb. Please tell me your hometown, so in the future I can more properly aim my invective. Haha!
 
AvNavCom said:
And yes, darn you for being immune to my well-crafted barb. Please tell me your hometown, so in the future I can more properly aim my invective. Haha!
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LOL, I was born in a smaller town north of San Antonio. Chances are it won't work regardless. ;) Glad we aren't actual enemies, yet. :D
 
Two good matchups in store for the weekend.

Spain v Argentina will be a tiki taka fest, technically appealing for purists but probably boring as hell from a non-soccer perspective. Spain is the better team, but any team with Messi is potentially the better team on any day. Great storyline with Messi having played the majority of his professional time in Barcelona, the world HQ of tiki taka. If anyone is unfamiliar with that term, google it and watch a video about triangles.

England v France will be a more traditional game, and probably more exciting for non-purists, with lots of long balls, breakaways by fast athletic dudes, and thrilling set pieces.

A secondary storyline has been the US venues and our version of heartland culture. Really funny to watch Euros reacting to Bass Pro, Buc-ees, BBQ, Chick fil A, etc. The culmination of that genre was this:

haaland-raccoon-stairs.webp
 
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Not too far from me .. I'm glad I didn't have weekend flying plans in the area...
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I saw this pic: one of the best players in the world stepping off the plane after getting back home.

He had his US souvenir.

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Now that FIFA has ended, the pub will start to calm down. It's a soccer pub, and Sacramento Republic and Arsenal are the home teams, as well as various local leagues. I'm not that much in to soccer, but I'm surrounded by people that would trample stadiums if massed in sufficient numbers.

My observation is that FIFA is the Pro Bowl of soccer, but with two vary important distinctions. First, it's a whole series, not just one game, and secondly, nobody gives an F about the NFL Pro Bowl. FIFA is for many countries their national pride.

I was watching the Colombia vs. Switzerland game in the pub, and there was a Colombian lady dressed in full team attire, who was so upset at their loss that she started smashing glasses against the wall. She was administered the provisions of Article 86. Earlier in the game she reminded me there was a time when losing Colombian FIFA team members were subject to meeting untimely deaths.
 
One particularly fascinating aspect of the World Cup is how social environments affect team gameplay. Specifically, teams from low trust societies exhibit very different approaches to sportsmanship than teams from high trust societies do. Trust refers to how much confidence the people have in the fairness of their economic, political, and social systems.

High trust societies show respect for the refs, rules, and their opponents. Low trust societies, such as many 3rd world countries, show a greater penchant for flopping, arguing, and manipulating rules. You see this very much with the African teams. Some of their games are almost unwatchable due to the degree of fake injuries and overacting.

The theory is that if you have spent your entire life learning that you must scam a corrupt system to survive, that attitude is reflected in how you play the game.

Spain v Argentina was an excellent microcosm of that dynamic. Spain was clearly the better team, in the finals and in the tournament overall. Argentina attempted to level the result by pushing every boundary they could. If you look at the history of both countries, Argentina is a classic low trust society, with a high level of poverty and relatively recent history of significant political violence and repression.

Even more fascinating was Messi's personal dichotomy. He is by all accounts a very nice person and good human being, and also of course a legend on the pitch. He played most of his career in Spain, and you can see that in the respect he shows and is shown. But he also is not beyond participating in little slicky tricks that fans of most European teams would find unbecoming of their team captain. I cannot imagine Harry Kane, for example, attempting to have an opponent thrown out for touching their mouth while talking.
 
I would like to say what a great experience it was and a joy to watch…my home premier league club Sunderland had seven internationals playing so always someone to watch. Proper football is a big part of my life and always has been. I have season tickets and travel 4-5 times a year back to the northeast of England for games. European football on the schedule this year will probably boost that travel schedule a little. I think the boost to the MLS will be significant as well…we are a month away from the start of the EFL season and I can’t wait! USA should be proud of their team, I know I am…Job well done.
 
Apparently the TV ratings in KC were huge. KC hosted 6 matches. TV ratings of the top
15 markets showed KC at 1. The gap between 1 and 2 was higher than the gap between 2 and 15. Argentina was a local host team. Ratings for the championship game were very high, and didn’t include the Telemundo viewers.

FIFA made a lot of money this tournament.
 
Matthew said:
FIFA made a lot of money this tournament.
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FIFA came to the right place. I don’t know of another country that could have done as good a job as the USA.

Ed Haywood said:
A secondary storyline has been the US venues and our version of heartland culture. Really funny to watch Euros reacting to Bass Pro, Buc-ees, BBQ, Chick fil A, etc.
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:yeahthat:
One of my favorites was the Japanese guy discovering biscuits & gravy. I’d love to hear a story about a GA pilot taking a European visitor for a flight. I suspect they’d be amazed at the freedom of personal flying in the US.
 
Half Fast said:
One of my favorites was the Japanese guy discovering biscuits & gravy. I’d love to hear a story about a GA pilot taking a European visitor for a flight. I suspect they’d be amazed at the freedom of personal flying in the US.
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A high school friend of my daughter hosted a Japanese exchange student many years ago. I made sure to give them a nice flight over the local area.
 
Dave Theisen said:
While I did enjoy watching the games, I still prefer football or hockey.

Soccer is 90 minutes of pretending that you are hurt. Hockey is 60 minutes of pretending that you’re not. :)
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Exactly this. I thoroughly enjoyed the WC, but I'll take Stanley Cup playoffs any day of the week. Watching guys spit out teeth, get sewn up, and go right back to playing makes it hard to respect otherwise superb athletes who are screaming and writhing on the football pitch because someone momentarily stepped on their foot or tugged their shirt. Yellow cards for embellishments should be encouraged by all refs until that particular issue sorts itself out. I don't buy that it's "part of the game".
 
AvNavCom said:
Exactly this. I thoroughly enjoyed the WC, but I'll take Stanley Cup playoffs any day of the week. Watching guys spit out teeth, get sewn up, and go right back to playing makes it hard to respect otherwise superb athletes who are screaming and writhing on the football pitch because someone momentarily stepped on their foot or tugged their shirt. Yellow cards for embellishments should be encouraged by all refs until that particular issue sorts itself out. I don't buy that it's "part of the game".
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I really love when they get hauled off the field on a stretcher, and then are running around a minute later.

What happened to the magic aerosol spray that they used during the last World Cup?
 
I have a love hate relationship with soccer. The game is awesome, but the people can be less so.

In high school and college, I did full contact sports: wrestling, boxing, rugby. But that stuff doesn't fly as you get older and the orthopedic damage adds up. In my 40's I picked up soccer and played about 10 years.

I mostly played in rec leagues, but some of those were fairly competitive. I was usually the only player who had not played through high school and club. Former college players were not unusual, and we had a smattering of foreign semi-pros.

I never had the ball skills to do much, but I learned to use my size and strength to be useful. I actually scored regularly on corner kicks; it doesn't take years of practice to wade into a crowd, shove people out of the way, and put your head on the ball.

The game is a lot of fun to play. The geometry is addictive. When you and several teammates put the angles together and sequence a bunch of one-touches into the goal, it is electrifying. And of course it is very demanding physically, with repeated sprints at max effort.

I met a lot of very nice people who were fun to play with. I also saw some of the worst sportsmanship I have ever seen. It seemed like often the best players were the worst to play with. Just horrible. So much drama. Arguing every play as a foul or offsides. Screaming at their teammates. Deliberately trying to injure opponents. Quitting during games.

We had a guy who played semi pro in Europe. Twice as good as anyone else in the league. I never saw him finish a game. Every single time he played, he would get enraged about some call or non-call and storm off the field cursing.

Another guy played D1 college ball. He stormed off the field during the league championship game. 5 minutes left in a tie game, and our best player sits down and takes off his shoes because he is mad about a call.

I was playing a pickup game one Saturday morning, nothing organized, just 5v5 with gym bags for goals. Me and this English guy got a breakaway 2v1. I lost the ball. He got so mad that I did not pass it to him that he started shouting at me and left.

And don't even get me started on parents on the sidelines during kids games. Police visits are a regular event.

I saw this kind of behavior in so many different situations and contexts, from so many different people, that I eventually realized these were not exceptions or bad apples. This was the game. Just an absolutely **** culture.
 
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Years ago our company was large enough to have an intramural co-ed soccer league. There were about 6 or 7 teams and it was pretty much a beer league. I can’t remember any arguments. We all had clever team names, except for one team. They were the fifth team to sign up, so they just called themselves Team 5. They kept that name for years. I always thought it was because they only had 5 players, either 2 guys and 3 women or the other way around. They were all excellent, probably former college players. So all their games were 5v11. The other teams, like the one I was on, just wanted a little fun and exercise. None of us had probably ever played organized soccer before. The Team 5 goalkeeper basically played midfield/defense/goal and had to sprint back if anyone looked like they would get behind him. At halftime and after the games he’d have his beer and cigarettes. I think they went undefeated every year.
 
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