Saturday, June 10, 2006

And so it begins

Four Brits arrested by German police overnight in Frankfurt. Its not quite the fire hoses and pitched battles of Euro 2000, but not a good start. The real test will be this evening. Apparently the German police are praying for an English victory. Defeat puts the fans in foul form......

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, they have it easy with Paraguay.
1-0 first half, they still have forty minutes to go.
Germany will be safe. How it'll be in England if their team win?

Terry said...

well they played well in the first half and negative stand-off football in the second half. The Meixcan referee was an extra man for Paraguay. 3 points is three points
There will be endless debates in England tonight...though they've been drinking all day so the conversation will be a bit disjointed

Anonymous said...

And so it'll go on for 28 more days!
I wish I lived in a country who cares about the World Cup... USA ignores this event. I am able to watch the games only because they are broadcasted on Hispanic TV.

So there are no flags nor World Cup fever here :-(

How did the English behave yesterday?
Nothing to report?

Terry said...

The English fans are behaving surprisingly well. A couple were arrested last night for painting Nazi symbols (ss insignia) on their arms as that's a criminal offence in Germany. So far there have been no really ugly scenes. By all accounts the mood has been festive and cheerful. Long may it continue.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where anonymous in the US above is located where no one is talking about or watching the World Cup, but I can assure you that is not the case in NY and I don't think it is at all fair to say the USA ignores it (by the way, soccer or futbol, is played by more children in the US than any other sport, so there is support here). Everyone I talk to knows the US is ranked 5th, knows who the top contenders are, knows when the next big (and by big, I mean interesting) match-up is and knows where to go to catch the games that are not available on cable television. I agree it is probably not at the level of mania seen in other countries, but keep in mind, we are also in the middle of the NBA and NHL finals and there should be a good match-up in the Bronx this week against the Yankees with Cleveland in town. In other words, there are a lot of sporting events to choose from here. Just because we aren't running through the streets screaming "Goooooooal" doesn't mean we don't know who just scored one.

Anonymous said...

I am the anonymous who lives in San Francisco, a little town of less than a million people. It's good to know that there are some places in the US where people follow the World Cup, but read the article below...

Americans not quite catching World Cup bug

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

Standing near an RV in the infield at a NASCAR race, the subject of soccer and the World Cup came up, quite unexpectedly.

"What's the World Cup?" asked race fan Rich Possinger.

OK, so he admitted he actually did know a thing about the world's biggest sporting event. But like many fellow Americans, Possinger was not setting aside time to watch the U.S. team, which took the field for its first game Monday.

"I'm waiting for the bug to bite," he said, "and it hasn't yet."

Might not happen anytime soon, either, given America's dispiriting 3-0 loss to the Czechs in the opener. Four years ago, the U.S. made a surprise run into the quarterfinals that sparked a bit of soccer madness back home.

Four years, however, is a long time to milk a couple of wins.

"Soccer is just a sport that's still not dominant in the United States," said Randy Chavez of Albuquerque, N.M. "I'd rather follow baseball, football or basketball, rather than what the rest of the world calls 'football."'

Indeed, the world's most popular sport is big only around the fringes in the United States -- played by plenty (mostly kids) but watched by few (mostly diehards).

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association said more than 17 million people played soccer at least once in 2006, third among team sports behind basketball and football, which has actually surpassed soccer in the past year.

"The NFL and baseball appeal to people who aren't even fans of the sport," said Tink Lim, also at Pocono Raceway to watch a NASCAR race. "It's a cultural thing."

Not surprisingly, early TV viewership has been modest. ABC reported overnight ratings for Saturday's England-Paraguay game and for Sunday's Mexico-Iran game at 2.7 -- about 3 million households for each. Spanish-language network Univision was also televising the games. Figures for Monday's game involving the Americans won't be available until Tuesday.

By comparison, the French Open women's final, televised early Saturday on NBC, drew viewers in about 1.9 million households. Even on its worst nights, the Winter Olympics drew about 16 million viewers in February.

Meanwhile, in other countries, fans and governments put a high priority on the World Cup.

Through much of the Middle East, a satellite network is charging steep viewing fees, leading to some dramatic action. In Egypt, the head of the Nile Sports Channel asked for United Nations intervention. The king of Jordan ordered public TV screens be set up so low-income citizens could watch.

In Indonesia, not being able to watch the World Cup simply added to the trauma after last month's devastating earthquakes.

"Our sorrows are complete," a local named Kusumo said as he sifted through the rubble that was once his house.

Of course, the United States has pockets of hard-core soccer fans.

Games were on TVs all weekend in shops and bars around Manhattan. In Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, several people were wearing soccer jerseys, even though the big event there was a bike race. In Minneapolis, John Nahrgang went to a downtown bar called "The Local" to watch the game surrounded by other die-hards.

"I don't think I've ever anticipated a sporting event for so long," Nahrgang said.

He was the exception.

"Not a sport I'm interested in," said Jeff Ahern, while he took in a Boston Red Sox game over the weekend.

ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 are doing their best to hype the coverage.

They've got studio shows, a la "Baseball Tonight," to break down the action. They're televising all 64 games, even though the time change means they won't be on during prime time.

In fact, the U.S. started playing Monday around the time "The Price Is Right" was ending on the East Coast. And by the time Bob Barker was signing off, about five minutes into the game, the Americans were already down a goal.

"If they start off in the first few rounds making progress, then my interest will develop," said Mike McTernan, while watching a Little League T-ball game in Albuquerque. "If they get blown out in the first couple of rounds, then maybe not."

McTernan should know that in the last two World Cups, the only team to advance from the first round after losing its opener was Turkey, in 2002.

The Americans' next game is Saturday against Italy.

Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Long Pond, Pa., Travis Coleman in Minneapolis, Janie McCauley in San Francisco, Tim Korte in Albuquerque, Jimmy Golen in Boston and Ronald Blum in Germany contributed to this report.