All aboard - the bandwagon has a full head of steam. And why not? We are top of Group F.
When you got it, flaunt it, baby!
Stráya are even on top in Portuguese. Take that, Braaasssil. Take that, fat Ronaldo! Take that, tall and tan and young and lovely girl from Ipanema! (They go a-a-ah.) Take that, Semco and your revolutionary workplace!
By the way, there will be no "Soccer ... err ... football ... whatever it's called now" waffle here. It's not funny, never has been, not even when I said it. (I was having an off day.) Just say one. Or the other. Here in AGB, Poohtown, 3000 we call it soccer. Just soccer. Unless, of course, you are referring to Les Murray certified Phoodboll.
<-- This is football. Coincidentally, Josh Fraser is waving goodbye to the bandwagon. Actually, it's the Collingwood bandwagon. But give it a month. Soccer might be enjoying it's moment in the sun right now, but pretty soon things will be back to normal wall-to-wall Aussie Rules.
Little-known sports fact: Raphael Nadal won the 2006 French Open.
Enjoy it while it lasts. Take it from me, we've been there...
Posted by: anne | 14 June 2006 at 14:49
puta que pariu?
Posted by: Zoe | 14 June 2006 at 15:32
Anne: That's the whole idea. At least, unlike the French, we don't have aspirations of winning the whole thing, thus we can't be too let down. Just a little bit let down. And speaking as an Aussie rules fan, we can't have soccer getting overly popular now, can we?
Zoe: I tried to transate that - "puta that it give birth".
I guess I'm not competent. Not knowing "that it give birth" but knowing "puta", which is a naughty word in spaghetti westerns.
Posted by: Tony.T | 14 June 2006 at 17:25
I quite prepared to call Soccer football, as long as Armless precedes it.
Either that or Neurotic Football will do
Posted by: boynton | 14 June 2006 at 17:47
Or Diving.
Posted by: Tony.T | 14 June 2006 at 18:02
Zoe: I'm hot on the case. Does it mean something along the lines of "Damn it!" or "Insert stronger expletive"?
Posted by: Tony.T | 14 June 2006 at 18:04
No tony, footbal means Foot Ball and apart from goalkeepers the players in general ( apart from Maradonna) use there feet, your version of Foot Ball consists of booting it high as possible, catching it and kicking it before someone kicks the crap out of you, catching it and running with the ball in your hands, it is sort of an inbred Rugby/Soccer cross over.
Sorry mate but yours aint football in the purest form, I think you will find you use your feet in our version more times than in yours.
Great result though the other day for your boys
Posted by: Vaughny | 14 June 2006 at 21:12
The awesome and famed sporting might of Japanese fooball - crushed! Take that, Tojo! What struck me about watching fooball, something I normally avoid, was the total lack of skills, accuracy, strategy and fitness compared with Aussie Rules. Aussies who spend two hours playing a body contact sport on a 200m long field are able to kick an oval ball more accurately than effete Euros kicking a round ball around a 100m long field in between faking dislocations every time they fall over. And whereas the Aussies spend two hours running around their playing area, flooding the defensive fifty, tackling their opponents, then sprinting back to the attack 150 m away, the fooball wusses gently jog backwards and forwards, standing back and watching their opponents like road workers on a 30 minute smoko in between their lame shots at thin air. These prats get paid multiples of what Aussie Rules players make, yet they wouldn't last a single season playing Aussie Rules. By the end I was barracking for Japan.
Posted by: Clem Snide | 15 June 2006 at 00:09
We saw Japan getting back in numbers when we had the ball creating an extremely congested Australian forward half, until the flooding side eventually tired in the last few minutes and we ran straight over the top.
When you think about it, it was spookily like a scale-model version of what we've seen in the last two Eagles games.
Posted by: carneagles | 15 June 2006 at 12:00
And was it just me, or did anyone else watch it with Kent Brockman's voice in their head?
"He holds it ... holds it. Holds it."
Posted by: carneagles | 15 June 2006 at 12:02
Football...soccer frankly as a keen follower of the round ball code I don't care what is called.
I can understand why the great Johnny Warren pushed for the sport to be called football. Not only is the name used by most countries but in Australia the term 'soccer' implied that it was somewhat 'inferior' to the other codes (Rugby and AFL) who could be called football.
I remember one letter writer in a newspaper: "You can call it football all your like but in Australia you will be and remain soccer"
That's put us in our place!
But ultimately it does not matter what we call it the sport will develop a presence in our country by being administered properly and by having a well run domestic league.
And soccer will never 'threaten AFL' (especially where I live in Melbourne) and so what?
All I ask is that soccer finds its place in the sport smogasboard of Australia. But without the boring predictable jibes that it is 'boring' that players are 'weak' etc etc.
If you don't like soccer you don't have to watch it. And don't be irritated if the media, some who would not know what is a formation if it hits them in the head, is all soccer mad. I don't understand why some AFL fans are so upset because their sport is not in the front, middle and back of the sport pages as usual. Relax you'll have plenty of that as the finals approach. It's a bit like a child having a tantrum because he has to share its toys with a younger brother...I wonder why this whinging does not happen when we have the olympics and everyone gets excited about the hockeyroos.
(p.s I love AFL as well...I am a suffering Carlton supporter
Posted by: Guido | 15 June 2006 at 12:07
Josh Fraser - what a jerk! He'll have plenty of time to wave to Jeff White during the finals. Unfortunately for Fraser he'll be in stands and White will be in the middle.
Posted by: Anthony from Chippendale | 15 June 2006 at 12:22
Nah, Tony, it means I lived in Brazil for a year.
A rough translation is sonofabitch, but it also means far out in the boonies. As opposed to the glorious centre where Brazil conquers all in the one true football. Again.
Posted by: Zoe | 15 June 2006 at 12:40
I like soccer. And Aussie rules. And American football. And Rugby League. And Rugby Union. All in lesser or greater degrees. But I like cricket most.
Which gives me an idea.
Posted by: Tony.T | 15 June 2006 at 18:44
What is your favourite sport?
1. Aussie Rules.
2. Rugby League.
3. Rugby Union.
4. American Football.
5. Garlic Football.
6. Aussie Rules.
Posted by: Tony.T | 15 June 2006 at 18:46
Australia - Toro, toro, toro
Japan - Toro
Great result!!
Posted by: James Dudek | 15 June 2006 at 22:22
Is there a World Cup on then ?
Posted by: Brett Pee | 15 June 2006 at 22:35
Favourite Sports
1= Cricket, proper football
2. Tiddlywinks
3. Dominoes
4. Cards
5. Egg chucking (both codes)
6. Boat Race Oxford v Cambridge
7. Anything else but Aussie Rules
Posted by: Vaughny | 16 June 2006 at 00:12
Zoe- Live in hope sweetheart, Ronaldo looked like a slimmer version of Buster Bloodvessel, its on its way back to England, or spain, or Italy, or Holland, or Argentina.
If you lived in Brazil tell me this, have they no decent dentists, jesus Brazils forward line of Ronaldo and Ronaldhino maybe ok but they could eat a tomato through a tennis racket with those gravestones
Posted by: Vaughny | 16 June 2006 at 00:21
It's a good point that footballers look less fit that Aussie Rules players... it's a different kind of fitness, I think, more based on explosive pace over 20 yards at a time than stamina to run frequently over longer distances. I wouldn't challenge any footballers to any kind of fitness test though, they're a lot less girly than they look and sometimes act.
By the next World Cup, football will have less physical contact that netball, at the rate the refs are going. This depresses me greatly, as a believer that football is still a man's game. Unlike in the USA or indeed Australia, where it is apparently a girl's game that immigrant men play occasionally when they escape the taunts of the natives that 'Soccer's for poofs'.
Posted by: Paul B | 16 June 2006 at 08:20
They do, Vaughny, but it REALLY helps to born rich. They also have vast numbers of pregnant women and people with mongy feet.
Posted by: Zoe | 16 June 2006 at 10:23
Paul, regardless of the abundance of natural talent the Brazilians possess, there is no chance an AFL side would win a game if they had Brazil's perceived current lack of physical conditioning. They would be smashed proper. Even the dons with Rioli would roll them.
Posted by: Dan | 17 June 2006 at 15:41
1) Cricket
2) Football, and you lot and the planks must understand that the entire globe understands which sport I mean here, just because you've pinched the name for some form of free form rugby doesn't make you right.
3) Everything else except tennis and F1, which are shite.
Posted by: Yorkshiresoul | 18 June 2006 at 17:26
Found this hilarious link on Yahoo!
Yahoo's automatic linking technology has gone a bit crazy. Saying that Kim Beazley is dark-skinned footballer hailing from Brazil and totally ignoring the 'New South' part of Wales.
Posted by: Russell Allen | 18 June 2006 at 19:17
Beazaldo.
Posted by: Tony.T | 19 June 2006 at 22:36
Top Sports:-
1.Aussie Rules
2.Cricket
3.Boxing
4.Poker
5.Rugby Union
6.Fishing
7.Golf
8.Bare Knuckles
9.Wrestling
10.Nude Wrestling
11.Cycling
12.Rock Climbing
13.Triathlon
14.Running
15.Darts
16. Dare i mention....soccer ?
Posted by: Brett Pee | 24 June 2006 at 02:52
If it ain't got a ball, it ain't a sport.
(Boxing excepted.)
Posted by: Tony.T | 25 June 2006 at 14:46