How are you following the World Cup?

I had the first week off so got to see every game. Second week I was at work, but thanks to the marvel of flexitime got to see the early and late games. Aside from that been following matches as they happen by Sky Sports, who do an excellent minute-by-minute update service.

posted by squealy at 05:43 AM - reply - flag:

I Tivo them and try to avoid reading any sports sites while at work. Usually have time to catch one game in the morning before work. Some games (like the US:Poland) I had to go to work during, so I drove like a madman at halftime and then sat in my cube biting my nails staring at the ESPN gamecast whimpering "update..update..damnit damnit!@"

posted by elsoltano at 05:50 AM - reply - flag:

hi, my name is dave and i'm a world cup addict. i've been going to sleep at 6:30am because that's when the last game ends here...

posted by juv3nal at 07:24 AM - reply - flag:

Best: watching the live games free on Univision, the local Spanish channel (which I barely understand, since I don't speak the language. But then, soccer is the universal language. ;-) It is a tough row to hoe, however, given that the live games are at 1130pm, 230am or 430am local time. Second best: Catching selected weekend games on delayed telecast on ABC. The best was the England v Denmark game yesterday. Knowing the outcome, all I had to do was watch the first half (when all the goals were scored), then leave and do something else. Time-saver. Finally: Read the FIFA yahoo! site for games I didn't watch. You can get a report as well as a full text play-by-play commentary live (and archived) if you're so inclined. Mostly I'm checking the scores and comparing against my fantasy picks. Oh yes: Reading Sportsfilter adds the fan commentary and armchair coaching/refereeing aspects which make the whole experience ... erm ... richer. Fun.

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:36 AM - reply - flag:

I really don't understand why ABC has been double-casting everything the entire time and just /now/ decided to only only broadcast delayed games. The hard-core fans are just going to watch Univision anyway; seems like they are throwing away the early-morning audience without any gains later in the day.

posted by tieguy at 09:50 AM - reply - flag:

ABC has been broadcasting delayed games since the games started (but only a few). Hard-core fans would be paying for cable and watching ESPN and ESPN2 unless, like you and me, they get Univision clearly and free. So ABC (which owns ESPN) gets both live and delayed audiences either way.

posted by worldcup2002 at 10:04 AM - reply - flag:

here in australia, the games run from 4:30-11pm, which is great i work freelance, so i've been able to spend many a happy afternoon down the pub watching 3 games on the big screen and england are doing so well :) pints of guinness so far: 74!!!!

posted by sawks at 10:06 AM - reply - flag:

Okay, you guys are gonna hate me for this, but... Downtown Tokyo. All games on the radio at work (office practically shut down for the Japan-Tunisia match and everyone went into the meeting room to watch the game on TV). When not ridiculously busy -- most of the time -- I can run downstairs, across the street, into the British pub, and all the games are on widescreen TV. When no games are in progress, they replay old games. Freakin' foo'ball heaven.

posted by Bixby23 at 10:14 AM - reply - flag:

Same as worldcup2002 - I'm in the same time zone (san francisco). I've been watching all the games on Univision. I do speak Spanish. I've always found the Spanish announcers to be more genuinely enthusiastic about the game. They have actually toned it down since the days of Andres when the narration was often overly dramatic. I remember exclamations like "Ay! Donde esta SIL-VA!" for a mere midfield pass. Basically, less analysis, more emotional outbursts - perhaps its just a Latin thing. I've watched most of the 11:30 games but 4:30 am is just too much, except for the, um, semifinals and finals for which I will have to drink much, much coffee.

posted by vacapinta at 12:42 PM - reply - flag:

The last match of the day usually comes on live at 7:30 am on ESPN or ESPN2 here in the eastern US time zone, so that's the one I always watch. Since I'm a freelancer, too, my day just begins a bit later during the Cup. On Saturday, ESPN didn't broadcast the Denmark/England match since ABC was to air it, delayed, later that day. Pissed me off for 2 reasons: 1) I had woken up early on a Saturday morning just to watch the match, and 2) I had to avoid the internet all morning and into the afternoon for fear of getting the results of the match. It's been a fantastic cup so far.

posted by armando at 03:26 PM - reply - flag:

I'm a nightowl by nature, but I'm getting used to 7am starts these days. And yeah, the Guardian. And I'm slowly coming round to ITV's commentary over the BBC's.

posted by etagloh at 05:49 PM - reply - flag:

I've been catching every match I can live here in California. It's made for some surreal moments at work, as I nod off during meetings. When ESPN/ABC have delayed broadcasts, I've watched them on Univision/Galavision here. I don't mind the Spanish commetary, and have in fact picked up some quite useless Spanish skills over the years. Both the Senegal and Ireland matches were worth every second of lost sleep. I love this Cup!

posted by kafkaesque at 08:23 PM - reply - flag:

vacapinta, for the semis and final, perhaps you will ... erm ... catch a cold ... or something. koff. ahem. koff. and kafkaesque: i've picked up some mad Spanish skillz too. I know Japon and Corea, I can count to twenty something (onse = eleven, dose, trese, quartose, heh heh heh), and I know what most of the days of the week are. btw, what does "remate" mean? "Rebound"? Does "servicio" mean "pass" or "cross"? Hey, "medio tiempo" means "half-time". My Latin love skills will be complete at the end of the month. "I am worldcup2002, and I will rrrrrrrock your mundial." hahahahaha.

posted by worldcup2002 at 10:46 PM - reply - flag:

To answer how I am following the World Cup, here are some random (and probably useless) trivia (known in the MBA and Management Consulting circles as 'analysis') I crunched up during the down time between the two second round matches using my uber Excel geekery. First Round Winners and Losers:2 teams won all their matches: Brazil and Spain. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1938), Brazil (1970) and France (1998) are the only teams to have won the cup without the blemish of a tie or a loss and winning all their matches. Italy tied all three of their group matches in 1982 on their way to winning the cup. 12 teams went unbeaten: Denmark, Senegal, Spain, Brazil, Ireland, Germany, England, Sweden, Mexico, Belgium and hosts South Korea and Japan. 3 teams lost all their matches: China, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia. 25 teams won at least one match. 7 teams did not win a single match: France, Nigeria, Uruguay, Tunisia, China, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia. 11 goals, the most of any teams, scored by two teams: Brazil and Germany. Spain scored 9. 0 goals: 3 teams failed to score a single goal: France, China and Saudi Arabia. Most balanced teams in terms of goal-differential: Paraguay, scored 6/conceded 6. South Africa (5/5), Belgium (6/5), Costa Rica (5/6) and USA (5/6). Movin' on:5 points was the magic number for teams advancing to the second round. All 12 teams scoring 5 or more points made it through. 4 points was the toss-up number. 4 teams with 4 points made it into the second round, while 4 other teams with the same 4 points did not. 6 goals scored by Portugal was the most for any team failing to advance to the second round. South Africa and Costa Rica scored 5 goals each in a lost cause. 2 goals, the least, were all England needed to see them through to the second round. 21 teams scored more goals than England. 6 teams that scored more goals than England yet failed to qualify for the second round: Portugal (6), Costa Rica (5), South Africa (5), Russia (4), Uruguay (4) and Poland (3). 1 goal, the least, allowed by three teams: Germany, England and South Korea. No team shut-out their opponents in all three of the group matches. 6 goals allowed in by Paraguay were the most allowed by any team making it on to the second round. 10 goal-differential of Germany was the most of any team. Brazil had 8. -1 goal-differential of USA was the least of any team making it through to the second round. Paraguay had 0. 4 teams had better goal-differential than USA, yet failed to advance: Portugal (2), South Africa (0), Argentina (0), Costa Rica (-1). 66% or 2 of 3 teams from North American CONCACAF advanced to the second round. Europe had 60% (9/15), Asia had 50% (2/4), South America had 40% (2/5) and Africa had 20% (1/5) teams advance. Both CONCACAF teams: USA and Mexico, will play each other in the second round. 100% of the teams wearing Umbro (2), Kappa (1), Hummel (1), Atletica (1) and which ever company made the jerseys for Senegal moved on. Adidas (5/10) and Nike (4/8) were half as successful. Puma (1/4) at least had 1 team in the second round. Joma (0/1), L-sporto (0/1), Uhlsport (0/1) and Marathon (0/1) had none.Travel Management Simplified:4 teams will play all their first round through semi-final matches in South Korea: Spain, Paraguay, USA and South Korea. One of these teams will stay in South Korea to play its third place match too. 4 teams will play all their first round through final matches in Japan: England, Sweden, Belgium and Japan.BTW, if anyone knows the name of Senegal's jersey and equipment sponsor, please let me know.

posted by tamim at 03:12 AM - reply - flag:

BTW, if anyone knows the name of Senegal's jersey and equipment sponsor, please let me know. Le coq sportif, I believe.

posted by etagloh at 05:09 AM - reply - flag:

tamin: you have too much time on your hands! Americans struggle to find meaningful statistics for sawker, so they have to resort to finding meaningless statistics about the tournament as a whole... ;-)

posted by salmacis at 05:38 AM - reply - flag:

I've been watching them in pubs all across Ireland for the past 2 weeks. Amazing difference than watching them in the US.

posted by justgary at 06:14 AM - reply - flag:

Also following the Cup here in San Francisco on Univision/Galavision. Understanding Spanish helps me, but my wife, who doesn't, still prefers it over ESPN/ABC. More emotion and easier to stay awake/alert in the middle of the night...

posted by john-sfo at 05:10 PM - reply - flag:

Sunday, June 16, 2002

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