Ethelred Unraed's Journal: USA ist out! and other World Cup goings-on

Clearly the other teams cheated by fielding good players.

Meanwhile I watched the Japan-Brazil game last night with an gleeful Aussie who draped herself in the Southern Cross. (Tip of the hat to arb.) :-)

It was pretty cool for the Japanese to get the first goal -- they really played their hearts out -- but when Ronaldo (whom the Aussie kept calling "Fat Boy") got his goal, our group (the aforementioned Aussie, a Brit, a German and myself) couldn't resist making a bunch of really evil jokes:

Me: Well, that's not the first time the Japanese got flattened by a Fat Boy.*
Aussie: Ooooh, that joke was radioactive.
Brit: Naw, it was just a flash in the pan.
Me: What, you mean it bombed?

What was also kinda funny was that I ran into some South Koreans this afternoon. The scene was I was helping BoE and her mom packing the car for them to go with the kids to her family's place for the weekend, and a Korean guy in a soccer jersey asked me (in really good German) if we were leaving the parking space (since parking in our crowded neighborhood usually involves knife fights and ninja tactics). I said yes, but it would take us a few minutes to leave the space, but he could wait for us to park. In the meantime his sister (also clad in a jersey) and mother also got out, and we started chatting. Gloriana and the Confessor were already in the car, and Sis and Mom started cooing over the kids. I wished them good luck against Switzerland today, and said that since the US had lost I'd cheer for them, and they got all excited and ran off to their car to get some Korean fan sticks (sort of inflated bats to make racket with) and gave them to the kids.

I noticed the sister was wearing a keychain around her neck with "HARVARD MEDICAL" written on it. Turns out her brother studied there for a year and also was in Minnesota (he called it "the refrigerator of America"). Small world. :-)

It was also funny a few days ago, when Mexico was in Hannover to play, and there were loads of Mexicans roaming the streets of Hannover in sombreros and green jerseys. I rode by some on my bike and called out Viva México!, and they cheered back. :-)

Even though I'm not much for soccer, and even though the American team's only moment of glory was McBride getting his face smashed in (and an own goal by the Italians), being in one of the main cities I have to say the World Cup's been a real blast.

Go England! Or Australia! Or...well, anyone but the Germans, really. If Germany wins this place will be intolerable, because Germans just aren't supposed to be happy. If they lose, they will resume their normal grumbling, bitching and moaning. ;-)

...

* - Actually it was Fat Man and Little Boy, but whatever. This was after a few beers.

World cup

[Tet]

Go England! Or Australia! Or...well, anyone but the Germans, really. If Germany wins this place will be intolerable

I'm dreading England winning for exactly the same reason. It really will be quite horrible here if it comes to that.

Re:World cup

[arb]

And I dread Australia winning too many more games too - almost half of tonight's news bulletin was devoted to the draw with Croatia. People getting excited about a draw for Ghod's sake! I much prefer real football where there's more scoring and action.

Re:World cup

[notfancy]

I count on Argentina fixing things right to your liking, boys. But then, I will be the one left to suffer the insufferable outpouring of national pride of my connationals.

There's no justice left in this world.

cool

[stoolpigeon]

i lived in Chicago when the world cup had games there years back. it was a lot of fun. the most humorous part was the angry cab drivers. i'll never forget one on the local evening news who was absolutely livid. why? the visitors to town for the matches were walking everywhere and not taking cabs. the drivers had expected the event to bring them a ton of revenue but it did not.
 
me, i loved the big groups on the sidewalk singing, waving flags, etc.