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June 12, 2006
9 by 9, FIFA, and other tidbits from Saturday
9 by 9 is the challenge to drink 9 drinks by 9am in honor of the beginning of the World Cup. Or maybe it's just an excuse to start drinking at 6am. The women who invited me out this weekend for the most part had even less understanding of football than me. For example, they didn't know that the World Cup occurs once every four years. Or that a player plays on both a professional club team and their national team. But that's understandable. I was almost as clueless before I dated a football fanatic. Almost, but not quite - I had already seen "Bend it Like Beckham," and my Big Sis was in Brazil during the last World Cup, so she caught the fever then and passed some knowledge onto me.
So to recap from the World of Sports That Everyone Who Doesn't Live in the US Is Paying Attention To: England won its opening game against Paraguay. The lone goal was kicked into the net by a Paraguayan player. I really don't want to be that man when he goes home from the games. Next up on Saturday was Sweden v. Trinidad / Tobago. Trinidad is in the US division for qualifying for the World Cup. The way it works is that the top three teams from each geographic area automatically qualify. Other teams can qualify through a wild card style access. The top three teams from the North America division were Mexico, the US, and Costa Rica. So Trinidad made it in by the skin of their teeth on a wild card and is the smallest country (geographically) at the World Cup. They managed to hold Sweden to a nil-nil tie. This really helps the UK b/c Sweden only gets one point for a tie, whereas the UK got three points for a win. The third game of Saturday, the Ivory Coast v. Argentina was probably also a great game to watch. Alas, for that I was at a Pig Roast and missed Argentina kicking ass to a 2-1 victory.
By the way, Costa Rica lost to Germany on Friday in a surprising (relatively) high scoring 2-4 game; and valiant Ecuador pounded Poland to a 2-0 victory.
On Sunday, while I was getting ready to go to the Jew Fest, the obnoxious American announcers kept trying to conflate politics and sport during the Mexico-Iran game. Not only did they spew the irrational war-mongering party line about Iranian politics, but they talked more about their misguided understanding of Iran then they did play by play of the damn game. Mexico won 3-1. In the earlier game, not televised on ABC (damn them; getting broadcast channels only sucks), the Netherlands beat Serbia / Montenegro 1-0. And in the final game of the day, Portugal beat Angola 1-0.
According to a guy I met yesterday, "only immigrants in the US care about the World Cup." I'm glad most people I know are not so xenophobic. Granted, I still understand if you haven't caught World Cup fever, but I encourage you to use it as an excuse to go to a pub in the next few weeks: you're bound to meet many more cute males than any other random public gathering.
Posted by cj at June 12, 2006 01:19 AM