World Cup, Russia, 2018

Two team workers sitting in their mess room on the afternoon of the 14th June. They are chatting about the World Cup starting and how if England should progress to the semi-finals, something they have never seen being both in their mid-twenties, they are going to get England tattoos.

Their manager, now in his mid-fifties overhears the conversation and knowing what it has been like to be an England supporter over the last 40 years, laughingly says he will join them if that was to happen.

So the question now is; what tattoo do you think would suit me!!!!!!

 

A Chinthe carrying the flag of St. George ?

 

Hadn't thought along those lines Rich. I'm sneaking in on Monday and hope they might have forgotten.

 

That tourny is just dragging along. When will it end? WTF, do they just play one game a day and take two off?

 

I am glad to see that England are through. I am positively delighted that Russia is out, and I am pleased to report that this was the universal attitude among all non-Russian watchers here in Boston. Anything that makes Putin upset is fine with me.

 

A guy on the radio today said that England's 1966 win is as distant a memory for most of today's fans as the invasion of William the Conqueror

 

It is a very, very strenuous and exhausting game, much more so than baseball or American football. You are running for 90 minutes, solid, more if there is extra time, and unless there is an injury substitutions are quite limited. Bear in mind that in Europe at least soccer is mostly an autumn-winter-spring sport, and is usually played in chilly weather, often enough in rain and mud. It is summer in Russia, as it is here, and Russian summers are like summers in Nebraska or Minnesota: short, but intensely hot (continental climate). Latin American and African players can adjust to such conditions, but teams from places like Sweden, England, and Russia itself may have more difficulty doing so. Also, the cup competition is held after the end of the professional league seasons, and players are coming to it after months of tiring competition in their home countries. You do need rest to be effective under such circumstances.

 

Bobby,
Just a tip, please don't start watching Cricket.

The beauty of soccer is that you have 90 minutes of play, excluding half time and any extra time which may be required. It is the 3.5 hour marathon NFL games with 65 commercials that drive me crazy.

 

I give up on watching the NFL when they started that taking a knee crap during the national anthem. I still hope the New Orleans Saints win, but I never bet on them or hold my breath until they win. I just watch LSU football now. And they have too many commercials too. I wonder if in the socialist/communist countries they show commercials on TV out the wazoo during whatever games they play over there?

Haven't quite figured out Cricket yet. Once I was in a beer-league softball game at LSU. We played in one the corners of the parade ground, and a group of Indians (the kind from India, maybe they were Pakistanis, or maybe Bangladeshis, I don't know for sure) were playing cricket on the opposite corner. I was playing center field in a 4-deep formation. There was a guy in the cricket team standing near me facing the other way. I asked him what were they doing, and he said that they were playing cricket. He tried to explain it to me between batters, but the team that we were playing kept me busy chasing fly balls.

 

I've watched enough of those games, and yes they do trot around a lot, but running for 90 minutes solid I've never seen that. Mostly the guy kicking the ball might get up to a gallop for awhile, then he kicks it over to someone else, then he throttles it back to a trot. Sure it's strenuous at times, but those guys are lightweights (in size) compared to linemen and linebackers in American football. No need for lard-ass linemen in a game like that. Now in rugby, I've noticed that they do a LOT more running than in soccer, and hit like in American football. Haven't figured out that game either. That and Australian Rules Football. I have no idea what those people are doing out there. But what I have noticed is very few of them have all their teeth.

 

A cricket match can last for over six hours and some matches extend for 4-5 days!

I actually like the World Cup format. There have been some wonderfully entertaining matches.
I've grown to love the game Never had the chance to play it as a child but all 3 of my children played the game at a competitive level. The youngest two played on premier teams for over 10 years so I spent many hours and miles around the continent at the side of a pitch.

 

A game goes 4-5 days? No wonder why those cricketeers were still out there when we left to go get some more beer after our game was done!

I figure that if soccer was played here in the states when I was growing up I'd have a greater appreciation for it. It's played a bit nowadays, but mainly it's kids too young or too small to play football, and for girls in high school and college as a result of the Title 9 thing about having equal sports for both boys and girls. Now with the influx of Hispanics these days, soccer is played much more around here. Not so much with the local indigenous types though. Football is still king here. And maybe baseball, in the summer, but to quote the baseball great Jack Elliot (portrayed by Tom Selleck in the baseball comedy movie "Mr. Baseball"), "we're not athletes, we're baseball players". In baseball, just the catcher gets a pretty good workout for the whole game. The rest of them get off pretty easy.

Great flick, check it out.

Mr. Baseball (1992) - IMDb

Back to soccer. What really gets to me about that game is when one player steps on the shadow of another player, and he falls to the ground "writhing" in agony. God forbid you run too close to an opposing player and the sleeves of your jerseys touch. I can't believe grown men act like that, and on international TV. I'd rather watch rugby and Australian Rules Football, even though I have no earthly idea what they're doing on the field.

 

A58.

Although more of a physical contact sport, rugby players run less than soccer players, and much slower too on the whole.

What amazes me is the speed some of the larger Gridiron football players can move!

 

US football players are much less mobile. I played soccer, and believe me you are moving nearly all the time, either fast or not so fast. And it is strenuous. Watch the guys without the ball, they are often moving not at a trot but quite fast to get into position to take a pass, shoot, or defend. Neither are all the guys lightweights; you have your share of 200 pounders and six footers. Soccer doesn't have 300 pound physical freaks, though.

 

Ok fine y'all convinced me, soccer is a great game. So when does this tournament end, and what will you soccer people do after it does eventually end?

 

The final is next Sunday, 15 July and the tournament ends then.

What will soccer people do then? We’ll take a sabbatical to Baton Rouge and teach Americans the noble art of cricket...

I am a Rugby man myself. That is like American football without the crash helmet and Kevlar.

 

Jordan Pickford for man of the match (one hell of a goalkeeper!) Edit .Sterling needs to open his eyes a bit more, & stop trying to be a ballet dancer.. Well done England.

 

I agree with you about the roughness of rugby without all the protection American football players wear. Sounds like a great sport. I think our football developed from that somehow. It might take some time to master that cricket thing though.

Appreciate all the patience guys, I was just yanking y'all's chain a bit for the fun of it you know.

 

I got that. I was yanking your chain too...!