So, how do things stand with the Uncertain Principles World Cup Contest at the end of the first round? We have completed the first set of 16 group play games, and to this point, we have 6 ties. Extrapolating from that to the final result (because, of course, you always start with a linear extrapolation)… Continue reading World Cup: First-Round Statistics
Category: Soccer
World Cup Open Thread and Poll
We’re several days into the World Cup now, and I have just about settled on my rooting strategy for countries I have no personal connection to: I’m going to root for countries where we’ve sold the rights for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog over countries where the rights haven’t been sold yet. This… Continue reading World Cup Open Thread and Poll
(Belated) World Cup Contest
This was supposed to go up earlier, but it turns out that thinking you selected “Scheduled” in the MT back end is not, in fact, enough to schedule the post to appear. So this is showing up after games have already begun, but nothing of consequence has happened yet, so it’s no biggie. Anyway, the… Continue reading (Belated) World Cup Contest
How to Decide Who to Root for in the World Cup?
Ethan Zuckerman has an excellent round-up of selection strategies for who to support in the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament. Options include strategic support, support through spite, non-FIFA support, and aesthetic considerations. A couple he left off: Flopping Artistry: To American eyes, one of the most notable features of international soccer is the way that… Continue reading How to Decide Who to Root for in the World Cup?
MJ, Fame, Writing, and More
If you’re desperate for something to fill your Friday afternoon, and not the comment-leaving sort, you could do a lot worse than spending an hour and a half (give or take) with Chuck Klosternman and Bill Simmons in their two part ESPN podcast. It’s nominally about sports, but they spend a good bit of time… Continue reading MJ, Fame, Writing, and More
World Cup Post-Script
Via Dave Sez, a Sports Illustrated columnist says that Zidane’s head-butt was understandable because of all the flopping other players do: So Zidane slammed a guy. He lost it. Writers all over the world are competing with themselves to heap scorn on France’s greatest player. You know something? I don’t blame him for getting sore.… Continue reading World Cup Post-Script
World Cup Wrap-Up
I didn’t get to see either of the weekend’s games, other than about five minutes at the start of the second half of the championship, so I have very little to say. I haven’t even seen highlights, as I had to spend the morning at the hospital for an intensely boring test, and they didn’t… Continue reading World Cup Wrap-Up
World Cup Update
I didn’t get to see much of the World Cup games over the weekend, as we were in Chicago at a friend’s wedding, with drinks and dancing and socializing, and various other things that were more attractive than watching penalty-kick shootouts. A few scattered observations all the same: Appearances: not always decceiving. See Wayne Rooney’s… Continue reading World Cup Update
World Cup Update
It was a lazy Sunday in Chateau Steelypips, what with the party Saturday afternoon, so I watched a fair amount of soccer. I saw nearly all of the England-Ecuador game, and the second half of the Portugal-Netherlands game. This has made something clear to me: The most difficult thing to find in international soccer is… Continue reading World Cup Update
World Cup Post-Mortem
So, the US lost to Ghana yesterday, ending the World Cup for the Americans. I watched most of the second half, and it was pretty frustrating. Amazingly, Ghana was actually more theatrical than Italy, with the flopping and the flailing and the writhing on the ground as if in agony– there should’ve been about fifteen… Continue reading World Cup Post-Mortem