World Cup has started!!

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaalllllllll !!!!!!!   

Would have loved to see Brazil only manage a tie but they got some good ole home cooking.

I'll stick to watching the USA Women's team since they actually have a chance when they play.

First game was a lot of fun to watch. Greedy of Brazil to score all 3 of the first goals in their 2-1 win. lol

what is this world cup thing....

Merica

S7 Sticky wrote:what is this world cup thing....

It is the international championship for the "beautiful game", the largest sport in the world, and for most countries a "religion". It comes every 4 years and will hold the attention of approx 4B people for the next few weeks.   

ahhh, the over-reacting / acting being severely injured.

Spain... murdered so hard.

Spain from the champs to out in round 1

That was a GOOD game!!! That first goal that was a header was absolutely beautiful.    Spain isn't out yet. They can still make it as a runner up in their group and fight their way back up. Only one team has ever lost their opener and won the World Cup in the end - either Argentina or Brazil I think.

USA is in the "group of death" (Group G) - they have to play Germany and and Portugal, both very highly ranked teams internationally.

Yup, Germany is #2, Portugal #4, with Ronaldo.

I hope we beat Ghana, nice revenge for the last 2 World Cups. Portugal can have fairly spotty play, so that's another place we could get a tie or (if we're lucky) a win.

Xpert2010 wrote:ahhh, the over-reacting / acting being severely injured.

The #1 thing that makes me turn off every match I watch.  Just once I'd like to see a match where there wasn't flopping around everywhere.  I hate seeing "tactics" like that.  It's the main reason I can't stand the Miami Heat either.  They are the kings of the basketball flops.

While there are plenty of players that dive, there's also a lot of very, very hard contact. They tend to dramatize fouls, but in general - if the ref blows the whistle it's because a foul happened. The 2-3x a game that are blatant dives are obvious right away in instant replays.

To be fair, there is a lot more going on tactically that's not as easy to understand as something like Football or Baseball. Not to slam on either, they're both great/entertaining games in their own way.

AtrumX wrote:While there are plenty of players that dive, there's also a lot of very, very hard contact. They tend to dramatize fouls, but in general - if the ref blows the whistle it's because a foul happened. The 2-3x a game that are blatant dives are obvious right away in instant replays.

To be fair, there is a lot more going on tactically that's not as easy to understand as something like Football or Baseball. Not to slam on either, they're both great/entertaining games in their own way.

Oh, totally, it's not all flopping, just way too much for my liking.  I've tried to get into watching soccer, but I just can't where there are so many blatant non-contact "injuries".

On a lighter note, here's pretty cool video...

I understand, to each his own. Obviously we can't all have the same favorite sports or the others wouldn't be around!

I have to say, I think the Spain vs Netherlands game would be fun for just about anyone to watch. They were in the previous world cup finals vs each other and are both very good/physical teams. It was a great game to watch.

Have definitely changed my tune a bit from before.  I've watched a lot of the World Cup today and must say I've been into each game.  Anybody else using the Brazil Now app snapped to the side and can answer questions about the games going on and get cards for voting with the majority of people?  So far I have 21 out of 96 cards.  Cool way to keep the interest during the games.

Hadn't even heard of the app. I'll check it out.

Gooooaaaall!!! Switzerland just stole the game from Ecuador in the last 10 secs!!!   

OneBadHuskerFan wrote:Have definitely changed my tune a bit from before.  I've watched a lot of the World Cup today and must say I've been into each game.  Anybody else using the Brazil Now app snapped to the side and can answer questions about the games going on and get cards for voting with the majority of people?  So far I have 21 out of 96 cards.  Cool way to keep the interest during the games.

Yep, Sat's games were exciting. The Costa Rica upset of Uruguay was huge!! Italy beat up England - England looked bad in the last WC too considering they are such a strong futbol nation.

Next up today is France vs Honduras. The Latin America vs European games are always good.

Air7Cav wrote:Gooooaaaall!!! Switzerland just stole the game from Ecuador in the last 10 secs!!!   

That was pretty amazing.  I thought Ecuador was about to pull it out and then a minute later the Swiss take it right back to them.  Crazy ending to that one.

Anything but Hockey...sorry hockey lovers but that's where I draw the line. Everything else is cool, and been watching the World Cup since the beginning and can't wait to see the US team try (all they can do really). I also think having been outside the US in many places you understand how important this simple game of futbol is to others around the world. Here, not so much but to each his own.

Germany KILLED Portugal today 4-0!! Huge game!!     Changes USA's chances in Group G to maybe going through to the next round as a runner up. Poor Ronaldo (POR), he couldn't get it going given he is the most valuable player in the world - $30M annual salary and over $1B (that's right, I said billion) in his contract's buy-out clause. The man of the hour is Mueller (GER) who scored a hat trick in the game.

Epic win for the USA.  What a match!

We were pretty lucky to get that W. Now for us to beat Portugal and move on!