All posts tagged South Africa

Soccer: The Other Football

By | June 26, 2010 | Soccer, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Wednesday I decided to take an early “lunch” and head up to a bar near my office to watch the US take on Algeria for a chance to advance to the round of 16 at the World Cup. I couldn’t find any other takers at the office, so I’d be watching the game “alone.” Fitting.

(Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) How does the airplane go?

How does the airplane go? (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

I have watched many US games on my own. I really started paying attention to US soccer during World Cup 2002. That Cup was held in South Korea/Japan, making start times in the States in the wee hours of the morning. 3 or 4 a.m., whee. I spent a lot of time bleary-eyed yelling at the TV as the US advanced to the quarter-finals and lost to Germany 2-nil (there are no zeros in soccer).

So, I’ve played and watched soccer for years now. Pay extra attention to what I have to say. I am smart and my brow protrudes in an attempt to contain my massive cranial body, just like Darwin.

World Cup Observations:

  1. I don’t care how cold it is. If you need to wear mittens when you’re playing, maybe you aren’t running hard enough. I know it’s chilly, but run or something.
  2. The vulvas or whatever those damn annoying horns are have finally receded into the distance for me. Or maybe they’ve just become a constant background noise to my life. And maybe I’m not going to KILL THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA!
  3. REPLAY! It’s most needed in soccer. They worry about interrupting the flow of the game, but that replay shit is instantaneous, for serious. I would especially like to see it on any goals/potential goals, cards in the box, red cards, maybe a couple of other situations. I don’t find the “flow” arguments compelling.
  4. Giusseppe Rossi is at home, like the rest of the Italian team. Kid grew up in Jersey to Italian parents. After spending some time on some junior US squads, he ended up fulfilling his dream of playing for Italy. I don’t really begrudge him that, if that’s his dream, godspeed. But I’m jingoistic enough for that to rub me the wrong way. It all seems so . . . un-American to me. What is America but the place where you remember your heritage while embracing your new homeland? So, I will admit to schadenfreude when he didn’t make team Italy (although maybe he should have) and then it was pure delight when Italia finished last in their group and bid arrivederci to South Africa. Yes. I am petty and small.
  5. Flopping is irritating. These dudes go down easier than a Denny’s grand slam breakfast. I’m probably on the far end of disbelief though. Every time a guy takes a tumble, I’m immediately saying, “Look at him flop like a gutted fish!” And then I see the replay and he took a shank to the face and I say, “Okay, that probably hurt.”
  6. One of my favorite things to watch for is the crowd shots when mostly-impartial South Africans fans get caught up in the celebrations of other nation’s fans: “I don’t really care, but this is kind of fun!”
  7. The US should score more and maybe not procrastinate so much this afternoon. I mean, very exciting ending vs. Algeria, but I could go for a little “easier” of a win.

There are your tips. Tune in this afternoon and watch probably the biggest game in US soccer history. Let’s win it.

Four Reasons You Should Be Watching the World Cup

By | June 23, 2010 | Crazy People, Soccer | 5 Comments

While most people probably know the World Cup is going on, there’s still millions of Americans who haven’t tuned in, including sports fans. As a lifelong player and fan, I’m personally tired of the same old “soccer is boring” arguments and the complaints about the vuvuzelas; there’s no reason for a sports fan to lambast the world’s game because there’s something for everyone. While round robin play in South Africa is almost over, there’s still time to catch do-or-die action. Here’s four reasons you should be watching the World Cup. Read more…

I’ve Got a Fever and the Only Cure Is More Vuvuzela

By | June 21, 2010 | Soccer | Comments Off

Can’t get enough vuvuzela during World Cup games? In the mood for vuvu?

Sarah almost lost her coffee when the guy said “and the biggest horn blower of them all – George Michael. She is very mature.

[via Dave's Football Blog]

The Sounds of World Cup Soccer: Vuvuzela Watch Part One

By | June 13, 2010 | Soccer, Sportscasters, WTF? | 1 Comment

Confused by the World Cup buzz? I was.

I’m not talking about the incessant yapping of the media and everyone watching and even the people who claim not to be watching who seem obsessed with talking about the World Cup anyway. I’m talking vuvuzelas, baby.

Mind you I did not know what these horns were called until yesterday. I’ve watched exactly no soccer games in my life but I’ve been watching the World Cup since the opening ceremonies started because:

a. I am currently spending a lot of time on my couch working from home.

b. I appear to be on a quest to expose myself to every single sport, even those in which I previously had zero interest. This includes timbersports, which I just learned are a thing.

c. When you hashtag #worldcup on Twitter, a little soccer ball pops up in your Tweet. I am easily amused by this sort of thing, and will be lobbying for a little Twitter puck next year during hockey playoffs for sure.

On the first day, I enjoyed watching the South African team celebrate their goal against Mexico, the first goal of the whole shebang in what would end as a 1-1 tie game.

I am seriously considering adding that little dance to my just-because daily repertoire.

So things started off enjoyably, but after a few hours, the low, droning buzz in the stadium that seemed to get louder and louder as the games wore on started to get to me.

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Long, relatively uneventful stretches of men kicking a ball around and bopping it with their heads. Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

OMG CICADAS SWARMING AROUND MY HOUSE OMG STFU GET THEM OFF ME.

Then everyone on Twitter started talking about the noise, and complaining about the noise, and how it was distracting and unnerving and why was it happening? So I knew I wasn’t alone, which is nice, because it’s sad to bitch alone and validation that I’m not hearing things is always useful too.

Vuvuzelas FTW! Glasses not necessarily included.

Vuvuzelas FTW! Glasses not necessarily included.

These vuvuzela horns — find me a more fun word to say, I challenge you — are a traditional part of South African soccer games. Culturally speaking, I think that’s pretty interesting. But their noise output averages about 127 decibels — louder than a chain saw, says this former audiology major — and that’s a lot to listen to for an hour and a half straight. FIFA considered banning them for the Cup but the South African football association were understandably not down.

Here’s Mike and Mike complaining about them.

A site called Ban the Vuvuzela is up already, with the “against” camp firmly in the lead. World Cup organizer Danny Jordaan caused a bit of a stir Sunday when the BBC reported that  he insinuated that the horns, which have been accused of distracting players, the audience and newscasters, may be banned. But reports quickly surfaced that that would only happen in the case of a vuvuzela being thrown on the soccer pitch or used in any kind of way to harass players or the crowd.

Meanwhile vuvuzelas are selling in England — and probably in other places, I just haven’t seen the reports — at a fast clip, and I would like one, too. I’m not going to make noise on it for 90 minutes or annoy anyone on purpose, but I just figure something called a vuvuzela would be a fun thing to have.

This World Cup business will be going on for a month so I’ll keep an eye on this critical issue. You’ve got your #vuvuzelawatch right here.

Source

Photo

Don’t Assume Soccer Skillz Follow The Paternal Line. Word To The Mother, Word To Me.

By | July 1, 2009 | Soccer | Comments Off

When my sons first began playing soccer people would turn to my husband and look approvingly as if to say, “Dude, good thing you got your kids into soccer.” And it would piss me off. It wasn’t my husband who fanned the flame to get the kids fired up about soccer, it was me.  I love the game!  My love of the game began early, not because I played on the Pugs, but because I had traveled to Europe. See, across the pond, soccer is to other countries what Football and Baseball are to us here in the U S of A. Sitting in a pub or cafe in Paris or London watching a futbol match with the Europeans gave me a contact high which continued to have an effect on me, well,  forever.

Yeah, I played intramural soccer in college. But  for fun, definitely not for profit or sex. I wasn’t especially talented nor promiscuous, which may have contributed to my non existent rise to fortune and fame.  But I’m okay with that. I got out of the game just  what I needed at that time in my life: physical exercise  and beer. Okay, mainly beer.

So now my kids are playing soccer. Not yet into the beer garden party, but they do like to watch our local MLS team, DC United, play at RFK Stadium.

While we’ve had seats behind the hard core fans, our kids prefer to sit elsewhere because ,while the fans are spirited and tend to be happy, they stand up for almost the entire match and the pounding of the feet sort of makes my younger son nervous the stadium floor will give way. And if it does? He’s convinced we’ll fall into the depths of the stadium which will definitely mean he’ll fall so fast he won’t be able to get any Dippin’ Dots*along the way.

This past week we watched the Confederations Cup; Spain V. South Africa.  Initially I thought there was a problem with our television reception. I heard something which sounded a lot like buzzing . My sons told me it was due to  horns being blown by fans in the stadium.  And yup, they were absolutely right. I had utterly forgotten about the vuvuzela and after I told the boys the name of the horn, I waited for one of them to giggle and ask  if there is also a penis horn.

Smartassery, it seems, also follows the maternal line.

*Consensus tells me there is no middle ground when it comes to Dippin Dots; either you love them or  you hate them.  My opinion is Dippin Dots suck.

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