I'm watching here in South Carolina. I root for the U.S. (my national side, bless their little hearts), Sweden (we are Swedish-American), then for CONCACAF teams (as a regional league, we get no respect), and for teams that play entertaining and pretty football (so far this tournament - the Netherlands!). I saw my first World Cup play in 1978, when it wasn't on the air in the U.S. (our physical education teacher got tapes from god knows where; probably the same source as our Liverpool-beats-everybody tapes, whatever that was), and regularly since 1986, when they started airing the tournament on ABC here.
Our match today is at 3 in the afternoon, our time, so I'll probably accompany it with some nice iced tea and some cookies.
1978 was also my first time, and even back then in my parents' garden on a small TV together with friends and family. I wasn't even in school at that time, so the football-and-barbecue-tradition-thing caught me pretty early.
The Netherlands played really great so far. I'd also like to see Japan win some matches. And of course Germany.
What is CONCACAF?
I wish you a nice afternoon with iced tea, cookies and the game. Good luck!
But only for today, not for next week's Thursday. :D
CONCACAF: North American soccer confederation. (In this cup, the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, and Honduras qualified from it. Though I don't root for Honduras, as they play very ugly football.)
Got the game time wrong: right now is Iran and Nigeria. The U.S. and Ghana are at 6 PM our time. So still some iced tea, but waiting for dinner.
Thanks for making Pepe loose his temper! (They play us next.) First hat trick of the Cup, very nice.
Es hat zwar so gut wie nix mit Büchern zu tun aber ich steh total auf diese Musik :-)) meine Empfehlung diesbezüglich ist eine meiner Lieblingsbands eine Deutsch-Brasilianische Mischung mit dem Namen Mo'Horizons http://youtu.be/qc7AIJOp-iA
I'm more of a club football fan, but will follow the World Cup for all the dramas. Congrats to the Germans for a big win this morning. They really gave the Portuguese something to think about lol.
Congratulations to the US, well played! Your first goal happened so soon after the kickoff, I almost didn't realize it. Must be a record for this championship.
@Susanna: Thanks. And: you're welcome! ;)
Hope you'll be able to demoralize Ronaldo even more next Sunday.
@Awogfli: Klingt interessant! Samba ist die perfekte Sommermusik, finde ich.
@1st Avenue: Thank you! And I must admit that I love the dramas, too. Pure entertainment!
I came in the room a minute late and missed the first goal. I was very surprised, but very happy. I think it is the record for this championship, and the sixth fastest overall?
Then it was a nail-biting 90 minutes. We got a telemarketing call in the 82nd minute, and I took the guy's head off. (But he's a serial offender and deserved it, anyway.)
Sixth fastest ever? Great, congrats! Now I'll have to find out how fast the other five were...
I can totally relate to your reaction to that telemarketer. He would have been deaf for at least a week after calling me in such a situation.
Just found a statistic about the fastest goals, and apparently Dempsey's was the fifth fastest!
And yes, number one was after 11 seconds. That's almost unbelievably fast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APKtjT5O5ZA
I went to the same university as Dempsey (though not at the same time!). It's a local school, so we actually got our first World Cup highlights on the local news.
Local news... haha, that's great! :D
There weren't any popular athletes on my university as far as I know, but a bunch of other famous people, all a more or less long time before me: Konrad Adenauer, Max Ernst, Heinrich Heine, Heinrich Hertz, August Kekulé, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Pope Benedict XVI (when he was still Joseph Ratzinger). Interesting mixture, right? ;)
So what about the match on Thursday, is it going to end in a draw, what do you think?
A draw would be a good result for both countries, no matter what happens in the other group: Germany wins group, US qualifies.
A much more distinguished group than that of my alma mater! My university's most famous graduates are probably Charles Hard Townes (Nobel in physics, for the laser); John B. Watson (the father of behavioral psychology); Keith Lockhart (conductor of the Boston Pops); the LPGA's Beth Daniel, Betsy King, and Dottie Pepper; Betsy Byars (Newbery Prize winner in children's lit); Alexander Stubb (prominent Finnish politician - he gave damned good parties); Jerome Felton (All-Pro NFL player, and one of my mother's former students); Clint Dempsey; and the very controversial swimming champion Angel Myers Martino. I'll take your list over my list!
I agree, a draw would be the best for both teams, and they could save themselves for the next matches. But on the other hand, this could get really boring if both teams chose to not do much.
I guess we will have to see how the buddies Loew and Klinsmann decide.
Our match today is at 3 in the afternoon, our time, so I'll probably accompany it with some nice iced tea and some cookies.
1978 was also my first time, and even back then in my parents' garden on a small TV together with friends and family. I wasn't even in school at that time, so the football-and-barbecue-tradition-thing caught me pretty early.
The Netherlands played really great so far. I'd also like to see Japan win some matches. And of course Germany.
What is CONCACAF?
I wish you a nice afternoon with iced tea, cookies and the game. Good luck!
But only for today, not for next week's Thursday. :D
Got the game time wrong: right now is Iran and Nigeria. The U.S. and Ghana are at 6 PM our time. So still some iced tea, but waiting for dinner.
Thanks for making Pepe loose his temper! (They play us next.) First hat trick of the Cup, very nice.
@Susanna: Thanks. And: you're welcome! ;)
Hope you'll be able to demoralize Ronaldo even more next Sunday.
@Awogfli: Klingt interessant! Samba ist die perfekte Sommermusik, finde ich.
@1st Avenue: Thank you! And I must admit that I love the dramas, too. Pure entertainment!
Then it was a nail-biting 90 minutes. We got a telemarketing call in the 82nd minute, and I took the guy's head off. (But he's a serial offender and deserved it, anyway.)
I can totally relate to your reaction to that telemarketer. He would have been deaf for at least a week after calling me in such a situation.
And yes, number one was after 11 seconds. That's almost unbelievably fast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APKtjT5O5ZA
There weren't any popular athletes on my university as far as I know, but a bunch of other famous people, all a more or less long time before me: Konrad Adenauer, Max Ernst, Heinrich Heine, Heinrich Hertz, August Kekulé, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Pope Benedict XVI (when he was still Joseph Ratzinger). Interesting mixture, right? ;)
So what about the match on Thursday, is it going to end in a draw, what do you think?
A much more distinguished group than that of my alma mater! My university's most famous graduates are probably Charles Hard Townes (Nobel in physics, for the laser); John B. Watson (the father of behavioral psychology); Keith Lockhart (conductor of the Boston Pops); the LPGA's Beth Daniel, Betsy King, and Dottie Pepper; Betsy Byars (Newbery Prize winner in children's lit); Alexander Stubb (prominent Finnish politician - he gave damned good parties); Jerome Felton (All-Pro NFL player, and one of my mother's former students); Clint Dempsey; and the very controversial swimming champion Angel Myers Martino. I'll take your list over my list!
I guess we will have to see how the buddies Loew and Klinsmann decide.
Go Germany & USA! Congrats :)
Just keep on fighting. You never know, maybe the Netherlands spent all their energy against Spain, so Australia could beat them hands down.