Is anyone as pissed off with the bloody Soccer World Cup as

[Firefox]

I'm not greatly into football, but I will watch the odd game especially big tournaments like the world cup. However, the news here is completely dominated with in depth stories about player's injuries, and who is going to be fit in three weeks time, and how many people they have got in the squad, and on and on and on ad nauseum.

Let's see who's fit on the day, may the best team win, and then it's the next match. Some people seem even more obsessed with football than we are with shoes, to the extent it has to be rammed down the nation's throat for 6 weeks before the (90 minute) game takes place

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Firefox on 2002-05-23 01:59 ]</font>

[ShockQueen]

I remember being into sports at one time in my life, but then I grew up . These days whenever I see sports on, I'll flip the channel, leave the room, or leave the establishment. It's just grating how people are SO obsessed with that stuff anymore. Here in Denver, they had RIOTS when we won the Stanley Cup, when we won the second Super Bowl in a row, etc..... Sorry...I'll go with the quieter pleasures in life....click click click click...

[xaphod]

I'm 100% in agreement with you this time FF.

[terayon]

i dont like soccer....much preffer more contact sports like football or rugby, as well as things like snowboarding...but i agree with SQ in that watching sports is really really boring....only exception is if your actually at the stadium, then it can be fun...i also watch snowboarding contests on tv

[Laurieheels]

World Cup. It's good for business, so I shouldn't complain. It keeps people watching TV. Yes, it is annoying. Yes, I am proud that I made up a television schedule for the games on my own. Now the customers can be happy and I don't need to hear them prattle on about "well I need to know where I can watch the matches" HERE! Take this paper, go home.

[terayon]

laurie got exactly 400 more posts than me! : what industry you work in Laurie?

[Laurieheels]

I like to say communications industry. Technically we are a part of that. I solve problems for customers. They watch TV, use cable internet. That should be more than enough.

[Francis]

Bloody Football!! Everytime there's a tournament, that's all you hear. Football, football, football !! Say goodbye to anything that is actually interesting to have it replaced by football! !!DRONE!! And it's insidiousness doesn't stop there! No! It has to take over the television as well to the extent that it's covered by 90% of the channels available leaving the last 10% to show repeats and documentaries! !!GRRRR!! I'm not completely anti-football. I'll play football, but I hate watching it and I certainly don't want it ramming down my throat by the media! 23 grown men chasing a bag of wind around a grass field doesn't have the appeal that it has for a lot of people. Have you noticed that when you tell people that you're not into football, they look at you as though you're an alien? I can't understand the obsession with this sport, but then, I suppose, they can't understand why I don't or why I wear high heels. Some things will always remain a mystery.

[Calv]

Francis Your game sounds a bit one sided - 23 grown men chasing a bag of wind, or have you included the ref I agree though, It is very boring, anybody would think there is nothing more important than football.

[Francis]

Calv, your assumption was correct! The ref was included If I wished to have it one sided, it would be me (with a rocket launcher) against them (all 23). Odds, anyone?

[squirrelheels]

If they all had rocket launchers, then it would be 1:23. But as it stands, they don't have rocket launchers, so you'd probably win. And besides, I'd much rather do it with batleth! SH

[Yamyam]

Yeah, I'm fed up with it too. I work in a small team, and we're often not all in the office at the same time. Most of my team sit in one room, our manager has an office just up the corridor, and I sit in the room next door. It's so that I can avoid all of the football conversations, which is normally dull, but has now got up to 'thank heavens for a week on-site' levels The problem is, I'm probably the only man in the Midlands who doesn't like football!

[Calv]

You are not the only one YamYam. The office I used to work in was really bad for all the blokes discussing the previous days sporting activity (all of it!) I would far sooner talk to the women. It's not so bad now though. I went into the local pub the other night and it was covered with flags for the world cup.

[Jeff]

Well, here's one good thing about the Dutch team not making it to the worldcup this year. Nobody's talking about football around here these days because they don't want to be reminded to often that 'we' are not there this time, so no orange stadiums..

[Francis]

Squirrelheels, don't get me started with my batleth. I may not stop!

[xaphod]

No, Yamyam, I used to live there but I got the hell out as soon as I could. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating .... Having been forced as a child to play football by a pretty sadistic games teacher on a sloping stony pitch, with it raining horizontally, just above freezing, I came to realise that competitive sport was indeed character-forming. From then on out my character was formed, my mind was made up that I would have nothing to do with that damned football game ever again. I had the last laugh, being pretty good at swimming, I used to join those training for the school squad. I really enjoyed watching those wet and cold football players covered in shit, running past our 80 degrees F indoor pool.

[shyguy]

It's football overload, at work, on the TV and all round the shops. Posters, billboards, radio newspapers, and everything is all about football (soccer for the US residents). Come on it's just a game and not even a very good one. Even when it's not the world cup, newspapers in the UK fill the whole back section with football allowing maybe 1/2 a page for all the rest of sports news. AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH NO MORE ----ING FOOTBALL Thanks for this opportunity to vent my football angst here Firefox.

[Laurieheels]

Canada is all about hockey. I only have to deal with the football issue at work. I suppose I am lucky, not having to deal with much of this sports stuff. But so many people, men mainly, who move to Calgary are interested in sports on TV. Wonderful. Mental note, do not date those men.

[Charlie]

On the East coast of the U.S., the big thing is "Big East College Basketball". Television viewing is a big waste of time when this crap is in full swing. The thing I never understood about basketball was why the games need to be so long when they're usually decided by one or two baskets at the end anyways? As for hockey, I grew up playing organized hockey, and love the game. As for watching it on TV, I only tune in to watch the Boston Bruins lose the first round of the playoffs. It's an annual obligation that I've kept up for quite some time now. There does seem to be an overwhelming pattern here. It would seem those attracted to heels/style don't seem to care much for the largely popular pro sports nonsense. Does intelligence play a role here? Hmmnnn... In the U.S., pro athletes have become boring, over-paid slugs for the most part. Charlie

[azraelle]

Not intelligience, exactly, Charlie, but a heightened sense of one's feminine side, be you male or female, in other words, right brainers. On a slightly different note: Karl Marx once said that organized religion was the "opiate of the people". I have long held the belief that professional sports have replaced religion as the "people's opiate". Any thoughts?? _________________ Hi-Heels and Back-Zipper Pants Forever... <font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: azraelle on 2002-05-26 03:45 ]</font> <font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: azraelle on 2002-05-26 03:46 ]</font>

[terayon]

only "football" i like is american football....actual football

[Jeff]

I always wondered why American Football is called the way it is... It's more like American handball or running-with-the-ball, since they rarely ever hit the ball with the foot..

[Laurieheels]

Sports as the opiate of the masses. History time! Funny, I was just talking about this last night... Travel back in time with me, a few thousand years, and we'll sit in ancient rome. We'll be in an ampitheatre, and in the morning, we'll watch some sport, men riding around and killing beasts. At lunch, we'll be moving about, maybe we care for the public executions that take place in the arena. But then, as the sun has past its peak, we are all enthused, for men come out to fight one another, and somtimes they stain the sand a brilliant red... Yes, we're in ancient Rome. We're watching the games. Of course, we could go to the Circus Maximus and see charioteers race about, and the crowd is looking for an accident and everyone is cheering on the faction they love best... Organized devotion to sports has been around a long time. it is all about spectacle. We love to see something happening, and we love to cheer on our favourites. We cannot do these things ourselves, but we latch onto a star who can perform these great feats of athletic prowess. Our sports today have an element of conflict, they have people fighting one another to win. It is about who can survive, who can triumph. And it's been around a long time. I think that humanity has a basic program in which we all feel the need for survival. We need to win. We like it. Those of us here may be evolving beyond that, because our minds are a bit more open. For those who are not open to new ideas, they retain this idea of being right and being good and being victorious. Sports allow us to take part in this victory en masse. This is why cities turn to riot when their team wins, because they are running on primal instincts and the adrenaline just lets loose! Sitting in the Flavian ampitheatre in 78 AD when an aging Vespasian held his Ludus for a yet unfinished building would have been intoxicating for the people. Maybe you'd catch a gift thrown to the crowd, and you would see the primal aspects of life acted out before your eyes. Unless you were a woman, then you had to sit in the back row where the view was not so good. We now call it the colliseum, and many sports complexes have taken this name. The direct link is obvious. Today's sports are a reflection of the Roman spectacle, which served one purpose - to win over the hearts and minds of the people. Breads and circuses, we call it, and we know it is a way to keep large groups of people entertained and not complaining as much about the lack of status in their own lives... Today, we go to games and they have "free T-shirt night, free flag night" and what have you. They entice us to pay vendors for food and drink, maybe we get something for free, and we watch two groups in conflict. It's all very Roman, isn't it? Does this make sports an opiate? Yes it does. But socially, western culture has been bred to love this for thousands of years. Gladiators could become wealthy, freed men of the empire. Charioteers were imortalized by the factions that loved them. Today is no different. We have fully re-embraced a system of sports spectacle that was the focus of the world so long ago.

[Yamyam]

On 2002-05-26 18:10, Anonymous wrote:

"No, Yamyam, I used to live there but I got the hell out as soon as I could."

There's nothing wrong with the Midlands. Bet if football boots came with heels you watch it then

Err, no. Sorry, but even hh football boots wouldn't convince me. Mind you, they'd make a hell of a mess of the turf .

I'm too busy watching all the motorsport I can find on my 62 cable channels, and surfing the Internet

[Laurieheels]

I have about 200 + so people can tell me I have no life if they like. But then, I work for the company, it's worth it for the price when I only use it a few hours a week.

[Firefox]

The people on-line here are real people and since I've met many of them face to face, they're even realer. By the way, David Beckham kicked a football yesterday and today he's going for a training run. The excitement of it all is just getting too much for me. What a shame England are going to get dumped out in the group matches.

[pieman3141]

Soccer sucks! Real Canadians watch Hockey!!!

[Dr. Shoe]

On 2002-05-28 11:42, Firefox wrote:

The people on-line here are real people and since I've met many of them face to face, they're even realer.

By the way, David Beckham kicked a football yesterday and today he's going for a training run. The excitement of it all is just getting too much for me. What a shame England are going to get dumped out in the group matches.

I wouldn't bet on it after the England v Argentina game. If we beat Nigeria by two clear goals we will be top of the group!(unless Sweden beat Argentina 3-0), Argentina could go out instead!

"The Group Of Death"? PAH!

[Firefox]

I think England only need a draw with Nigeria to be certain to qualify and even a loss may be enough. One thing is for certain, watching the matches is far more interesting than 6 weeks of speculation!

[Dr. Shoe]

I don't normally take such an interest in football but this has been such a thrilling tournament I can't help it. All the pundits were writing England off as a certain to fail in the groups, Argentina to get 9 points and our progression to be based on our success against Sweden, now we could come out on top and the "best team in the world" could be going home early! Senegal beating France in their first ever World Cup! USA qualifying for the knockouts! They beat Portugal!!!