Author Topic: Happy World Cup  (Read 15055 times)

Offline Lu

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #50 on: June 11, 2006, 02:29:55 PM »
In that sentence, Lu's the only one addressed as 'you'. Is it so hard to understand, Alarielle? What's wrong with the word 'wench', btw? The main meaning is "a young woman or girl, especially a peasant girl" (the latter's what I feel about myself, if you wish to know why I used this word)

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few people in Scotland speak Gaelic
  Is there any difference between 'few people' and 'none'?

  Have a good time, everybody

Offline icelus

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #51 on: June 11, 2006, 02:40:16 PM »
See ya.
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Offline Drew

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #52 on: June 11, 2006, 03:54:32 PM »
Is there any difference between 'few people' and 'none'?
Given the context in which Alarielle said "none".....no, there isn't any difference.  She was saying that no one speaks Gaelic in the Highlands the same way I would say that no one speaks Latin in the US.  (Yes, yes, some people are capable of speaking Latin/Gaelic but that doesn't mean that it is common or spoken as anything other than a purely intellectual pursuit.....or even that those who do speak it do so fluently.)

Regarding soccer/football......football, as they call it all over the world  is older than the rather inaptly named American sport which happens to share its name.  European football has been played as early as 1820....predating American football by almost 100 years.  American football was actually invented by college students trying to make a cross between Rugby and Football (hence why it shares conventions with both sports on a small level).  I think the reason that Americans have a different name for the sport is that American football reached prominence in the US quite a bit earlier than the genuine article (which has never reached what I would call "prominence", anyway, despite being a much more interesting sport).  When "Football" started gaining popularity in the US, it was renamed to avoid confusion.
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Offline Alarielle

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #53 on: June 11, 2006, 05:09:54 PM »
In that sentence, Lu's the only one addressed as 'you'. Is it so hard to understand, Alarielle? What's wrong with the word 'wench', btw? The main meaning is "a young woman or girl, especially a peasant girl" (the latter's what I feel about myself, if you wish to know why I used this word)

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few people in Scotland speak Gaelic
  Is there any difference between 'few people' and 'none'?

  Have a good time, everybody


Terribly sorry, I hadn't realised you were talking to yourself.  Must have misread in the heat of the day.  I didn't say there was anything wrong with the word wench - I simply asked who you were addressing.  Is it so hard to understand, Lu?   :)
« Last Edit: June 11, 2006, 05:15:35 PM by Alarielle »
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Offline jester

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #54 on: June 11, 2006, 06:14:18 PM »
I must say I have been torn on the Portugal vs Angola thing. I personally always barrack for underdogs, but I have chosen to make Portugal my home nation for this WC.


EDIT: Typo in barracks. As a fethid civfanatic. :( How embarrassing.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2006, 06:18:57 PM by jester »
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #55 on: June 11, 2006, 07:42:23 PM »
[Soccer is] a much more interesting sport [than football].
You need to watch more CFL. Three downs, a larger field, and no sissy fair-catch rule. It's better than the NFL and the... football league. Combined.
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Offline Kilivitz

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #56 on: June 11, 2006, 09:01:59 PM »
I'm brazilian so you can imagine how World Cup fever affects this damn country.

That's how often people here act like patriots, once every four years. Who cares about corrupt politicians or the awful administration?

Anyway, you people don't seem too eager to read about soccer/football right now, so I wouldn't count on politics and other boring subjects.

To stay on topic: I really hope Brazil doesn't win this one. Enough already. We're getting arrogant and it could be just like 1982 when everybody was already celebrating another title when Italy sent our team home.

Offline Lu

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #57 on: June 11, 2006, 10:30:43 PM »
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I hadn't realised you were talking to yourself
And you still are unable to realize very simple things. The simplest things, like that I wasn't talking to myself either

Offline Drew

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #58 on: June 11, 2006, 10:39:03 PM »
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I hadn't realised you were talking to yourself
And you still are unable to realize very simple things. The simplest things, like that I wasn't talking to myself either
And you are apparently unable to realize that people aren't very nice to you when you aren't very nice to them.....

@Ghreyfain:  I've never had a chance to catch a CFL game.  From what I can tell, it just doesn't get any play in my neck of the woods (and I'm too cheap to get digital cable).
« Last Edit: June 11, 2006, 10:42:33 PM by Drew »
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Offline jcompton

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #59 on: June 11, 2006, 11:29:00 PM »
US broadcast schedule: http://www.cfl.ca/themes/cfl2/06-cfl-us-schedule.pdf ... ironically, your best bet to catch a lot of CFL in the US is if you live in a remote backwater TV market that has an America One programming "affiliate", since they're carrying almost the games live. Although people in major media markets may have a cable sports net which is carrying a subset of the games, but in that case you'll get fewer games and you'll get a lot of them on tape delay.

As second-tier football action goes, I'd rank CFL above the mess NFL Europe has long been, but below Arena. Arena and CFL actually have a lot more in common than you might think given that, from a real-estate perspective, they seem diametrically opposed. The three-down CFL structure with forward motion encourages a pass-happy offense the same way the Arena's tiny field (and forward motion) does. CFL and Arena teams also often have a lot of players in common, both are budget-strapped so they have undersized rosters relative to NFL teams leading to more guys playing injured or well past the point of exhaustion, which in turn impacts gameplay, and so forth.

I've already explained this to Ghrey but he seems to have forgotten: the CFL's "no fair catch" hype is just that--hype--since they use a "halo" rule to protect punt returners from getting murdered. This leads to a zillion penalties on punt returns (although the CFL did just fix a rule in that department to make intentionally committing a halo penalty less appealing) but does not really make the punting game that much more exciting than one which employs fair catch but no halo, ala the NFL. (see also XFL, which used the CFL no-fair-catch/halo structure, with basically the same result.)

(and believe me, I know my second-tier football, having celebrated the victory of the Chicago Rush today while wearing a London Monarchs jersey. 15 years between chosen teams winning a second-tier football championship... not too bad, I guess, on the grand scheme of things...)
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #60 on: June 12, 2006, 01:36:26 AM »
@Ghreyfain:  I've never had a chance to catch a CFL game.

I've never really been able to get into watching sports on television, no matter what the game is, myself. Superbowl/Grey Cup/Stanley Cup are generally exceptions, because those are usually parties.

As second-tier football action goes, I'd rank CFL above the mess NFL Europe has long been, but below Arena.

For a second I got Arena Football mixed up with that WWF football. Man, that was awful, as I'm sure we can all agree.

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Arena and CFL actually have a lot more in common than you might think given that, from a real-estate perspective, they seem diametrically opposed.
Does rushing ever actually do you any good at all in Arena, though? It's four downs for the field, right? That seems like it would take away a lot of the stuff that are fun about both the CFL and NFL. Nitty gritty gridiron smashing and the like, which doesn't happen all the time in the CFL like it seems to in the NFL, but it's still there.

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I've already explained this to Ghrey but he seems to have forgotten: the CFL's "no fair catch" hype is just that--hype--since they use a "halo" rule to protect punt returners from getting murdered.
Right, but after they catch the ball, they can then promptly be murdered.

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This leads to a zillion penalties on punt returns
Tell me about it. Calgary got a penalty on basically every punt they made last game. I blame it on those darn kids just out of US college.
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Offline Alarielle

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #61 on: June 12, 2006, 04:29:24 AM »
Edit:  So today hell may have frozen over.  I'm going to be watching a football match  :o  My flatmate and her brother are both working at the world cup, and Luca will be working security at the Australia/Japan match, so on the off-chance of spotting him... I'll be watching :-[

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I hadn't realised you were talking to yourself
And you still are unable to realize very simple things. The simplest things, like that I wasn't talking to myself either

I know, thank you.  I was being facetious.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2006, 06:38:35 AM by Alarielle »
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Offline cmorgan

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #62 on: June 12, 2006, 06:49:35 AM »
Meanwhile, good Chicagoan that I am, am going to eat my words. Apparently, not all of US culture is completely US Football obsessed; yesterday, the lead announcements on the local news were about the opening of a brand new Chicago team Soccer Stadium. There's hope for us all yet, eh? :)

Don't worry, Alarielle - you can always offset the football match with a theater performance, hit the symphony, or just plain chalk it up to "know thine enemy" 8) (the enemy=match, not Luca, I assume!)

Offline Alarielle

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #63 on: June 12, 2006, 06:56:08 AM »
Don't worry, Alarielle - you can always offset the football match with a theater performance, hit the symphony, or just plain chalk it up to "know thine enemy" 8) (the enemy=match, not Luca, I assume!)

Heheh.  Excellent excuse - hadn't thought of that  ;)
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Offline jcompton

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #64 on: June 12, 2006, 09:22:06 AM »
For a second I got Arena Football mixed up with that WWF football. Man, that was awful, as I'm sure we can all agree.

XFL.

Actually, the on-field stuff was pretty good, although it got silly later in the season when they started changing rules every week. I genuinely liked the elimination of the extra point (the "one-point conversion" was a great idea), I liked the scramble-for-the-ball in lieu of coin toss, I liked the college-like overtime rules, and as I mentioned they used CFL-esque rules with regards to punting, etc. It was mostly the broadcast teams that were awful, and even then, mostly only on NBC--the UPN and TNN broadcasts were more professional.

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Does rushing ever actually do you any good at all in Arena, though? It's four downs for the field, right? That seems like it would take away a lot of the stuff that are fun about both the CFL and NFL. Nitty gritty gridiron smashing and the like, which doesn't happen all the time in the CFL like it seems to in the NFL, but it's still there.

No, it's four downs for 10 yards just like the outdoor game. It's rarely practiced because the defense almost always has at least one man advantage against the run and there's very little room to kick something outside, so most teams only use the run in goal line situations or as almost a trick play to see if the defense is napping. Or a QB taking off.

Which is consistent with what I recall of the CFL, because most of the rushing I remember in CFL games involved Doug Flutie scrambling for 7-8 yards on every third play.
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Offline Ghreyfain

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #65 on: June 12, 2006, 01:03:50 PM »
...when they started changing rules every week.

I only watched two--maybe three--games, so I'm not exactly an authority on it. I didn't like the camerawork and what seemed like play-acting between plays, myself. I'm assuming the players were encouraged to act like wrestlers with all the posturing and strutting they did. Did the cameramen actually go out on the field at times? I forget.

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It was mostly the broadcast teams that were awful, and even then, mostly only on NBC--the UPN and TNN broadcasts were more professional.

I expect I saw the NBC coverage, then. The weather in one of the games was really bad, and the camera had fog and water drops covering it for a large part of the game. Like, whenever that one camera was shooting the action. Bleh.

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Which is consistent with what I recall of the CFL, because most of the rushing I remember in CFL games involved Doug Flutie scrambling for 7-8 yards on every third play.

Heheh. In the Lions/Stamps game last thursday, apparently the first ten minutes of the game saw them both with -3 and -4 rushing yards, respectively. And 0 passing. Not that it was a good example of a standard game since the final was 59-13.
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Offline jcompton

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #66 on: June 12, 2006, 02:34:02 PM »
I only watched two--maybe three--games, so I'm not exactly an authority on it. I didn't like the camerawork and what seemed like play-acting between plays, myself. I'm assuming the players were encouraged to act like wrestlers with all the posturing and strutting they did. Did the cameramen actually go out on the field at times? I forget.

Yeah, they had a cameraman in body armor and a helmet out on the field. I remember Helmetcam from the World League (when they'd wire up a player with a small wireless camera and cut to his view from time to time) so this didn't seem particularly unusual to me. :)

As far as the play-actiong between plays goes... I'm afraid that's not restricted to XFL.
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Offline clock sendak

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #67 on: June 12, 2006, 05:51:06 PM »
alarielle -

that's the spirit.  hope you had fun, it was nice for oz to win their first match
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Offline Eral

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #68 on: June 13, 2006, 05:05:02 AM »
Please don't pick on Lu, icelus and Alarielle. Drew: Lu is always nice.  If you put pressure on her to clarify, it only aggravates her difficulty. Just give her some time - she'll come through with something wonderful. Try to be patient. It's worth it.

Ordinarily I don't give a tinker's damn about sport, and get somewhat tetchy about the overload we get here- but there's something about the World Cup (possibly because it is the world involved) that annoys me less than other sports. All those devotees staying up until 4 o'clock, the passion, the joy, the dominance of soccer temporarily over Australian Rules, the complete incomprehensibility to me of why anyone finds such a low-scoring game satisfying - it's sort of like Christmas: I know it's been hopelessly compromised by capitalism and all the evils the flesh is heir to, but I enjoy it anyway.
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Offline Veloxyll

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #69 on: June 13, 2006, 05:20:29 AM »
You have a strange definition of nice. Her first comment that made teh whole dispute was rather condescending. (As well as horribly horribly wrong.)

As for why such a low scoring game is popular, I guess it's because, unlike Cricket (or AFL even), the occasions one does score really matter. And when they get close to scoring, you hope they'll score so much more than in AFL.
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Offline Alarielle

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #70 on: June 13, 2006, 05:47:29 AM »
Please don't pick on Lu, icelus and Alarielle. Drew: Lu is always nice.  If you put pressure on her to clarify, it only aggravates her difficulty. Just give her some time - she'll come through with something wonderful. Try to be patient. It's worth it.

This was going to be a big thing about how I'm not picking on anyone and it's not my fault if people get worked up etc, but instead I'll just mention the fact that I'm not the one throwing implied accusations of stupidity.  I'm being perfectly civil.  Perhaps you'd like to re-read?  :)  If you do, don't worry, I don't need a reply.  I'm not really interested in discussing this.
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Offline Evaine Dian

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #71 on: June 13, 2006, 06:17:37 AM »
I don't like football at all and it's a bit annoying that I've been stuck in useless football merchandise for months now, but the university World Cup parties are fun.
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Offline icelus

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #72 on: June 13, 2006, 10:21:22 AM »
Please don't pick on Lu, icelus and Alarielle. Drew: Lu is always nice.  If you put pressure on her to clarify, it only aggravates her difficulty. Just give her some time - she'll come through with something wonderful. Try to be patient. It's worth it.

So far, she has exhibited only a lack of intelligence, tact, and a sense of humor.  Perhaps if she develops at least one of those qualities I'd feel less obliged to confront her.  In the meantime, I far from consider her "nice."
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Offline clock sendak

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #73 on: June 13, 2006, 10:35:25 AM »
it's really lovely how i started a thread about football (soccer) and sharing something human between us - you know brother (sister) hood of (hu)man, and all that, and some of you guys just want to talk shit about each other over some of the most useless over - specific crap I've ever heard.  I think I'm gonna change my sig in name to "waiting for the next cycle of mass extinction to put a cap in yo' ass"

(i don't include the xfl, cfl, discussion cos that's in keeping with the thread)

it is nice that some of you, however, seemed to have understood and said things like, while i don't like football, the parties are fun or the comparison with christmas (at their hearts they're both joyful expressions of humanity).

I can't even really tell what you guys are arguing about... (as usual)

veloxyll: It's like a powerful word, like Love or Genocide.  The more you use it, the less powerful it becomes, the more commonplace, the more accustomed we are to it.  If you're watching a game with hundreds of points - well, so what when someone scores.  When you're watching football, a goal stops the motions of the planets.  It changes everything in that context.  Ok, before you guys go crazy about me comparing football to genocide, i'm not, i'm just saying that when you score less often, it means a lot more.  I'm sure a lot of you can relate to that.  HA HA HA HA HA
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Offline Alarielle

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Re: Happy World Cup
« Reply #74 on: June 13, 2006, 10:37:03 AM »
This is a very dangerous question, but could someone please explain the offside rule to me?  ???  I googled, but bleh.
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