With just group H left to decide it's nearly time for the second stage (round, leg, whatever you call it).
Apparantly Honduras (the country I'd never heard of before this tournament, f'real) can ACTUALLY go through as long as the beat whoever they're playing today (Switzerland?) by more than a clear 3 goals AND Chile lose, or summin. Easy! Pull your collective finger out #hon!
And if you want some more joy in your life, just watch the vid below. Footy playing cats are AWSUM!
Friday, 25 June 2010
Thursday, 24 June 2010
For Kym
I have been looking at my visitor statistics and it turns out that the main person reading this blog is my WCFAC Kym(bo). So this post is for her.
Shame on you World Cup Boyfriend, I'm trying here!! I know my facts may not always be, well, factual, and that you can get better post-match analysis from James Corden even, BUT where else can you find insights like these:
1. I missed the match yesterday as I was travelling back from Sweden, so when I watched the highlights I totally thought we were the ones playing in white. Was quite relieved when I finally figured it out. The boys look good in red.
2. I thought that the USA last-min goal against Algeria was a good thing, BUT evidently, no it's not. We basically now have to beat the most hard-arsed teams to even get a whiff of the final and then we'd probably meet Brazil. Ah well. Keep dreaming Terry whatsit from the Sun advert.
3. Fabio Capello makes NO SENSE! And he totally blanked Gabby thingface's last question. Genuine LOL!
4. My Swedish colleagues pointed out that my previous fact re: the Germans not having missed a pen since 1990 is now nopt true as there was one during a match (against Honduras, maybe?) that some poor Deutchland guy missed. So maybe, just maybe we could get past the quarters??
LUB
WCGF
Shame on you World Cup Boyfriend, I'm trying here!! I know my facts may not always be, well, factual, and that you can get better post-match analysis from James Corden even, BUT where else can you find insights like these:
1. I missed the match yesterday as I was travelling back from Sweden, so when I watched the highlights I totally thought we were the ones playing in white. Was quite relieved when I finally figured it out. The boys look good in red.
2. I thought that the USA last-min goal against Algeria was a good thing, BUT evidently, no it's not. We basically now have to beat the most hard-arsed teams to even get a whiff of the final and then we'd probably meet Brazil. Ah well. Keep dreaming Terry whatsit from the Sun advert.
3. Fabio Capello makes NO SENSE! And he totally blanked Gabby thingface's last question. Genuine LOL!
4. My Swedish colleagues pointed out that my previous fact re: the Germans not having missed a pen since 1990 is now nopt true as there was one during a match (against Honduras, maybe?) that some poor Deutchland guy missed. So maybe, just maybe we could get past the quarters??
LUB
WCGF
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Awsum
Nils and christer, swedish colleagues tried to explain the point system to me. WCBF then contradicted them on the phone so I don't know who to believe.
Anyway, argentina and syd koreia are through... Hurrah. (Didn't like seeing nigeria upset though, that was sad)
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
Monday, 21 June 2010
Limited resources
In Sweden for the next few days for work and, as you can imagine, there's, like, no world-cup-ness going on.
A former incarnation of me would've been quite excited about that, but now I will admit it, I'm on the verge of quite MISSING the action. (Well, if the alternative is grim headlines about the most recent embarrassing thing that BP boss has done, then give me a vuvuzela, a pint and a 2010 FIFA World Cup commemorative brochure, thanks.)
I did watch the Brazil Ivory Coat match yesterday tho. Here's what I can remember:
1. A guy on the Brazil team that I don't know the name of (he wasn't in the squad when I lived there in 2002) scored an extremely pretty goal that pinged its way up into the back of the net very satisfactorily.
2. There was some cry of 2 hand balls for the same chap's second goal - but it seemed to me that it was off his shoulder. If that's an offence then can I suggest re-branding the very misleading 'handball' complaint to something more catchy and factual like 'off-a-bit-of-the-upper-body-it-shouldnt-have-been-on-ball'.
3.The really sweet one Kaka (like david schneider I too find his name funny - tsk) got totally sent off for doing NUTHINK wrong.
The ivory coast dude ran into is elbow then fell about all over the floor clutching his FACE. Knob.
What was really good though is that kaka didn't go crazy - he just walked off the pitch committed to his fate. God, I just bloody love Brazilians - can you imagine beardy-man-beast Rooney behaving in the same dignified way. No, he'd probably head butt the ref and stomp off blaming the fans.
If there's any update to Kaka's fate, pls comment below - I'm not going to spend a million pound a min on wifi to find out.
Thx!
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
A former incarnation of me would've been quite excited about that, but now I will admit it, I'm on the verge of quite MISSING the action. (Well, if the alternative is grim headlines about the most recent embarrassing thing that BP boss has done, then give me a vuvuzela, a pint and a 2010 FIFA World Cup commemorative brochure, thanks.)
I did watch the Brazil Ivory Coat match yesterday tho. Here's what I can remember:
1. A guy on the Brazil team that I don't know the name of (he wasn't in the squad when I lived there in 2002) scored an extremely pretty goal that pinged its way up into the back of the net very satisfactorily.
2. There was some cry of 2 hand balls for the same chap's second goal - but it seemed to me that it was off his shoulder. If that's an offence then can I suggest re-branding the very misleading 'handball' complaint to something more catchy and factual like 'off-a-bit-of-the-upper-body-it-shouldnt-have-been-on-ball'.
3.The really sweet one Kaka (like david schneider I too find his name funny - tsk) got totally sent off for doing NUTHINK wrong.
The ivory coast dude ran into is elbow then fell about all over the floor clutching his FACE. Knob.
What was really good though is that kaka didn't go crazy - he just walked off the pitch committed to his fate. God, I just bloody love Brazilians - can you imagine beardy-man-beast Rooney behaving in the same dignified way. No, he'd probably head butt the ref and stomp off blaming the fans.
If there's any update to Kaka's fate, pls comment below - I'm not going to spend a million pound a min on wifi to find out.
Thx!
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
Friday, 18 June 2010
Elegy to my world cup interest
There was once a time (about wednesday this week) when you might've witnessed the first green shoots of my interest in England's world cup 2010 campaign.
It was a happy time, hell, by thursday I even considered placing a bet on #eng to win.
Now, after tonight's 0-0 bore-athon against my sweepstake team Algeria, the clouds are gathering and I feel my interest level slipping back towards circa 1.63.
0-0 draws make football unbearable for a soccer novice like me. In fact, when I was 15, a bloke with arsenal season tickets took a shine to me (he was 15 too, no grooming going on, honest) and invited me to all the games. After going to 3 matches I declined all his offers of tickets because there were so many damn 0-0 results which were dull on telly, let alone in the freezing cold on a november eve.
Srsly - footy fans, analyse your game... There must be something you can change to sex it up a bit?! We want goals, we want back of the net goodness, we want ACTION. Otherwise I'm back in the old gunners stadium (what was it called again?) in the cold watching bergkamp and adams and that fit danish guy get sod all. (Showing my age).
Moving on to my match commentary:
1. The algerian's green shirts were seductively clingy.
2. Someone called 'barry' was bought on who was meant to be the messiah or summin and did approx. nothin.
3. Ashley cole had nice shoes.
4. Wayne rooney looked beardy and didn't seem to do much AT ALL.
5. Steve gerrard looked really sad all the time - quite wanted to give him a bit of a hug.
[As an aside, look how many names I now know! I'm a regular pundit!]
6. Evidently the commentators said it was the 442 system that was flawed. I think they just weren't kicking the ball proper.
To sum up, my fav point of the night was made by a friend of @fletcheatsmovies:
"Can we please send the england team on some kind of team building day out. Build a raft or some shit. Anything to make them pass like they've fucking met each other before"*
*Curse words not mine, mum.
Ah well at least I saved myself a tenner at the bookies. I'd love to eat my words if we made it to the final. Sadly I believe I will be word-hungry for a while to come.
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
World Cup Games
Bought mini magnums for the office today - but my magnums don't come for free, Oh no, I made my colleagues WORK for icecream.
Colleague 1 had to name all 32 countries participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup with no memory aid. He was victorious. Can you do it? Srsly there is one country in the cup that I have NEVER heard of. EVER.
Colleague 2 had to name all 23 men in the England squad. Tough eh? She had to phone a friend at 20 but then was also victorious. I named three. And was happy with that.
Colleague 3 had to state the total number of goals in the tournament so far to the nearest FIVE. It took him 10 mins and the use of pen and paper but he succeded with just ONE out.
Feel free to try these down the pub tonight!
LUB
WCGF
Colleague 1 had to name all 32 countries participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup with no memory aid. He was victorious. Can you do it? Srsly there is one country in the cup that I have NEVER heard of. EVER.
Colleague 2 had to name all 23 men in the England squad. Tough eh? She had to phone a friend at 20 but then was also victorious. I named three. And was happy with that.
Colleague 3 had to state the total number of goals in the tournament so far to the nearest FIVE. It took him 10 mins and the use of pen and paper but he succeded with just ONE out.
Feel free to try these down the pub tonight!
LUB
WCGF
World cup makes Chris Moyles funny
Watching the live game with Chris Moyles alternative commentary and it's very funny.
They have about as much knowledge as me! Perhaps a little more. Anyway, it's a nothing-y match with no goals and a few stupid yellow cards. BRING OUT THE MONKEY, etc. Playing TV theme tunes over the boring bits make it soooo much better. The Strictly Come Dancing elimination music over free kicks is an inspired touch.
Can I suggest something like this for football in general? Please??? then I might consider becoming Premier League Girlfriend too...
OMG the Vuvuzela's all together make freaking load noise! Heck.
Ooooh - Deutchland down to ten men, that's bad right? Go Serbia Go!
LUB
WCGF
They have about as much knowledge as me! Perhaps a little more. Anyway, it's a nothing-y match with no goals and a few stupid yellow cards. BRING OUT THE MONKEY, etc. Playing TV theme tunes over the boring bits make it soooo much better. The Strictly Come Dancing elimination music over free kicks is an inspired touch.
Can I suggest something like this for football in general? Please??? then I might consider becoming Premier League Girlfriend too...
OMG the Vuvuzela's all together make freaking load noise! Heck.
Ooooh - Deutchland down to ten men, that's bad right? Go Serbia Go!
LUB
WCGF
Thursday, 17 June 2010
BALLS!
*phew* sorry for delayed post. Been having a bit of a time trying to track down a dress, shoes, fascinator and fake tan for Ascot this weekend. Oh yeah, I am still having a life alongside all this World Cup blah.
Two interesting things I learnt over the last couple of days.
1. The ball that is being used (which has a name like Kalua or something) is THE roundest and THE lightest ball that has ever been used in a FIFA world cup. It's made by Adidas and they, controversially, gave it to the German premier league (ausgezeichnet!) who played with it for, like, a year or something. THAT'S SO UNFAIR! No bloody wonder they smashed whoever it was 4-0.
2. Spain lost to the Swiss in an unexpected giant killing! WCFAC says "This is massive. They were the European champions and favourite to win. There side is LOADED with the world's best players and Switzerland have never beaten them." World class commentary from @fletcheatsmovies in my humble opinion. My interpretation of what he said is "It was a bit of a shocker".
WCFAEMA (World Cup friend and eMarketing Assistant) added "No team that's ever lost their first game has gone on to win the World Cup". Brilliant! Does that mean my sweepstake team Algeria are in with a chance?!! MAYBE!!! w00t.
Lub
WCGF
Two interesting things I learnt over the last couple of days.
1. The ball that is being used (which has a name like Kalua or something) is THE roundest and THE lightest ball that has ever been used in a FIFA world cup. It's made by Adidas and they, controversially, gave it to the German premier league (ausgezeichnet!) who played with it for, like, a year or something. THAT'S SO UNFAIR! No bloody wonder they smashed whoever it was 4-0.
2. Spain lost to the Swiss in an unexpected giant killing! WCFAC says "This is massive. They were the European champions and favourite to win. There side is LOADED with the world's best players and Switzerland have never beaten them." World class commentary from @fletcheatsmovies in my humble opinion. My interpretation of what he said is "It was a bit of a shocker".
WCFAEMA (World Cup friend and eMarketing Assistant) added "No team that's ever lost their first game has gone on to win the World Cup". Brilliant! Does that mean my sweepstake team Algeria are in with a chance?!! MAYBE!!! w00t.
Lub
WCGF
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
5 things I now know about the 2010 FIFA world cup
1. The oldies are the best.
As WCBF pointed out, the one team I might deign to watch other than England is Brazil. This year their squad has the oldest average age. But they're also "the nuts". They do this cool mis-direction kick back thing that has a name which I can't remember.
2. The group stages are BORING
The one think I quite like about world cups is the suspense of all the penalty shoot outs and golden-ball half hours (the thing where if you get a goal you win?). That's exciting!! Unless you're playing Germany who haven't missed a pen since 1990 - a kind of dull efficiency. Anyway - until we get to the next round, it's all pedestrian point gathering. Yawn.
3. 87% of Britons are obsessed with statistics
So that poor good-looking England goalie fluffs one save (which looked pretty hard to me) and suddenly everyone's recalculating the odds of us winning. Same as ever people - pretty bloody slim!
4. Sweden did not qualify this year
According to my reliable source who said, and I quote, "don't quote me", this is the first time in 40 years sweden haven't qualified for a major tournament. Shame - I'm a big fan of the swedes... The most expensive wee I ever had was in stockholm.
5. This is the first time since 1980 that new zealand have qualified
WCBF tried to correct this fact (tsk!) By saying it was 1982 but I pointed out that 18 yrs isn't divisible by four so it MUST have been 1980. Anyway, GO THE ALL BLACKS! Etc
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
As WCBF pointed out, the one team I might deign to watch other than England is Brazil. This year their squad has the oldest average age. But they're also "the nuts". They do this cool mis-direction kick back thing that has a name which I can't remember.
2. The group stages are BORING
The one think I quite like about world cups is the suspense of all the penalty shoot outs and golden-ball half hours (the thing where if you get a goal you win?). That's exciting!! Unless you're playing Germany who haven't missed a pen since 1990 - a kind of dull efficiency. Anyway - until we get to the next round, it's all pedestrian point gathering. Yawn.
3. 87% of Britons are obsessed with statistics
So that poor good-looking England goalie fluffs one save (which looked pretty hard to me) and suddenly everyone's recalculating the odds of us winning. Same as ever people - pretty bloody slim!
4. Sweden did not qualify this year
According to my reliable source who said, and I quote, "don't quote me", this is the first time in 40 years sweden haven't qualified for a major tournament. Shame - I'm a big fan of the swedes... The most expensive wee I ever had was in stockholm.
5. This is the first time since 1980 that new zealand have qualified
WCBF tried to correct this fact (tsk!) By saying it was 1982 but I pointed out that 18 yrs isn't divisible by four so it MUST have been 1980. Anyway, GO THE ALL BLACKS! Etc
Lub
WCGF
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
Monday, 14 June 2010
Zakumi says relax
Has anyone noticed how cool the SA 2010 Mascot is?
A nice antidote to just how SERIOUS everyone is taking the whole thing.
Yes, it is true that on Saturday that poor good looking goalie (Green?) did fluff the ball out of his hands a bit... but doesn't he get points for sort of stopping it in the first place?
Poor guy.
Also isn't 1-1 a good score? It gets a point!
In other news:
WCFAC pointed out that Argentina have never won when the Mascot DOESN'T have a hat. Zakumi has a pretty awwsum hair-do, but no hat, so we can pretty much rule Argentina out I reckon,despite there 1-0 kicking of Nigeria. Bets are off.
Another WCFAC pointed out this narrrce tool that maps the timeline of twitterings of the world while matches are on. Check out the 1-1 England USA and "HD" trending massively in the first 10 mins or so as people lost the feed on their tellies. I thought it was normal to have an advert over the footy, but no, the angry faces of my companions as we flicked back to normal telly and the nice scouse boy was doing a victory run, told me that wasn't meant to happen.
LUB
WCGF
Saturday, 12 June 2010
The games so far
Right, so two matches played so far...
South Africa v Mexico
France v Paraguay (or Uruguay? Something deffo ending in guay, too.hungover.to.google.it)
I know that SA and Mexico ended one all. ooOOoo what does that mean for SA's chances of qualifying for the next round?
Dunno the result of the France v Somethinguay match so let's go for 2-0 to France. If I'm right (please let me know) I should've put a bet on.
Talking of betting, did you know that Englanders will spend £1BILLION QUIDS on world cup gambles. A billion. Srsly. And a great chunk of those are betting on England winning (arf!) The best thing from the bookies' point of view would be if we got to the final and then LOST. Unpatriotic bastards. Must be as popular as traffic wardens and MP's in expenses scandals right now.
This guy would have none of it >> (but how does he get in the front door?)
LUB
WCGF
South Africa v Mexico
France v Paraguay (or Uruguay? Something deffo ending in guay, too.hungover.to.google.it)
I know that SA and Mexico ended one all. ooOOoo what does that mean for SA's chances of qualifying for the next round?
Dunno the result of the France v Somethinguay match so let's go for 2-0 to France. If I'm right (please let me know) I should've put a bet on.
Talking of betting, did you know that Englanders will spend £1BILLION QUIDS on world cup gambles. A billion. Srsly. And a great chunk of those are betting on England winning (arf!) The best thing from the bookies' point of view would be if we got to the final and then LOST. Unpatriotic bastards. Must be as popular as traffic wardens and MP's in expenses scandals right now.
This guy would have none of it >> (but how does he get in the front door?)
LUB
WCGF
Friday, 11 June 2010
Abstract things about the World Cup
It's obvious by now that everyone has the World cup fever. How many people are streaming the first match covertly at work as I type this? (15.00 on Friday).
But there are some downright odd companies that have shoehorned content in around their offering. Step up:
The Food Standards Agency - who invite you to "check out our tips on how to make some healthier choices about what you’re going to eat and drink while you’re feasting on the footie." Srsly. basically stop nomming takeaways and make a veggy chilli instead. Obvs.
England World Cup chocs - perhaps against the advice of the Food Standards Agency, I can't really see the market for these, having said that I'm sure World Cup BF would eat the lot if I bought them for him.
And Asda - if a picture tells a thousand words, then a video like this surely tells, well, at least ten.
Yet the product that has missed the boat in terms of world cup afvertising falls at the feet of BODY PAINT manufacturers. You have to admire these girls. Those pics are, like, WAY classier than going topless.
Finally - submitted by WCFAC (World Cup friend and colleague) I would like to share this:
Wayne Rooney's MASSIVE face as a cross stitch pattern.
Perhaps you could take it to the New Suffolk Saturday Sewing Club's special sewing events?
Oh yeah and commenting on the footy... I learnt:
No host nation has ever lost its first game
No host nation has ever failed to qualify for the next round.
Go SF Go! (It is in South Africa, right?). *
LUB
WCGF
* joking, I totally know it's in South Africa... someone told me yesterday.
But there are some downright odd companies that have shoehorned content in around their offering. Step up:
The Food Standards Agency - who invite you to "check out our tips on how to make some healthier choices about what you’re going to eat and drink while you’re feasting on the footie." Srsly. basically stop nomming takeaways and make a veggy chilli instead. Obvs.
England World Cup chocs - perhaps against the advice of the Food Standards Agency, I can't really see the market for these, having said that I'm sure World Cup BF would eat the lot if I bought them for him.
And Asda - if a picture tells a thousand words, then a video like this surely tells, well, at least ten.
Yet the product that has missed the boat in terms of world cup afvertising falls at the feet of BODY PAINT manufacturers. You have to admire these girls. Those pics are, like, WAY classier than going topless.
Finally - submitted by WCFAC (World Cup friend and colleague) I would like to share this:
Wayne Rooney's MASSIVE face as a cross stitch pattern.
Perhaps you could take it to the New Suffolk Saturday Sewing Club's special sewing events?
Oh yeah and commenting on the footy... I learnt:
No host nation has ever lost its first game
No host nation has ever failed to qualify for the next round.
Go SF Go! (It is in South Africa, right?). *
LUB
WCGF
* joking, I totally know it's in South Africa... someone told me yesterday.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Sweepstakes
An email went round at work today asking if 32 people wanted to go in on a sweepstake for the World Cup. With my new-found vague interest intact, I of course immediately replied saying yes please, I'll take Brazil.
Now, I know Brazil are good because when I lived there in 2002 they won their 'penta estralla' which means 5th star. (you get a star every time you win, evidently, and so England has a measly one, which was won like a million years ago).
Watch out though - since my email to sweepstake organiser I have been told that you can't pick your team for the sweepstake. I bet I get Moldova or Belarus or summin.
Will keep you posted
Lub
WCGF
Now, I know Brazil are good because when I lived there in 2002 they won their 'penta estralla' which means 5th star. (you get a star every time you win, evidently, and so England has a measly one, which was won like a million years ago).
Watch out though - since my email to sweepstake organiser I have been told that you can't pick your team for the sweepstake. I bet I get Moldova or Belarus or summin.
Will keep you posted
Lub
WCGF
Monday, 7 June 2010
His name is Rio...
I apologise for the weekend break. Was busy relishing the time before the tournament started.
Big in World Cup news is that our "best defender by a mile" according to WCBF is injured or summin.
Now, I don't know how this has happened, since we haven't even played any matches yet... was it a turbulant flight over to S.Africa? Perhaps he overdid it on the golf course? (I've seen lots of pics of the squad golfing)
Either way, I have been advised that if we had slim chances of winning before, they're now looking positively anorexic. Harumph.
Finally, a thought on winning...
When we go to the olympics, we are quite happy with silver and bronze medals, counting them as overall wins. Why then, would we not be happy with runner up at the world cup? Is coming first everything?
Lub
WCGF
x
Big in World Cup news is that our "best defender by a mile" according to WCBF is injured or summin.
Now, I don't know how this has happened, since we haven't even played any matches yet... was it a turbulant flight over to S.Africa? Perhaps he overdid it on the golf course? (I've seen lots of pics of the squad golfing)
Either way, I have been advised that if we had slim chances of winning before, they're now looking positively anorexic. Harumph.
Finally, a thought on winning...
When we go to the olympics, we are quite happy with silver and bronze medals, counting them as overall wins. Why then, would we not be happy with runner up at the world cup? Is coming first everything?
Lub
WCGF
x
Thursday, 3 June 2010
And it begins...
With a week and a day left of blissful no-footy, I thought I would write a quick post about what I have learnt of the competition so far:
1. There are, like, a gazzilion games in the world cup. Apparently everyone has to play everyone or summin. I've downloaded an app to my Google calendar with them all on and realised I pretty much won't see the World Cup Boyfriend for about 3 weeks or so.
2. The young cute one that plays for Arsenal - I want to say "Toby" something but I think that's wrong - anyway he's not going to the World Cup. Even though he went to the World Cup in 2006 and didn't play. I don't really understand what the fuss is all about.
3. The bloke that is the England Manager is Italian. I think. Or Maybe Spanish. He's called Fabio and is meant to be well good. Though, I am not sure what a Manager actually does??
The big question remains, will World Cup Boyfriend keep the date we had in the diary on June 14th, or miss it for (according to my Google app) the Italy Paraguay match?
Lub
WCGF
1. There are, like, a gazzilion games in the world cup. Apparently everyone has to play everyone or summin. I've downloaded an app to my Google calendar with them all on and realised I pretty much won't see the World Cup Boyfriend for about 3 weeks or so.
2. The young cute one that plays for Arsenal - I want to say "Toby" something but I think that's wrong - anyway he's not going to the World Cup. Even though he went to the World Cup in 2006 and didn't play. I don't really understand what the fuss is all about.
3. The bloke that is the England Manager is Italian. I think. Or Maybe Spanish. He's called Fabio and is meant to be well good. Though, I am not sure what a Manager actually does??
The big question remains, will World Cup Boyfriend keep the date we had in the diary on June 14th, or miss it for (according to my Google app) the Italy Paraguay match?
Lub
WCGF
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