FIFA World Cup 2006

:(

Enjay said:

Remove football and my zealotism (is that a word?) disappears. Problem solved. ;)

The word is Zealotry ;)

Tomorrow Ecuador Vs. Germany.

If the Ecuadorian Team wins/ties this one... we will run out of booze for a couple of days, people will not work for the rest of the days and the next to days people will work at half their cappacity because of the hangover they'll have. (I don't drink because of migraine)

The team gives the nation happinnes and hope. The country gives itself more reasons to be a third world country.

England v Sweden tomoz, bet Sven lets England lose to his homeland team.

Sven won't have to let them do anything if he doesn't shake up the lineup; they've been utterly uninspiring with what they've gone with the first two games.

I predict a nervous, strategic affair, with England winning by the odd goal (and thereby beating Sweden for the first time since 1968).

Kristian Ronge said:

I predict a nervous, strategic affair, with England winning by the odd goal (and thereby beating Sweden for the first time since 1968).

Agreed. Probably Crouch for the goal. Rooney i don't think is capable of scoring yet.

I don't think Crouch is playing.

Germany 3 Ecuador 0

=(

please let england play germany

TheDarkArchon said:

The word is Zealotry ;)

Zealousness?

Job said:

Zealousness?

Dictionary.com says yes.

zealotry also seems to exist

Zaldron said:

zealotry also seems to exist

Indeed it does. As does my original zealotism apparently. I guess I'm guilty of all 3 then. ;)

Hahah, the 38-year streak lives on! :-)

Enjay said:

I agree, I'm a zealot. I agree, it's a product of football. I'm OK with that. Naturally, if footbal didn't exist, I wouldn't hate it. Remove football and my zealotism (is that a word?) disappears. Problem solved. ;) Anyway, someone needs to be an anti-football zealot to combat the pro-football zealots.

And some of the pro-football zealots can be very nasty at times.

Kristian Ronge said:

Hahah, the 38-year streak lives on! :-)

That was a boring match.

TheDarkArchon said:

And some of the pro-football zealots can be very nasty at times.

:(

That story illustrates some of the worst aspects of football dickery but it is also more about the only form of racism that is accepted, if not encouraged, in Scotland. I can't count the number of times I've heard people make anti-English comments in any kind of company and (often quite rightly) assumed there would be no negative fallout from the comments, or perhaps even agreement with them, when if exactly the same comment had been made about "niggers" or "Pakis" people would have been shifting around uncomfortably, protesting or even more severe consequences (like a person loosing their job or something).

Mind you, the kid was wearing a football top and playing football too, so my sympathy only extends so far. You run with the herd, you take the knocks. ;)

[edit]And there is more
http://www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=149212&command=displayContent&sourceNode=200378&home=yes&more_nodeId1=149215&contentPK=14730931

More positive benefits of football. A disabled man dragged from his car and beaten up for wearing an England shirt and flying an England car flag in Aberdeen. How many other games inspire this tribal dickishness? Again though, some responsibility has to be placed on the victim IMO. Wearing a football shirt is a guaranteed way of getting someone making a dickish comment to you sooner or later. It's a fairly safe bet that someone is likely to be threatening towards you, even agressive. Personal attacks are not exactly unknown - even murder (like the 14 year old kid who was stabbed to death by two adults for walking past a Rangers pub wearing a Celtic top in Glasgow a few years back). I wouldn't wear a racist t-shirt in Harlem (well, I wouldn't wear a racist t-shirt) and to me there is little difference between the wisdom of that and wearing a football shirt - just that the "no go" areas are harder to identify. Sooner or later you will (not might - it's a guarantee) get into some kind of conflict with someone because of it. What a great game.[/edit]

Zaldron said:
That was a boring match.

What?

Sweden should have won, though. But it was a good game.

At no point I felt a team had a chance of scoring. Way too much backpassing.

Enjay: That incident is also mentioned in the article I linked to, though it wasn't as prominent.

Well, the U.S. is eliminated. Pretty sure their security team is relieved.

TheDarkArchon said:

Enjay: That incident is also mentioned in the article I linked to, though it wasn't as prominent.

Yeah, I noticed that. The article I linked to was the lead story in "The Press and Journal" this morning so I'd already read it in paper form. If Mr Blair is getting involved, I guess it's making more national headlines too. Although maybe not. Violent crime in Scotland is unlikely to make a bigger splash in the national news than, say, the 11.15 bus to Picadilly being 3 minutes late, or something.

Zaldron said:

At no point I felt a team had a chance of scoring. Way too much backpassing.

Losing your last bona fide striker (because Eriksson didn't take Defoe - wtf?) had that effect on us.

Surely you guys enjoyed Cole's strike though?

I disagree with Myk I don't think Sweden deserved to win over 90 minutes, but we were unusually poor defensively at set pieces in that game which is really weird for England and the last thing we need to start worrying about with our problems up front.

I just hope it somehow comes together like a (very) sick headache.

And funnily enough my critique applies exactly to the Argentina - Netherlands match too.

I think everyone in Australia will decide instantly to like soccer now that we're through to the round of 16 for the first time ever. We play Italy on the 26th.

baronofhell said:
Well, the U.S. is eliminated.

With a little bit of luck they could've gone through. Bruce Arena is one of the most underrated and overlooked football coaches in the world.

Oh that McBride almost-goal definitely hurts. But the match was fun to watch.

pritch said:

Losing your last bona fide striker (because Eriksson didn't take Defoe - wtf?) had that effect on us.

It's a shame, too, cause I'd be reveling in the little guy's chance to shine in front of a world audience.

I disagree with Myk I don't think Sweden deserved to win over 90 minutes, but we were unusually poor defensively at set pieces in that game which is really weird for England and the last thing we need to start worrying about with our problems up front.

The scary thing is, Rio's out now too, and as big of a klutz as he can be sometimes, he's definitely a world class center back. I think Michael Dawson would come in handy here, but I'm just being a homer again :)

GooberMan said:

I think everyone in Australia will decide instantly to like soccer now that we're through to the round of 16 for the first time ever. We play Italy on the 26th.

I became an Australia soccer fan during the Australia/Brazil game. The Croatia game was the most exciting I'd seen of any in the tournament so far, and now that they're playing Italy...I'm definitely throwing my support behind the Socceroos.