South Africa, 2010

Priene said:

There's also an eye-opening streak of Anglophobia in American life that I've occasionally noticed. Seems to be getting worse at the moment.

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The UK and US are seldom in conflict. But whenever they are the claws come out -- I think that's true on both sides.

And many in the UK consider Americans as a boorish and uneducated people, which they do not hesitate to say --albeit, politely. Americans resent this, and it also plays nicely into American "anti-elitist" sentiments; nothing makes Americans more angry than the suspicion they may be less intelligent or cultured than (Insert group of choice)

But this isn't P&CE -- let's stick to football, which is far more interesting than politics.

Hell's Bells, a point in the first 8 minutes for Germany?

D:

Klose has made this...no longer close.

Half-time and Germany are kicking Australian ass.
They are 2-0 up and it could have been 5-0

It coulda been worse. I coulda gotten up at 4:30 am to watch this.

OH WAIT

Fgngngngg

ETA: FNGGNGNGNGHGGHGNG

I'm considering going back to bed, because I know if I do that Australia will get five goals in ten minutes.

How many days until every spectacular loss gets blamed on those infernal horns? Because I'm willing to get started.

Socceroos are small, flying mammals that navigate by sound (echolocation). They emit ultrasonic chirps which bounce back as echoes. The echo theoretically allows the Socceroo to locate its target, such as a goal or even its half of the field. Unfortunately, Socceroos are easily confused by loud raucous crowds, getting disoriented and agitated, flying in messy spirals and colliding with one another. This leaves the Socceroo vulnerable to its natural predator, the Cleated German Ballsnipe.

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Commiserations to our Aussie friends but I have to say Germany are looking very dangerous. They have to be one of the firm favourites to win the cup after this power house display.

The sending off was harsh to say the least but I don't think it made any difference to the end result. Germany were already 2-0 up and looked in no mood to surrender that lead. Australia really have their work cut out for them now to get through to the second round especially with Ghana also having 3 points. That's a tough group.

How's that expression go? Something about deers and headlights?

MrWrite said:

Commiserations to our Aussie friends but I have to say Germany are looking very dangerous. They have to be one of the firm favourites to win the cup after this power house display.

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Second that.

And either England or USA will get to play them in the first knockout round (unless someone mucks up against Algeria/Slovenia)

I was thrilled to see the ref issue two yellows for diving in that game. Cacau, especially, deserved it imo.

Beyond that, the Germans were definitely clicking. Congrats to Muller for getting numero uno.

Germany either looked totally badass or Australia looked totally bad. Either way, Germany is a team to watch out for.

It was a very selfless performance by the Germans. They keep that up and they'll go far. Really far. The passing was so sharp, for a few minutes there I thought I was watching hockey...

CaoPaux said:

Heh. I've finally got a chance to sit and watch the game -- and now understand the "swarm of bees" references. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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FIFA are now considering a ban. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/...laints?showallcomments=true#start-of-comments

Wow, that was a mismatch. Australia switched confederations to give themselves a better chance of qualifying. They might have been better concentrating on improving their play.

I was wondering when they would get around to this http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/worldcup/story/World-Cup-considers-ban-on-horns-061310?GT1=39011

Honestly, I had to turn the sound off.

I like this bit

"We have asked for no vuvuzelas during national anthems or during stadium announcements. I know it's a difficult question

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How are you supposed to know there's a stadium announcement when the lad behind you is hooting at 144dB?

All Vuvuzelas blow a B-flat, according to Wikipedia. It should be trivial for the broadcast boffins to filter the noise out for TV.

An own goal for Denmark. Ouch.

Albedo said:

All Vuvuzelas blow a B-flat, according to Wikipedia. It should be trivial for the broadcast boffins to filter the noise out for TV.

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That's not what the man from Bose says

Dan Gauger, research manager for noise reduction at Bose, says: 'The short answer is I don't see a way to do what you're looking for. While it's a fairly steady drone, it's made up of a lot of frequencies over a very wide range, which overlaps with a lot of the frequencies that the human voice occupies.' Take away the vuvuzela, in other words, and the commentators, the chants, the essential background hubbub of sport, would go too.

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Personally, I'd filter the noise out by confiscating the bloody things at the turnstiles, but I'm kind of old-fashioned.

I expect instances of insanity in people who got surround sound to watch the World Cup to be very high.

And plus, if they ban them, what'll be England's next excuse?

*wanders off singing Scotland's unofficial footballing anthem, We're Shite And We Know We Are*

Which applies to pretty much all our international sporting endeavours, with the exceptions of Andy Murray and Chris Hoy.

Don't forget Scotland's legendary achievements in the sport of women's curling, peaked with their glorious success at the 2002 Winter Olympics. That victory is still spoken of in hushed tones from Ecclefechan to Stromness.