I thought I'd post Massassi's world cup thread. The games officially start in a little over 1.5 days, and I'm pretty excited. I just hope I get good coverage on T.V., instead of having to do something stupid like pay-per-view, or only being able to watch the U.S. games.

For those who don't know, I am referring to this - http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ (the most watched sporting event on the planet).

Who do you want to win? Who do you think will win? I really hope Brazil doesn't win again, and I'd really like England to win. I'd also be very happy if Spain won. Sadly, neither of those teams have the best chances, based on past experience.

I just heard Cisse broke his leg in France's final friendly. That's insanely unlucky.

United States is gonna kick the **** out of everyone.

We'll bash their kneecaps!

If you're in the US, every game is going to be on ABC, ESPN and ESPN 2, live.

The past few days I have been watching ESPN, which to any Non-Americans is our sports network. Anyways, I do not care for soccer much at all, and so have no idea about what the World Cup truly entails. However, ESPN aired a story that other day that I found to be shocking.

The story invloved racist crowds/coaches in Europe at Soccer games. Racist acts included vulgar signs, swastikas (not really racism but disconcerting) and what I considered the worst of all, the constant demeaning of African Athletes. There was one clip of a crowd throwing bananas onto the field. There were also clips of when the aformentioned athletes picked up the ball, and refused to continue playing because they were sick of the abuse. Hell, it looked like the home crowds were taunting their own players.

To say I was shocked was an understatement. Here in America, if something like that happened, there would be a huge uproar. Racism in sports still exists in America, but it has died down tremondously in the past decades.

So my question is really for an explanation. Nothing mind blowing, but what do you think causes such behavior I had always been under the impression Europe was more tolerant of different races. Am I implying all of Europe is racist? Of course not. Am I implying that America is superior, again no. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around such blatant prejudice. From what the report said, there really haven't been any attempts to crack down on the racist acts. Why not?

Way to derail.

Of course racism exists, but it's nothing like that over here (England). There was a game last year (or thereabouts), I can't remember where it was, but somewhere else in Europe I think, with the sort of behaviour you're talking about. The crowd would make monkey noises every time a black player got the ball, it was disgusting. And there was uproar, the English newspapers went ballistic. There is a major campaign called Kick It Out to deal with racism in football.

As for the world cup, I'm really looking forward to it. My work sent around an email yesterday with a letter talking about how managers of those of us not dealing with the public should think about having a room in each office with a TV or radio to follow the big games "to avoid leave requests or unexplained sick leave". teehee.

Luckily most of the games start at 5pm or later during the week, so I'll just be leaving work at 4 and heading for the pub. Man I'm gonna need a month to recover after the tournament is over!

If you don't consider laying heavy fines on teams, banning the instigator from venues, and anti-racism campaigns as being adequate attempts to stamp out racism, then yes, little has been done.

But really, only so much should can be done in the context of the sport. Racism isn't a sporting issue, it's a cultural issue, so if any drastic steps are to be taken they will be outside the stadiums.

The cause of racism in Europe is an issue I don't pretend to fully comprehend, but it is worthwhile to take into account the fact that the worst demonstrations have been in countries that are relatively racially insular (at least in regards to blacks), and many of these countries have had at some time in their history bodies of extremist ideology (e.g. Nazism). Basically, it's integrated into their culture, so just putting fines on it won't keep the issue away.

Anyway, nuff derailing.

Yeah, that would be here in the Netherlands. (Where they make jungle noises etc.)

It's retarded. A load of Hooligans spoiling everything for the rest, and giving us a bad name. Don't think there isn't any uproar about it. They've been trying all kinds of measures to prevent such things from happening.

The strangest thing is that, outside soccer, racism isn't really an issue here, other than there being the usual problems regarding immigrants and the way some people think about them.

Anyway, I'm hoping the Netherlands will win. We've always had decent teams and chances, but often lost in the finals or semifinals, so far. Right now we seem to have the world's number 2 team (having surpassed Czech Republic recently), so we should be having a good chance.

Although in all honesty, I don't think they'll win this time either. Not that I really care. I always support the countries that play the nicest matches. I hate some of the chauvinism that is associated with soccer.

Saturday's game against Paraguay starts at 2 I'll be in work until 4. I've arranged for updates to reach me via texts. Luckily, the rest of England group games are on a Thursday.

I think England have a good chance this year, but then...England always have a "good" chance The interesting thing about this World Cup is that most of the "big name" countries are in the middle of a decline or transition period. England, for example, is really just about moving on from the old (Shearer, Gascoigne, Scholes, etc.) to the new (Crouch, Downing, Walcott, etc.), which should be interesting to see how they perform. In the interests of keeping this friendly, I'll just say that some countries seem to be struggling a bit lately.

I want Australia to win.

Sadly, i think some country that is very big at soccer such as brazil or france will win.

"What does the Netherlander do, when his team has won the World Cup?"

"He turns off the PlayStation and goes to bed."

LOLZIER


Anyway, of course I'd like to see Germany win, but I think that is very unlikely.
It would be cool if one of the smaller countries won, like Trinidad and Tobago.

Add 9 hours to those times and that's when I'll be struggling to be awake watching the world cup...

If Australia can win 1 match it will be a major victory. If we win 2 games there will be a national holiday and if we make it to round 2 I'll probably die from excitement.

I'd like to see the Sweden do well (Freddie... *swoon*), and also the Brits and the Dutch.

If someone can fluke a result against brazil then anyone from about 6 teams are in with a real shout of the cup. im not sure england can win it though.

Bleh, at least Vangelis made the anthem for last World Cup

Tomorrow 12p EST.... my *** is in front of the TV

[QUOTE=Mr. Stafford] C O M E O N E N G L A N D [/QUOTE]
.

Yeah, I'd quite like it if Holland wins. I have a sneaky suspicion that Portugal will do very well - it's only a matter of time until that country wins the World Cup.

As for Trinidad and Tobago winning it, let's just say that would require divine intervention.

Word.



Maybe if they can convince someone to play for a tie this time (like they tried with Korea in '02), they'll actually make it out of their group.

meat pie, sausage roll, come on england, give us a goal !!!

Aren't they the country bringing a Voodoo priest with them? Or was that one of the others?

Maybe Europeans aren't afraid to speak their minds and aren't smothered under a cloud of political correctness? There are certainly a lot of racist Americans, too.

Also, racism aside, I think it can be enjoyable to be rowdy at games. If this is wrong, I guess I am sometimes guilty of it myself. For instance, I go to Boston University and our opening hockey game was against Toronto University. Don't get me wrong, I really like Canada from what I know of it. I loved every minute of visiting and would go back in a heartbeat and the Canadians themselves are awesome folks.

HOWEVER, as soon as they enter the hockey rink, they become not only an opposing team but also and opposing NATION. Hence, I don't think it's too out of line to let loose with some old jeers. :] It was just kind of embarrassing that, after chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!", someone started the National Anthem and half our side of the stadium struggled with the words....

Banter beteween fans is ok and adds to atmosphere as long as it doesn't go to far.

Wow, I'm kind of confused. I honestly hope you see the distinction between racist chants and "rowdy banter".

Shouldn't you be cheering for Scotla-...


Oh.

I'm not that deluded.

haha, is that the same kind of swoon I get from watching Freddie? :p


Absolutely (my friend calls me her little football hooligan, I tend to get a bit agressive after a couple of pints). But there is a huge difference between slagging off a team because they suck (or because you're jealous that they don't suck!) and using derogatory terms. Por example, Arsenal (my team)'s local rivals are Tottenham Hotspur, who have a long association with Jews. During one of the local derbies (man that looks weird in plural) a couple of years ago, I was watching the match, as usual, in my local pub. We're all singing about how much Tottenham suck (as you do) when someone in the back started yelling to turn on the gas chambers. As I said before, I get a bit aggressive after a couple of pints and watching the match, so I promptly stood up and told the b*****d to shut the f*** up. Which of course made everyone go "Ooooooooooooh" as they do (and hence left me feeling like I was being watched by the whole pub for the rest of the match!). But seriously, I don't care how much you dislike a team, there is no defense for behaviour like that. Slag off the team, the players, the managers, fine. But using sports as an excuse for xenophobia is disgusting.


haha! OUCH.

1. Still cheering for Jason Scotland.
2. Berti Voghts.

Not the case. A few European countries even prohibit the expression of racist views by law.

Soccer, not figure skating.

Claim that they're terrorists and senf to to Gitmo?

Good idea!

From now on, any team that plays against the United States is considered an enemy combatant of terrorism and thus will rounded off to Gitmo.

Now you may be the Badministrator around here, but that doesnt give you the power to declare who goes to Gitmo.

It'd be fun to see Servie-Montenegro win. They're splitting up into seperate countries right after the WC - then who gets to keep the trophee?


Not a real soccer fan though, especially not when it comes to international stuff. Our selection is being all hyped up, and everything now has to be orange. It's getting to the point where it's no longer fun - I don't need bright orange filters with a red/white/blue band around them.

Totally agreed.

Germany won their first game, beating Costa Rica 4-2 while Ecuador/Poland is @ 1:0 at half-time.

Germany won, but there's no way they should have given up 2 goals to Costa Rica. Their defense is suspect if you ask me. Ecuador beating Poland was a bit of a shocker.

Poland VS Ecuador was boring. Neither team looked very good.
Well, at least that gives Germany a chance to get into the next round. But they should improve their defense. But IMHO it's better to have a strong offense and a weaker defense than vice-versa. We tried that a few years ago and it didn't make us look good.