the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I don't know if anybody has been watching the soccer world cup. There have been many upsets with Argentina melting down , Germany near elimination and Iceland shocking the biggies. Saw a couple of exceptional matches today, Korea vs Mexico produced some excellent football and the Sweden vs Germany match ending with a superb goal from Germany in the last minute maybe keeping thwem from being eliminated for the first time in 60 yrs

Oh yeah, I've been watching. That last German goal was a thing of beauty. Mexico is playing really well, and so is Belgium. Messi has too much on his shoulders, including Maradona. Uruguay seems to be the most disciplined, and will be fun to watch. Neymar got his first goal, so maybe Brazil will loosen up.

Ball games interest me as much as kung fu interests 99.999% of the populace

Generally not interested in watching football but when the World Cup or European Championship is on I get hooked...Football is getting big here in China and people like to watch the game, in the summers here many restaurants have an out-door serving and during the World Cup many have an TV put up outside, even if the tournament is held on the other side of the globe some keep their outdoor Telly on...can be a bit noisy for neighbours that want to sleep though....Cuju, the first football game ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuju

edededed wrote:Ball games interest me as much as kung fu interests 99.999% of the populace

For some, the World Cup is a surrogate for something. I disbelieve that anyone is passionate about sweaty guys kicking a ball around. If you don't have anything else to care about, well here you go.

It's an alien concept to me - but a majority of men seem (to me) quite passionate about watching sweaty men kick a ball around. But as you say, it may be a "default passion" in a sense.

Go England, Ken. Though, there's not much glory in beating Panama --though Panama took the US up.

Oh, and I'm really messed up. Now I'm turning to see what happens in F1. Again, I'm on the Brit side. Go Ham!
And, I'm not missing the TdF or RedBull Hardline either.
None of which are manly sports to ya'll, alas.

England has an easy group, should get through, hope Harry Kane is on form. I was brought up on soccer but later converted to rugby. For the disbelievers, soccer is a world game, NFL and Baseball aren't, I've seen people get excited about a home run, frankly I could care less, but then I feel the same way about cricket.I can get enthusiastic about basketball but soccer is everymans game you don't have to be 7 ft tall or weigh 300 lbs to play it

Agreed that football (soccer) and basketball are world sports. Football does tend to be more democratic --though not completely so. There aren't many short goalies . Even more important is that is the international appeal of the WC. If there's something wrong with that concept, then we might as well get rid of the Olympics.

I grew up waiting to watch both of those events. Otoh, I went out to play US football and baseball. I lived within walking distance of Yankee Stadium, but never thought of going to watch a game.

I sow interior of the Yankee Stadium only once,
- It was Pink Floyd concert ,
I lived only 10 years or so, in the NYC, dough .
My interest in the ball games are exactly the same as edededed noted,
but
I have some fun from predicting my national team scores,
which was quite different from our commentators shots, however , coming out quite right.
anyway
I found it amazing that, so big bucks are engaged in such business,
looks for me like old imperial story:
wine and games for the plebs !

Watching Uruguay vs Russia this morning, classic opening goal by Ur, from free kick. I occasionally watch UK premier league matchesI, more often than not they are not particularly inspiring but the World Cup matches are almost without exception football at its best, incredibly fast and athletic . This year the usual top teams, Brazil, Germany etc seem to be playing below par so it is pretty open and, dare I say it, England stands a chanceMy guess though is France and Mexico in the final,

...without exception football at its best, ..
?
haha
Kend, you didn`t sow Poland`s games ,/ actually ,follow FIFA - ranked 8 on the word, btw /
hmm, now, I don`t know
is the Columbian team so good,
or Poland team very poor, so Columbian s looked so well , `cause Polish lo level there?

Right now very popular statement here about our players:
... They looks so good
....
in the commercials....

On the Argentine crisis. This is very good:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... i-football

"On top of that, an imperious, almost delirious need to win overcame the enjoyment of playing. The desire to win at all costs sweeps away your values. Dividing the world into winners and losers is an illness that infected football at a formative stage."

- football, like life, like martial arts.

Yeah, the situation in Argentina is that, other than soccer, it's an irrelevant country as far the world stage. No one talks about Argentina except in WC years. They've made football part of their national identity. Unfortunately, that's only because they were successful. Losing means a return to obscurity.

Nonsense. Their real star player is Malbec