So this is making me really nervous about the next World Cup. An awful pitch in the first game, losing the feed for a few minutes in the second game, and those god-awful bee horns.
Pitch will be worked out no problem I heard. The horns....let's pray that FIFA bans them. They would turn off so many casual viewers if they're making it difficult for the die-hards to stay tuned in.
Keep in mind those horns will only be present when South Africa plays, right? I don't think any other country's fans would bring them. Maybe Mexico, but they'll be golfing in Cancun next July.
I was watching the Iraq v. (some country in africa i dont remember) match. The horns were pretty bad. It just sounded like a swarm of bees the whole time. Did anyone see the iraq "own save"? I felt bad for that guy. The final was 0-0 btw.
They were adamant in the other match as well. There are a lot of tickets allotted to the RSA fans for each match I think.
But not for the World Cup I don't think. I think the fan culture of the countries in the games will overtake them next year. Just a guess, and wishful thinking.
It looked from the broadcast like there were about 100 fans total in the stands by the end of Spain-New Zealand, and the horns were still very much present.
How in the name of all that is holy has Egypt tied this up 3-3? I was playing with Charley, and I wanted to check for the final score. Are you frakkin kidding me? If this result holds, and we can get a result against Italy, Group B just got a shitload more interesting... Egypt gets 2 goals in less than 2 mins? I need a frakkin highlight reel!
i only got to watch part of the game on sun. i was kind of shocked to see huge divots and the ruts on the field. that can all be fixed in a year though. the part that got to me was those awful horns. we seriously need to find something that annoys the living crap out of everyone else and do it. just to make it a more "intimidating" atmosphere.
One, I was not there Travis, and please don't refer to me as "huge" ever again. Two, Kazoos. Nuff' said.
i was at the game on sat. i know you're not huge i'll take kazoos, though i think if we could come up with somethign that isn't buzzing it would be better. someone said somethign about all of us doing a low frequency hum at the same time. i think that would work. or maybe we could get clackers. anything as long as it's not horns or thundersticks.
Stuck at work. The guy doing the gamecast for ESPN is a bucket of sputum... Small sampling: 45'Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) takes a goal kick. 44'Jonathan Bornstein (United States) takes the throw. 44'Andrea Pirlo (Italy) commits a foul on Michael Bradley resulting on a free kick for United States 43'Jozy Altidore (United States) commits a foul on Giorgio Chiellini resulting on a free kick for Italy 43'Tim Howard (United States) takes a goal kick. 43'Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy) hits a shot but it goes off target 42'Benny Feilhaber (United States) commits a foul on Mauro German Camoranesi resulting on a free kick for Italy 42'Mauro German Camoranesi (Italy) takes the throw. 42'Jonathan Bornstein (United States) clears the ball 42'Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) saves the shot 42'Michael Bradley (United States) hits a shot Worthless.
I agree JT. We need someone with some pizzaz doing this, like the guy during Euro that wrote that the Greeks were ruining soccer and openly rooting for the other team to beat them.
Totally...The guys who do the Prem are inserting opinions, which is so valuable (& tweetable) and entertaining...
All things considered, I'm not nearly as broken up over this 3-1 loss as I was over the last one. We played pretty well, considering they were on the power play for almost an hour.
What pisses me off is that a great game like this was just completely altered and ruined by a terrible ref. If you're gonna give Rico a red, then there should have been at least two other reds given out (elbow on Landon, Benny's tackle, probably more). And then towards the end Landon gets a knee to the back as an Italian defender jumps over his back nowhere near the ball...but that's nothing. I just hate when I actually notice the ref. I've been looking forward to this tournament, and it's a shame that one dumb@ss had to ruin it with a ridiculously bad decision. Overall, good stuff from Landon. Back four looked very solid. Feilhaber showed some good vision, but also had some lazy touches. Bradley played strong in the center, I hope to see more of that.
In addition to the sentiments by FC Matt 90, I would add that the game totally changed once that card was given. We were stepping up, taking the game to them, winning balls, and had great energy...up until that point and after it (minus the pk) we were forced back into our half the whole time. It just really gets to me and I can't let it go because the beautiful game (our play and soccer itself) was ruined.
just watched most of the replay when i saw the scoreline.... i would like to echo the sentiments of others here. played wonderfully until 10 min or so after the red card. after that point they got tired and most stopped running. i personally feel that whenever a team that normally plays aggressively goes on the defense they will always lose. esp if they have to do it for more than 1/4 of the game. though i am glad it wasn't a 5-0 beating. i'll get the tissues ready for thursday for that one.