You're nearly right
Liverpool are better >.>


So! How about that World Cup, eh?

ESPN shows the Champion's League matches. Fox Sports has a weekly English Premiership game on their basic cable channel. There are also a variety of channels on digital cable that show games, like ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports World, and there's a new Fox Soccer channel too.




The trouble is that ESPN shows the games live during the week, so games are at 2:30 pm ET/11:30 am PT.

Thank you Maevie. I think as I've gotten older my willinginess to "embrace" has certainly grown. I remember a few years ago, I thought baseball was an incredibly dull, and boring sport. However, in the past few years I've grown to appreciate what it has to offer, the small details make for compelling watching. I think with soccer, those little details are even more compelling because I gather goals mean so much more. So a game that can end in a tie still is exciting. This game certainly has had it's share of moments, as did the last 15 minutes of the Tunisian-Saudi Arabian game that I watched. And yeah, training myself to say football instead of soccer is too weird. I could end up confusing myself!

Same thing with American sports here. I can't count the number of times I've been watching TV because I can't sleep and found basketball or hockey being broadcast.


Oh, and I'm sure all the Britassians have seen the Budweiser commercials

american football and baseball are always on channel 5 at about 4am, hah.

Quick question, hows does offsides work in soccer?

Hah, no-one knows

Really, the idea is the ball can't be played forward to a player with less than two players (i.e. the goalkeeper and a defender) between him and the opposition goal. Then they started confusing the issue with "active" and "inactive" players, so if you're in an offside position but inactive (not interfering with play) then you don't give away a free kick. You're also only offside if you're in an offside position at the time the ball is kicked forward, which is why you hear commentators talk about the timing of the player's runs quite often.

Um...I hope that was clear enough

aww, poor Poland. they were doing so well holding on with 10 men and would have been so pleased with a draw.

OK, this is my last query for the day. I'm confused on how the timing works for the game. The 90 minutes were up, and they went into the extra minutes, which lated 3:04. So, what determines the length of the extra minutes? Overtimes here are a set period, what determines it for football/soccer?

The approximate length of time the ball is out of play (throw ins, goal kicks, injuries, etc. etc.) is added on to the end of the half as stoppage time.

It's down to the referee, they decide on the stoppage time towards the end of the 90 minutes (there's also stoppage time after the first half). That's why the Polish keeper got a yellow card - he was seen as time wasting when he didn't go collect the ball when it went out. Personally, I'd just add on more time, I absolutely hate time wasting. I think if I was a ref, there'd be about 10 extra minutes each half!

Yeah. The refs keep the official time on the field. The clock you see on TV or at the stadium starts and runs regardless of what happens on the field, so it's just an approximate.

There's no overtime in group play, so games will end in ties. Following group play, the games are elimination games, so OT will be used if the game reaches full time in a tie. OT is two 15 minute periods and can be either golden goal or silver goal. In Golden Goal, first goal wins. In Silver Goal, the over time periods are played to completion, even if someone scores. After OT, if the game is still tied, the game goes to penalty kicks, best of five.

and penalties are absolute torture, the worst possible way for a game to go.

I know you probably know this, but can I just point out that they don't use the Golden Goal anymore. Which is actually a bugger, I used to love when they did that.

And of course, if it's tied after 5 kicks apiece...


SUDDEN DEATH!

I know. I liked it too. With Silver Goal, it gets all stressful and tense. I hate it.

I can't believe you guys don't like tense games. It's part of the fun! Sitting on the edge of your seat, your beer completely forgotten, willing your team to push that little bit harder. And that feeling when your team scores...it's great!

Tense games are great, but overtime is meant to be first one to score wins.

Oh Poland. You have failed me and my national pride. They're only chance now is if Costa Rica and Germany beat Ecuador and they beat Costa Rica with a large goal difference. I don't see that happening. From here on out, unless USA pulls a miracle against Italy, I'll be rooting for England and Australia.

Except when you're supporting England, and you know we can't win a penalty shoot out to save our lives

That's...that's just superstition!

Haha, awesome to see someone get into football.

You'll enjoy it more and more, Nubs, when you learn about all the subtleties and typical strategies of the teams, etc. etc.

It's a great game.

What's so great about football, is that it can be next to impossible to net that friggin' ball within 90 minutes time, even though the goals are pretty large. When both teams are very good, it's just really hard to score in football, which is what makes for great duels, strategies, etc.

I know what you mean. That's one of the things I love about the World Cup. Everyone in the world comes together... to talk about footy Also, the level of sportsmanship is really impressive. Players are actually helping each other up after fouls!

I had a question for anybody that may know. During the Saudi game today, and during the Portugal-Angola game earlier in the week, the annoucers mentioned that the team gets money for going on to the next round. For the Saudi's it's, if I recall, a $20 million pool for the team. Also, it was mentioned that each goal is worth a house, some land, cars, or some other gifts. For Angola it was $5000 from a bank. Is this a popular reward system for most countries? And what about the defenders and goalkeepers? Since they don't have a chance at the goal (I suppose the defenders could, but obviously don't), would they get rewarded for saves? The goalkeeper you could keep track of saves, but for the defenders it becomes a much more difficult issue. Maybe by tackles? Do any of you know?

That simply varies per country. In some rich arabic countries players get insane rewards, in poor countries they get very little. It's up to the football association of the country, really.

goalkeepers and defenders rarely get any sort of bouns due to in game performance as its normally tied to scoring goals which is (mostly) the domain of midfielders and forwards. The only chance they have is if they get man of the match or something.

As for the germany - poland game, I feel real sorry for poland because although germany deserved to win due to the amount of chances they had, the polish defended well enough I thought to get a draw out of it...those opinions contradict I know..

As for the England game tomorrow I think its about time we showed what we can really do, we need a repeat of our first half performance against paraguay and the goals to go with it. I'd settle for a 1-0 or 2-0 win with lots of chances and exciting gameplay but we need to show we can maintain the pace for the full 90 minutes and stop sitting back on a lead.

In the past three major tournments I've started pulling my hair out as we start the second half with a 1 goal lead and just defend deeper and deeper as the half goes on, inviting the teams to attack, (e.g. Brazil and Agentina games last world cup.) England need to stop doing that if we are ever going to be a serious contender for the world cup.

Forget the cash bonuses, I want rum!

There are a variety of ways players could earn bonuses. The dfensive unit could get one if they don't allow the other team to score, for example. Some teams got bonuses just for making the World Cup. The Ivory Coast players were offered villas, but they all declined.

Best match of the cup by far.

any predictions on the England game?

I'm going for 2-0.

2-0 would be ideal if we can get it at least 25 minutes before the end of the game.

I reckon if we have it in the bag it would be advantageous to bring rooney on for 15 or 20 minutes.

Heres hoping Ecuador score another one so it pushes Germany to go at it hard in the next game for pole spot.

You should see it like this, two German players are from Poland, so not everything is lost.

Looks like Group A is decided already, Equador comfortably leading 2-0 over Costa Rica to join Germany in the second round.

England v Trinidad Tobago: 2-1 for England. Game kicks off at 2am here, damn you full-time employment!!

Ok, to repeat a question from yesterday, who should I be paying attention to in the England v Trindad-Tobago game? I know there's David Beckham, who I gather has gained quite the celebrity status. I have no idea if his play lives up to the hype however. So who else is there?

Gerrard Especially if he's allowed to play in an attacking role rather than as a defensive midfielder. Keep an eye on Crouch, as well. He came under a lot of fire when he was first brought up the bigger stages (at Liverpool and England), but he brings a very unique element to the game. Hmm...there's actually a few, but I'd rather avoid saying "all of the England squad". Rooney (if he's playing) and Owen...Downing, too. I think we're all waiting to see what Walcott can really do.

For Trinidad & Tobago, I can't really point many out. Hislop is a great goalkeeper, while Yorke is an experienced forward. T&T really seem more solid than outstanding, to me =/

3-0 for Ecuador. A well deserved victory.

One starts to wonder what they'll be able to do against zeh Germans...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I can't leave work for 10 more minutes and it's a 40 minutes ride home!!

ANGRY!!!

RSFTJ TRJ REAGHH HHRHRHRHRRHDJJJD!!!!!!!!

Gnh! 0-0. Could've been 1-0 either way at this point, too.

crouch missed a sitter

we need to ****ing wake up.

we're either awesome or we're underestimating and playing sloppy.

i'd say we've only had one or two more chances at most compared to what they have.

For T&T, you want to be watching Hislop, Yorke, Edwards, andd Stern John.

David Beckham wears panties.