Congratulations to the Nederlands Football Team

[BobH]

They played a good game. I think the US team will improve with age and experience.

[HansV]

What? Oh - football/soccer
Thanks!

[GeoffW]

And Australia have done better than expected. As I post this, they're still playing the elimination against Argentina, though I'd be really surprised to see them progress.

[GeoffW]

And congrats to Argentina for progressing.

My interest in soccer/football now ceases for another four years.

[BobH]

What? Oh - football/soccer
Thanks!

I live among a lot of Mexicans. While 'soccer' is played competitively here, it is overshadowed by American football. For most Mexicans it's called 'futbol' and pronounced like football. Seems to be their favorite sport.

[GeoffW]

I live among a lot of Mexicans. While 'soccer' is played competitively here, it is overshadowed by American football. For most Mexicans it's called 'futbol' and pronounced like football. Seems to be their favorite sport.

For Mexicans, and for many Spanish speakers, there is one word that the commentators use which is longer than any Spanish word I know.

Spoiler

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[Graeme]

Netherlands certainly played a lot better against USA than England did!

See you in the quarter finals!

[ChrisGreaves]

Spoiler

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

Popular too in the SBS news podcasts (Spanish & Italian) from Sydney, although there seems to be a "la-la-la-la-la-la- ..." in there too, most times.
Cheers, Chris.

[GeoffW]

And the quarter final between Argentina and the Netherlands has just finished. Wow, what a close match. Argentina looked to be easy winners until right just before the end of normal time. Nail biting, and hard fought - about as close as possible. Congratulations to Argentina, the Netherlands really fought well.

[LineLaline]

Am I the only one here who frankly doesn't give a damn about football?

[GeoffW]

Am I the only one here who frankly doesn't give a damn about football?

I'm not much for watching the game, but I do like to know what's going on in an international event like this one.

For some reason, many people seem to believe that the ability of a very small group of highly trained and talented people to win an elite competition, means that the country to which they belong is somewhat better than other countries. In turn, this implies that they, the other 99.9999999% of that country, must therefore also be better than people who belong to another country. This is despite the fact that 99.9999995% of people had absolutely nothing to do with the success of that side.

But then, even though having one's national team win implies that one is superior, the opposite doesn't appear to be true when one's national side dies not win.

[LineLaline]

Am I the only one here who frankly doesn't give a damn about football?

I'm not much for watching the game, but I do like to know what's going on in an international event like this one.

For some reason, many people seem to believe that the ability of a very small group of highly trained and talented people to win an elite competition, means that the country to which they belong is somewhat better than other countries. In turn, this implies that they, the other 99.9999999% of that country, must therefore also be better than people who belong to another country. This is despite the fact that 99.9999995% of people had absolutely nothing to do with the success of that side.

But then, even though having one's national team win implies that one is superior, the opposite doesn't appear to be true when one's national side dies not win.

Agree.
Plus I think it's utter nonsense that there is only a party if the 'own team' wins. Why not always celebrate? I never understood that. To me football is like domesticated war.

[BobH]

And, let's not forget that many teams' members come from countries other than the ones they play for.

I'm probably the only one here who would give away tickets given to me to the WC finals.

[HansV]

Am I the only one here who frankly doesn't give a damn about football?

No, me too.

[GeoffW]

And yet there are many many topics I'm not interested in. So I just don't contribute.

It seems it's only with topics on sport that people need to say that they're not interested in that topic.

That's not just in here, so I'm not directing this at any contributor. It seems to be a general sentiment.

[HansV]

That's true, Geoff, but on the other hand, while people don't automatically assume that you're interested in astronomy or Excel, the do expect you to follow football (soccer), and show amazement/disbelief if you don't - at least here in The Netherlands.

[GeoffW]

That doesn't happen in Australia with football, because we have three different codes we call football, and none of them are soccer or gridiron. It depends on where you were brought up and what school you went to. Soccer has become increasingly popular here, largely as a result of immigration from Europe.

Half a century ago I lived in the US, and the family I stayed with were avid soccer players. The local coach, from England, later returned to England to become a coach of one of the big teams, and his son became a professional player.

[StuartR]

No, me too.

Me too

[BobH]

Geoff, what version of 'footie' is most popular in Oz?

[GeoffW]

It depends where you live.

In the southern states and Western Australia, it's Australian Rules football.

Further north, if you went to a government school, it's Rugby League. If you went to a private school, it's Rugby Union. I don't know the differences, but each code has a strong and loyal following. Rugby League is the more popular.

But Aussie Rules (AFL) has cultivated something of a following in states further north. And Rugby League has established itself down south, so the divide isn't as strong as it used to be when I was growing up.

Our daughters grew up playing soccer. Despite watching innumerable matches, I never really understood the finer points. It's a good game for them to play, but I get frustrated with a sport where they can play for so long without anybody scoring, and where a stroke of luck can completely change the outcome. This is why I'm only interested in the scores of World Cup games - I haven't watched any actual gameplay at all.