What we learned from the World Cup 2010

[The Dude]

That an octopus is smarter than your average sportsbetter

That the French will provide obligatory drama.

That balls that bounce behind the goal line don't always count (at least for the English they don't) .

That you don't have to be a past WC fav to do well (Italy, France, Brazil, etc., were disappointing)

That players increasingly spend more time flopping around on the ground than playing the ball.

What else am I missing?...

 

[nerv]

That FIFA AND UEFA have to forbid those vuvuzela horns on stadiums!!!

 

[chuchu59]

In Hong Kong the Octopus is really a smart card that can pay many of your bills in supermarkets, trains etc. So they can actually be smarter than us.

 

[maxd]

... forbid those vuvuzela horns on stadiums!!!

I'll admit straight off that I don't know the first thing about the World Cup and I spent exactly zero minutes watching/listening to/giving a tinker's damn about the games but ...

I did hear people with those vuvuzela horns out on the streets and I have to say, there's a certain insane joie de vivre about them that I find appealing. There, I've said it! Please send your hatemail to:

Max Drayman
c/o Santy Claus
Mail Landfill Site #1
The North Pole
Earth

 

[Simmo!]

That you don't change the bloody ball just before the competition starts!! There was a severe lack of quality, especially in the group games, as a result. The skill levels of previous World Cups was missing this time, although it was still enjoyable.

 

[nerv]

I did hear people with those vuvuzela horns out on the streets and I have to say, there's a certain insane joie de vivre about them that I find appealing.

That's why I said "stadiums". They totally ruined the atmosphere there IMHO. And horning them constantly for almost 2 hours without any bit of rhythm, just plain noise, is little too much.

There, I've said it! Please send your hatemail to:

Max Drayman
c/o Santy Claus
Mail Landfill Site #1
The North Pole
Earth

lol, no need for a hatemail (but opposite). BTW, I wonder how much it would cost me to send you a snail mail to that address.

 

[The Dude]

Oh yeah - it's okay to act like a baby if you lose.

Imagine this: an Olympic award ceremony where the Silver medalist is awarded his medal, and he immediately takes it off and sulks off toward the locker room.

That's pretty much what the Dutch did - including their coach - right in front of the cameras and all. Geeze - what sore losers.

 

[maxd]

That's why I said "stadiums". They totally ruined the atmosphere there IMHO.

Excellent point! The closest I've been to one of those things is a couple hundred meters, hardly close enough to matter really.

 

[Pinababy69]

I'll admit straight off that I don't know the first thing about the World Cup and I spent exactly zero minutes watching/listening to/giving a tinker's damn about the games but ...

I did hear people with those vuvuzela horns out on the streets and I have to say, there's a certain insane joie de vivre about them that I find appealing. There, I've said it! Please send your hatemail to:

Max Drayman
c/o Santy Claus
Mail Landfill Site #1
The North Pole
Earth

Crazy Canuck!! Damn, Bryan lets just about anyone post here eh? :smilewink:

 

[gloria460]

That I still don't know a damn thing about soccer except that offside is different in soccer than it is in football and that isn't saying much.

I'm still not a fan as the sport is too tedious.

 

[jetset]

That this sort of event really can bring nations together, if only for a honeymoon period

I guess you had to be there to get the full ambience, which was really quite something.

I didn't like all the drama-diving and fingerpointing ("Did you see that, ref...he pushed me!!!) but I guess that has all become part of the game.

There was a lot of bad stuff going on in the final - even Sepp Blatter commented on it this morning in a press conference, and I think that detracts from the game - 14 yellow cards and a red is pretty good going. With the eagle eyes of television network coverage and slo-mo it's kinda hard to conceal, but perhaps the game has developed that way because the fans like the added excitement/drama?

Regarding the ball, I'm no afficiando of the game, but the pros certainly appeared well able to control it on the deck; I was impressed with the skill of those guys when they were in full flight but could stop and change direction in a heartbeat. But the Jabulani (it means 'joy' ironically!) did look like a real bastard once it was airborne.

I also was less than impressed by the Dutch team's apparent bad attitude at the prize giving, and by the very physical game played by that guy Van Blommen (sp?) Couldn't help thinking that he would probably be more at home on a rugby field!

And finally....that FIFA is a very profitable business!

 

[jetset]

Looks like the Spanish team are getting a great welcome home from the TV news reports.

 

[jetset]

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[incrediblestuff]

Oh yeah - it's okay to act like a baby if you lose.

Imagine this: an Olympic award ceremony where the Silver medalist is awarded his medal, and he immediately takes it off and sulks off toward the locker room.

That's pretty much what the Dutch did - including their coach - right in front of the cameras and all. Geeze - what sore losers.

lol this drama is one of the reasons i stopped watching football when i was 18 or somewhere near it.
but i have to correct you on this particular match, the ref was a sod, its still not clear to me why cameras arent put to good use as they are in tennismatches, but that aside, it was obvious the dutch were very sportive in terms of wrong descisions of the ref, where as spain did the opposite: i refer to the corner being played to the spanish keeper and the freekick also, i hope you noticed that was an act of sportivity, where the dutch players protested against the ref's wrong descision, and even then the spanish were protesting like the drama queens they are.
however at the crucial moment of the deciding goal, there was an offside not granted, which leaded to the scoring oppurtunity.
then the dutch were the first to congratulate the winning team, but of course left the field quickly, and dissapointed, cause the sportivity had been pretty onesided, and the ref's descision still agonized the players, and the coach.
its pretty lame from you cheermeister to paint the picture like this.
seems like you still have some german blood left, that begins to boil at dutch people whenever the wc or ec is happening.
it was the same referee that helped the germans past england btw, also a wrong descision...

so what have we learned?
1 cameras are useless.
2 people see what they want to see

 

[free bet]

1: Goal line technology and more refs are needed, maybe TV refs or something similar

2: Offensive play counts!

 

[The Dude]

l
its pretty lame from you cheermeister to paint the picture like this.
seems like you still have some german blood left, that begins to boil at dutch people whenever the wc or ec is happening...

My comment was intended as a generalization - nothing towards the Dutch. The French acted the same way when they lost to the Italians in 2006

I too think they (the Dutch) got shafted a few times. Like when Puyol tackled Robben on the way to make a shot towards the end. That was effed up.

Anyways, I like everything about the Dutch people - everything except the way they drive

 

[SkBurner]

I think we learned that football (soccer) is still the number 1 sport globally, nothing can beat the WC. Plus, European teams are now the dominant force

Great tournament in the end and I watched most of the games (at home and at work). Many 'big name' players failed to turned up but this WC was about good attacking team play and I'm glad Spain won it with the way they play.

Germany looked a very good team too with their counter-attacking style, a young team that can only get better.

It's a shame the Dutch were so defensive in their play, I was expecting a far better final game that would have befitted this tournament.

Roll on 2014! (Euro's 2012 )

 

[Seaman63]

I think we have learned that an African nation is able to host a mega sport event like the Fifa WC. There were many concerns about the visitors from all over the world being safe, and as far as I know they were.

With the difficult history, high crime rate and poorness all around, they managed it to host a wonderful event.

And seeing the enthusiasm of the south african fans was really refreshing.

 

[The Dude]

I think we have learned that an African nation is able to host a mega sport event like the Fifa WC. There were many concerns about the visitors from all over the world being safe, and as far as I know they were.

With the difficult history, high crime rate and poorness all around, they managed it to host a wonderful event.

And seeing the enthusiasm of the south african fans was really refreshing.

Seems to me that no crime reports made the main-stream media. I was expecting to hear of car-jackings, robberies, etc. But nada.

Way to go SA

 

[chuchu59]

I read that some Hong Kong journalists were robbed at gun-point inside a car in the busy streets of Johannesburg while some others had their hotel rooms ransacked. Nobody was hurt though.

 

[zebedy]

What we learned from the World Cup 2010

If your an english manager next time send a team of players from the 3rd or 4th division, they would probably play with more heart and give you a better game than these overpaid socalled premier professionals that cant even pass a ball,

 

[Luckylizzy]

I learned that a score of 1-0 doesn't mean that they just started the game. I didn't realize how long it takes for them to score just one goal.

 

[jetset]

BUMPER WORLD CUP FOR BWIN

GGR 40 percent up on Euro 2008 Championship football, and double that of World Cup 2006.

ADP News reports that the Vienna-listed online bookkeeping group Bwin has enjoyed a bumper period of World Cup betting compared with other major football championships.

The betting company reported that it had improved its sports betting gross gaming revenues by nearly 40 percent when compared with Euro 2008, with revenues rising to Euro 1.4 million daily – almost double the same period over the last World Cup in 2006.

The company booked a sports betting margin of around 9.1%, which was an improvement from 8.3% at the Euro 2008 and from 6.7% at the 2006 World Cup.

Bwin revealed that up to 260 000 punters a day took advantage of its betting services during the 2010 World Cup. A total of around 900,000 clients placed bets, 213,000 of them were new customers.

The company also reactivated 90,000 customers during the month-long competition.