At the moment, I have to go with Ecuador, since my boss's wife is from Ecuador. I assume bdelphine is rooting for France. Any other teams I should be pulling for or against?
I'm not emotionally invested in any team. I just want to see good soccer, like the game between Côte d'Ivoire and Serbia and Montenegro, or the goal that Argentina scored to advance past Mexico. I'd rather not see another game as ugly as Portugal vs. the Netherlands unless a hockey game breaks out in the middle of it.
My lab is pretty cool btw. We are having our annual party tomorrow so that we can watch the Frenchies :) I hope they do ok (really, I want them to win but as long as they don't totally disgrace us all I'm good with a solid performance whatever the outcome of the game) Just to have more football discussions: The refs have been a little weird for the a lot of the games no? and finally although the English totally did not play their best, I am glad I got to see the free kick! Bending it like Beckham indeed ;)-
I have to say that I've found it very difficult to enjoy most of the World Cup games that I've been able to see because of the quality of the referees. They seem to be having far too much impact on the games this time around.
France vs. Brazil next. That's a must see. Ghana's played pretty well against Brazil but was quite unlucky. Brazil needs to bring their 'A' game or it's going to be a repeat of '98. This year Germany is playing like Brazil and vice versa. What's up with that?
Go France!!! Did people watch the game today? :) Zidane rocks! Overall, all the Frenchies played well and I glad to see the commentators eat their words. mwahahaha! (at half time, it was tied, France had the ball more and more scoring opportunities and the commentators were still saying that there was no way France would beat Brazil. Well they showed them!).
And Wimbledon is on as well, although there's only one American left in the draw.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict France 2-1 over Italy in the final. If Zizou keeps it up and Ribery and Henry continue to play well, I don't see anyone beating them. It'd be a nice way for Zidane to go out.
The Tour de France has provided its share of excitement this year. Who can forget the sight of Thor Hushovd with blood all over one side of his body? And as usual, the cycling advertisements aren't bad.
Happy 4th, everyone! Now if France will come through then my prediction's still got a chance. I wonder if any team had ever beaten two Portugese speaking teams back to back in WC before?
It certainly didn't look good for Italy when the game looked to be headed for PKs. I think my predicted score of 2-1 in the final might be too high given how good Italy's defense has been in this WC. So my backup prediction is 1-1 with France winning on PKs 4-3.
Has anyone found a good online Tour tracker? I don't get OLN and I haven't found anything really good to follow the Tour this year. I recall there being some great tools last year...
back to football though (I have football fever... I seem to get it every four years or so) GOOOOOOOOOOO FRANCE!!! ok so the game against Portugal wasn't their best but they are in the finals :) I know I'm biased but did it seem like the Portugese were diving a lot instead of concentrating on playing? Also, why was the crowd booing C. Ronaldo every time he had the ball? I don't agree with the commentators saying that it was because they were mad at him from the England game... That seems highly unlikely since French fans were the majority of spectators.
Man, I was so close!! But no cigar. I guess that's fitting for a soccer prediction. :)
Buffon totally ruined the Zidane header that would have made my original 2-1 prediction good. And what got into Zidane anyway? If he had been the 3rd PK instead, they might have had a chance. Buffon did great though. I think France needs more height across the board, starting with keeper. If Barthez (and Ribery) were taller, the Italy goal might have been saved. They were both in good position and were just too short.
I know what got into Zidane?? Arg... He usually seems pretty level headed. As I said before, all I really wanted the Frenchies to do was play well and not embarass themselves. well... so much for that. It was really nice up until Zidane went bonkers...
I know how you feel, Delphine. He was the captain of the team, too. I think maybe there's been some rough play that wasn't called by the ref that finally got to him. Seems like he went down several times and no fouls were called. I thought that in the first half the Italians were diving most heinously and maybe that was a contributing factor, too. Plus he was really robbed on that header, but it was a great play. After Buffon blocked the shot, Zidane looked like he was going to charge him and strangle him. Too bad he's retiring on a very different, but no less memorable header. C'est la vie.
In the experiment I work on there are numerous French and Italian peoples. So discussions on the social mailing lists sometimes got a bit heated. :-) I did see a pointer to a nice flickr photoset: [the link]
Eric: Were they projecting in the Piazza del Duomo? And do you remember which restaurant you ate at? I remember a couple of places along and near Via Etnea that were pretty good.
21 Comments:
I'm not emotionally invested in any team. I just want to see good soccer, like the game between Côte d'Ivoire and Serbia and Montenegro, or the goal that Argentina scored to advance past Mexico. I'd rather not see another game as ugly as Portugal vs. the Netherlands unless a hockey game breaks out in the middle of it.
FRANCE! all the way :)
My lab is pretty cool btw. We are having our annual party tomorrow so that we can watch the Frenchies :) I hope they do ok (really, I want them to win but as long as they don't totally disgrace us all I'm good with a solid performance whatever the outcome of the game)
Just to have more football discussions: The refs have been a little weird for the a lot of the games no?
and finally although the English totally did not play their best, I am glad I got to see the free kick! Bending it like Beckham indeed ;)-
I have to say that I've found it very difficult to enjoy most of the World Cup games that I've been able to see because of the quality of the referees. They seem to be having far too much impact on the games this time around.
Congratulations France & Finou!
France vs. Brazil next. That's a must see. Ghana's played pretty well against Brazil but was quite unlucky. Brazil needs to bring their 'A' game or it's going to be a repeat of '98. This year Germany is playing like Brazil and vice versa. What's up with that?
Eric: Where in Sicily?
Go France!!! Did people watch the game today? :)
Zidane rocks! Overall, all the Frenchies played well and I glad to see the commentators eat their words. mwahahaha! (at half time, it was tied, France had the ball more and more scoring opportunities and the commentators were still saying that there was no way France would beat Brazil. Well they showed them!).
That was a great game, and Zidane really showed off his skills.
My prediction: a European team will win the World Cup. :-)
And Wimbledon is on as well, although there's only one American left in the draw.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict France 2-1 over Italy in the final. If Zizou keeps it up and Ribery and Henry continue to play well, I don't see anyone beating them. It'd be a nice way for Zidane to go out.
The Tour de France has provided its share of excitement this year. Who can forget the sight of Thor Hushovd with blood all over one side of his body? And as usual, the cycling advertisements aren't bad.
Happy 4th, everyone! Now if France will come through then my prediction's still got a chance. I wonder if any team had ever beaten two Portugese speaking teams back to back in WC before?
It certainly didn't look good for Italy when the game looked to be headed for PKs. I think my predicted score of 2-1 in the final might be too high given how good Italy's defense has been in this WC. So my backup prediction is 1-1 with France winning on PKs 4-3.
Has anyone found a good online Tour tracker? I don't get OLN and I haven't found anything really good to follow the Tour this year. I recall there being some great tools last year...
jocave: There's always the canonical letour.fr...
back to football though (I have football fever... I seem to get it every four years or so)
GOOOOOOOOOOO FRANCE!!!
ok so the game against Portugal wasn't their best but they are in the finals :)
I know I'm biased but did it seem like the Portugese were diving a lot instead of concentrating on playing?
Also, why was the crowd booing C. Ronaldo every time he had the ball? I don't agree with the commentators saying that it was because they were mad at him from the England game... That seems highly unlikely since French fans were the majority of spectators.
Man, I was so close!! But no cigar. I guess that's fitting for a soccer prediction. :)
Buffon totally ruined the Zidane header that would have made my original 2-1 prediction good. And what got into Zidane anyway? If he had been the 3rd PK instead, they might have had a chance. Buffon did great though. I think France needs more height across the board, starting with keeper. If Barthez (and Ribery) were taller, the Italy goal might have been saved. They were both in good position and were just too short.
Good game. Congrats to Italy and her fans.
I know what got into Zidane?? Arg... He usually seems pretty level headed. As I said before, all I really wanted the Frenchies to do was play well and not embarass themselves. well... so much for that. It was really nice up until Zidane went bonkers...
I know how you feel, Delphine. He was the captain of the team, too. I think maybe there's been some rough play that wasn't called by the ref that finally got to him. Seems like he went down several times and no fouls were called. I thought that in the first half the Italians were diving most heinously and maybe that was a contributing factor, too. Plus he was really robbed on that header, but it was a great play. After Buffon blocked the shot, Zidane looked like he was going to charge him and strangle him. Too bad he's retiring on a very different, but no less memorable header. C'est la vie.
So... any predictions for 2010? Is it the year we make contact?
In the experiment I work on there are numerous French and Italian peoples. So discussions on the social mailing lists sometimes got a bit heated. :-) I did see a pointer to a nice flickr photoset: [the link]
Eric: Were they projecting in the Piazza del Duomo? And do you remember which restaurant you ate at? I remember a couple of places along and near Via Etnea that were pretty good.
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